R.I.P. 2001 Windstar (Catastrophic Failure)

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Some backstory: My sister got this van earlier this year and it had a pretty significant head gasket problem. We used a bottle of Bar's Stop Leak in the coolant and changed the oil and it seemed to stop the leak. She went around 4,500 miles on that oil change and everything continued to perform fine. No coolant loss, no oil consumption, etc. I changed the oil again and after about 2,000 miles it burned 2 quarts of oil unexpectedly. I changed the oil earlier than expected after this incident and kept a close eye on the dipstick whenever I saw the vehicle and the last time I checked it was just a week or so ago and everything looked fine. I just changed the oil about 2 or 3 weeks ago, maybe? She texted me this morning with a video of her starting the van and it was knocking like a jackhammer. I came over to check it out later in the day and looked underneath the vehicle and saw parts of the engine block and some oil on the pavement. She said it was a sudden failure, and sounded fine the last time she drove it but started making this horrible noise when she tried to start it today. I'm thinking that the head gasket finally completely failed and it might have ingested some water as white smoke was billowing out of the tail pipe while it (barely) ran and was knocking. I did notice some milky residue in the oil on the dipstick as well. It seems not all of the oil leaked out as it's still registering almost full on the dipstick, though it's possible that there's a lot of coolant in with it as well. I would've imagined seeing a larger pool of oil underneath the vehicle. Anyways, it had around 221,000 miles on it, so it had a pretty good run. The dashboard was always lit up like a Christmas tree and the tachometer got stuck on the gear indicator needle when the gauges would go haywire, sometimes the speedometer would read 100mph in park and the gas/temperature gauge would go up and down rapidly, the rear shocks were blown and the rocker panels had large enough rust holes to put your hand through. The last few times I drove it, it did run very well and the engine was quiet and smooth. It's still sorta running, but it sounds absolutely awful and will likely die completely if they run it anymore. R.I.P. Windstar!

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Whups... RIP indeed. What's her replacement strategy?
 
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Originally Posted By: Kuato
Whups... RIP indeed. What's her replacement strategy?


Right now she has her eyes on a 2007 Honda Fit Sport that her husband's family was going to sell. It has high miles (over 180,000 I think?), but runs great and is in very good shape. I think they might just end up giving it to her considering her sudden car (or lack thereof) situation.
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I had my eyes on it myself as a possible replacement for the Integra, but I think she could use it a bit more right now.
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Originally Posted By: 01rangerxl
Time to do neutral drops, then call the "we buy junk cars" guy.
Yup call up the junk yard, when they ask "Does it run?" You can honestly say "Yes"
 
Originally Posted By: 01rangerxl
Time to do neutral drops, then call the "we buy junk cars" guy.


That's what I did with my Aerostar, along with using reverse to stop it. LOL IIRC the junkyard paid me $500 and took it right from in front of my house. He didn't care if it ran or didn't run.
 
I would never do that to a car. There is always someone buying a used tranny or engine and paying hundreds to have it put in to find out no it doesn't work or was worse then the original.

Sure most places will give you another but your still out of your time or money if you had someone put it in.
 
When the head gasket blew and the engine filled with coolant, this pressure pushed the oil/coolant past the engine seals of course thus, causing the Jack Hammer noise and oil on the driveway! OK, this we already know!

There is a "BLUE DEVIL" Head Gasket product at AAP that's around $55/bottle that could fix the gasket long enough to drive the Van for a while(Can't define-Long Enough!). IDK if this is an option. It's supposed to permanently fix the HG w/o hurting the engine!
 
Originally Posted By: Char Baby
When the head gasket blew and the engine filled with coolant, this pressure pushed the oil/coolant past the engine seals of course thus, causing the Jack Hammer noise and oil on the driveway! OK, this we already know!

There is a "BLUE DEVIL" Head Gasket product at AAP that's around $55/bottle that could fix the gasket long enough to drive the Van for a while(Can't define-Long Enough!). IDK if this is an option. It's supposed to permanently fix the HG w/o hurting the engine!


Unfortunately that won't work in this situation, in that picture there are also shards of the engine block where I believe it threw a rod. We already used a stop leak product and it worked for a while, but eventually failed altogether.
 
VERY BRIEFLY:
My brother had a 1998 Windstar (forgot the trim level-EVERYTHING BUT THE LOUSEY TRACTION CONTROL)
It served him well-even when factoring in the trannie rebuild.
It began to exhibit wild electric faults in the body and dash but ran like a champ.
A snow plow gauged its left side so car shopping began.
It cured its own electric faults possibly to avoid the shredder.

It was traded in. How I wanted to sell that van for them. It drove so very well.
Somebody would've bought it. Kira
 
I know many will have strong reaction to this, but 215-225k miles seems to about the limit on windstars. At that rate, I've got two 2 years left.

I'd love to know the (small) percentage of 1998's left on the road. The majority of the few that I still see on the road are the base models with 3.0 liter and not even tinted windows.
 
I recently replaced an engine on a '96 3.8 Thunderbird because it did the same thing. I pulled the heads off and both sides had head gasket failures and the intake gaskets were also leaking coolant into the combustion chamber. If your head gaskets were similar, I'm surprised any magic elixir in a bottle would work at all for any amount of time.
 
Originally Posted By: Char Baby


There is a "BLUE DEVIL" Head Gasket product at AAP that's around $55/bottle that could fix the gasket long enough to drive the Van for a while(Can't define-Long Enough!). IDK if this is an option. It's supposed to permanently fix the HG w/o hurting the engine!


I suppose you missed the engine block parts on the ground? This would have been a good idea instead of the bars stop leak.. way too late now.

minivan should bring 500$ at the scrapyard.
 
Originally Posted By: Rand
Originally Posted By: Char Baby


There is a "BLUE DEVIL" Head Gasket product at AAP that's around $55/bottle that could fix the gasket long enough to drive the Van for a while(Can't define-Long Enough!). IDK if this is an option. It's supposed to permanently fix the HG w/o hurting the engine!


I suppose you missed the engine block parts on the ground? This would have been a good idea instead of the bars stop leak.. way too late now.

minivan should bring 500$ at the scrapyard.


I remember reading that there was an engine part on the ground but, by the time I started writing, I forgot!
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We very recently pulled our '98 3.8 Windstar off the road, but not because of gaskets. It needs a new steering rack and tires. Add all that up, factor in the miles (205k) and the rust (lots) and it's not really worth fixing unless I can do it myself.
 
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