Gasket?

240S13

MEMBER
FORD WINDSTAR

I have a Mercury Sable 1995(3.0 V6) with over 100 000. Suddenly as I was driving, I noticed a loss of power(car revs up to 6000 rpm and does not shift), with white smoke coming out of the exhaust and the engine was heating up. I stopped the car as soon as I noticed it, and it remains parked today as we speak, I even had to tow it near my place to await a better diagnosis of the problem. Based on the symptoms, is there a possibility of the head gasket being blown? I would like to know if changing the head gasket would do the job or possibly could there be a little crack in the cylinder head? I can change the gasket head myself but I would like to know if I would be wasting my time and money? Changing valve, water pump and head gaskets could it remedy the situation? And what would explain the fact that the car, upon startup, does not shift up to 2nd gear but stays at 1st gear? Or maybe is it the computer that senses a bad combustion therefore preventing a shiftup?

2 Replies

EPYON2K1

MEMBER
15 POSTS

Hello,

From what you tell about what happened, Yes, there could be a leak of coolant into a cylinder.

Loosing power, could of been caused by coolant mixing into the cylinder with the air and gas. Once the spark goes off the gas and air burn, vaporizing the coolant, spewing it out through the muffler as vapor and comming out the tail pipe as vapor. Loosing coolant, will heat up the car, since there is nothing to cool the engine with.

First before you do anything, have someone check the compression of the cooling system. If there is a leak somewhere, the gauge's pressure will go down.

Second, check the spark plugs, this is to see which cylinder/s are being affected.

A head gasket job, if taken to a mechanic is expensive. Labor, could depend. I believe it's arround 300-400 bucks. Parts are about 100-150 depending on how many gaskets will have to be replaced. Since to get to the heads, the intake manifold has to come off, valve covers, Exhaust manifolds and small miscellenious gaskets.

That's just to change the gaskets, I would have them refurbished, If they are not cracked then you would need to buy a new one, but if they aren't cracked since they are already off and just to be safe get them refurbished. You don't want to change the gaskets, and a month, 6 months, a year later you'll need a valve job, There goes the initial 400 bucks you already spent.

Refurbishings go for about 100-250 a piece, depending on the place you take it to. By where I live an engine rebuild goes for 1,100. That's just the stock engine. 26 miles away I got my for 302 rebuilt with a high flow oil pump, brass guides, brass retainers, and a performance cam shaft for a total of 941.00. So just make a couple phone calls.

So I hope this will help you. Let me know if it does at epyon_2k1@hotmail. Com.