Taurus timing cover gasket leak, why?

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Seems like a pretty common problem. Dad's car had it and with water pump and new serpentine belt it is a $550 job.

Some people said it is a aluminum/iron block that cause corrosion, others said because a load member is mounted on the cover supported only by gasket, that got wear out on mechanical vibration.

Any suggestion?
 
That's a bear of a job on the Ford 3.0/3.8. I believe the FSM specs something crazy like dropping the whole engine/cradle for this job, but it can be done by removing engine mounts and tilting the engine. Another application where bolting a chunk of aluminum to a chunk of cast iron doesn't work.

Joel
 
The original causes of leaks on the Vulcans (1995) was a misengineered coolant system that caused corrosion, and that ate up aluminum parts and corroded freeze plugs. That was corrected by a recall.

A timing cover that is marginal on the sealing surface will likely leak again. Timing covers/gaskets are actually easy to do on those. Take the right side motor mounts loose from the subframe and jack up the engine till you hear a "crunching" noise, and hit it with an air ratchet.

3.8L timing covers leak just because that engine has to leak somewhere in between head gasket changes.
 
Will more frequent coolant change (like once a year with Dex Clone) be sufficient in protecting these kind of failure in the future?
 
Originally Posted By: JustinH
How much oil is it leaking, and how old is the vehicle? How many miles on it?


2001 (manufactured in Dec 2000), only 70k miles.
 
I had the timing cover gasket replaced along with the oil pan gasket, water pump and timing gear set (it was a little loose) on my 92 Taurus 3.0 Vulcan engine. It was seeping some coolant that was dripping from the front passenger side of the oil pan. The cover itself was cracked and had to be replaced. For the 3.0 engine you don't have to take the engine loose from the motor mounts but you have to remove the Y-pipe and oil pan to do it the right way. The oil pan gaskets are notorious for leaking on Taurii as well. The 3.0 timing cover is also slotted so that any coolant that leaks will channel down to the outside of the engine (and not into the oil), unlike the 3.8.
 
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