Thanks for all the info...got a quote yesterday for $1850 to do the head gasket work which includes: new rad, water pump, heater core, machine shop resurfacing, labor, gaskets, and whatever else...needs to be in the shop for a week...
I'm not going to run a can of anything through it, I'm paranoid about that too. Mechanic said that if I do fix these things that the air will push out somewhere and it will likely ruin whatever new parts I do put in. So I want to fix the problem and don't want to put a band aid on it...I was also told that I could continue to drive it, (it runs great!) and just watch the temp so that it does not overheat. It has not overheated, ever, I just wanted some heat. In a previous post some had suggested that I had air in the coolant system and to squeeze the lines. Whoever that was, they were right on target..a lot of air in there.
So I will drive it, get a portable heater, and as soon as I have $1800-2000 and a week that I don't have to drive to work...or at least borrow someone's car...I guess, I'm still deciding what to do, this is my first thought....

 

where you at ill do it for 400 plus parts lol

 

$1800?!? Wow, that is a lot for just replacing the head gaskets and radiator and heater cores.

Before you start replacing the head gaskets, have you verified that you have a bad head gasket? These reverse flow cooling systems are notorious for getting air pockets in them that can be difficult to get out.

I think that before I would give $1800 of my hard earned dollars to a shop, I would get one of the test kits to verify that I am getting exhaust gasses into the cooling system.

If you aren't getting exhaust gasses into the coolant, or water into your oil, the odds of having a bad head gasket are pretty slim.

Just my .02 cents.

 

^ i agree, do more test before giving up $1800

 

Well the mechanic said that there is no doubt that there are exhaust gasses in the coolant..I will get my own test from the parts store to confirm this..

So the $1800 includes everything, parts and labor, and the machine shop resurfacing (provided that it's just a head gasket). This shop charges $50 an hour labor, the best I've found out here (Northwest Arkansas), I'm originally from the San Francisco Bay Area where everything is crazy expensive, so to find someone to fix it for $50 an hour labor is not bad to me. I think I should get an itemized list of what all the $1800 covers. I don't mind paying it, once I have it, I am a little nervous about having my car totally taken apart like that...I just hope that it gets put back together correctly and is the same as it is now...except with heat...

 

Unless the mechanic did the test that you can get from NAPA or AZ or O'Reilly's (or whatever your local parts store is) there is no way that he can know for sure that there is exhaust gasses in the coolant.

Plus, if there are gases in the coolant, a head gasket would be the cheapest repair. If you have a cracked head that will cost some more $$ and a cracked block would most likely cost more than the car is worth (unless you do all the work yourself).

I'm not saying that your mechanic is wrong, but I have seen a lot of times when mechs and techs (I've worked in electrical / electronics repair shops for over 20 years) just go with the "high percentage" problem (which it may very well be) without doing much in the way of actually troubleshooting to locate the original problem.

Definitely do a test for exhaust gases in the coolant yourself, and you will at least have some additional peace of mind. Also, if he is going to replace the radiator and heater core, I'd make sure that he is not going to go with some cheap Chinese crap and charge you premium prices (seen that happen a lot) and make sure that he is replacing the coolant hoses as well. They are getting old and may be ripe for developing a leak or outright failing.

Here is a link that explains the test:
http://www.arrowheadradiator.com/hea..._leak_test.htm

Here is a link to a cheap kit that should do the job:
http://www.autotoolworld.com/Univers..._p_112618.html

Here is a video of the test in progress:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QA7KV...eature=related

 

Ok that was great info! Thanks so much, I will be testing myself..

 

Watched some of these videos and that's exactly what my radiator is doing...bubbling..I will get the test and check it for sure. And when it does get repaired, so long as it's a head gasket, he said I could buy the parts he puts in...that way I know of their quality..just won't have the guarantee is all.
Great info! Gotta love the internet!

 

I am getting a 94 3.4L camaor here soon. The owner thinks that the head gasket is blown... He does not know how to purge the cooling system. I took it out on a drive and it overheated on me. I was close to my house so I stopped in and filled and PURGED the radiator. I drove the car a few more miles before returning it to the owner. It runs fine but since he seen bubbles when he filled the radiator he though the gaskets were shot and decided to sell the car. After I purged all the air out of the system there were no more bubbles. Oh and the radiator didnt get any bubbles in it until the car started to get warm.

I used to use one of those test kits when I worked for Ford and they work great. Ours only had one level for the fluid and it went from clear to brown. We used it all the time, 3.8L Windstar and Tarus engines were popping head gaskets all the time. The liquid tester was actually more accurate than compression testing since the cooling system would build up pressure and not show too low of a reading on the comp gauge. If we tested the engine cold then the comp tester would be accurate. I hated working on most Fords. You do know what Ford really stands for right?

F'in Owner's Really Dumb

Massey

 

blown heads on a FORD!! nOOOO WAY!!!! actually the Tarus have from day one, the worst engine design to this very date, and they refuse to fix the issues, I was a victim years ago, when my ford escort stalled while driving 70mph, after looking it over i noticed a pond of coolant behind the car, the next day i removed the head and it was so badly warped and seed cracks from hell between the valves. That was the first and last ford i ever owned, thank god!!