01 COBRA WITH CRACKED HEADS??

[Todd Smith]

Hello eveyone....I am the recent owner of a 2001 Cobra. The car has basically a stock motor and driveline. Its only got an x-pipe and a cai. My issue is this....the car has 28,000 miles on it and it already has what I believe to be a leaking rear main seal. That seams strange for a car with such low mileage. It also idles a little rough (not bad....just a minor shaking sort of like a car with a vacuum leak). IT also will periodically blow oil on start up when its cold only (it's donw this twice since I've had it in the last month). It otherwise seems to run good. It pulls strong and doens't seem to have any other issues. I had heard that these cars were prone to cylinder heads cracking. Does anyone know if this is true? If so, what are the typical signs and symptoms.

I'm starting to wonder if my car has fallen victim to this malady with all these little issues it has.

Thanks in advance for any input you might have!

 

[COBRA90GT]

In a nutshell...

Not sure who told you our cylinder heads were prone to cracking, but it has not been a very common problem at all for the 99/01 engines. Run an engine compression/leakdown test to at least check the health of your engine if you suspect damage.

You're going to have to figure out where exactly that oil leak is coming from. The car could have been dogged to hell by its previous owner(s) and they neglected to fix the rear main seal. Have a reputable mustang shop look at it if you don't want to take it to a dealership.

The intake system will see a lot of oil deposited in it (a byproduct of Ford's PCV system). It is "acceptable" to see a puff of smoke (grey/blue-ish in color) at start up once in awhile due to the "puddled oil" in the upper intake. I believe the excessive amount of "puddled up oil" gets sucked into the combustion chamber and out the exhaust system. You can examine the puddled oil in your intake firsthand by removing the upper intake "hat."

Don't worry too much about it, unless your engine is consuming an abnormal amount of oil (check the oil level on a semi-regular basis - it's a good idea regardless).

As far as the rough idling, it could be a vacuum leak (check all hoses), dirty MAF, or a bad IAC. Check, clean, and/or replace the aforementioned parts as necessary.

G'luck troubleshooting!