85BlackDog302

Like I mentioned in my intro post, I was driving my car on the free way and the heat gauge went crazy...I pulled into a gas station and there was steam coming from under my hood. I looked at the engine and aside from the hissing sound there was coolant bubbling and dripping from the forward head gasket area (near the inside front edge of the right side head [:@]). I managed to drive it a 1/4 mile to my house where it has been sitting for about 4 months . I found out that the fel-pro kit is under 100 bucks and I have the tools to do the job, I just want to make sure that i am trying to fix the right problem.

I need to get this beast smogged so that i can renew my registration. So A) diagnosis? B) Does the chilton manual give enough info to do the whole repair? I don't have the 800 dollars that the mechanics want so this is going to be a weekend warrior deal. When I got an oil and coolant change after buying the car the mechanic suggested that i need a temp sensor and water pump soon...could that have affected the gasket?

This is my first excursion into heavy mustang repair so all help is appreciated. Thanks

85BlackDog302

Are there any other things I should do while I'm in there? Any check up on the valves or rings or anything? The odometer only has five digits so I'm not sure how many miles it has on it.

cbennett

might as well take your heads to a machine shop to have them cleaned, and checked.. shouldnt cost very much.. well.. that is unless they find something[&:]

85BlackDog302

I've had people tell me that there is more "plumbing" to take off with a carburated motor. can I take the carb/intake system off whole and get right to the heads without disassembling every single peice? I am doing this on the driveway so at night I have to carry all the parts to the garage and store them. the less small parts everywhere the better.

vtecwho

its too bad your short money because you could swap the cam while your at it. fel-pro should be WAY under 100 bucks for heads. i just did a cam swap and finished it yesterday and my felpro head gaskets were about 35 bucks from autozone ( i love that place). MAKE SURE YOU DONT RTV GLUE THE HEAD GASKETS! i almost did!!

gbtrout

if you have any spare change i would take the heads to a shop and have them port and polish them. and like was said get a new cam.

85BlackDog302

The total price at the autozone here is 86 dollars which I am stoked about. The water pump and thermo together are 50-something total.

RTV glue? is that the gunk thats called insta-gasket or whatever?

mattdel

i feel sorry for all these poor stangs getting headgasket jobs from kids... rtv glue? its not glue. its silicone. and no, you don't use it on the head gasket. use it for the front and the rear of the lower intake, where it meets the block. other than that, every gasket should work dry.

vtecwho

oh man, sorry that i mentions glue. let me get a bit more spicific because i dont think i got my point accross (its so hard to know what im talking about when i toss in "glue" after RTV.) RTV adhesive. by the way im not a kid, and im perfectly capable of swaping head gaskets since yesterday i finished a HCI swap for the first time by myself. so there is no reason to feel bad for all the stangs that are getting gasket replacements by "kids".