I have a question for the mechanically-savvy OSA members.
What does one do with a car with a worn-out engine? Straight to junkmycar.com or is there any market for something like this as a project car?
My daily driver is a 2004 Ford Mustang (V6 3.8l), currently just over 152K miles. This was my father-in-law's car for the first 6 years, and he used it for pretty much nothing but very short trips. I'm thinking that type of usage is really catching up with me.
It is now consuming oil like crazy, probably nearly 2 qts per 1K miles. Since I'm not seeing any sign of leaks on the garage floor I figure that it's being burned. Further, I have had to replace the driver's side spark plugs several times this year due to it running very rough at low RPMs. I took some pictures after my most recent escapade in plug swapping. The driver's side middle is shown in the first three photos. Driver's side front is shown in the last two. Since there's only about 2500 miles on these plugs, it's pretty clear where all that oil is going.
Due to lack of time, tools, space, and necessary mechanical aptitude, (in addition to already running at 110% stress levels) it is not an option for me to personally perform an engine overhaul or swap. Paying somebody to have it done will end up costing more than the Blue Book value on the car.
I don't really need the car any more since my wife will be getting a new one any day now and I can drive her old one, so there is no need for heroic efforts to keep this one going. If the best answer is "junkyard" then I'll live with it, just seems like a bit of a waste since the rest of the car seems to be doing OK.
Thank you in advance for your input.
What does one do with a car with a worn-out engine? Straight to junkmycar.com or is there any market for something like this as a project car?
My daily driver is a 2004 Ford Mustang (V6 3.8l), currently just over 152K miles. This was my father-in-law's car for the first 6 years, and he used it for pretty much nothing but very short trips. I'm thinking that type of usage is really catching up with me.
It is now consuming oil like crazy, probably nearly 2 qts per 1K miles. Since I'm not seeing any sign of leaks on the garage floor I figure that it's being burned. Further, I have had to replace the driver's side spark plugs several times this year due to it running very rough at low RPMs. I took some pictures after my most recent escapade in plug swapping. The driver's side middle is shown in the first three photos. Driver's side front is shown in the last two. Since there's only about 2500 miles on these plugs, it's pretty clear where all that oil is going.
Due to lack of time, tools, space, and necessary mechanical aptitude, (in addition to already running at 110% stress levels) it is not an option for me to personally perform an engine overhaul or swap. Paying somebody to have it done will end up costing more than the Blue Book value on the car.
I don't really need the car any more since my wife will be getting a new one any day now and I can drive her old one, so there is no need for heroic efforts to keep this one going. If the best answer is "junkyard" then I'll live with it, just seems like a bit of a waste since the rest of the car seems to be doing OK.
Thank you in advance for your input.