FordMustangXBA

So my car has been a little bit sluggish lately...not too bad, but noticeable...and it's been eating coolant slowly but steadily. So today while I was driving I noticed that my temp guage was on the top line before the red line...and I said, ah ****. I drove the car home gently, and I put it in the garage. I looked in the reservoir and there was nothing, not even a drop of coolant. I had someone step on the gas and sure enough, huge clouds of white smoke come billowing out of my exhaust, and it filled up the whole garage with that nasty smell of burning coolant.

So yeah, I'm pissed. At least it happened right before winter and not right before the good driving season. I was looking to buy a bike this winter though, so that's probably going to get f****ed up because my car exploded. Yay for me.

2 kwik

it's no big deal about 50 bux in parts and 2-3 hours of your time..

FordMustangXBA

Is it something a moderately experienced mechanic can do? I've done brakes, exhaust, and all that stuff before.

88BlueGT

Mind as well save up for heads now...

FordMustangXBA

I already have H/C/I.

88BlueGT

Ohhhhhhhhhh OK.... my bad! [:@]

Archion

It is really not a hard job to do, with Iron heads you should be ok, but for cheap insurance take them to a machine shop and have them checked for warpage and cracks. or you could just go all out and do and H/C/I job since youll have it apart anyway... More power is always good!!! With alluminum heads make sure you have them resurfaced. but is is about a c level tech difficulty job. A being the hardest, d being oil changer.

88BlueGT

he already has a h/c/i setup.

Archion

Yes I see that, When I started typing that between phone calls here at work, he hadnt said that... And he should have in the first post anyway.

FoxGT

At least intake gaskets & one head gasket isn't too expensive . Takes me about 5 hours.
You need a torque wrench, & the tool to disconnect the fuel rail (or you can pop them off of the injectors)

1. Take the tb off (leave the cables connected to it) & just set it aside
2. disconnect vacuum lines on the bottom of the upper intake
3. remove the upper intake
4. disconnect the radiator hose from the upper intake
5. If you can take off the fan & fan shroud (only 6 bolts & it makes it alot easier)
6. remove the accessory brackets on whichever side the gasket is blown. (alt/smog or a/c/power steering) you can leave them connected & just set them aside.
7. disconnect fuel rails (or take the rails off the injector, but i would advise just disconnecting the rails)
8. disconnect the wiring to the injectors
9. disconnect the pcv tube connecting the two heads (it's on the back of the head held in by 1 bolt)
10. remove lower intake manifold (you can take the disty out aswell it will make it easier)
11. remove valve covers (if haven't already)
12. loosen the rockers enough to get the pushrods out (MAKE SURE you label them someway. so they go back in the same spots they came out of)
13. unbolt the header (or you can unbolt it from the H or Xpipe, the header makes for a good handle)
14. unbolt the head.
15. change gasket & put all back together. (you'll need the torque wrench now to torque the head down to whatever specs required for the heads you have)

I don't think i've left anything out, but if I have, someone correct me. I've only had mine off 4 times & it's been a little under a year since I last did it.