redwilly

Hi all,

I bought a 96' ford taurus about 6 months ago and about 5 months ago, the heat gauge in the dash went up to the red part and it has been doing it ever since but i did not experience any symptoms of the car overheating or anything, so i thought the gauge was broke, so i kept driving the car and everything was fine.

Until me and my friend decided to go on a road trip to seattle, we made it about 20 minutes on the highway and then the car overheated and had to get it towed home.

So my dad, friend and I looked at the car the next day and saw that there was NO antifreeze/coolant in the resovior. So we simply put some coolant in it and started it up and it worked fine (no overheating), so i drove the car around a little and when i was finished, i stopped and got out and it was leaking coolant all over te ground (a lot, maybe a quart or more). But i had to get home so i drove the car home anyway and the car started to get really weak, and i had to put the accelerator all the way down to even accelerate a little, i had to go like 20 mph all the way home.

So later that day we realized that there was a crack in the coolant resovior.

So far i have done the following:
-new thermostat
-new coolant resovior
-new coolant resovior cap
-i took the whole car apart and checked my water pump and it looked in great condition other than some rust on the inside of the neck.

i think i might have a blown head gasket? but im not sure.

any help would be great, thanks.

(the car is a V6 3.0 L Ford Taurus GL 96')

Johnny Mullet

It was probably OK until then
Coolant may have been really nasty and the system is all gooped up causing a blockage in the system. If you suspect a head gasket, there is a tool called a "Head gasket leak detector" that uses a special liquid that detects combustion gasses in the cooling system. I would check it that way before wasting any more money on it.

redwilly

well my dad thinks its not a head gasket and that i have scored cylinders or somthing, does that sound right?

450HP

You mentioned that you checked the reservoir, but you never stated that you checked the radiator.

Is the radiator full? Do you still have leaks? Is the problem that you're still having the overheating
problem or is it the weak problem?

If your car had a blown head gasket, you would notice a few things...

1. The oil might get fuller and you couldn't figure out why
2. The anti-freeze/coolant may be a milky brown color
3. You could see white smoke from the exhaust

If you're still having an overheating problem, you might want to have the coolant system and radiator
cap pressure checked to make sure they're alright

Scott

redwilly

okay thanks, im still working on getting the water pump back on, because i took it off to see if it was broke... theres a million bolts and i have to try to get the old gasket off..

redwilly

my engines gone, any1 wanna buy a 96' taurus wit bad engine?