10 gen. Thunderbird

The 3.8l oil pan gasket is a bead of silicone that wasn't great to begin with, the same stuff filled the corners where the block and heads meet the lower intake, the valve cover gaskets soften and swell over time and the heads are Ford's early attempt at an aluminum head and iron block and the gaskets for the heads were not engineered well. All of the later and updated stuff is better but there really aren't enough head bolts on that engine and they're spaced too far apart. The front cover gasket was paper and corroded near the coolant ports that go through the cover to the water pump causing coolant in the oil which usually destroyed bearings. The new cover gasket is a metal type and much higher quality. The new black silicone in the caulk tube that Ford sells for gasket purposes is top notch as well and the updated head gaskets are much better than the originals. For the record, I would definitely go with the Ford updated parts for the gaskets, esp the head gaskets due to the lengths they had to go to get it right. If you end up buying one with that engine, just read all of the appropriate TSB's and feel free to ask questions when you get to that point.

 

Alright
There aren't that many of them for sale right now, so I guess I just have to wait and see

 

I own a 93 crown vic police interceptor with over 300,000 miles on it really have had very little problems with it bought from boulder police in 98 still runs and drives great

 

That would probably be a 4.6 right?
I put my wagon up for sale today, we'll see what happens

 

I founds some pictures of my old one, I picked it up for $400 back in 2008.

Engine ran great, transmission did also. Interior was nice except for the headliner. it had 180,000 miles on it.

I then went to the junkyard and picked up a front bumper, a perfect headliner and some HID's for $50.

Then a $50 maintenance tune up. So it ended up costing me $500 and from 2008-2011 it gave me 225,000 miles of no problems.

but at 426,000 the valve seals went, and I ended up selling it.

This was how it looked when I first got it, it was DIRTY under the hood lol and the front bumper was cracked. But the frame was good even the bumper thing behind the actual cover was good.








Then I put on the new bumper cover

 

426.000miles with the heads never being off? That's impressive!
And the fact that you only paid 400$.. wow.. You won't anything running or road legal for that price over here, and i mean anything at all
There is a red 3.8 V6 on sale for roughly the same price i want for my wagon, as well as a black one for about twice what I'll sell my wagon for (a dreamer I guess)
I just love the look of those T-birds, and have been sorta considering getting one for a couple of years but I've always ended up getting another MB