Quote:
Originally Posted by bgd73
any abnormalities along the way? The head lasting that long is astounding, I used to be in disbelief of these stories.
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No abnormalities along the way except one time several years ago when I changed the spark plugs one of them seize up in the head and stripped out the threads, but I was able to retap the threads back into the head using the old spark plugs that I had just taken out by applying lots of pressure to them with a rachet and socket and removing them every couple of turns and cleaning the threads out and just kept repeating this until I got the threads tapped back into the head. I figured if the old plugs stripped the threads out then they should work for retapping the threads and it worked. Never even had to remove the head, but it did teach me to start using plenty of anti seize!!! Just been a matter of keeping it serviced regularly and replacing normal wear parts. It even still has all the original exhaust system except fot the catalytic converter and the only reason it has been replaced is because Ford had a recall on it when the car had about 200,000 miles. The way I've been able to keep it on the road is by doing about 99% of the work myself and those lifetime parts also help keep the repair costs to a minimum. The parts that I can think of that are lifetime parts are the brake pads, brake shoes, steering rack, right and left tie rod ends, right and left control arms (ball joints), right and left front axles, front and rear struts, ignition module, clutch, pressure plate, throw out bearing, water pump, and fuel pump. There may be others that I just can't think of right now.