[Mehfoud]

So I'm driving down the road and notice my temperature gauge is almost pegged. The was not too shocking since some days I would see coolant blow out of the side of the hood when driving home from work. I pulled over and realized I had no coolant. I figure it might be a leaky hose or some other minor issues. Well after a brief inspection, there appears to be a breach on the right front side of the engine where the block and head meet (I believe). I'm thinking of tearing down the engine and replacing the head-gasket too see if that is the issue. Is this a common issue for Escorts? Car has been rock solid before this. Are there any good head gasket replacement thread? I tried seaching, but it's hard to find anything.


Thanks.

 

[EscortLX97]

If something like that happened to me I would first clean every thing and add coolant, and since everything will be clean I will be able to diagnose properly.

If coolant is coming from the front of the engine it could be that the water pump gasket got toasted, you can confirm that by removing the timing cover.

It not common for escort to blow gaskets unless they have suffered an over heat.

On the how to section are good writeup on replacing a head gasket. Searching is not hard just time consuming and at desperate moments nothing appears.

I'm working on a video that I took when working on a member escort I'll try to finish it this week and post up.

 

[Mehfoud]

But the leak is located on the opposite side of the engine where the water pump is installed (I was hoping it would just be a water pump gasket problem. I'm going to install a new water pump, head gasket, timing belt and few other things.

I'll check the How-To's

 

[EscortLX97]

For me the front of the engine is the side of the belt and not the car or in this case on 4 cyl. the piston 1 is front of the engine.

Dont forget new head bolts they are cheap anyways.

 

[Mehfoud]

Clearly the thermostat housing gasket was having an issue, but I still think the head gasket is suspect. Notice I sheered off the head of the bottom bolt while removing. there was a lot of corusion.