Fox T-Bird/Cougar Forums  

FWIW:

I'm the original owner of a 1984, 3.8L cougar. 
Had a high end rebuilder rebuild the engine (about 3000 miles ago).-- big $$.

Head gaskets major issue on the 3.8. 
Tend to crack by the lower head bolts because of lack of radius on the heads.
Crack appears to open up once engine heats up, but crack doesn't show under testing.

Rebuilder initially used standard Ford gaskets, then tried MLS.  Still had issues.
Finally went with "Irontite" -- composite ceramic -- and sealed the
MLS from the inside coolant channel..

Whether will hold -- jury still out.

Low oil pressure also a problem after rebuild.
"Rebuilder" magazine has an article on how to prevent.

If you go ahead and redo, would also look at whether or not you can
swap Cams and go with a roller bearing instead of back with the
flat tappet cam.  Wish I had known about this, as flat tappet requires
more ZDDP in the oil -- most oils no longer have the 1200-1500 PPM required
and additives are expensive.    COMP Cams had a lot of cam failures
because of this -- lack of ZDDP.

There is one rebuilder -- Toronto Canada - that supposedly specializes in the 3.8L and
races these engines.  Don't recall name off hand, never used him, but based on web info
appears to know what he's doing. 

Hope above helps.

hey bigherm

i didnt fix my yet well i kinda have. i used some stuff  liquid stuff called steel seal.
and it worked for about 2,000 miles and then the leaking came back. so  i dumped another bottle in and that helped for another 1,500. the second bottle didnt work as well, so i tried another brand called blue devil. i cant replace the head gasket right now as i have my 1995 towncar in pulled apart for the same problem , though i am hoping its just the intake manifold gasket on the towncar.  a few weeks ago i changed the plugs on the car and the left side plugs were all wet and the right side plugs were not. so  hopefully this liquid stuff will work till i can get the job done the right way. anyway good luck with yours .

any pics with the gaskets pulled off the heads?
it was obvious where the leak was between the ports, you could noticably see where it wicked, burned up and wore away the gasket between them. i cleaned the  out of the intake manifold(every hole all the way thru) and what i could of the heads before i put it back together.
my memory is a bit outdated but yours doesnt look like mine did from what im seeing here, your crud is at the back of the heads.
all of your intake ports are way dirtier than mine were though.