Another blown head gasket.

F

fasttruck93l

Registered User
Even after the mill job on heads, ARP studs, and mls fel pros. I'm pissed off at this car. I have a 95 5.0 ready to go in. Wondered what all was needed from the donor car. Its a mustang conv.
 
I've always followed Ford's training when dealing with MLS head gaskets. I'm hyper sensitive with those. I've never had a failure, but I could see how it could happen given the tiny sealing surface. I was leary of using MLS head gaskets on my 3.8 when it didn't originally come with them. But, really, I can't recall the last time I've seen a failed MLS head gasket. Usually, the failure is somewhere else on these newer cars with MLS.

Ford calls out a surface prep prior to installing new MLS head gaskets. Figure would be the same in your case. Did you use a prep on the deck and head?
 
A good flat deck surface on the heads and the block are needed to get the MLS gaskets to properly seal. If everything was done correctly, then I suspect the problem is with your tune.

David
 
I would tend to agree with David on this, and I of all people would know...I've blown headgaskets so many times the last replacement job took little under 4 hours to tear down and re-assemble (no joke)...also my last HG failure was prior to getting a a Quarter Horse and tune to work with my modifications.

Given you were using ARP and MLS gaskets I would tend to think you also have bolt on modifications of some sort to increase horsepower.

Sorry for your luck...a headgasket job seems less involved to me than a drivetrain swap also.

-Tim
 
David Neibert said:
A good flat deck surface on the heads and the block are needed to get the MLS gaskets to properly seal.
David
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David's dead on here, I've had MLS gaskets for years and I've beat on my car at the track for the same time frame and that was with running 20 lbs. of boost and a 100 shot of nitrous. Never a problem to this day.............;)
 
David Neibert said:
A good flat deck surface on the heads and the block are needed to get the MLS gaskets to properly seal. If everything was done correctly, then I suspect the problem is with your tune.

David
Click to expand...
The car is all stock. No performance mods at all. Stock style air filter even. All I've done to it is cut holes in the air box for more air.
 
My truck is a 93 lightning with a vortech s trim pushing 10# of boost. Ive got MLS gaskets on it and head studs and haven't had a problem. I'm familiar with the gaskets and installing them. It could be something wrong with one of the heads. I had the machine shop do a valve job on them while milling them and they said everything looked good to them. I don't know if these heads have certain places they tend to crack in or what but they are a very viable source of info in ford engines.
 
If you never had the machine work done on the block, that would be the reason for the mls not holding up. They have a tight tolerance and 2 decked surfaces.
 
That makes sense to me. I guess I didn't realize that the machine shop did that to my truck and that I would need it done on my car too. It never crossed my mind. I guess there will be a stock motor with studs and leaking head gaskets for sale on here soon then. I will give you guys first dibs on it. I really thought about a mark 8 swap instead.
 
fasttruck93l said:
The car is all stock. No performance mods at all. Stock style air filter even. All I've done to it is cut holes in the air box for more air.
Click to expand...

That's brilliant! Did you notice any difference? I was thinking of doing that, because the stock hole is somewhat small compared to the large panel filter.
 
When I had my mazdaspeed people would remove the bottom of the air box and zip tie the filter to the top
 
1FSTBRD said:
That's brilliant! Did you notice any difference? I was thinking of doing that, because the stock hole is somewhat small compared to the large panel filter.
Click to expand...

My buddy did it on his 99 lightning. That's where the idea came from. It does make a difference in sound as well as boost #s. It adds about 1# of boost according to the gauge.
 
SCarSC said:
When I had my mazdaspeed people would remove the bottom of the air box and zip tie the filter to the top
Click to expand...

That sounds like a good idea, except that the additional air would be hindered by the hotter air drawn in from the engine bay. I have my home made ram air duct feeding into the stock air hole, but I was also thinking of drilling some holes in it, too.
 
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