DriverDave

Hi I am new to this and so I will do my best..I purchased a 1995 mustang v-6 w/5-speed tran. the car starts jerking and or missing on excelleration but you can excellerate thru the miss until the car reaches the shift point and it freaks out, at times cruising speeds are difficult when it is cold and at least driveable when completely warmed up. The checkengine light did come on but before the fault codes could be used the computer was reset. any ideas?

jthorn9

Blown head gasket would be my first assumption. Aside from that it would have to be a major sensor(s) failure, such as the MAF, IAT, TPS, EGR, are all possible as well as several temperature sensors around the block. The MAF is the most likely to cause this problem on it's own, it would take multiples of the others going out to do this. Another possibility is the ignition coil, spark plug(s), or spark plug wire(s) is/are bad and needs to be replaced.

JKs95stang

At this point, I wouldn't assume it's a head gasket issue, but i definitely wouldn't rule it out just yet. If you are losing water and can't figure out where or how, you have a slight head gasket leak more than likely leaking down the cylinders and out of the exhaust(If there is anti-freeze in the car, you will smell it out of the exhaust). My friend drove on his slight leak for 6 months, just had to add water every 2 days or so(real small leak). With your description, this could be a simple 5 min coil pack swap or maybe some wires. It would help to know what the codes were as well.

JIM5.0

Welcome to the board!

jthorn9

It will only leak water into the ports if the gasket is blown at the water jackets. If it's blown between the piston rings it will not leak water. In short, head gaskets can be very tricky beast to track down at times.

JKs95stang

Yup, that's what my friends 94 was doing, leaking at the water jacket in the head and burning off through the exhaust. I've never heard of them blowing between the piston rings.

Matt's 95 Stang

When was the last time the car had a tune up? Plugs, wires, coil pack? I would pull the plug and see if any of them look bad, check the wires to make sure there is no arcing (sp??), and check the coil pack to make sure the vol reads the same on all cylinders.

Also welcome to the forum.
Matthew

Matt's 95 Stang

Also, as I went thru a blown HG last December, you will KNOW when it blows. The car will shake like a b*tch, the CEL will pop up fast, and you will get a chit load of smoke out of the tail pipes (or pipe) in your case.

Matthew

jthorn9

My 95 blew between the piston rings and so did my 00 (when it was my mom's car). It's not at all uncommon. In fact my 95 blew between cylinders 6/7 and 7/8. It was the blow through 7/8 that hit the water jacket, but the initial blow was 6/7 that one was really well blown, when I blow gaskets I do it right supercharger caused the driver's side head to lift off the block. The 00 blew simply cause V6 Mustangs in general have sh*tty head gaskets. Guy that towed the car said the problem isn't just 94/95 he's towed so many V6 stangs he wasn't suprised when he got the call all blown head gaskets. When I purchased my 98 Mustang V6 from Ford in Metarie (just outside New Orleans) they just rebuild most of the block because a head gasket blew.

JKs95stang

I did a head gasket one time when I bought the 95 for cheap. I honestly would have rather swapped a motor than to do all that work(swap mopar motor and trans combos frequently). At the time, I had more time than money so a cheap ride for awhile. I bought it for 500(plus head gasket fix) and sold it for 8 with over 220k and still going. It just needed to much at that time to put anymore money into it, and I came across a 2000 for cheap so it was perfect timing to get rid of it. Was a great car for almost 4 years without any major issues.