hi everyone I was hoping someone could help me I have a 1997 mustang convertable and it has been restored body and interior wise but the transmission is slow to shift after take off and to make matters worse i took it to the shop because it was acting funny and they told me the head gasket was blown that the radiator had rusted at the bottom and it leaked all the water out ok greatthey want over 3,000 dollars to fix it with a warranty my question is I love my car but im wondering if theres any suggestions you could give me about what to do i want to fix it but im thinking thats alot of money and then the transmission could be next is there a cheaper way to go I would appreciate any feed back I know the shop is not looking out for me or my money

 

is it a V6 or a GT? and $3,000 for a radiator and a head gasket job is INSANE. You can get a new radiator for $200 and if your mechanicly inclined you could do the head gaskets for $100 its really not as hard as it looks. If you dont think your up to the task take the car around to a few different places you should be able to find someone to do it for half of that

 

Thank you for replying I went out and looked under the hood it says fuel injected 3.8 liter v6 and i thought that price was high but the ford dealer said that it would be even more for them to fix it and that to drive it I might cause severe damage so in your oppinion what is the best routeI could go about fixing it I am a woman so doing it myself would have my neighbors ready to commit me I would be mostly crying and screaming what would be a smart way to go about finding someone who could do it right but not expect me to take out a huge loan do you think that if a smaller shop would do it but not offer a warranty would beworth considering

 

i would just call aoround to a few local smaller shops, going to the dealer is always the most expensive route. They should be able to give you a quote over the phone, unfortunatley head gasket leaks when coming up to around100K miles on the 3.8's is a very common problem. And they are right i would not drive the car, if the leak is bad the cylinders could fill up with water and then bend the rods and its time for a new motor. whatever you do DO NOT put that head gasket leak fix stuff in the motor

 

all 3.8 have head gaskets replaced....one of the reasons Ford stopped building them. A car your age, don't go anywhere near the stealership. Everything you need done shouold be less than a grand parts inc. They saw yu coming