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[Ford wood]

Front main seal leaking need advice/how to info. Also I smell coolant but I dont feel a loss of power and I am not leaking any coolant. I am wondering if this is a sign of head gasket failure. Also car smokes to front main seal dripping onto cat. What is the process for pulling front main seal. Will the timing cover have to be removed? Also experience a slight random,misfire I believe, at low rpms car stutters for a second and then it's fine. I recently replaced the alternator and did the belts. I am running 10w 30 mobil 1 oil in it with additive. I live in California near Fairfield if their are any SHO owners near me let me know I would appreciate it. My motor is super clean and has always had regular maintenance I have a stack of receipts from first owner. Car has 200,000 miles on it but still runs pretty damn strong. I'm looking for tips and recommendations because I want the car to last. Ty

 

[Ford wood]

 

[zoomlater]

Here are a couple of threads to find information where you replace the front main seal. Credit NoSlo for bringing back the Sho Phoenix site and itwonder for the second link. Go to the link and click on NoSlo post to get to the Sho Phoenix site, go to the maintenance section and look at the front 60K instructions

https://shoforum.com/index.php?thre...6k-take-a-long-bath.81287/page-2#post-1515890


https://shoforum.com/index.php?thre...r-information-and-photos.136089/#post-1477677

 

[Irish Pride]

To get to the front main you will need to remove the entire front section of the engine. All the belts, pulleys, tensioners, covers, etc... If you've never done it, it can be a little overwhelming but it's really not that bad. You have to make sure to line the timing belt up with the timing marks so that you can put the belt back on in the correct position.

If you are going thru all the process to change the front main I highly recommend changing the cam seals, and water pump as well. Crank sensors are hard to come by now so I would remove it while doing the water pump and then reinstall it. That is unless you already have a replacement crank sensor ready to go.

There are several hoses on the SHO. Plenty of places for it to leak coolant and not be that visible. Let the car get hot and then start poking around with a flash light looking for the leak. SHOs are not known for head gasket problems so I would rule that out right away.

-Chad

 

[luigisho]

I would also check and see if there any any codes, log them, erase them, and see if any pop back up. That will help find malfunctions the computer identifies.
This is OBDI and is not very friendly with code readers. you can look at the procedure with a paperclip and dash lights here http://taurus.heliohost.org/eec/eec.htm

That is the most reliable way to get the codes

 

[Ford wood]

There are no codes

I would also check and see if there any any codes, log them, erase them, and see if any pop back up. That will help find malfunctions the computer identifies.
This is OBDI and is not very friendly with code readers. you can look at the procedure with a paperclip and dash lights here http://taurus.heliohost.org/eec/eec.htm

That is the most reliable way to get the codes

 

[Ford wood]

Just purchased front main seal, all other seals were replaced recently. Still trying to track down possible coolant leak. Thanks for the help guys!

 

[sperold]

Do you smell coolant inside the car or out under the hood?

Any small crack in the heater core will give you a smell and eventually fog up your windshield in the cold weather. The heater core hoses at the firewall attach to the heater core copper tubes. These can be subject to abuse and any rough handling can damage the core itself. I cut these hoses off rather than wiggle these things enough to get them off, and that means slitting the ends along their length over the copper tubing section, and lubing the new hose to get it back on easily.

It is a long shot but worth a look.

Some of those long metal tubes running in front of the firewall have flex hoses built into the ends. In the case of a smell under the hood, these flex ends are a strong possibility.

The appropriate fix is to chop off the flex end that is leaking and replace with a molded hose if you can adapt one. There are old threads on this forum displaying how this can be accomplished.

In any other case, a hose will weep or outright leak if gently moved out of position, so try that on all your small diameter hoses.

 

[rubydist]

I had a coolant leak at one of the small hoses the heat the throttle body one time. Coolant level would drop over a couple weeks, but never a drip under the car. It was leaking onto the top of the block and would evaporate fast enough that it never created a drip.

The point is that these hoses are now very old. This type of thing could be happening at any number of places on the engine. That is the kind of thing you are searching for.

 

[Ford wood]

Do you smell coolant inside the car or out under the hood?

