Asking a lot for a first post

Hey guys, this is my first post of the forum, but i have been viewing and reading here for a while. Spring time is approaching here in CT and im getting ready to take my baby back out of storage. I have a few slightly major problems on my hands before i can driver her again though.

First off, at the beginning of last summer, my stang overheated on the highway. I pulled over right away and shut it down. LEaked antifreeze all over. Let it cool and had my dad come and bring some jugs of water. Car stayed in the normal range with the heat blasting as I drove it too Firestone which was the only place open. Had them check it out and they told me the radiator is shot, which was BS because it had just been replaced by the dealer i bought it from about a year previous. I brought the car to my friends dad's import shop, they replaced the thermostat and car seemed to run fine. Then as im idling in traffic, the car starts to overheat again, so i crank the heat up and it cools down. Brought it abck to the shop and they ran some kind of test on it for 24-48hrs then determined it to eb the head gaskets. Well they wanted $1500 to fix it, so i said 'Kiss Me''Kiss Me''Kiss Me''Kiss Me' it, it drives fine as long as its not idling, no loss of power or anything. Well i want to finally fix it so i dont have to worry this summer. IS this a really hard thing to accomplish? I took autoshop in HS a few years ago, and know some of the basics.

Problem #2 my AC doesnt want to kick in. The compressor starts and runs fine when it is hotwired to the battery, but when i tried to turn it on normally, it doesnt click on.

Problem #3 the left side of my instrument cluster guages start going haywire, IE the gas will say empty when its on a full tank, also the odometer stopped.

Any help is appreciated, thanks guys
 
First off welcome.

Buy a compression gauge and test it yourself. It takes about an hour with another person. Make sure all the cylinder numbers are consistent with each other. If all checks out then make sure the radiator fan is working. It has two speeds make sure it comes on HIGH. Do the basics first. Post of your findings then we can get to the next step.
 
alright, thanks for the quick response, My car doesnt run rough or burn oil, it does use up some antifreeze though. My friends dad who is the mechanic said that their test show vapors or some sort of gasses mixing witht he antifreeze. The fan does tunr on as it bogs everything down when it clicks on, I had the recal done on it also.
 
When you change the oil, look at it. If it looks like choclate milk, or any variation of it, you blew a head gasket.

For the air conditioning - you said the compressor will run, but it doesn't blow? The fan could be locked up, or it could have lost it's charge. As long as the compressor hasn't locked up, the fix should be easy.

I have no clue about your third problem. You guess would be as good as mine. Pull the cluster and take a look at the condition of the electrical connections. I would try replacing them first.

Joe
 
Man, if I had my car still, I could help you bypass the AC problem easy. There's this little black plug on the passengerside, close to the firewall. All you have to do is put a paperclip in there, and tape it in, it trips the sensor and it'll run fine. You might want to eventually replace the sensor, but it worked great for me. If someone who knows what I'm talking about can put up a pic, that'd be great.
-Shaun
 
Joe

when i changed the oil and check it, it appeared to be fine, wasnt nasty looking at all. Now with the AC, when the swithc is turned on and the compressor hotwired, it blows ice cold, it just doesnt want to kick on by itself
 
If I remember right, there is only 2 holes for anything. Just bend the paperclip, or wire into a U shape, and stick one end in one hole, and the other to the other one. Tape it up good until you can get aroudn to getting the sensor. Sorry I dont have any pics.

-Shaun