List,
A recent post asked how to tell if the owner's TR6 Head Gasket was blown -
sorry, I forget who it was! Here's a chapter from the classic "Blown Head
Gasket 101" in condensed format:
Last Thursday my wife pulled in from work in our '93 Taurus Wagon with clouds
of white smoke billowing from the exhaust and calmly said that she thought
something might be wrong with the car!
After the car cooled down, I checked the coolant level and wound up adding
nearly 1 1/2 gal of coolant to top it up. Then, with the rad cap off, I
decided to check for gas bubbles in the coolant by turning the engine over
and observing the coolant in the filler neck. The theory here is that if a
head gasket fails, exhaust gases may be forced into the cooling system during
the exhaust stroke and bubble through the system looking for a nice spot to
bubble out.
I didn't have to wait long to get my answer, as I cranked the engine to
restart it, a brief geyser of coolant shot out of the filler neck followed by
a steady stream of gas bubbles. So, engine off.....one more check - the
dipstick! The dipstick read overfilled and was sort of a light mud
color....case closed. We drove it 5 miles to the local Ford dealer who
called this morning to say it'll be $1450 for both new head gaskets, the
timing cover gasket and EGR sensor.....the real rub is that the car only has
44,000 miles on it, oil changed every 4 months, coolant changed every 2
years....and no tell tale warnings. I think Ford will hear from me for
whatever good it'll do!
Well, there it is - white smoke, murky oil, coolant loss, sudden engine
roughness, and sudden jump in engine temp....all together spells head gasket!
Chip
76 TR6 CF57822U (being reborn for Y2K)
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