I live in Cincinnati and drive a 1996 V6 Mustang with 118,000 miles. I believe, with some symptom confirmation, that I have a blown head gasket. My purpose for this thread is to explore whether it is financially sensible to repair the blown head gasket or start looking for a new engine. My plan was to upgrade the engine in the long run, but since this latest issue, I want to explore what would be better. can someone point me in the right direction? Also, if I should repair the head gasket, does anyone know a mechanic willing to do the work at a fair price? Please advise.
It really depends. If you're gonna upgrade to a larger engine, then just do it now, but if you're gonna mod the V6, tear it down and just rebuild the whole thing. Often times a properly rebuilt engine is tougher than when its new because the block has stretched and everything, and then you replace all the gaskets and seals, and then you've got a well broken in perfectly sealed engine, thats ready for boost.
but if you're gonna rebuild the engine, might as well do as many mods as you can while you're in there. If I was gonna tear it down, I'd change it out with a forged rotating assembly and get that out of the way, but thats just me, as well as do heads and U/L intakes and stuff if you've got the money.
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Black 98 Mustang V6 5MT
Throttle Cable Tightened Lowered Wiper Arms Intake Silencer Removed Bumper Cutouts Removed Smoked Headlights and Corners K&N Air Filter Black Front Pony
A year ago I bought my 96 v6. Not to long after I bought it I found out I had blown head gaskets too...lol. Common problem for our year.
If you have money to burn just go ahead and take it apart and do all the engine mods you can afford. I kind of regret that I didn't know as much about Mustangs as I do now, otherwise I would have made an effort to do much more while I had my car in pieces.
I could only afford to take it apart, replace all the gaskets, get the heads milled and cleaned (in case they warped), and then put it back together. My problem was I had no money because I had just bought it plus paid tution. I also needed it running quickly because it is my daily driver.
Anyway my car had 112k miles when this happened and since I put it all back together I have not had any issues, and it's been about a year...
By the way, it really isn't too difficult to do it yourself. My dad and uncle helped me out over a couple of weekends and we didn't have any major problems. Just take your time and have a good reference book and don't get frustrated when you are working as you may break something...lol.
< Message edited by brxan -- 9/12/2007 6:51:23 PM >
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V6 needs new Head Gasket - 
