Peterkmandeville Posted March 25, 2006 Share Posted March 25, 2006 Read bunches of complaints about 3.8 engine failures due to premature head gasket failure but never the reason why. I worked on Taurus/Sables with these engines from 1990 to 1994 and never heard ,or read, of headgasket problems. Did Ford change the design and screw it up? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JustAnotherAssembler Posted March 25, 2006 Share Posted March 25, 2006 Read bunches of complaints about 3.8 engine failures due to premature head gasket failure but never the reason why. I worked on Taurus/Sables with these engines from 1990 to 1994 and never heard ,or read, of headgasket problems. Did Ford change the design and screw it up? huh? :shrug: Not to be the board police, but you might have more luck if you post that in a different part of the forum... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peterkmandeville Posted March 26, 2006 Author Share Posted March 26, 2006 huh? :shrug: Not to be the board police, but you might have more luck if you post that in a different part of the forum... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peterkmandeville Posted March 26, 2006 Author Share Posted March 26, 2006 Sorry, I'm new to this E-mail thing, What I was asking in my post was 1) Was there a change made in the design of the 3.8 headgasket that was causing premature failures and 2) why were owners of Windstar vans complaining ? I don't remember 3.8's having this problem. They would not have been in Lincoln Continentals had this problem been occurring. If I'm posting this in the wrong section then, point me in the right direction. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YT90SC Posted March 31, 2006 Share Posted March 31, 2006 FYI: this is in the wrong forum, needs to be in the windstar/freestar forum. Anyhoo, the 94-95 3.8's were the absolute worst of the worst. Almost all FWD 3.8's headgaskets failed, almost all at low mileage. The gaskets/heads and torque sequences all changed for those years. The latest gaskets with the latest torque specs were the only fix. FYI: my personal car at the time was a 92 Taurus with the 3.8. It blew gaskets at 120k. Using the failure prone gaskets and specs (all that were available at the time) they lasted approx 20k. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YT90SC Posted March 31, 2006 Share Posted March 31, 2006 sorry. make that the van/minivan forum.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Evil95GT Posted May 15, 2006 Share Posted May 15, 2006 I've heard (as well as read) that there was a faulty design in the water jacket area. Don't know how true it is, but it seems to make sense. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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