The 1995 Ford Taurus with the 3.8 engine had a recall for faulty head gaskets. I personally own a 1995 Ford Taurus LX wagon that I replaced the head gaskets on myself. Having worked for a dealership selling cars for a while and seeing how the cars in maintenance were treated I decided to do the work myself so after finding oil and air bubbles in my radiator I replaced both the head gaskets.
Once I had the head gaskets off the problem with the recall was obvious. A head gasket is supposed to have a metal ring covering the cutout for the cylinder area and on the original head gaskets that metal ring was missing. Also, on the number six cylinder from all of the oil deposits it looked like that area of the head gets hotter than the rest of the head and that is right where the old head gasket failed. There was a gap in the gasket leading to both the oil journal and one in the coolant journal. I didn't leave it long enough to allow for oil to get into the crankcase, but another few hundred miles and that's what would have happened.
Since replacing the head gaskets three years ago the Taurus has run perfectly and the gas mileage has improved to around 27 mpg highway and 20 city.
If you decide to replace the head gaskets on a 1995 Ford Taurus yourself when you go to get the new head gaskets from the auto parts store it would be a good idea to get the four bolts that hold the plenum on. When I took mine off the bolts were all corroded and I almost broke them taking them out so replacing them is a good idea, but not necessary unless one breaks.
