http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hXpqgNW4bMk

You can clearly hear it isn't knocking before he tachs it up. He notes it is completely stock, nothing done to kill it quicker, just held to the floor. Only tachs it up for like 15 seconds and it kills the engine.

I've bounced old cavalier 4 cylinders off the limiter longer than that, and they lasted a hell of a lot longer.

Yeah, the ford 3.8 sucks ***! I've had 4 thunderbirds with that engine and luckily none of them had issues, but I know alot of people that haven't been so lucky. LUCKY is the key word here lol

4.6 for the win

yeah the 3.8 in my old lincoln continental sucked big time 2 head gaskets blown in under 30,000 miles apart.

Other than leaking valve seals the 4.6 is a winner. My dad has that engine in hise towncar.

Always keep a spare pair of head gaskets in your Ford 3.8L equiped vehicle. The valve seal issue on the 4.6L was fixed in 96

I see...my dads TC is a 1992. Was the 3.8 headgasket thing ever fixed?

Beats me if they ever fixed that. The only fix I've ever heard of was ringing the heads. I'd have to assume they fixed it when they started making the 3.8 split port. I didn't really follow the Ford 3.8 crowd....