Originally posted by reever
What does the antifreeze look like? If it is a brownish color, you may have some problems down the road. Evidently there was problems with the 3.0's making the internals "rot". Some sort of chemical incompatability.
I just replaced my water pump on my '97 Taurus, with 90K on the ododmeter. The only part of the impellor that was left was the backing plate for the impellor fins!!! Everything else was rotted away.
look back a few pages on this board. I remember a thread about this problem. Good discussion and some links to several fixes and repairs...
Good point.
The '96-'99 Taurus and Sables cooling system design (but not the Ranger's) can indeed lead to a condition know as "brown coolant" which will destroy a Vulcan engine components and can seriously damage the engine.
There is a comprehensive TSB that Ford issued on problem that you should be aware of:
Article No. 01-11-6
Although not specifically mentioned in the TSB, freeze plugs rusting and/or blowing out is another one of many ways in which the brown coolant problem can manifest itself in the 3.0L Vulcan, so you should look out for that as well.
And it was more than just a few cars that had these cooling system-related problems, too. Take a look:
http://www.cartrackers.com/Forums/live/Ford/132.html