head gasket ?

tmz93sc

Registered User
i think i blew the head gasket in my 93 sc. here is what happened i was driving on the highway. real hot and humid day in ct saturday i passed my friend. he calls and tells me there is white smoke pouring out of the tailpipes. i look at my mech. temp guage it was right around 225- 230 i pull over at the next exit. then i see steam coming from under the hood. shut the motor off pop the hood. there is coolant pouring out of the overflow tank! had the car towed back to my house. checked the oil it looks okay. first time i will be doing hg on my sc :mad:
 
It will probably be head gaskets, but could be a cracked head as well. It will be something letting coolant into the combustion chamber. If a blown gasket it should be obvious when you remove the heads. They all seem to eventually blow.
 
i think i blew the head gasket in my 93 sc. here is what happened i was driving on the highway. real hot and humid day in ct saturday i passed my friend. he calls and tells me there is white smoke pouring out of the tailpipes. i look at my mech. temp guage it was right around 225- 230 i pull over at the next exit. then i see steam coming from under the hood. shut the motor off pop the hood. there is coolant pouring out of the overflow tank! had the car towed back to my house. checked the oil it looks okay. first time i will be doing hg on my sc :mad:

Sounds like a head gasket. Forced induction engines have a habit of pressurizing the coolant system when they go and forcing the expansion tank to overflow.
 
I agree. When my head gaskets blew, coolant shot up & out the top of the radiator upon raising the rpm's.
 
There are two kinds of SC's. Those with new head gaskets and those that will have. Sorry about your luck. Hope it is only gaskets needed. No coolant in the oil is a good thing but change it anyway just to be sure.
Alan
 
when you pull the heads to do the gaskets, coolant will get in the oil. Also, it is possible that the oxygen sensors were damaged from the coolant being run through the exhaust. Generally coolant shortens the life of the sensor, and if a sensor was already marginal it may make it unresponsive.

Thus along with head gaskets, you should change the oil, and if you've never had them replaced, now is a good time to change the o2 sensors.
 
my car is in the shop right now. waiting for them to start taking it apart. i was already thinking about a rebuild in the near future. it has 105000 on the original motor and headgaskets . can anybody point me in the right direction ? car is my daily driver and has the following mods. late model s port blower ,mp plenum 3.5" cai 75mm throttle body 76mm mass air flow raised top and custom exhaust any input would be great
 
my car is in the shop right now. waiting for them to start taking it apart. i was already thinking about a rebuild in the near future. it has 105000 on the original motor and headgaskets . can anybody point me in the right direction ? car is my daily driver and has the following mods. late model s port blower ,mp plenum 3.5" cai 75mm throttle body 76mm mass air flow raised top and custom exhaust any input would be great

If the car has been taken care of and not beat on too badly, it should last a long time with a proper HG replacement. I replaced my HGs a couple of years ago. The engine has almost 200k miles on it. It works fine.

If you are having the work done at a shop, it will hurt financially, but a rebuilt engine will hurt much worse. I am guessing $1600 for HGs and $3300 for installing a rebuilt engine. Plus, unless you have your exact engine rebuilt, you may (probably will) end up with substandard parts in the rebuild.

So if you have a use for that $1700 in the meantime, you may want to take the chance that the engine bottom end is fine.
 
my car is in the shop right now. waiting for them to start taking it apart. i was already thinking about a rebuild in the near future. it has 105000 on the original motor and headgaskets . can anybody point me in the right direction ? car is my daily driver and has the following mods. late model s port blower ,mp plenum 3.5" cai 75mm throttle body 76mm mass air flow raised top and custom exhaust any input would be great

You'll see how reputable that shop is shortly. I am almost going to bet they tell you the engine is trash. These cars are a bit tricky too. For many of us users on this board we look at these cars as easy to repair. I will tell you that as an ASE certified Master Tech, I have seen some shoddy work over the years as well as many throw their hands up in the air with these cars.
 
If the car has been taken care of and not beat on too badly, it should last a long time with a proper HG replacement. I replaced my HGs a couple of years ago. The engine has almost 200k miles on it. It works fine.

If you are having the work done at a shop, it will hurt financially, but a rebuilt engine will hurt much worse. I am guessing $1600 for HGs and $3300 for installing a rebuilt engine. ......


Wish I could get that kind of money from doing a HG:eek:

If you were close by, I would hook you up.:D
 
Wish I could get that kind of money from doing a HG:eek:

If you were close by, I would hook you up.:D

I typically get $1,000 plus parts and machining. I do pull the engine when I do them as I find it to make the job a little easier. I always like to pull the pan to see the condition of the bottom end when performing head gaskets on these engines when the mileage is higher. Nothing is worse than sending off a customer on their way only to find out a few thousand miles later that it developed a rod knock. Then I offer up the the typical routine stuff like motor mounts, clutch if a manual car, balancer, etc.
 
