RedFox91

I'm going to replace the headgasket (and most of the other gaskets) on my car this weekend after figuring this is most likely the issue (see my other posts for how this was diagnosed). This is my first Mustang and first head gasket job. I would appreciate any tips/insight/advice from others who have done this on their 5.0. Any special tools or items I should get in advance? I will be following a manual as well as several other sources but the more info the better.

AdderMk2

dont reuse the stock head bolts.

mjr46

I did read your other posts and while it could have a head gasket issue, honestly I think you are throwing good money after bad....what stood out to me was the 80-90 psi on all cylinders across the board as you stated the test revealed.......while it may have a head gasket issue as well, usually if a head gasket blows the firing ring, there will be one or two cylinders usually adjacent ones low on compression, what is seems to me has happened based on your description is maybe a bad t-stat or something else caused the car to overheat then head gasket issues resulted or more so this thing was overheated so bad that it has cooked the rings/ lost ring tension therefore it now has low compression on all cylinders.....my fear is the bottom end is cooked on this motor...but if you wanna go ahead and do head gaskets..it's your money, personally when I see low compression all across the board like that.....out comes the motor expecially if it has a milk mess in it.

stdyhand

As mentioned don't reuse the stock head bolts. You'll need a torque wrench if you don't already have one. You may need a breaking bar. I got a 2ft breaking bar and a 4ft steel pipe I use for really hard bolts but fortunately I've never needed the pipe on anything for the engine. Other than that it is fairly straight forward.

As I said in your other thread your problem is either the gasket, head, or rings. I'm leaning toward the gaskets because from everything you described it sounds exactly like a Taurus I bought a couple years ago. It had low compression on all cylinders as well.

Once you pull the heads off you should get a better idea of what your looking at. If you get the heads off and see anything which leads you to believe the rings are bad you might as well save the gaskets or return them. Worst case the previous owner messed up the rings in the block and if thats the case your looking at rebuilding the engine or replacing it anyhow so you aren't going to do anything to make it any worse.

If you find they are good then chances are the gaskets will take care of your problem. Hopefully you just got an older high mileage engine that someone neglected to maintain and they didn't do any bad damage. You can either assume the rings are bad and get another engine or if there is no apparent damage to the rings you can try the new gaskets and then check compression. If it were me I'd try the new gaskets before I went and threw out the money for another engine.

1990boostang

If you want my 2 cents..... You might as well pull it and do bearings and rings

TrimDrip

Use black silicone because it looks better.