'90 Taurus 3.8. Not only the gasket disaster, but the motor mounts weren't strong enough for the engine torque. Broke three mounts, plus collateral damage of two a/c manifolds while I owned it.My brother and I rented a Taurus in the early 90's at the airport at Ft. Lauderdale. The car broke down driving out of the rental lot. They replaced it with another Taurus which caught on fire while leaving the rental lot (no one hurt, luckily)! The third time we insisted on something other than a Taurus. Of course, as a former Escort owner you'd think my brother would have learned his lesson already.
You couldn't get me into a Ford dealership at gunpoint.
I think the early Taurus/Sable models had a design-problem with regard to heat-dissipation. At the same time you had your "problem," I rented a Taurus and was returning it to Hertz O'Hare. I cut it too close in terms of time, unfortunately, and in my desire to avoid being charged for another full day, I ran it flat-out on the Northwest Tollway for maybe 15-20 minutes to get to the airport. (Let's just say somewhere in the 95mph range).
As I was leaving the Hertz lot (in my friend's car), I glanced over and saw a Hertz employee running toward my recently-returned rental with a fire extinguisher.