Ford's 3.8L Headgasket Fails

[TJCOX]

Does anyone know the campaign number that was issued for this recall? I remember that it
went back to 1994.
Thanks!

[Fastbob]

http://www.autosafety.org/ford-38l-head-gasket-trouble

[Bluerauder]

Got my letter from Ford about 15 years ago covering the 3.8 Headgasket on my 1994 Thunderbird. The Headgasket failed about 3 months after I received the letter. The T-Bird had 95K miles on it at the time. Dealers were backlogged for parts to fix. Mine was in the shop for a whole month waiting on repair. I ended up with a new engine and had the use of a new 24V Taurus for the entire waiting period. That car was my trade-in for the Marauder in October 2003.

[Fastbob]

1993 Cougar, fixed mine myself at 73,000 miles. The leak was bad enough that it hydro-locked the number 3 cylinder causing a bent connecting rod. New Piston, connecting rod, bearings, rings, gaskets, head bolts and a few other parts good as new. I still have the bent rod and damaged piston out in the garage as a reminder for my wife to watch the gauges. She is not very good at that, but wasn't her fault the gasket let go.

[TJCOX]

I owned a 91 Cougar and its gasket failed at 69,000 miles. I replaced both headgaskets
and repaired a wiring harness that came into contact with the hot EGR tube that was melting away the harness. No recalls for the 1991.
Thanks for your postings!
Tom
P.S. I'll be replacing the headgaskets on a 1996 T-Bird with 57,000 miles on the clock if Ford doesn't warranty it. I won't be using FOMOCO
if I can help it. I believe they were made by FEL-PRO not sure.

[BAD MERC]

My mom's '88 Cougar LS did it too. That was when we discovered torque-to-yield head bolts after snapping one off in the block. It happened twice.

[Blown3.8]

the recall was only good for 7 years after build date. get some felpro permatorque mls gaskets for it

[RF Overlord]

My '94 Thunderbird SuperCoupe had the 3.8 with an M90 Eaton and I drove it 155,000 miles with no problem. Sold it to my B-I-L and he drove it for a year then traded it in on a RAV4 (boo...hiss). Maybe the SC version got better head gaskets...wish I still had it.

[71cyclone]

My '94 Thunderbird SuperCoupe had the 3.8 with an M90 Eaton and I drove it 155,000 miles with no problem. Sold it to my B-I-L and he drove it for a year then traded it in on a RAV4 (boo...hiss). Maybe the SC version got better head gaskets...wish I still had it.
It did -[3.8 tarus were a hit or mis and most of the time the firewall side gasket caught the Bullet:mad2:

[TJCOX]

Thanks for all your postings on the headgaskets!