i need some help with my Ford
 

please take a look.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/general-car-truck-questions-discussion/412523-my-taurus-blows-white-smoke.html



SmileWavy thanks

white smoke pull the plugs have someone crank it and see if you get a face full of coolant. Pressure check the cylinders with a spark plug adapter and an air compressor and look for bubbles in the radiator.

Looking at the plugs will probably show the guilty cylinder(s).
Then 'off with her head', unless you choose to go with the miracle-in-a-can route and hoist the old girl on some un-suspecting used car buyer.
Jim

Ahhh, the taurus 3.8...
Chances are one of the head gaskets is blown, not uncommon. I think I have replaced 3 or 4 of those head gaskets in the last year. I will keep my fingers crossed for you that it is the front head gasket, as the rear head is a real PITA to get to. Disable the coil pack and injectors and crank for a couple of seconds. Since you are seeing white smoke, that means that coolant is leaking into one of the cyls and burning. By not providing spark or fuel and cranking, you create a vacuum in each cyl which will pull the coolant into the bad cyl. Then pull the plugs and look at the top of each piston for the telltale coolant puddle. Keep in mind, if you don't disable the injectors you will be shooting fuel in as well, so you wont really be able to tell the difference between the fuel and coolant. Again, I hope for your sake that is on the front bank as it's not real easy to see in the rear spark plug holes without a cyl scope.

Good luck!
If you need any tricky hints, drop me a line I think I can swap those in my sleep anymore :)

-Nick