So my 2000 Windstar blew a head gasket and being in a massive financial pinch I'm forced to attempt it myself. I will have the help of a couple friends who have limited automotive knowledge and most of the tools required aside from needing to pick up a Torque Angle Gauge.

Most of the work seems straightforward, but right out of the gate we have a major issue and not sure how exactly to proceed... once we disconnected battery and removed the air filter from the throttle body... mass amounts of sludge came oozing out. Now I can only assume the entire engine is coated in this milkshake mixture, so what should we do and how can this be cleaned out of the entire engine, block and all the way to the oil pan I would fathom...?

 

If you don't mind my asking, what kind of symptoms did you have and how did you determine it was a head gasket problem?

It would appear your first step would be to remove the throttle body and see just how far that stuff went into the engine,,,, if it did. Does the oil dip stick have the same stuff on it?
You must have had some engine problems because we can see the new EGR valve.

 

The new EGR was put on because we were experiencing a random shaking around 30 - 45 mph. We plugged the vacuum and it seemed to help, but go figure once we put the new EGR on it still shakes, maybe not so often but still happening regardless.

As for the head gasket conclusion, we had mechanic about 2 yrs ago mentioned small traces of oil in the coolant overflow reservoir, so they flushed it like 3 times and used some kind of dye but they couldn't find any issues at the time.

Now for about the past 1 1/2 yrs I have been having to add just a touch of coolant to the system but never did find a leak and oil looked fine the last time I changed it about a yr ago. (disabled and put maybe around 2400 miles a yr on it).

Now the real problem started roughly a week ago, we went to a local store for tobacco and I overheard someone in the store mentioning our van and seeing a puff of smoke coming from the hood like it might be overheating. We didn't notice any smoke, didn't smell anything and the temp gauge was reading dead center and not high.. so we drove 10 mins back home and checked the fluids and noticed the overflow was empty... we filled it up and let it run for 15 minutes and all seemed fine.

Next day we drove to NJ and were on the road a good hour up and an hour back and forgot to check the levels that night but did so the next day before going out and overflow was 3/4 empty... filled it back up and made a quick trip up the street... the next day is when we were about 10 mins from home heading to Home Depot and noticed the engine seemed to be running a little rough on idle like it was thinking of stalling and just as we were getting ready to turn into the parking lot of HD, she started bucking like a bronco and conked out and took a minute to fire back up.

Got it into the parking lot and overflow was bone dry. Pulled the oil dipstick and noticed it was a milky color. We got it running and drove for about 2 blocks and conked out again and coasted into a store parking lot and put a gallon of water into it. Made it another 5 minutes to my moms house and she took about 2 1/2 to 3 gallons of water. Then made it another 5 minutes down the road before she was major sluggish, chugging and spitting out a whitish blue smoke... then she died. 2 blocks from home and had to be pulled with my buddies truck.

 

I would say you covered the turn of events quite well. You are not going to like what I think you will need to consider and that is , another engine. With all the running that was done with contaminated oil , there is a good possibility of internal engine damage to brgs and maybe even the crank journals.

 

Trust me, if I had the cash I would just toss a junkyard engine in there and cross my fingers.. but unfortunately being on disability doesn't quite give me the luxury. Thats the only reason Im attempting this myself with a couple other guys who combined barely have enough knowledge to work on a bicycle.

But I got to do what I got to do and hope it works. This is my only transportation and not being able to fix it will surely put me in a horrible bind. I did even find a few junkyard engines I could buy, but don't have the equipment to install myself, not enough $$$ for an install of it and no friends or relatives that are in a position to help either financially or mechanically.

So with that said... I'm stuck doing the work in my apartment parking lot and right now it looks like my only option for cleaning this thing out of a majority of the sludge is using a garden hose and the water pressure to flush the system out once I get the heads off. I know it's not ideal... but... what else is a broke guy to do? LOL

Put yourself in my shoes and then tell me your thoughts

 

Let's look at this in a step by step picture.
you are going to remove the intake manifold ,heads and see if you can locate the problem area then clean those pieces. Then your next project will be to remove the oil pan , draining it first of course. You will need to blow out the oil passages starting right at the oil pump and up through any and all passages where the contaminated oil has been pumped. There are passages in the crankshaft that feed the connecting rod bearings and passages that feed the main crank brgs then the passages that feed the heads. Let's suppose you get them fairly cleaned out and everything put back together with new oil and filter. Now when ready you will start the engine. At this point if you don't get a low oil pressure lite or reading , good, but you will need to look into a crystal ball to see what will fail first and how much time before knocks and performance show up. The parts for an engine gasket kit, cleaning solvents, and disposal will approach what a used engine might have cost. I realize you may not have much choice as far as expense is concerned, but what about having to go through the addl expense when it decides to go south again? With limited facilities and experience you may be entering a money pit.

 

Oh trust me I know this is going to end up a money pit, but I am just in an awful position with no other options. Basically it comes down to this, if I go buy an engine it's going to sit and collect dust cause I have no means to do it myself nor the $$ to pay someone to install. I use to have a brother in law who would have been able to do it at the shop he worked, but unfortunately he has moved out of state and I have been posting on local sites on Facebook in hopes of finding someone willing to put it in dirt cheap or even better yet... free with assistance and explained my situation... but alas... my luck is not that good.

So this really is my only option and have to hope someone.... somewhere... shines some light on me and makes it work. It's that or I have no way to get around. My disabilities make it so I can't walk far, so buses are out of the question and with what I get by being on disability makes it so I don't qualify for transportation assistance. So in essence... I am between a literal rock and hard place.

Now that being said, do you see any harm in using a hose to just flush the entire system? Maybe I might even get lucky (one can hope) and my job would be easier if when I take the blocks off, that the sludge is floating on coolant and water and not a complete milkshake all the way to the oil pan, as I had read someone else's story about this very same thing happening to them.

What I planed on doing was:

1. Tear everything down and remove the blocks
2. Dump all this loose accessible sludge into a plastic kitty litter container with some litter in it
3. Use a garden hose to flush the system (engine and coolant areas) for awhile
4. Clean up everything best I can
5. Take the heads to a local machine shop (have to call some places tomorrow for pricing) and have them checked and possibly machined if need be.
6. Put it all back together
7. Fill radiator with water
8. Fill engine with cheap oil and filter
9. Take a 50 mile or so road trip
10. Come back and drain the oil and radiator
11. Redo steps 7, 8 and 9 again
12. Drain everything and again do 7, 8 and 9
13. Come back and drain everything again and check if all is clean fluid, then refill with good oil, filter and rad fluid.

 

I have never done what you are contemplating to do. You have to do, what you have to do. Sometimes crazy things happen, but I can't predict what results you will obtain. I know what you should do and also what you have to do, so since you are where you are do the best you can and see what happens. Has anyone reading these posts ever tried what Mort is considering ?

 

as hanky said did you have any common head gasket sings ,lots of coolant or steam out the tail pipe ? I had a issue with oil in the coolant but did a compression test to rule out the head gaskets,I found the lower aluminum intake manifold 1 of the side gaskets was leaking coolant down into the intake.a small pitted section on the intake and head was the root cause a little jb weld a file and some new ford gaskets and all is good ,I caught it as it just started so a good cleaning and 2 oil changes its been 2 years it seems ok. I was surprised it happened cause I change the coolant more often than the factory recommends and use motorcraft coolant with distilled water.good luck

 

stupid me what I meant to say was one of the intakes side gaskets was leaking coolant down into the valley below the lower intake.