[pup55]

I have a nice, old 94 Mustang, cherry red, small V6...

It'll never be a show car. It gets me back and forth to work, 70 miles a day. Body solid, steering good, interior and AC still good, a good, solid piece of Dee-troit metal. It has 158,000 miles on it, is nice and paid for, insurance is nothing, still gets 25-27 mpg, and I get the pleasure, every single day, of sitting behind the wheel of a Mustang. For some of us, that is priceless.

Problem: This old stang is knocking a bit, and there is a hole in the cooling system somewhere that causes the slow drooling of coolant wherever it is parked. I just keep some coolant with me, and fill 'er up, plus put some stop leak in there from time to time. The only guy other than myself I trust to work on that thing says to fix it he will have to jerk the engine, $1600....

I have been on Auto Trader dot com, looking for a newer low mileage Stang but the prices for the newer ones are pretty exploitative and a lot of these things have high miles anyway... I just can't get excited about paying $10K for a ten year old car with 50 thousand miles on it, even if it is a Mustang.

So the questions are:

a. How good of luck have people had in replacing these motors? One plan is to keep doing what I am doing, and eventually get another motor/long block...

b. How much can I expect to pay for this? I will have to pay somebody to install it of course.

c. What if I get a little closer to middle age crazy and decide to replace it with a bit bigger motor (worse mileage, more fun)? Will the clutch/transmission on my current car (5-speed manual) fit a new one? What about exhaust?

d. Other suggestions?

Just looking for a bit of advice. I suppose if I were to try to sell it I would get $2000 out of it, being, like it is, a Mustang....

[MustangLX-5.0]

Sounds like a head gasket leak. The HG was most likely already replaced one due to the HG recall. At your current milege, it's actually overdue for another. HG's will last typically 70k miles on that car, and not much more. This is due to a flaw in the cylinder head design.

Aside frm that, replacing with another 3.8 is a cheap option. You can get a decent used 3.8 from a junk car for around $500. If you want to keep the 3.8 design, then this is the way to go, without going out and buying another car. As far as putting a 5.0 or 4.6 even, using those with the stock 3.8 5spd T5 trans wont work. First, the 5.0 engine has a shorter input shaft on the 5.0s tranny, unless you get the 5.0's tranny also, the 5.0 wont even get a chance to bolt up, the shaft will already be mated to the engine side and will go no further. Heck, I couldn't even say if the splines would line up. I just know it wouldnt work. I found this out when I asked about using a T5 from a 5.0 in my 3.8 (no go man). The 4.6 engines are mated to a T45 manual trans..instead of a T5. I don't even think it would bolt up. Maybe ask someone in the 4.6 forum here. If you go with a 4.6, you'll also need a 4.6 wiring harness. Umm yeah, thats the PITA part.

Good luck man.