2000 Ford Windstar Confused.

This is very strange. Your father-in-law is right--too much oil will cause some very messy problems, but not ruin the engine. Did the oil or check engine light come on during this ordeal? Remain on? I can believe that you need an engine, given the sounds/symptoms, but the information given you by the dealer sounds like an inexperienced service adviser grasping for reasons--and not logical ones, at that. You don't need a dealer to install a new engine on this age of vehicle-perhaps this is a little beyond the scope of your question, but you're going to have to decide whether to have the dealer replace with new, or to let an independent shop rebuild or replace with lo-mileage used. If you haul it to an independent, they can also give you a second opinion, just as good an idea with cars as with people. And perhaps shed some light on the alleged overfull oil syndrome. Good luck.

I with my Wife and Father-in-Law go to the Ford dealer to check on my car.
When I get there, they give me the run down of what happened, they said it was alot of oil in the engine, my Father-in-Law says he checked it himself, so the lady we were talking to went to get mechanic. The "Mechanic" says there is about 20 quarts of oil in my engine, and when we said impossible he offered to show us dip stick. My Father-in-Law comes back and looks pissed, so we all go to car and see the oil level. Now when we checked on Monday, the oil level was slightly over the Max Level, Today, Thursday it was about 6 inches above the Max Level. I had a receipt for an oil change in car, when I went to retrieve it it was in between the drivers seat and the E-Brake, when originally it was folded and laying flat on the floor between some other paper work. After being pissed and everyone speaking loudly and hearing we were going to the Better Bussiness Bureau, the story changes, they want to drain engine that they probably filled to that level and check for problems and see if warranty would cover the repair of the problem, if they find something is damage. I went to place where I got oil change and guy laughed, said if that was true it would not have made it far afterwards, it would have been smoking and caught fire, etc.

Yes, if the engine is ovefull from oil, oil will be forced out of all possible cracks and into the evaporative and emission systems--it's messy, will smoke and possibly catch fire--but it won't ruin the crankshaft, pistons or cylinder walls. Good luck in your search for a solution.

Ok there was coolant found in the motor oil. I received a phone call from the Mechanic telling me warranty company said to take apart engine and search for problem and report back with an estimate, so the Mechanic is giving me two choices:

1) Let them take apart the engine
2) Take car and owe them no money

Now if they take engine apart and warranty decides it isn't covered then I would have to pay for services provided. I was told a couple of days ago by a different mechanic that if there is coolant in the oil it is possible that a gasket I believe he mentioned was probably the problem. Well lets hope that the warranty company covers the labor so I can get my car back, tomorrow would make one week.

If coolant was found in the oil, the likely cause is a bad head gasket and possible cracked head. I would ask the warranty company if these are covered under their warranty before committing to tearing it down--don't let them tell they need to take it apart first--they know very well if head gaskets and cracked heads are covered, it is a very common problem. Good luck

I took your advice and called Warranty Dept. I was told the Head Gasket and Cracked heads are covered as long as it wasn't an outside source that cracked it or human era.

This concerns me because I know I drove the car 15 miles before the car actually brokedown, but I didn't see the temperature gauge any higher than it usually is, so unless the gauge had broken also there was no over heating. I have until tomorrow to make my decision.

Sounds like you're covered. Human error would be things like washing a hot engine, or changing a water pump and forgetting to put coolant back in. I would preserve a discreet silence on the subject of temp gauge--they don't need to know anything regarding that. It is good that you had your oil changed recently--it shows the vehicle has been maintained and any obvious problems should have been noticed at this time. Also slightly damming is the overfull oil story--this is really bizarre and flies in the face of logic, and I think can be used to pin down the warranty company and the dealer if they give you any static about the repairs. It should be fully covered under warranty. I will be frank and state that a lot of times, after head gaskets and/or heads have been replaced, the engine produces more compression and if there are any weaknesses in the lower end, these will be brought out by the increase in compression. After this van is fixed, you might want to consider gettign out while the getting's good. Good luck and let me know how it turns out.

Ok I was called last Friday by the Mechanic from Ford, I was told the Head Blew, the Valve fell into the engine, etc. The warranty company went to investigate, took pictures and called with a decision. They said that the car is not covered, and the Mechanic said under what grounds, so warranty rep says that the C-clip and Spring weren't covered, but they wanted a further breakdown of the engine to find out what exactly caused the engine to cease. Mechanic said he was supposed to take the engine apart to find the point-of-failure, basically Mechanical Failure which he no doubt has provided proof of, so he refused to take further breakdown the engine. Mechanic then asks questions, one of which was do you agree that this car needs a new engine, rep says yes, then pay, NO! Mechanic provided 4 possibilities for the failure, 3 of 4 which weren't covered, the last one, as he said, "Mechanical Timing", basically the valve and the piston were not in sync and one hit the other and bam, no engine lol. Rep says most likely its not covered we have clauses that help us not to cover things, Mechanic gets mad, says well I moonlight as a investigator for the DMV, lets see what they have to say about this. Rep bit his tongue then said I would have to talk to my supervisor to find out if its covered or not, I will call you back. So we have to wait til the Rep calls back to see if its covered. I was asked to bring contract so Mechanic can look over to see if he can re-word it to make it work for my advantage, and he found they don't care about the mechanical failure but why it failed and what caused it to fail. I then went to dealer and explained and said if this isn't helping me I want my money back. I had the Van for one and a half years, was almost done paying for it and I just have a nice roomy rock, so dealer told me that he will take care of me if warranty doesn't cover repair. He would take Van in as a trade in and get me into a new vehicle of my choice. Win win situation. I just have to start from the beginning on payments.