Any small crack in the heater core will give you a smell and eventually fog up your windshield in the cold weather. The heater core hoses at the firewall attach to the heater core copper tubes. These can be subject to abuse and any rough handling can damage the core itself. I cut these hoses off rather than wiggle these things enough to get them off, and that means slitting the ends along their length over the copper tubing section, and lubing the new hose to get it back on easily.

It is a long shot but worth a look.

Some of those long metal tubes running in front of the firewall have flex hoses built into the ends. In the case of a smell under the hood, these flex ends are a strong possibility.

The appropriate fix is to chop off the flex end that is leaking and replace with a molded hose if you can adapt one. There are old threads on this forum displaying how this can be accomplished.

In any other case, a hose will weep or outright leak if gently moved out of position, so try that on all your small diameter hoses.

Found the coolant leak it was the hose at the front of the motor above the oil filter and started it's all blown out

 

[luigisho]

Good find. Look around at some of the other hoses and see what they look like. You may want to swap out a bunch or slow roll it with just what looks the worst. All the rubber and plastics are way past their life cycle. Even replacement parts that were changed out 10yrs ago can be iffy at this point

 

[Irish Pride]

https://shoforum.com/index.php?threads/updated-coolant-hose-master-list-3-0-3-2.139194/

 

[Ford wood]

Good find. Look around at some of the other hoses and see what they look like. You may want to swap out a bunch or slow roll it with just what looks the worst. All the rubber and plastics are way past their life cycle. Even replacement parts that were changed out 10yrs ago can be iffy at this point

I checked the others hoses they were in alright condition but I went ahead and ordered new ones anyways. Car was well maintained by previous owner, i am second owner, I mean the had a little booklet and wrote down every time he put gas In; where he drove; how many gallons he put in and the milage it got; he also did the same for tires, oil changes, maintenance and even the receipt for the radio was in the little file he gave me.

 

[Ford wood]

The car has already had cam seals, crank POS. Sens., Tie rods, radiator, egr, water pump, pwr steering changed out in 2011

 

[zoomlater]

Sounds like the previous owner did the major servicing. How many miles are on the car since 2011 service?

 

[Ford wood]

Car came with two manuals, a magazine article, and the original window sticker. So far I have only had to replace the alternator and coolant hose, but I have to put in a new thermostat bcuz the gauge reads ice cold and ik it's running a lil warn and then the front main seal is dripping slighty. Those are my plans with the car for now. I also plan on changing the gear oil in the tranny and doing an oil change, and I literally just gave it a lil home coolant flush today when I changed the hose lol

 

[Ford wood]

Sounds like the previous owner did the major servicing. How many miles are on the car since 2011 service?

The car has 197,276.3 miles on it I'll have to go get the exact mileage from file in my cabinet ill send it to you in a lil.

 

[Ford wood]

I'm thinking about putting In a 180 thermostat over the 195, any thoughts on this? I've never had a problem running a cooler thermostat on any of my other cars I actually feel it's an upgrade and keeps the motor operating at lower temps. Just curious bcuz I'm not sure if these cars prefer the higher rate thermostat

Good find. Look around at some of the other hoses and see what they look like. You may want to swap out a bunch or slow roll it with just what looks the worst. All the rubber and plastics are way past their life cycle. Even replacement parts that were changed out 10yrs ago can be iffy at this point[/QU

 

[zoomlater]

Car came with two manuals, a magazine article, and the original window sticker. So far I have only had to replace the alternator and coolant hose, but I have to put in a new thermostat bcuz the gauge reads ice cold and ik it's running a lil warn and then the front main seal is dripping slighty. Those are my plans with the car for now. I also plan on changing the gear oil in the tranny and doing an oil change, and I literally just gave it a lil home coolant flush today when I changed the hose lol

So your car is a 5 speed? The fluid in the tranny is not gear oil, its automatic transmission fluid. You can do a search on this forum to see what others have used. In the post below, Ron found gear oil worked best in his tranny.

https://shoforum.com/index.php?threads/trans-fluid.138724/

The temperature gauge sensor could be bad, but if you don't know when the thermostat was changed, then it might be a good idea to replace it.

 

[zoomlater]

The car has 197,276.3 miles on it I'll have to go get the exact mileage from file in my cabinet ill send it to you in a lil.

Depending when those parts were changed, you may be coming up again on the next service interval.