BG Auto Advice

[Meresgi]

So found out today that mine and my fiance's Ford has a blown head gasket. Mechanic says it will be 700-900$ to fix it up. The car is a Ford Taurus, 2001 3.0 with about 113k miles on it. So I need some opinions and advice. Fix it up and see how much more time we can get out of it? Try to sell it off for what we think we can get and get something for around 2-2.5 grand?

At a loss with what to do, we were expecting a broken radiator or water pump, not this.

[*Shinzon*]

Unless there is something wrong with the car just fix it. You're not going to get much of anything trying to sell it before repairing. I don't think it would make much sense to ditch the car if it works fine for ya. The head gasket is not a simple repair but it's not like it's going to create any problems having it properly repaired.

[Meresgi]

Unless there is something wrong with the car just fix it. You're not going to get much of anything trying to sell it before repairing. I don't think it would make much sense to ditch the car if it works fine for ya. The head gasket is not a simple repair but it's not like it's going to create any problems having it properly repaired.

Yeah I wasnt sure all that went into the fix job. Is 113k pretty high for a 2001 taurus?

[Melena]

Well your supposed average is 12000 miles a year based on the 3k miles or 3 months estimate for an oil change, whichever comes first. So your doing pretty good, with an average of 11.3k miles per year assuming it was bought early 01. By comparison, my 08 Civic has about 38k miles on it at just about 3 years of ownership.

[Amastacia]

Said Ford might well be worth less on resale with a busted engine. You could probably recoup more than the $700-900 it'll take to replace the gasket (which is nearly all labor cost... a head gasket is actually a cheap part) by selling a working car rather than a lawn ornament with a blue oval on it.

[Meresgi]

Said Ford might well be worth less on resale with a busted engine. You could probably recoup more than the $700-900 it'll take to replace the gasket (which is nearly all labor cost... a head gasket is actually a cheap part) by selling a working car rather than a lawn ornament with a blue oval on it.

Thanks for this advice, I think we will probably do that. At least we'll have a car while we try to sell it on the market for something a little better. I want to get something with better fuel economy anyways, since the thing is a tank for city driving and guzzles up gas.

[Elesirdur]

Well the 3.0L engine is a V6, so it's going to be more expensive since there's two head gaskets to repair (potentially). Changing a head gasket is not a hugely complicated job, just need to be able to remove the timing chain and have a good torque wrench. I used to do it every 6-8 months with my Dodge Daytona, with an inline 4 engine, in an afternoon no problem.

The (expensive) problem with head gaskets blowing is that it can warp or crack the block and/or head. When they remove the head a mechanic should be checking to see how true the mating surfaces between the block and the head are. If they are not within spec for flatness, then they will have to be ground down just a little bit to even it out. In the case of the head(s) that's not too big a deal since they're already off the car. If the block surface is out of true, then the entire block has to come out for it to be planed and that's going to cost quite a bit in terms of labour. I would wager that if the block is warped then it'll cost upwards of $1500 to fix. If the block or head(s) are cracked, then you need to replace those parts; which you might as well just sell it as a shell.

If you want to just fix it and pawn it off on some sap, then fix the gasket(s) but tell them not to plane the heads/block if they're warped then sell the thing as fast as you can. A warped head/block is just another blown gasket waiting to happen so hopefully you can sell it before that happens again and before it starts leaking coolant and getting that nice puff of white out of the exhaust from the burned coolant.

[Meresgi]

Has anyone used thermagasket? Not sure if I trust some sort of "miracle head gasket cure!" type solution, but I am reading mixed reviews on it.

[*Shinzon*]

Just get it replaced. No real reason not to as mentioned. The repair itself isn't expensive it's just labor intensive and you could shop around that if you're looking for a bargain.

[Meresgi]

Thing is I don't nearly have the 700ish bucks to fix it. My brother wants me to go get a second opinion since the mechanic I took it to doesn't know much about Fords and could just be lazy. I know nothing about head gaskets and cars but my brother seems to think it's not that due.

The whole issue is that i'm getting maple syrup smelling white smoke coming out of the engine if I drive the car for about 10-15mins. The temp gauge in the car never goes past 1/2 way. I pulled off to check the engine and noticed coolant was pouring out of the bottom of the engine like the car was pissing it away literally. I waited about an hour then filled up the reservoir with coolant, looked under the engine again and there was no leaking at all, not even drops so I have no clue what the fuck that is all about. The car had been sitting in my driveway for about a day w/o using it and didn't leak any coolant at all. The coolant in the reservoir looks muddy/rusty looking so i'm not sure if that's oil mixing with it or not.

This whole thing just started suddenly, I wasn't driving the car with smoke billowing out of it for weeks before it got even worse. The mechanic put some sealant or something on the radiator the first time, then 4 days later it starts smoking like crazy and went back to his shop.

[*Shinzon*]

When the head gasket blew on our Subaru Forester I didn't get any smoke or anything, I didn't see that in the original post. Now I'm no mechanic but considering my situation I'd say you might have the gasket and something else wrong, so in that case maybe take it to someone else. Really the only reason we found out about it was because I noticed a smell and an odd noise on start up and gear change into drive. It's tough to tell unless you pay attention to those things regularly.

[Elesirdur]

Sounds like a head gasket, or some kind of problem with the coolant system where coolant is getting into the cylinders. Typically, gasket leaks don't show up until the engine is up to temperature. Given that the V6 is 1980/90s american vintage I'm going to guess it's an iron block and an aluminium head. Those two metals have different expansion properties when heated, so you get uneven expansion and leaks can occur when the metals don't quite match up, per se. Once its hot there will be some weak point or crack in the gasket, likely where there's some kind of difference in the block/head metals and their interface. Coolant leaks out of that and also into the cylinders. The sweet smell and white smoke is a dead give-away for coolant in the combustion chamber. However, since coolant isn't flowing around the block and head jackets when the car is off, nor are the engine internals under any pressure, you won't have any leaks when it's off and cold. However, you might want to run the engine up to temperature, then see where the coolant is coming out as you shut it down.

Temp sensors can be misleading with coolant problems. When there's a leak somewhere in the coolant system, be it at the head gasket or a hold in a hose, air bubbles can get in. Since the temp sensor is designed to measure liquid temperature, not hot air, you might get erratic or misleading readings on you cabin temperature gauge. In my experience, it was not uncommon for the temp gauge to be fine, then go way up to the top, then way down to the bottom, then back to normal, in less than a minute when I had a blown gasket.

Edit: Can you tell I've spent a lot of time dealing with these in the past? lol

[Cadsuane]

Symptoms match the head gasket theory. In agreement with everyone else, generally speaking it's not a write-off issue and the job is worth doing unless the car is totally thrashed otherwise.

[Meresgi]

@ Elesirdur

Thanks for the info. Another question though, why when I filled up the Antifreeze reservoir did nothing leak out? Even after I drove it about 10mins to the shop and parked it I checked under it again and it wasn't pissing coolant like previously. My only guess would be that the amount of coolant was gushing around so fast it could only drip a little and only gushed out after the pressure behind it wasn't so much (aka half the reservoir).