'93 Cougar V6, common issues?

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Originally Posted By: punisher
This is a confusing thread.

Head gaskets blow on these. Not as bad as the FWD Tauruses/Sables/Continentals, but they do let go. Pull the #4 plug first and ck for evidence of coolant. #4 is the problem child cylinder on those engines.

As far as no start diag: While looking at the MIL light, crank the engine over. The light should go out. If it stays on, look at the stator/pickup as a primary cause. Cycle the key several times, depress the shraeder valve on the fuel rail to see if there is any pressure. Can't remember if the TFI is on the distributor, or if it is a remote mount. If it is a remote, chances are it is OK.

Pull codes, just to ck for any "fuel pump primary" codes. If you see that, look at the IRCM, tap on it to see if a fuel pump relay is sticking.

No starts are not too difficult on these.

Oh, usually they do not require machine shop work, usually. Just depends. The most common blowout is between outboard #4 and the water jacket. We did a lot of them and only replaced the head gasket.

Tough remembering this 20+ year old stuff.


You have to have them pressure checked and the surface brought to the correct RA for the updated gaskets to work. Just slapping gaskets on is rolling the dice.
 
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Originally Posted By: KingCake


You have to have them pressure checked and the surface brought to the correct RA for the updated gaskets to work. Just slapping gaskets on is rolling the dice.


In a perfect world, absolutely. Kind of depends on what the plans are for the car. If someone wants to drive it for many thousand more miles, then yes, if its going to be down range at Knob Creek soon, then no.
 
Originally Posted By: Jarlaxle
It's a 3.8 Essex...if the head gaskets haven't failed yet, they will. Trans will be a non-electronic AOD, which might be problematic at this point.

A 1993 might still have the stupid motorized seat belts and R-12 air conditioning.

All of the above...

I've bought close to 200 vehicles over the years, if it has any sign of head gasket issue I wouldn't touch it... If it had the 5.0 It'd likely be a winner...
 
The 3.8 was a roll of the dice. Yes, it did have a lot of head gasket failures, mostly due to a bad head gasket design. There were some good ones though....
I bought an '88 Cougar right off the show room floor. It had the "bad" 3.8 engine in it. 300K miles later, I retired the car, not because of the engine, but because of every thing else that started to nickle and dime me.
I might forget a small item or two, but during those 300K miles, here is what I replaced (oil and service maintenance items not listed): Water pump (twice). Alternator, struts, shocks, a couple of fuel filters, and two fuel pumps. I must have driven near a black hole of some sort, because the two fuel pumps instantly died within about 100 yards of each other.
The car had a recall on the catalytic converter and the ignition switch.
The engine itself never had a valve cover or oil pan off. After the car was retired, I had the heads freshened up and they are still on the car my daughter drives to college. When I pulled the heads after 300K miles of use, I noted that there were no oil deposits of any kind. Not on the heads, bottom side of the valve covers and really no deposits of any kind in the combustion chamber.
I will admit that 1988 was probably one of the years were they used better head gaskets than a few years after that.
 
Originally Posted By: Jarlaxle
Isn't the problem with the 3.8 the HEAD castings, not the gaskets?


That was the 2.9 that was really crack prone. I don't recall my dad's shop having issue with cracked heads on the 3.8. Just the gaskets.
 
Yeah, the 3.8 was a gasket/clamp load problem. Once you swapped out gaskets to the revised part number, and used new TTY head bolts, the problem was fixed. Any rechecks on those were due to an idiot tech not replacing a thermostat while swapping gaskets, or not properly bleeding the cooling system after the repair. Over the years I did a dozen head gaskets on 3.8s (during winter the performance guy has to eat to) and never had one come back on me. If you abuse it after the gasket lets go, then you might trash a head or deck surface.
 
Originally Posted By: Jarlaxle
Isn't the problem with the 3.8 the HEAD castings, not the gaskets?


Two problems. Gasket design (Which was updated in 96 or 98.) And the deck of the block pulling up when head bolts were tightened. 96 on fixed the deck issue by putting deeper thread on head bolts.
 
Originally Posted By: Robenstein
Originally Posted By: Jarlaxle
Isn't the problem with the 3.8 the HEAD castings, not the gaskets?


That was the 2.9 that was really crack prone. I don't recall my dad's shop having issue with cracked heads on the 3.8. Just the gaskets.


You are correct. Little 2.9 was a good engine but had lots of thin spots in the heads that would crack and cause people to replace everything under the hood chasing a miss.
 
Wasn't there also a problem with some ignition component catching fire on these models? Or was it just earlier ones?

Friend of the family had a 1988 Cougar V-6; it burst into flames and burned to nothing in a condo parking lot just after the person came in from a short drive with it....
 
Originally Posted By: addyguy
Wasn't there also a problem with some ignition component catching fire on these models? Or was it just earlier ones?

Friend of the family had a 1988 Cougar V-6; it burst into flames and burned to nothing in a condo parking lot just after the person came in from a short drive with it....


The source of that fire was most likely some sort of oil or fuel leak. I know the family shop saw quite a few cars come in that had underhood fires in the 80's and early 90's. I distinctly remember a couple Dodge Daytonas and Tech 4 powered Fieros.
 
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Originally Posted By: addyguy
Wasn't there also a problem with some ignition component catching fire on these models? Or was it just earlier ones?

Friend of the family had a 1988 Cougar V-6; it burst into flames and burned to nothing in a condo parking lot just after the person came in from a short drive with it....


I believe the ignition switch and a cruise control switch mounted in the master cylinder could cause fires.

This is a $200 car, buy it and if you can get it running - great! If not sell it for scrap and recoup your $200.
 
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