Head gaskets or heads damaged??

2003 windstar 200,000km. Intake manifold leaked coolant bad. Overheated. I was told it has overheated before. Was not far from home so added water and drove home. I had someone drive the van while I followed behind. I saw no sign of white smoke from the exhaust at all. Even idling it at home no white smoke.
So would it be safe to say that I didn't damage the head gasket or warp the heads. If I did warp head or damage gasket should it not show signs of it right away or could it look OK and just be a matter of time.
Would it be safe to say just change intake gaskets and all is good.

You MAY have suffered some bearing damage, but it's hard to say. If you were losing coolant and saw no smoke or a leak, there's definitely coolant in the crankcase. I would agree with your diagnosis. I'd also change the oil before starting the engine again just to get as much coolant out as you can.

I was losing coolant only from intake manifold. There was no coolant in the oil. Oil was clean. But it did overheat at least twice. But like I said I drove behind it and no white smoke. So I don't have a blow head gasket but I'm I just kidding myself that it would be ok just to change intake gaskets. I pulled the lower intake of and found the bad gasket. The engine looks clean inside, no white slugs and oil is clean. I have read that the earlier 3.8 were bad for head gaskets. This is a 2003 3.8 so are these better head gaskets and head that they can take a overheating and still be ok.

There were some very early 3.8's that had head gasket issues because of the thickness of the iron at the cylinder tops. Corrected very early on. But I think all 3.8's have "opportunities" for cross-over leaks between cooling arteries and crankcase. Lower intake gaskets, and seals ... and front cover gaskets. I would take a compression test on all cylinders. If OK, replace lower intake gaskets ... and give it a try. Just keep a lookout for coolant loses. Perhaps a oil specimen test done by Blackstone Labs to make sure.

An engine can overheat without damaging the head gasket(s). It really depends on how hot it got, and how tolerant the design is to temperature excursion. The gasket is supposed to bond to both surfaces (head and block) and provide a certain "flexibility" to deal with the different expansion rates of each material (steel vs. aluminum).

You'd have to look for all the symptoms... white smoke in the exhaust, low compression, air in the cooling system, etc.

Another possible failure (particularly on this engine) caused by overheating is a crack between the exhaust and intake valves. It's just a thin web of metal separating the two and a crack can easily occur in that location. I saw cracks on all three of the locations in one of my heads (4,5,6 head) when I rebuilt my engine two years ago, and the machine shop that did the valve job told me this was common for the Ford 3.8L Vulcan engine. I decided to use the head anyway and it has been OK.

Finally got it back together. Pressure tested cooling system all seem good. Does not seem to be losing coolant. Exhaust is clear meaning no white smoke so I hope all is good.
Thanks for your help

Glad you got it assembled.

If I ever get rid of this 1999, perhaps when it reaches 500k miles; I think I will avoid this particular engine layout hereafter ... chain driven cams with water pump mounted on front cover. Cam-belts, on the other hand, have historically been "dry" with no sealed cover to worry about ... therefore, the water pump can be mounted directly on the block with less crossover risk. On the next-newer V6 engines, Ford drives the cams by chain but puts the water pump on the rear of the engine. Not bad!

Now I understand on the very latest series of small engines, Ford is using some cam belt that lives in oil. What?? They expect this belt to last "forever". I can't wait to see the engine up close, and see how water pump is located ... along with other stuff.