My brother purchased a 95 V6 a few years back. it had about 50k on the engine. he drove it till about 65k when he had to replace the head gaskets (which we later found out is typical on these Mustangs). He fixed the car then sold it.

Fast forward a few years till today, when he is in need of a car and does not have a lot of money. Near me is a really clean 95 v6 Mustang. Clean is an understatement, immaculate is better. The car has 67k on the engine and the owner is looking for 2k. He has owned the car since it had 45k on it. He has not had any head gasket work done to it, but is not sure if the previous owner did.

So, my question is this; what causes the head gasket issues? time? mileage? My brother does not want to spend 2k on the Mustang only to have to put another 2k into it for head gaskets in a few months. Is there a way to tell if the work has been done before?

Thanks!

 

The head gasket issue was a ford recall. Unfortunately I believe that the recall has expired, meaning no free or reimbursed repairs. Typically they blow about 80-100k miles, so low mileage cars are at risk. I would see if the seller has contact info for the person they got it from.

Also, head gasket repairs may cost about $2k but they don't need to be. When I had to replace my gasket the second time 7 years later due to user error, I realized that the old replacement was the same $20 felpro gasket that I got. You're really just paying for labor. All you have to do is remove the intake and heads and do it yourself. There are torque specs and such, but really it's a $20 2 hour job. Consider getting the car, knowing that you may have to do the repair yourself eventually. A blown head gasket rarely hurts the engine. When this event does occur, it happens because 1) the driver continued driving it (you'll know if it blew, believe me) or 2) it broke in such a way where fluids could potentially crack the block. These are very rare, and replacement 3.8 engines are dirt cheap. I sold mine 2 years ago for $100.

 

Yes, the head gasket was an issue, but only on the 95-97 V6 models. Was fixed on the 98.

 

This car sounds like a steal