Blown Headgasket on 4.0 Aerostar Van

[5.0Flareside]

well theres a first for everything, i saw for the first time today a blown headgasket on a 4.0 V6.

got a call this morning from a guy that found my ad on craigslist for mobile vehicle repairs, and he said his van overheated going back to florida from wisconsin. well he was sure what happened.

i went out and checked it out, blown head gasket, oil and anti freeze mixed, no start condition, would crank but wouldnt start, and also busted radiator from over heating it so bad, he asked how much a shop would charge and i told him bout 1k. give or take some, i said likely more cause the vehicle its in...

yall know what. i asked him last time he had the oil changed so i could figure out if the oil was just really fresh or really mixed, he said well before he left from florida to go to wisconsin he had it changed, so like 1k miles from Miami, Florida to Green Bay, Wisconsin then coming back through TN....

BWAHAAHAHHAA 1k miles? are you nuts? more like 2500..... give or take some..

anyways, made 40 bucks for the diagnoses. hes gonna scrap the van and rent a car to get home....

 

[Fordzilla80]

I would never take something that old halfway across the country.

 

[5.0Flareside]

it was a 89 Aerostar, it looked like they bought it out of a junkyard it was so beat the fawk out of. the front and rear bumpers were half gone, the interior was half gone. it was a POS.

 

[FordF-SuperDuty]

I would never take something that old halfway across the country.

For all you knew when you made that comment it was a '97. I also know somebody that takes a first gen Explorer 4.0 with more than 200,000 miles half way across the country fairly regularly.

 

[73F100Shortbed]

I would never take something that old halfway across the country.

I used to take my '84 Dodge Pickup just about anywhere without thinking twice. Anything can happen in whatever you drive. If you don't have faith in something old don't drive anything old. If my truck starts up when I go to leave for somewhere I'm off to a good start. It's all about how your prepare for the trip. I just did a 4,000 mile road trip back in July in a 2002 car with only 28k miles on it at the time, but I packed the same way as if I was taking my F100. All part of the adventure of driving. A good friend of mine drives her car from NC to NJ and back fairly often with a lot of miles. I look at it this way...if you are afraid to drive your car or truck halfway across the country you should be afraid to drive it around the block because then you aren't confident in its reliability. If it wasn't for the price of gas and getting 10mpg I would love to go on a roadtrip in my truck.

 

[73F100Shortbed]

made 40 bucks for the diagnoses.

It's about time you made some cash for your efforts

 

[5.0Flareside]

Yeah I decided to through that ad back up and this guy called. And I knew I would at least 25 bucks out of diagnosing it.

 

[Fordzilla80]

The reason I said what I said is because barely anybody takes care of an Aerostar.I used the wrong words though.

Rephrased,I would never take an Aerostar halfway across the country.

 

[LEB Ben]

The reason I said what I said is because barely anybody takes care of an Aerostar.I used the wrong words though.

Rephrased,I would never take an Aerostar halfway across the country.

Say whacha mean and mean whacha say boy. There was a time I wouldn't have hesitated taking anything of mine across country and they're 10 years older...currently, no...but over the coming months, I'll get there again.

 

[Fordzilla80]

I'm not very trusting with older vehicles.

I'll admit,I ran the Ranger for a few days with a screw in the tire. So I have my times where i'll trust something I shouldn't, but we all have to agree, being stuck on the side of the road sucks. Especially when you don't really know where you are. Once I get the F100 where I want it,I won't hesitate to take it anywhere.But it'll take alot for me to be comfortable with it.

 

[O'Rattlecan]

Those aerostars were amazingly reliable and long-lived.

Are you sure it was a 4.0?

Ryan

 

[5.0Flareside]

Those aerostars were amazingly reliable and long-lived.

Are you sure it was a 4.0?

Ryan

yep... 100%.

 

[O'Rattlecan]

Didn't know they put them in there. My family had a 3.0L for the longest time. Dad bought it with 160,000 miles on it, and by the end of it's time with us, I drove it to 311,000 miles on the original engine and transmission. It was using oil but by God... you can't complain about that.

Ryan