head gasket project

A month and a half ago I found my '98 Windy 3.8L with a leaky head gasket. It took me about 12 hrs. to tear down and had some scratched up arms to show for it(later on I found out the wiper panel is removable!). Once the heads were off there was a clear sign/path of leakage into #4 cylinder coming from the front-lower cooling passage. Ordered the gasket kit for a feb/98 build date and took the heads to the machine shop for a valve job and resurfacing. Also had to order a heater hose o-ring set twice, the first time I ordered the smaller size needing the bigger size. This is NOT included in the fel-pro gasket set.

Slowly I got it back together between work(55+ hrs a week) and other family stuff. I fired it up and it still had white puffs coming from the exhaust! And it ran like it had 2 spark plugs removed! Argh! I left it sit for a week in disgust, frustration and a little embarrasment.

I spent some time on this forum researching for some answers and came upon k&w block seal. Followed the directions to the letter and fired it up again last night. It still leaked! Double Argh!! After $250 for the gaskets, multiple oil and filter changes and three gallons of expensive long-life coolant I had nothing to show for my effort and monet spent! Plus the wife was disgusted at me because of all this.

So then I did a little thinking about the symptoms, it seemed to be running like it had a bad misfire, rough idle and coolant in the exhaust and a vacumn test guage showed a slow constant pulse which meant only one or two cyl. were the problem. Hmmm, seems like a bad vacumn leak and with coolant in the exhaust, INTAKE LEAK!

Pulled the lower intake and behold, there it was. #2 and #3 were leaking profusely. This showed up really well thanks to the block seal stuff. Went back into the book to see what I did wrong and found nothing. Did some inspection and a few of the intake bolt holes go into coolant and oil passages! The Haynes manual did not mention anything about having to seal the bolts! Triple argh!!!

I will get new intake gaskets and put it all back together in about another week and all should be fine I am hoping. Just knowing the source of the problem is half the battle for me.

That's my Windy head gasket experience.

Let us know how it works in the end.

Thanks for posting your repair. I am certain that your thread will save someone else some time, effort and disgust from the Wives down the line.

Speaking of Wives..................Mine is always complaining that it takes me too long to do anything.........lol...........My standard response is "Rome wasn't built in a day".

hydrosmith
Yeah, I noticed some of the manifold bolt holes were "wet"...went through to the coolant or open block areas. But I expected the gasket to do the job of sealing around the holes...now ya got me wondering.

I can't get to my shop manual just now...behind my wife's Christmas decorations..."Don't touch!"...but I think I remember only clean motor oil being recommended for the bolt threads...but I could be wrong on this.

Anyways, thanks for the heads-up. BTW, did you use a torque wrench?

I used a torque wrench on my '97 3.8l... gotta love the torque specs on those head bolts :)

My problem is there are two different sets for the intake on my engine... a 3mm and a 4mm, and I had picked up the wrong set the first time around.

The gaskets should be sealing those bolt holes off... actually they should be wet at all-- the only reasons I can think of that there would be coolant coming out of a bolt hole is if you drilled through the bottom with a tap as you were cleaning out or you have a crack in the head.

Don't forget to check the plug-wire sequence... 5 and 6 swap had wasted a few days for me :)

http://www.automotiveforums.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=310897

I did torque everything to the specs called out. As for the gasket sealing the bolts off you could very well be right however there was some orange looking stuff on a few of the bolts upon removal which I assumed to be Ford's anti-seize goup. This situation seems to be kinda like having to seal head bolts on Ch*vy's. The holes are bottomless.

Yup, that would be anti-sieze... I saw them on the plenum bolts...

so whats the verdict with the bolts and the intake gaskets?? Do you need to seal them or does the gasket do all of the sealing that it needs? If the gasket does all of the sealing then where was it that you went wrong? Sounds to me like you did it to a "T" by the book...

I never did find out for sure. The thing never did seal up for me after three attempts and I ended up taking it to a local shop, $1,000. They had one failed attempt at getting it to seal but got it on the second try. They did not offer an explanation and I didn't ask, I was fed up. That car kicked my butt! and I am glad it is over!

I never did find out for sure. The thing never did seal up for me after three attempts and I ended up taking it to a local shop, $1,000. They had one failed attempt at getting it to seal but got it on the second try. They did not offer an explanation and I didn't ask, I was fed up. That car kicked my butt! and I am glad it is over!

I'm real curious about this as I'm sure others are, incase of doing a similar repair in the future. Is it possible you could stop in to that shop one day and ask what they did??
I've not dug into a 3.8L before and wonder how they do seal the wet holes. O-ring/gasket would seal the top, the intake gasket "should" seal the middle, but could you teflon the threads or use a certain type of thread sealant/locking compound on the threads??
My Haynes only mentions to "lightly oil" the bolts.
Any others???

Didn't have to seal the intake bolts on my '96 when I did the head gaskets. Wonder what changed between '96 and '98?

Can't imagine how you got the rear head out without taking off the cowl. Should get a purple heart for that. I had the cowl off and would kneel on the front and put my forehead on the windshield to balance myself to keep both hands free to get at the back of the engine.

I'm having the exact same problem with the rough running and the white smoke. I have been beating my head against the wall on this and I have no idea what to do (see post on acceleration problems). I did notice that a few of the bolt holes were bottomless when I was doing my intake manifold gasket replacement. I used can air to clean the holes out. I too thought at the time that the gasket would seal these holes up, but now I'm wondering.

I'm about ready to redo the intake manifold gasket. I'm getting water in the exhaust, but not the oil. I'm hoping that it's not a blown head gasket and that there is water in my intake manifold.

Can anybody verify that there is a way for coolant to get to my exhaust and not my oil if I have a leaking manifold gasket as opposed to a head gasket?

Trons

the answer to that question might save me many hours of labor, i just tore into a 1996 3.8l today expecting to do the head gasket... got the intake off and see lots of black / oil / crap... (this one blows white smoke out exhaust when running)

started thinking about everyone's talk about the intake gaskets on these things so i checked the oil... CLEAN. i am told that it does use up coolant and the resevoir is near empty but not dry so IF the intake manifold is leaking coolant through the engine but the head gasket is not blown... then thats good news

any feedback on this would be great

thanks

another quick question for Dngrsone that could definately save lots of us some trouble... you mentioned that your first attempt with the intake gasket was a wrong gasket.. how do you know if you need a 3mm or a 4mm gasket?? I've looked on the auto parts pages and they show both but don't distinguish one from the other as far as application goes... ?? What gives with these things?? Thanks!