There is a piece of shit car for dirt cheap that I am considering purchasing but it needs a head gasket. I want to get it soley for the purpose of working on it myself to learn more about this shit.

Any suggestions? Thanks.

[Edited on August 1, 2005 at 2:39 PM. Reason : 45trfd]

8/1/2005 2:37:50 PM

what kinda car?

8/1/2005 2:44:26 PM

92' Ford Thunderbird

8/1/2005 2:47:08 PM

If everything else is in good condition, new headgaskets (yes there are two of them, it's a V6) should get you another 80-100 thousand miles down the road. Get a repair manual and read through the procedure and see if you are capable of doing that job yourself. It is quite an extensive repair, and one that would cost in the neighborhood of $1000 to have a shop do it.

8/1/2005 5:18:06 PM

headgaskets on a thunderbird is not the kind of job you want to undertake for the sole purpose of "learning more about this shit"

8/1/2005 5:23:47 PM

I concur

8/1/2005 5:26:35 PM

just bought an 89 turbo coupe with a built garret t3 and a blown head gasket. doing the gasket and the fuel pump this weekend. and an alighnment.. thing is about those motors, depending on the severity of the blow the block will be of no good. usually if ran for a while the the blown gasket. but hey the cool think is that a ranger cam is a performance upgrade. good luck

8/1/2005 5:56:42 PM

Huh? The TC was only available (to the best of my knowledge) on the fox 'birds, which ran up until '88. 1989 was the first MN12 T-bird, and the S/C debuted that year.

8/1/2005 6:19:25 PM

he isnt known for his knowledge, so youre probably right

good job calling him out if thats the case

8/1/2005 6:21:01 PM

What should I do to "learn more about this shit" then?

8/2/2005 4:15:50 PM

buy a vw rabbit.

8/2/2005 4:19:19 PM

try reading

you know, things from the library

i call em books

8/2/2005 5:55:55 PM

you will never win the head gasket battle on a v6 bird, unless you have the head and block milled, the leaking antifreeze pits the hell out of the aluminum

8/2/2005 10:49:14 PM

Still wondering if it is worth getting this car for $400 and spending about $1000 to fix it and sell my other car...Its a 01' Neon with 25,000 miles so its practically brand new but still, if i can get a car for $1400 why not.

8/8/2005 4:45:33 PM

Quote :

"you will never win the head gasket battle on a v6 bird, unless you have the head and block milled, the leaking antifreeze pits the hell out of the aluminum"

have you considered this?? you first said you were considering purchasing it soley for the purpose of working on it yourself and learning more about them. if it were an iron block i'd probably say go for it, but if the mating surface is fucked its going to be a royal pain in the ass and obviously the whole motor has to come out+taken apart+taken to a machine shop. if everything went perfectly well it may not be too bad of a deal $$ wise, but if something doesn't go right you'll be wasting a lot of money on a car that is suppose to be your daily driver and be questioning its reliability

of course, i'm assuming you even have all the tools and a suitable place to do such a job..

8/8/2005 4:52:18 PM

richthofen- your right seeing as how in the door jam it says 01/89. dont tell me what i have. as for the other guy with the t-bird. good luck its just a ford.

8/8/2005 6:32:09 PM

http://raleigh.craigslist.org/car/91806250.html


what do I have in mind...ha no clue as of yet.

8/22/2005 11:54:39 PM

if you are learning there is gonna be lots of down time if you are doing it yourself, keep your neon until the warentee runs out, you are gonna need an alternate car

8/23/2005 12:06:11 AM

STAY AWAY FROM AN EARLY 90's V-6 BIRD. THE REASON IT IS SO CHEAP IS BECAUSE NO-NONE WANTS THEM. YOU WILL BE PISSING MONEY AWAY FOR YEARS ON IT. I KNOW THIS FROM PERSONAL EXPERIENCE WITH MY SISTER'S 91.

8/23/2005 11:19:48 AM