Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Troubleshooting Head Gasket ?!

Ok The water pump did the hole shattering thing and I just got the car back together. But it is very shacky at anything below
about 1250 rpm I would say. also there is liquid coming out the exuast pipe that looks and smells like coolent. So I am guessing its the head gasket. right? I guess i should pick up a compression checker. But if it is only on a single bank of cylenders I guess i could just replace that one and not the other right? also I just cleaned the intake mmanifolds and replaced the gaskets. do i need to get new ones again?

Thanks,
Silverchris

" also there is liquid coming out the exuast pipe that looks and smells like coolent. So I am guessing its the head gasket. right? I guess i should pick up a compression checker."
Yes and yes.

"But if it is only on a single bank of cylenders I guess i could just replace that one and not the other right?"
No, you should plan to do both if it overheated.

"also I just cleaned the intake mmanifolds and replaced the gaskets. do i need to get new ones again?"
Yes, because of the overheating. You don't want to pull it out again because of a vacuum leak.

well I did the intake manifolds while I did the water pump so it was after it over heated. is it a real pain in the ass on these cars? or just normal? also wwhat kind of socket does it use so i can get one before hand?

http://www.autozone.com/servlet/UiBroker?ForwardPage=/az/cds/en_us/0900823d/80/1b/c4/d2/0900823d801bc4d2.jsp
It's a big job with the engine in the car, job will be a PITA. You will need many tools you probably don't have. I linked you too the above thread, reading over the instructions I would recommend getting a Ford factory CD or their shop manual. Good luck.

I have most the tools i need minus the torque rench i think. What parts do i need for this job. Head gaskets, intake manifold stuff(all the stuff in the cleaning howto), headbolts. thats all right?its just a small leak i think so i doubt the heads got damaged but i will probably take them to a machine shop to get the tested and resurfaced. I guess it was also its time to go to cause the car has 220 thousand km on it too. I wish the engine bay was bigger on this car.