this is on my mustang and not on my camaro, but mods, please do not delete this, i really need some help here. the statements and qestions will be more or less general and not mustang specific. and please do not say "thats what you get for buying a ford." lol.

in the last 50 to 75 miles i have lost a pint or so of coolent, although i do not know where it is going. there is no white smoke that would typically be indicative of a blown head gasket, but there is oil mixing with the coolent and coolent mixing with the oil. the oil isnt like the "milkshake" that i have commonly heard a blown headgasket associated with, but it smells sweet and there are a few (like 2 or 3) little bubbles on the dipstick if i pull it out after it runs.

does that sound like a headgasket?

what should i do to diagnose it? i am going to do a compression test in the next few days, becauses logically that would help..

what could have caused the gasket to blow? the engine on it is totally stock and i dont drive her that hard, but i do do some hard pulls every once in a while.

the heads are aluminum, is there a high probability of a warped/cracked head?

thanks for your time and i appreciate the assistance.

 

I'm not the most knowledgeable guy in the world, but that sure sounds like a blown head gasket or even maybe a warped head. The sure way to find out is to do an oil change. You will know right away if there is a significant amount of coolant in your oil, once looking at it. Luckily for you, assuming you know how to do the labor, it's not the end of the world if your gasket is blown as it should be a weekend-project. Otherwise you could get your heads machined, which isn't as expensive as people think... Or just throw some new performance heads on

Your engine must have overheated at some point to cause this... Let's see what everyone else says.

Good luck, either way.

 

Well I don't think it will be quite as easy as you think to do the heads on that because that 4.6 should be a SOHC and those aluminum heads should definitely be checked out especially without any smoke. Probably not a weekend project unless you get the heads pulled Friday night to a shop that is open Saturday and on the car Sunday.

Good Luck!

 

no, definitely not a weekend project, 4.6's are way worse to work on than third gen camaros. i called a very reputable local mustang shop and asked if they did any head porting, and they said that they contracted it out to this guy, and they gave me his number. he said for a stage 3 port and polish it would be about $750, and if the heads needed to be resurfaced and heat tanked and reassembled he could do it all for under a grand. he also flownbenches all of his heads and will give me the sheets for the heads. the only downside is that he has about a two week turnaround time.

right now i am driving my dad's LX 5.0 until i get the camaro up and running, which will probably be in the next week or two, depending on if i decide to pull the heads and start on the mustang first.

does anybody have any idea why i am not bellowing white smoke? that is the only oddity i have come accross so far with this issue. other than that it seems pretty standard blown head gasket.

thank you for all of your help so far, and mods, thank you for keeping this open. the reason i posted this on here is because the people around here are way more knowledgable than the people on mustang forums. most of the guys on mustang forums have never done anything more advanced than basic bolt ons, or they take their car to a shop.

 

maybe a cracked head would answer your question or the leak does not enter the combustion chamber the compression test even better a leak down test should answer it. make sure you tell your head guy to check!

 

intake gaskets are also a strong possibility but you would notice coolant in the oil if it's leaking bad. usually it won't turn milkshake right away. the fastest way to determine if the heads/gaskets are bad is a cylinder leakdown test, and a coolant pressure test. when doing the CLT notice if you see bubbles in the coolant when putting air in the clyinders. if you get bubbles on one or more cylinders you found your problem. if all cylinders check out then do a CPT and see how long it holds pressure. should hold for a long time. after the test drain alittle oil out and look for coolant.

 

A problem I have seen before is the radiator leaking around where the tanks are clamped to the core. See it a lot on our patrol cars after they get some age on them. Loose a little coolant every one in a while and the sweet coolant smell around the front of the car. Between the core and the plastic tanks are a rubber gasket, as the different materials heat and cool the gasket leaks. Have seen some worse than others. Had a bronco II one time that had this problem. One morning went out and cranked it up before work ( 15 deg. out) as I walked back inside the house the radiator burped out a puddle of coolant then sealed right back up. I had the gaskets replaced at a local radiator shop and it almost stopped the leak. I don't think you could ever stop it with out going to a all metal radiator . And by the way has the intake been replaced with the new type with a metal front runner. Those were under a recall.

 

no, i still have the stock plastic crossover recalled intake. i really dont think that it is cracked because i see no coolent spray/drippage in the engine bay and i have seen many pics of where those manifolds crack and mine is still fine. also, the sweet smell isnt coming from under the hood, mainly from the exhaust. i think it could also be a cracked head, but the car hasnt ever gotten near the point of overheating at least according to the gauge, and before that, it never smelled hot or anything.

 

yea definetly do a compression check...that would be the next step for me. A decent compression gauge is like $20 from harbor freight...but dont quote me on it. its definetly worth it if it will save you from disassembling your whole top end...

 

Any word on your car yet?