You'll see how reputable that shop is shortly. I am almost going to bet they tell you the engine is trash. These cars are a bit tricky too. For many of us users on this board we look at these cars as easy to repair. I will tell you that as an ASE certified Master Tech, I have seen some shoddy work over the years as well as many throw their hands up in the air with these cars.

well i think im being ripped off. shop calls me this morning and tells me 5000 for a stock rebuild. that being on the low side it could be more. plus it would be three weeks to have it sent out and rebuild the whole block! and they didnt even start taking it apart. i cant justify paying that much money when i can find another sc with lower miles for the same price . i noticed spinning wheels has a long block ford remain for 1800. i really dont know what to do. i love my sc and it really is in excellent shape i have way to much money in it to get rid of it. any suggestions
 
well i think im being ripped off. shop calls me this morning and tells me 5000 for a stock rebuild. that being on the low side it could be more. plus it would be three weeks to have it sent out and rebuild the whole block! and they didnt even start taking it apart. i cant justify paying that much money when i can find another sc with lower miles for the same price . i noticed spinning wheels has a long block ford remain for 1800. i really dont know what to do. i love my sc and it really is in excellent shape i have way to much money in it to get rid of it. any suggestions

The price sounds high for a stock rebuild. The three weeks sounds right. Machine shops typically turn work around on this type of stuff in a couple of weeks so that estimate isn't far off. I just rebuilt mine and the machine work was $800 and that included decking the block. That happens often. The repair facility takes your engine out and then hits you with a high price tag. At that point they have you by the short and curly's once the engine is out. For $3K i would R&R the engine and rebuild it while it is out. That would include new rings, bearings, machine the crankshaft, new oil pump, new timing chain and tensioner, rebuild the cylinder heads, deck the block, new water pump, new motor mounts, etc. I would need the car about a month. If you had a long block I could do that job in one weekend. The rate for that would be about $1,500 for the R&R.It's a shame you are not closer.
 
93SC - prices from RockAuto
$238.74 - 6 pistons SEALED POWER Part # H675CP {#H675P} (Available 0 to 1mm oversized)
$387.89 - Re-Ring Kit, includes piston rings, rod and main bearings, and gasket set, valve stem seals. SEALED POWER Part # 2056339M Includes Gasket Set. Gasket set includes head, intake, front cover, water pump, valve cover, exhaust, and throttle body and intake plenum gaskets.
$24.14 - 2 sets of head bolts FEL-PRO Part # ES72131
$32.99 - timing Set CLOYES Part # C3086K Includes: Cam, Crank, Chain

$683.76 in basic parts assuming heads are ok.
$425.00 Labor to remove the motor, and break it all down, figure 4-5 hours at a labor rate of $85/hour (this isn't skilled work)
$500.00 Machining costs. Soak the block and heads. Pressure check the heads, surface the heads, clean up the block, resize the rods, etc...
$300 to assemble the motor figure 3 hours at $100/hour
$595 Re install the motor, button it up, test drive. figure 7 hours.

So that is $2503.76. Round it up for $3000. At $5000, they are telling you that they don't want to do the work. Personally I'd track down a machine shop that can do the machining, and see if they know someone that can do the work. They may have a line on someone willing to be more reasonable.
 
just wanted to give everybody an update.i decided to do the headgaskets and call it a day. the bottom end looked good enough to as where i think it would be ok . really expensive having it done at a shop::( but i love my sc and have to much into it as many of you know. i would like to get some suggestions as to what i should do so it doesnt happen again. car has custom 3 inch exhaust downtubes magnaflow resonator. i also put the stock early model pulley on the late model blower. or maybe it was just time for them to go, they were the origanal ford gaskets
 
just wanted to give everybody an update.i decided to do the headgaskets and call it a day. the bottom end looked good enough to as where i think it would be ok . really expensive having it done at a shop::( but i love my sc and have to much into it as many of you know. i would like to get some suggestions as to what i should do so it doesnt happen again. car has custom 3 inch exhaust downtubes magnaflow resonator. i also put the stock early model pulley on the late model blower. or maybe it was just time for them to go, they were the origanal ford gaskets

Get the heads milled, checked for cracks, etc. clean up the block surface real well use new felpro gaskets and a new set of ttyl bolts.
 
the heads were in good shape, no cracks , they were sent out and milled. and yes felpro gaskets were used.
 
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