Hey folks,
I go by Pyts, and it's nice to meet yuh. I just picked up an 03 3.9 LS with about 115k miles, and I figured I should get acquainted with y'all.
Bit of funny business to kick things off: On the ride home from my purchase, this lovely auto-mo-bile overheated. I was pretty distraught. It took about 7/8 gal. of premixed yellow from a local retailer (and a good while sitting and waiting for it to cool) to get me the rest of the way.
Upon arrival, and after a few hours spent flailing my arms and wondering what else I missed, I finally remembered that I'm a pretty competent mechanic of sorts. I went online and found y'all's advice pertaining to the cooling system, then I went ahead and verified things for myself. A good hint was how, after sitting for a while in my car port, the thermostat housing released a little gush of coolant atop the engine's valley and down the belt drive. I assume it had something to do with the thermostat reclosing as the engine cooled.
I went ahead and ordered a new thermostat housing assembly via rockauto, to which I added two different temp thermostats (183 and 193 - not sure which's right), the degas bottle/coolant reservoir (which was already new, but I did just boil coolant), a new temp sender sensor, some radiator hoses, and some knickknacks which, now forgotten, will be surprise presents come the day.
The previous owner already did the water pump based upon how shiny it looks. I'll be retaining it. but. Ahhh. I forgot to get a gasket for it! Might as well go to the zoo and pour ethylene glycol straight onto a baby penguin.
Moving on!
Darn shame that a metal housing doesn't seem to be on the market for the 3.9L engine. I might like to take one to a 3D printer guy and get a quote. I got Dorman's metal revision of the upper radiator hose coupler coming in the mail at least.
Parts will be arriving this Tuesday and Wednesday, and my disc copy of the Bishko shop service manual for this vehicle (huge factor in why I bought this car) will be here today! Hey hey, not half bad.
Coming from Honda (their second generation Fit) and Toyota (their second generation Tacoma), this will be my first personal Ford, Lincoln, and luxury-class vehicle. Neat!
At some point I'll be doing the belt tensioner, belt, air filter, brake pads and rotors, anti-roll bar insulators, struts, shocks, valve cover gaskets uhhhhhhh...
I really don't want to do head gaskets since I'm already slotted to do one for our Tacoma once I get this running. But on the other hand, it'll be fresh in my mind. Have you guys seen this engine overheat and not blow head gaskets?
Previous owner siliconed in the VVT solenoids and either snapped off or lost some valve cover bolts. Oil leaks, the traction control button is jammed, an alert for traction control is on, and the little pop-out ashtray is slightly goofed. Besides that, it seems pretty excellent. I can tell that the last guy really did like this car. I'm grateful.
I'll post pictures as soon as I can get it de-pollened (Georgia's springtime pollen is no joke) and waxed. Testing out Collinite #845 Insulator Wax for the first time, too.
Pop in. Say hi. Give me some pointers. Ask for a write-up. Lets be friends!
I go by Pyts, and it's nice to meet yuh. I just picked up an 03 3.9 LS with about 115k miles, and I figured I should get acquainted with y'all.
Bit of funny business to kick things off: On the ride home from my purchase, this lovely auto-mo-bile overheated. I was pretty distraught. It took about 7/8 gal. of premixed yellow from a local retailer (and a good while sitting and waiting for it to cool) to get me the rest of the way.
Upon arrival, and after a few hours spent flailing my arms and wondering what else I missed, I finally remembered that I'm a pretty competent mechanic of sorts. I went online and found y'all's advice pertaining to the cooling system, then I went ahead and verified things for myself. A good hint was how, after sitting for a while in my car port, the thermostat housing released a little gush of coolant atop the engine's valley and down the belt drive. I assume it had something to do with the thermostat reclosing as the engine cooled.
I went ahead and ordered a new thermostat housing assembly via rockauto, to which I added two different temp thermostats (183 and 193 - not sure which's right), the degas bottle/coolant reservoir (which was already new, but I did just boil coolant), a new temp sender sensor, some radiator hoses, and some knickknacks which, now forgotten, will be surprise presents come the day.
The previous owner already did the water pump based upon how shiny it looks. I'll be retaining it. but. Ahhh. I forgot to get a gasket for it! Might as well go to the zoo and pour ethylene glycol straight onto a baby penguin.
Moving on!
Darn shame that a metal housing doesn't seem to be on the market for the 3.9L engine. I might like to take one to a 3D printer guy and get a quote. I got Dorman's metal revision of the upper radiator hose coupler coming in the mail at least.
Parts will be arriving this Tuesday and Wednesday, and my disc copy of the Bishko shop service manual for this vehicle (huge factor in why I bought this car) will be here today! Hey hey, not half bad.
Coming from Honda (their second generation Fit) and Toyota (their second generation Tacoma), this will be my first personal Ford, Lincoln, and luxury-class vehicle. Neat!
At some point I'll be doing the belt tensioner, belt, air filter, brake pads and rotors, anti-roll bar insulators, struts, shocks, valve cover gaskets uhhhhhhh...
I really don't want to do head gaskets since I'm already slotted to do one for our Tacoma once I get this running. But on the other hand, it'll be fresh in my mind. Have you guys seen this engine overheat and not blow head gaskets?
Previous owner siliconed in the VVT solenoids and either snapped off or lost some valve cover bolts. Oil leaks, the traction control button is jammed, an alert for traction control is on, and the little pop-out ashtray is slightly goofed. Besides that, it seems pretty excellent. I can tell that the last guy really did like this car. I'm grateful.
I'll post pictures as soon as I can get it de-pollened (Georgia's springtime pollen is no joke) and waxed. Testing out Collinite #845 Insulator Wax for the first time, too.
Pop in. Say hi. Give me some pointers. Ask for a write-up. Lets be friends!