Head Gasket Question 5.0

Ive had allot of strange things occur but I need some advice here.

my 88 cougar which I just sold and may very well be taking back had some cooling issues. The temp gauge never worked and drove it for a few years no issues.

One day while driving through the mountains I pulled over at a rest stop and when I came back antifreeze had boiled over.

Got home thermostat was in a few pieces..Well fixed that and the gauge.

This is where I noticed the car would get hot. Never had it boil over on me again but then again knew something was going on and never tested it. car would idle all day cool would eventually get into operating temp stay there for awhile, then eventually start to get hot. Car would not cool down when on highway if anything it would get hotter. I developed a small crack in my lower intake so I recently changed that....Before changing it I had put some stop seal in it to stop the leak. Temp issue seemed worse after...Tried flushing rad....no change..

Now I get no oil in radiator and no water in oil.

Could I possibly be leaking compression into coolant system??

Symptoms lead me to believe it was the radiator and generally a clogged radiator is a hard to flush.


I sold the car relatively cheap as I didnt want it anymore (was still driving it daily) and told the guy it more than likely needed a radiator.

Well he said he flushed it and had it checked out and it was fine and its still getting hot.

SO if its truly a head gasket I'm willing to give him his money back because I wouldn't sell a car like that to anyone. But I want to check first as the rad story was a bit fishy.

What do I do? a leakdown test? if Im not getting water in oil a system pressure test would more than likely not show anything correct?

Need some advice here from people that may have had an issue like this before

Thanks all

Best answer I have - do a leakdown test, do a compression balance test, and last but not least, see if you have gas bubbles in the radiator (a pretty darn good sign of exhaust into the water jacket.)

Better, see if you can borrow a thermographic camera (one that takes pictures based on temperature) and see if there's any cold spots in the radiator.

RwP

Borrow a thermographic camera...I own one!..Part of what I do for a living...I was thinking of it but was unsure with the fan shroud and all in the way I could get a good shot

XxSlowpokexX said:

Borrow a thermographic camera...I own one!..Part of what I do for a living...I was thinking of it but was unsure with the fan shroud and all in the way I could get a good shot

Click to expand...

Won't know until you try.
As you can guess, do it with out the A/C running ... you don't want a pic of the A/C's heat path

RwP

Don't overlook the clutch fan. It may be spinning ok at idle but as soon as you increase rpm it may kick out and not do anything.

XR7 Dave said:

Don't overlook the clutch fan. It may be spinning ok at idle but as soon as you increase rpm it may kick out and not do anything.

Click to expand...

D'oh! I should have thought about this!

The clutch is available at places like Autozone and Rockauto also - http://www.rockauto.com/catalog/raframecatalog.php?carcode=1198683&parttype=6812 at RA, for instance.

You'll need a nice-sized adjustable wrench or to borrow a tool set like this: http://cgi.ebay.com/K-D-Tools-Ford-...ultDomain_0&hash=item3f0b7c7410#ht_500wt_1180 .

Remember the fan is reverse-threaded, and you'l have to remove the two bolts at the top that hold the shroud in place to remove the fan to replace the clutch.

RwP

The guy said he changed it. And if the fan were bad it would still cool on highway. Or at least cool down after getting hot. Seems a leakdown test will tell me allot..If I see bubbles inmy coolant..well..lol

Are you using coolant? no leaks? and why was the thermostat in pieces? how's your heat? it sounds like a restricted system. And I definately wouldn't trust someone elses word unless you really trust them