I think I have a blown head gasket

[Woogieman]

I have coolant leaking out on the firewall side of my engine near the exhaust manifold/header. I am not set-up to do this type of job at my house, so I really need some advice on a good shop to take my car to.

I'm also considering getting my new OEM clutch installed at the same time. I don't have a new flywheel, but I was told it can just be resurfaced?

Anyway, if you can recommend a good shop or at least give me an idea of what all of this should cost me I would really appreciate it.

Thanks for any help/advice you guys can give me.
-Aaron

 

[shotwell]

Ouch!

FWIW the clutch job and the head job are two completely different animals. I would get them done separately.

Bob, Randy and I can complete the clutch job over a weekend. Scheduling will be exciting, but it can be done. Sadly it sounds like that's the least of your worries.

The head job is another animal. Frankly I think you'd be better off dropping in a 3.0 engine. Cost is about the same, but benefit is much more with the 3.0

First and foremost we need to get that bad boy up on a lift and pinpoint exactly where the coolant is leaking from. There's little stupid hoses all over this engine...plenty of places to leak, especially at this age. What's Randy doing these days?

 

[Aussie Ford]

Randy's wife just had a baby yesterday!!!! another girl...... LOL he is so out numbered now...

First thing is, is it running bad? if not then it might not be the gasket like Shotwell said.

Also I'd bet we could do the head gasket, if you get whats needed. I know Humboltkill knows some shops around that he has had work done at but none of what you are asking is a cheap fix. The head gasket fix alone at the shop could be $1500 and the clutch about that or more. These are really two different items and no real correlation between them unless one was to just pull the engine and tranny together which isn't a bad idea and can be done through the top. In this case it would really make the job simple.

I like Shotwell's idea of doing a 3L but that needs to be planned out and there are some mods to be done to make it work. Then a tune.

I have a flywheel that we could have resurfaced for you ready for install. A clutch kit at Schucks was about $300 for an OEM which is OK.

AF

 

[Woogieman]

Well, after reading the replies I decided to go do some more looking around under the hood. I discovered more coolant had leaked out so I tried to find the source. I discovered it all over the top of the tranny. Just above it I noticed a hose leaking. I re-adjusted the clamp, cleaned of the tranny and took the car out for a drive. No white smoke, no odd performance issues. However, when I got home and popped the hood, I could see that the hose is still leaking a little bit. I don't know if this is the solution to problem yet, but I'm trying to be optomistic. I'm going to replace the clamp and keep an eye on this.

The clutch job was just a, "well, it's at the shop, I have the clutch, let's just do it now". It's not bad enough that it has to be done. I will prabably wait a little while before I worry about replacing it.

Thanks for the ideas guys! I will let you know how this goes.

-Aaron

 

[Aussie Ford]

That is good news my friend. IIRC there is one very short hose in particular at the water pump that is very hard to get in place correctly and harder to position the clamp on. It is just too crowed there. Also it could have a slpit on the back side, but I hope not. Let's just hope for a loose clamp.

AF