OK I'm going to do it unless you change my mind

I've got a 1995 lots of repairs over the past 3 years to keep this van in perfect shape. I admit that I have repaired things that most people would have unplugged or went without. If is squeaked I had it replaced.

My question to you is this. The front head is cracked now leaking out soon to be if not already leaking in and needs to be replaced $1200 bucks.

Can they ever truly be fixed? Is the motor flawed from a design point and will continue to warp and crack heads? I have read that when they get hot they don't cool right which causes the head issues.

I've read may post on the issue but I haven't found an article that really says that the problem is resolved and that it is completely fixable.

I've seen many that said it happened again but never why it happened again.

Any thoughts would be appreciated or an article that explains the issue more indepth.

thanks

I've got a 1995 lots of repairs over the past 3 years to keep this van in perfect shape. I admit that I have repaired things that most people would have unplugged or went without. If is squeaked I had it replaced.

My question to you is this. The front head is cracked now leaking out soon to be if not already leaking in and needs to be replaced $1200 bucks.

Can they ever truly be fixed? Is the motor flawed from a design point and will continue to warp and crack heads? I have read that when they get hot they don't cool right which causes the head issues.

I've read may post on the issue but I haven't found an article that really says that the problem is resolved and that it is completely fixable.

I've seen many that said it happened again but never why it happened again.

Any thoughts would be appreciated or an article that explains the issue more indepth.

thanks

Hello

How many miles on your van?

I replaced the headgaskets on my 95 at 177,000 miles. I bought FelPro gaskets and now wished I had gone to Ford. The gaskets that I put in looked just like the ones that failed. So far so good.

The reason why the headgaskets fail is the expansion/contraction rate of the two different metals. This causes wear on the gasket thus leading to failure. It's very inportant that the surface of the head be flat and VERY smooth! Proper torquing is inportant too.

I also replace the rod bearings at the same time. Most of the uppers were down to copper! #6 was the worst. I'm sure it was the one that I heard on startup.

Are you getting antifreeze in your oil? Bearings don't like antifreeze.

If you like the van, I would do the repair.

Regards

Dan

I am driving an Escort that had the head cooked several years ago. It was not the first time I had a specialty head repair shop (Dover ... Atlanta) fix a cracked aluminum head for me. Have not done a 3.8 yet.

Never had any problems with them ... just keep them full of coolant ... some folks (in my family) don't quite understand that concept.

So the issue is really the gasket and not a horrible design of the engine I know metal cracks its the nature of the beast. I'm going to pay a ford engine shop to do the work they should be a new head.

I'm guessing this is also the time to clean the intake and replace the EGR?

By the way its only got 119K pretty low for a vehicle built in 1994

For my '96 (I can only read on that with my alldata subscription), the say 10.8 hours for both head gaskets.
The instructions for the lower intake manifold say to install new lower intake manifold gaskets whenever the lower intake manifold is removed from the head. It is a good idea anyhow, as the lower intake manifold gaskets are a high failure item. And they have all that apart anyhow.

Looking at the prices at Millennium Ford's website
1995 3.8L Head gasket, MSRP $112.31 Their web price $87.60 http://www.trademotion.com/partlocator/index.cfm?siteid=214072

The '95 uses a different head gasket from my '96.

As they have this all apart anyhow, it is a simple matter to clean the EGR ports.....and everything else.

A history of the 3.8L engine can be found at this site.
Remember to pay attention to the front wheel drive version on this engine vs the rear wheel drive version.
http://www.babcox.com/editorial/ar/ar90134.htm

I think that these are good vehicles, and if the rest of the vehicle is in good condition, repair is worth it. Better than a car payment....unless your needs have changed and you no longer need this type of vehicle.

It is so sad to watch vehicles go back to the stealer for servicing. High labor prices and parts markups. I see replacement heads and bolts available at Autozone - special order. Heads are $225 and bolts $60. there's got to be a shop to do it cheaper and give a year warranty for less than $1200.00.

I think I'm going call all the motor shops in my area Grand Rapids MI if someone has a recommendation

It is so sad to watch vehicles go back to the stealer for servicing. High labor prices and parts markups. I see replacement heads and bolts available at Autozone - special order. Heads are $225 and bolts $60. there's got to be a shop to do it cheaper and give a year warranty for less than $1200.00.


I AGREE!

Thanks for the advise found an engine shop that would do both heads for $600 in labor and parts $150 for a reconditioned head. They clean and preasure test new gaskets and they said the EGR pipe to the exhaust was rusted through what kind of problems would that have been causing me. It had an issue when it was good and warm with hesitation on the freeway

If the EGR pipe was rusted, you would have noise.
Don't know what effect it would have on engine performance, depends on how big the hole was. A small hole, most likely nothing. A big hole....maybe a CEL for the EGR flow not matching up with what the PCM was asking for.
Let us know how the repair goes.

So far so good they said they cleaned up the heads and resurfaced them. The intersting things is the ford dealer led he to believe I had a crack and a leak in the outer part of the head from a dye test they did. these guys preassure tested to 50lbs and said they were found no cracks they did say the gasket was blown or leaking so I'm guessing the heads were never done in the past. The other thing he has told me twice is to not be surprise if it starts using some oil. It has never used it In the past was wondering if any of you had any issue with oil usage. He basically told me that with the top end being all tightened up that oil sometime starts finding its way past the rings. I sure hope I made the right decision on this I can't do a car payment right now so this was the best option and with all the other repairs I've done I need to get 2 more years I hoping for some trouble free driving for awhile.

I pick it up tomorrow hopefully the motor will be in good shape for awhile. I sure wish I could be involved in these repairs I have to pay for they always are sincere in there description but it would be nice to see it with my own eyes.

There is some truth to what the mechanics are saying about possible increased oil useage. But I doubt, in your case, that it will be very much ... you are not rebuilding the heads because of poor performance (which is often the reason for a rebuild), leaking valves, etc ... you are rebuilding to correct a coolant leak.

I would guess you will not notice any appreciable increase in oil consumption.

Yes, if the heads were serviced to improve their performance, the increased vacuum will bring-in more oil around the rings. You shouldn't notice a big difference if, like was said, the heads themselves were good. YOu may get slightly better mileage as they were milled, if that's what he means by 'resurfaced'. You should be pleased with the performance change. Head work IS head work and the engine should like it.
Marc

One more question got the van back its running stronger than before so I'm pleased about that only issue it the window sheild washers weren't squirting I looked under the hood and saw that the feed tube looked like it was broken off right as it came out of the cowl I was able to move the pipe from on top of the inner fender over to connect it to the stub that was sticking out so they work now should that pipe coming out of the cowl be long enough to make it to the side by the top of inner fender or is there a piece missing?

On my '99, there is no extra tube length to work with ... very difficult to hook up under that cowling. I would guess your's is the same.