What were they thinking when they design this.

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2001 Ford Taurus with Vulcan V6.

Fresh oil stain near the rear bank valve cover gasket. To replace it, you have to remove the upper intake manifold, fair enough. To take otu the upper intake manifold, you have to unbolt it from the throttle body, and the EGR that is bolted to it and the exhaust manifold via metal pipes.

Stuff I want to complain about:

1) The mating surface between the cylinder head and the lower intake manifold has a step of about 0.5mm to it. The valve cover gasket has a pad on this step and you are suppose to put a drop of gasket dressing the size of about 6mm on the spot. The instruction comes with the PermaDry gasket say not to use any chemical adhesive on it. How is it going to seal the surface well?

2) The plastic upper intake manifold has EGR mount to it from the firewall side, and the EGR is mounted to the exhaust manifold with stiff metal piping. Not really easy to service if you have to wiggle the upper intake out.

3) There is a nut that mount the throttle body to the intake manifold covered by a bracket, then another nut that tighten down the bracket on the nut. It looks like this:

bolt -- intake -- throttle body -- nut -- bracket -- nut.

This makes it impossible to unbolt the intake manifold from the throttle body, unless you go down there to remove the entire bracket.


Maybe it is typical for a V6 engine in FWD, I'm not sure if I like it coming from a 4 banger, at least from a serviceability point of view. Well, at least the rear spark plugs are easy to change without removing the intake manifold.
 
Typical. Just look at what I had to do to do the EXACT same thing on a Montana with 3.4L. Not quite the same being in a van, but be glad you can change the rear spark plugs without removing anything.
On the back gasket on the montana I had to put drips of rtv all along where it fit into the valve cover as I could not get it to stay in its groove which led to having to pull the back valve cover again. Didnt affect the gasket. That step sound similar to what is on the 3.4L GM. The valve cover gasket has to jump over a step between the head and lower intake. Its actually a indentation in the gasket surface cut in a v shape. The valve cover gasket has triangles molded into it to seal these areas. For what its worth they are not leaking at these areas yet, and I did not put on RTV there. However the mechanic that worked on it before me filled this area with enough RTV to do about 3 cars.
 
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It would be fine to put a dab of RTV at the head/intake joint. Other engines often use RTV at seams like that even when using preformed rubber gaskets.
 
Originally Posted By: PandaBear
2001 Ford Taurus with Vulcan V6.

Fresh oil stain near the rear bank valve cover gasket. To replace it, you have to ....


I pretty much have the same car (2000 Taurus Wagon) with the Duratec V6. You think you hate the Vulcan...try the Duratec.

Same problems you mentioned above...plus:

1)Must remove the UIM to replace the rear spark plugs.
2)PCV valve resides in the valley between the cylinder banks...must remove all the intake parts and the UIM to remove it. If you're crafty, you can bypass removing the UIM and remove the PCV with a long PVC pipe notched on the end.
3)The thermostat resides on the bottom of the engine.
4)The oil filter resides deep in the engine between the header pipes. You can't change it hot.

We owned a 93 Sable with the Vulcan...and that car was a dream on maintenance. :)
 
They make it hard for anyone who tries to do anykind of work on their vehicles now days.I'll just keep driving my old rust bucket until big brother throws me in prison for killing the rainforest or something like that.
 
Not positive on the 3.0L, but on the Ford 3.8L, gawd help ya if you need to replace the timing chain cover gasket. The FSM specs dropping the engine to gain access. Nothing's easy on a FWD V6.

Joel
 
Seriously, compared to any other modern FoMoCo powertrain, the 3.0 vulcan is about the easiest engine to do anything on. Try doing a valve cover gasket on any other Ford "V" product. Ooooh, 3.8 Supercharged T-Birds anyone?

Yes, FoMoCo powertrain engineers should be forced to spend time in shops to witness their design handiwork when it actually has to be worked on. I am serious on that point.
 
Use Premium Silicone RTV where you need to, and make sure the surface are CLEAN, and you give it plenty of cure time before starting her up.

Working on cars is tough and frustrating. Welcome to my world.
 
Well, my brother in laws 2002 530i with the 3.0 striaght 6 was the absolute best engine hands down that I have ever serviced!
Worked on lots of motors before but when BMW gives you easy to remove metal C-clips on all electrical connectors and 1/4 turn screws on the front skid plate you have to think to yourself that the mechanics had a lot of say on their automobiles.
Now keep in mind I haven't had to do a starter change on it but I can guess that would be fairly straight forward as well.
 
Originally Posted By: brelandt
easy to remove metal C-clips on all electrical connectors


Ford used these on some cars, notably the Contour. The Ford ones didn't require removing the C-clip, just pushing it in unlocked the connector so you could pull it off.
 
Originally Posted By: bdcardinal
try doing a starter on a FWD Northstar where you have to pull the intake off cause the starter is in the valley.


What's considered the valley? Never heard that before.
 
Originally Posted By: 7055
Originally Posted By: bdcardinal
try doing a starter on a FWD Northstar where you have to pull the intake off cause the starter is in the valley.


What's considered the valley? Never heard that before.


the section of a V motor inbetween the banks.
 
Originally Posted By: punisher
... FoMoCo powertrain engineers should be forced to spend time in shops to witness their design handiwork when it actually has to be worked on. I am serious on that point.
More to the point, it's the managers and accountants that should be forced to see how their decisions affect repairability. Engineers design to the criteria that are placed in front of them. Nobody gets promoted because they made a vehicle easier to repair.
 
I have a Ford 3L Duratech in a Mazda van, and it's even worse than in a Taurus. Try changing plugs or a pcv.
 
On the other hand, I saw the engine bay of a '04 Pontiac GTO the other day. The layout was almost poetic.
 
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