First time here, need tech diagnosis.............

[reman]

Hi everyone. I have built and tinkered with Fords for 40 yrs, but know absolutely nothing about mod motors. I need some direction.......1993 Town Car, spark plugs are up by the intake. 140,000miles, was in great shape. Lost a small amount of coolant a month or so ago. Problem seemed to go away. Last week the car shut down and the air filter box was very hot and blowing steam. Further investigation revealed that coolant was blowing into the air system from the pcv valve AND a larger vent pipe that comes from the rear engine area, by the firewall. It really blows from the bigger pipe. It will start and run with the air duct taken off. With everything in place, it drowns out the throttle body with coolant. I have put compressed air to each cylinder and on 5 cylinders it blows slightly back out the intake (open intake valves I figured), but it also blows big time out this rear tube, pipe. Unfortunately, I forgot to keep the radiator full while doing this, so I don't know if I was blowing back into the radiator. But I think it would have to have been..... I dont want to just start tearing down without knowing what I am looking for. Head gasket(s)? Cracked aluminum intake? cracked heads?............... So, am I describing anything that points to a particular problem with this engine? I always get 200,00 plus miles before I throw a Town Car away. And this is still a nice car. Any advice from you experienced guys will be appreciated, even if its to tell me the thing is toast. Please post back here or feel free to email me. Many Thanks.........RonW

[stangman98]

I don't remember...is that a 2V car? Is so I would say check the upper intake for cracks.

[reman]

Stangman, thank you very much for the reply. I did not state above, this is a 4.6 fully fuel injected motor. Maybe I misused the term, throttlebody. Anyway, to day I pulled the intake, which is one piece aluminum. Or maybe does it seperate and I did not notice? I did check it for cracks and found nothing obviously wrong. Also checked the gasket seal areas and found no signs of leakage. I know the later model plastic intakes are troublesome, but doesn't seem to be the problem here. So I am guessing now, best scenario is blown head gasket. Worst to be cracked heads or block. Would you agree? I am an old FE man and have learned today that I probably will never attempt to work on one of these again. Thanks again and if you have any further ideas, I would be happy to hear. RonW..............PS: Before pulling it down, I filled the radiator tank with water, then could hear it running down into the crankcase, so its a big leak.

[Adam Smith]

I would say a headgasket if I had to guess. Sounds like your getting compression in your cooling system too.

Adam