okay, so... i have a 96 3.8L mustang and it has been parked for a little over 2 months. I had parked it because the rad fan went and after that it wouldnt cool down obviously. so i just started it up to make sure it would run, which it did and i noticed it had a very distinct sour sweet smell coming off of it. i believe it was coming from the exhaust however i am un sure. after running if for about 5 minutes i turned it off and left the garage. when i came back the garage reeked of this smell and still does when you walk in there it has been like a week. the temp gage goes up and up and up. the heater blows cold air as well. not sure what is going on here. im fairly technically savvy and my neighbour is a mechanic so i wanna know what the problem may be and also if and or what i can do to fix it. thanks! i appreciate any help on this.

 

I'm not the most tech savy either, but it sounds like you have a bad head gasket. You have coolant getting into the combustion chamber and burning with the fuel, thus the sweet smell. There are kits (test strips) that you can buy from the parts stores to test for hydrocarbons in the coolant.

Or it might be an intake gasket leaking, but I'm not familiar with the 3.8's.

 

welcome

 

well crap. i know that headgaskets are a pretty hefty job to undertake if you arent the one who is doing the work. i will see what my neighbour says about the cost of that. dang.

 

well dang i will have to see how much all that will cost.

 

Correct me if I'm wrong the 3.8's in all fords had the head gasket issue due to weak cylinder head bolts ???

And ford did something close to a recall or reimbursement ???

You need to check into that

 

really? hmm. if so, then do i just replace it myself or should i try and contact ford in some way? its been quite a long time haha