Three words you never want to hear...unless you are a mechanic

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Oh great, the shop just called back...I have a screwed up shift linkage, WOO HOO...man...today sucks...I have no clue how much that will cost, just add it on there to the head gasket.

Today is :bs:

It does explain the problems Ive been having with the oil all over my engine and the rough shifting, or lack there of though...just need to find a way to pull the money outta my a.s.s. to get it fixed.
 
do it yourself, its cake you can do it in an afternoon, the hardest part is lifting the head off the car because its so heavy. and the gasket is only 13 bucks. you don't even have to remove anything, just unbolt the exhaust manifold leaving it where it is, then remove the TB, take off the valve cover, take out the head bolts. take off the timing belt, unplug the sensors and pull the bitch out

only thing you actually have to completly take off is the throttle body. the rest can stay where it is at. and you'd have to get a new valve cover gasket if you don't have the new style one that is reusable.
 
It really isn't that bad. The hardest part will be freeing the The hardest part will be the exhaust manifold bolts, and maybe the EGR tube. don't even have to worry about the oil feed line, or moving the turbo out of the way. :)
Sounds like you can still drive it home.
 
Well, I think I might do that, Ive got a buddy that might be able to help me. I figure if its 13 bucks for the gasket, and 6 for the cork fel-pro, and about 8 bucks for total cost of new oil, I can do it. Just need a warmer afternoon. Too damn cold. And bhuff, I dun have a turbo, Im running a bone stock 2.3, cept for the slight intake modification. :p So yeah, I think Ill take that route. I thought it would be harder. Thanks for the info.

EDIT: Its drivable, doesnt even have water in the oil yet. :nice:
 
toadstang said:
Blown... Head... Gasket...

I actually love those words.

A BHG is actually easy as hell to fix. What better way to make money than to buy a car with a BHG for $500, fix it for $50, maybe clean it up a bit and then resell it for $2500. You can make some serious money in a weekend of work
 
toadstang said:
Oh great, the shop just called back...I have a screwed up shift linkage, WOO HOO...man...today sucks...I have no clue how much that will cost, just add it on there to the head gasket.

Today is :bs:

It does explain the problems Ive been having with the oil all over my engine and the rough shifting, or lack there of though...just need to find a way to pull the money outta my a.s.s. to get it fixed.

Well the blown gasket could let oil out from the passages.
The shift linkage being screwed would affect your rought shifting.

P.S. If you can pull money out of your ass, PM me instructions.
 
Lx89Stang05 said:
i plan to change my head gasket for no reason, well i want to up grade to the better felpro, so i can handle more boost. what can the the stock head gasket hold befoe blowing out??
I would not change the stock head gasket until you need to. There are plenty of people who use the stock head gasket for high boost applications. I wouldn't worry about it.

TOADSTANG besides the shop telling you you have a blown head gasket what are your symptoms.The only thing I saw you complaining about was oil on the engine. If this is your only problem and the car is running fine I would suspect valve cover gasket.
 
svoman2300 said:
I would not change the stock head gasket until you need to. There are plenty of people who use the stock head gasket for high boost applications. I wouldn't worry about it.

TOADSTANG besides the shop telling you you have a blown head gasket what are your symptoms.The only thing I saw you complaining about was oil on the engine. If this is your only problem and the car is running fine I would suspect valve cover gasket.

This is comming from a smart person here !! I have seen shops charge people 80.00 to do jack because someone flooded there car and it want start, so they had it towed to a shop to get fixed :mad:

I would make SURE that the gasket is bad and then I would change it my self. I understand this may be a bit intimadating, but so is spending 400.00 on a half days work to fix a 20-50.00 problem. Since its a N/A 2.3L it may even be easier to fix since you can probly get to the exhaust bolts easier ( I also would have someone I trust to check the head out for cracks). As for the linkage I would spend some time researching it and figure out whats needed to fix it also.

Good Luck either way you go :nice:
 
Well, even if the problem ISN'T the head gasket, I'd still like to have all new gaskets fresh on there. Plus, this gives me a chance to pull out everything and learn about my engine. I'm taking this whole thing as a learning experience to "get in touch" with my car if you will. Plus I've been wanting to dress up the engine for a while now and I think this would be a good opportunity to do so.

The symptoms of my car were that yes, there was oil all over my engine but it was all lower than that valve cover gasket which I just replaced 2 months ago. The rest can be read here

http://forums.stangnet.com/showthread.php?t=415590

It was after this happened that I found the oil and took my car to the shop.
 
toadstang said:
Oh great, the shop just called back...I have a screwed up shift linkage, WOO HOO...man...today sucks...I have no clue how much that will cost, just add it on there to the head gasket.

Today is :bs:

It does explain the problems Ive been having with the oil all over my engine and the rough shifting, or lack there of though...just need to find a way to pull the money outta my a.s.s. to get it fixed.

This may be your main problem, but I'm not sure on the screwed linkage part. I would take it to a Transmession shop and see what they say.

How does one mess the linkage up on a A4LD, I'm not trying to be smart just my car acts like his on a smaller scale and my motor is VERY strong and nice running (130k on it also ) :shrug:
 
toadstang said:
Well, even if the problem ISN'T the head gasket, I'd still like to have all new gaskets fresh on there.
If there is one I learned on my car it is don't pull anything off that doesn't need to be. I always had something get lost or needed replacing because I wanted to tinker. It's an expensive learning process.
 
Well, I have taken the car to one of my dad's friends so I know he wouldn't screw me over. And he told me that it was messed up. So, I'mt taking his word for it and I'm going to go ahead and replace the gasket. :shrug: Why's everyone changing their minds all of a sudden? I get support and tech articles, and now I'm being weened away from doing it? :scratch: