Ford F-150 - 1997-2003 :: Engine Has Blown Head Gasket
May 17, 2012
I just bought a used 5.4 for my 99' F150 4X4. My current engine has a blown head gasket. Anyway, I was able to hear the engine run before I bought it, and was able to check it out some. (oil, anti-freeze) I was told that this engine was bought from a salvage yard with 50K, and 50K more put on it before I bought it.
I was also told that the intake manifold is newer, from Autozone, and it has newer Accell coils. My question for you all, is ..... What do YOU think I should do otherwise before I install this engine. Oil pump? water pump? seals? ...
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My 97 f150 5.4 started missing on 5,6 it had antifreeze on top of the spark plugs but i cant figure out where its coming from my truck has been loosing coolant and it seems like the system is holding pressure because every time i take the cap off the radiator overfill i can hear it hissing then i see the antifreeze level plummet there's no visible leaks that i have seen when the truck is running an missing it steams out the exhaust but when its no missing it doesn't seem to be there's no milky oil or anything the thermostat doesn't seem to be leaking either the truck has over heated a couple times due to the antifreeze disappearing or the temp wont move at all then it shoots all the way to hot and cools down within seconds to normal i just put a new thermostat in. Also it sometimes misses on 4 and my exhaust smells like straight gas i put 4 gallons in it got 29 miles out of it .
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I have my 4.6L engine on a stand in the garage. I think I have a blown head gasket. I am ready to remove the heads.
My Haynes book says: "Caution:Use the required camshaft retaining fixtures to lock the camshafts and leave the tools in place."
A google search shows nothing. Why, what does it do?
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I just purchased a 2003 F150 Supercrew 4.6 that had been wrecked, but somewhat repaired. I knew the owner said it had a blown head gasket. It has water in the oil (small amount asi it is lightly milky) and water starts dripping from the exhaust after it has run for a few minutes. I did not run it long, but throttled it up to warm the engine. It started dripping soot filled water from the exhaust connections. I bought it to put a 4bt in it anyway, but want to sell the motor with the ability to tell the buyer the skinny on it. I drove it on the trailer and off with no apparent loss of power noticeable.
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Ok I got this truck from my mother-in-law for free with a blown head gasket cylinder 6 driver side. I did the replacement had the heads machined put it all back together by the book. Now I can't get it to fire on all 6 cylinders only 5 I think. Thought maybe bad gas (it sat since late November) put 5 gallons (over double the gas) fresh gas and half a bottle of b-12 chem tool. Dubble checked all plugs wires connections (coils plugs wires all new). I drove for about 10 miles oil pressure and temperature stayed perfect but no change in running truck shakes a lot and no real power. Don't sputter or backfire no engine codes other than imcr bank 2 open. Engine is 4.2l v-6 170k miles.
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Radiator replaced 2 yrs. ago - required major rust cleanout; reservoir replaced shortly thereafter. Recently engine always hot, antifreeze disappearing, reservoir always looks rusty, nothing much coming out underneath, mechanic pressure tested and couldn't find a leak, told to watch for antifreeze in oil, none apparent. Now suddenly car ran hot, antifreeze came out of reservoir, cap replaced, still couldn't find leak. Today said head gasket blown. Repair head gasket, but can't guarantee wouldn't still have radiator problems. Suggested could try Blue Devil head gasket repair but may not work.
Is it worth :
(a) trying the Blue Devil;
(b) repairing the head gasket?
Or will I still have major repair needs with radiator etc.? I really can't afford even a cheap replacement car.
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My 2003 Chevy Impala stalled after driving it for about a mile. The 'low engine oil' came on. I noticed white smoke coming out from under the hood. I pulled the dipstick and it was out of oil.
I poured 2 quarts of oil and attempted to start the car. The car started after I pressed the gas pedal but shut off when I took my foot off the gas. I tried several times. It started butshut off when lifting the foot of the pedal.
I'm hoping it's not the head gasket.
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A local mechanic tells me I have a blown head gasket on my 2003 Saab 9-5. He also said there's coolant standing in one cylinder. If this is due to stretched head bolts, might I remedy the problem by replacing the head bolts and torqueing to specifications?
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Mileage 192k. Signs...stumbling/rough engine startup for first time of the day and anytime the engine sits for a few minutes before turning on again (battery charging/speed high enough for engine to start, etc).
2010 Prius engine start stumble - YouTube
Started out with no code, then check engine light started coming on. P0301, misfire cylinder #1. Sparkplugs were replaced, and coil pack for #1 switched with known good one. EGR tube also cleaned of carbon.
Stumbling/roughness has been getting worse, about an inch of coolant used per week of driving. No oil in the coolant, and no coolant in the oil (no milkshake or anything like that).
Dirty fuel injectors were suspected, but no improvement after using Techron. Finally, a boroscope was used to inspect the cylinders through the sparkplug holes, and a very slow leak was found in cylinder #1. Since liquid cannot be compressed, during the compression cycle significant misfiring occurs.
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My car blew a head gasket in the fall. A friend replaced it and rebuilt the head. The head was taken to a machine shop, was not warped but was planed just a little. The engine was put back together but it continues to gunk up the radiator with yellow gunk. We put block sealer in and it today there is gunk in the over flow bottle again. This is a 1998 Honda Accord with only 103,000 miles on it when the gasket blew.
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i have a 06 explorer with the 4.0 V6. 4x4 XLT with 106xxx miles. i just bought this thing back in January. of corse, i didn't get an ext warranty. well the past couple months its been loosing power, its got a stumble and seems sluggish. its losing water. no water in oil, no oil in water, don't smell coolant in the exhaust. yesterday i went out and looked and found at front of head on pass side at front cyl, there was coolant from head gasket down the block and also in the valley of the block. i started the engine and once warm, everything was dry. shut it off after about 20 minutes and still nothing wet. this afternoon the only wet spot was in the valley which was dry after running yesterday. is there anything else i can check before tearing it down? with the water in the valley, it looks like it could be coming from the thermo housing.
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I have read all I could find on replacing a blown head gasket and and after absorbing everything that TigerDan posted on here, I dove in and began. After disassembling all the topside junk I finally got the intake manifold loose and got down to the head. I began undoing the head bolts and found two broken bolts. The head won't budge so I am calling in a cherrypicker. I don't know what kind of mess I'll find when the head comes off. I assume the head will be warped or the block may be damaged.
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I have the same problem as the gentleman w/ the '97 4x4 4.6. Intermittent overheating. The water pump and t-stat have both been replaced, as well as the radiator. Some one told me a piece of gasket material from the heater core may be floating around and periodically clogging things. Could this happen? and what's the fix? Also, someone told the guy w/ the 4x4, that he could have blown head gasket, and to perform a sniffer test to find out.#1. What is a sniffer test? #2. If the head gasket is blown, wouldn't there be water in the oil?
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Truck is a 2006 F-350 6.0, ARP studs, Ford Head Gaskets, Bullet Proof Diesel Oil Cooler Kit and EGR with an SCT tuner on tow mode.
Towing approx 15,000 pounds noticed truck started to lose power and misfire. Pulled over and noticed engine oil all over the driver side on engine, looks like it sprayed to top of engine as well. Oil on valve cover, FICM, exhaust manifold. I looked under the truck and saw that oil is all over bottom of the truck, differential covered in oil as well. Looks like blue smoke coming from tailpipe and smells of oil burning. Cannot tell where oil originated from.
I removed the EGR Valve, to see if there was moisture on the valve and when I looked into the intake manifold there is engine oil pooled in the bottom of the intake manifold and on the EGR Valve.
This is not dirty water from soot, it is oil. Truck is misfiring, with no codes being thrown. I noticed a small amount of white residue around the radiator cap however I had just filled up the reservoir, week prior. I unfortunately do not have gauges in the truck and rely on the factory gauges; coolant temps did not rise or move at all when this happened. I am not sure if I blew a head gasket, and really confused on how engine oil got into the intake manifold. I ran the engine with the air filter removed and can see blue smoke coming out of the CCV and oil in residue in front of the turbo inlet.
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I need walked through the take down to replace the head gasket on an 05 mountaineer with a 4.0. I've never worked on one of these so I don't even know. I havent even seen the engine to know where to start.
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My wife has a 2002 F-150 King Ranch 5.4l. Recently I noticed a oil smell and I had the mechanic take a look. He said the head gasket is leaking oil. Not a bad leak but it is leaking. The truck has 160k miles on it. I can't decide what to do...
What generally happens with a head oil leak? Will the engine crater or just keep leaking? My plan was to buy my wife a different truck and I would keep the truck, but I don't wont to keep it if the head leak is terminal for the engine...
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just got finished putting her back together from a blown intake manifold gasket and run for a few miles to get rid of any cob webs and then my battery light comes on. just replaced the battery last week. and I tested the alternator and it charging at 14.5 volts bat reads when disconnected 12.9 volts so I am not sure why my battery light will come on.
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I have a 03 5.4 F150 SCrew... The intake was leaking on the passenger side (water outlet tube meets plastic).
Putting in the Dorman replacement and noticed that the front cylinder drivers side (#5) had a decent amount of coolant in it.. None of the others did. I've drained the coolant already and was wondering should I just put this back together and see?
The water outlet crossing has a hole right next to this cylinder and I can't see any cracks and not sure if the gaskets were leaking under it.
Seems like if the head gasket was blown I would see it in more cylinders? It never smoked or run bad before I got this leak... Drove it maybe 10 miles with it leaking out onto Cyl#1. Ran fine, never missed.
I just don't want to put this back together if the head gasket is blown but I don't know what to do.
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The problem is my new-to-me 97 Ford F150 5.4L SOHC engine, auto transmission, is overheating after driving it for a short while. Seems to be fine at idle. I have read previous posts with the exact same issue, but the consistency seems to be all over the map from burping the system, head gasket, thermostat, and possibly a plugged radiator.
Backstory:200,000+ miles.
Truck sat for 6 months after previous owner broke the shift cable.
Truck was in a front end collision. Frame looks bent underneath the engine.
Previous owner had overheating problem. He said he changed the heater core. Looks like brand new coolant in the system so story probably checks out. Desperately needs an oil change. Very black oil.
Previous owner thought the system needed a burping. So I'm largely assuming the problem started after the heater core change, or he misdiagnosed an overheating problem and thought the heater core could cause it. I have found a radiator cap and thermostat in the truck which seems to indicate he tried many things to fix the overheating and was unsuccessful. Engine looks pretty clean for the miles.
Symptoms/Backyard Tests :
Blows cold air with heat on highest level and on defrost.
Blender door fuse intact.
Doesn't overheat at idle.
Ran the truck for 15 mins with the coolant bottle fill cap off on level ground to try to burp it after draining some coolant and checking the thermostat orientation. Coolant level increased in the bottle. Large air bubbles came out. (Another session before this one, I ran it for 30 minutes with no coolant cap, and eventually coolant overflowed the fill bottle. Normal or no?)
Seems to overheat after the thermostat opens. After doing the 15 minute warm up/burp, I took it for a test drive. I drove it about 20 blocks with the temperature gauge on the dash reading the same as the warmed-up idle temperature. Got to the 20th block and the gauge immediately spiked to overheat with the oil pressure dash light coming on. I could be mistaken as the oil pressure light almost looks exactly like the overheat dash light. But I'm pretty sure the temperature icon was on the right side of the oil can icon and not the left.
After the above drive: Upper rad hose too hot to touch.
After the above drive: Lower rad hose medium warm. Could hold on to it if I felt like it.
After the above drive: Upper part of rad pretty hot. Not Insta-burn but hot. Tempature decreases to warm to cool as you go lower down the rad.
After the above drive: Both heater core hoses going to the cab luke warm.
Coolant looks brand new.
Radiator looks slightly bowed. Probably from the accident? Otherwise looks clean and minimal bent fins.
Drained some coolant and pulled the upper rad hose to see if the thermostat was upside down. Looks installed correctly.
No signs of weep hole leaks from the water pump.
Fan seems solid. Has maybe 1-2mm of play in the bearings.
Something that looked like steam from the muffler at startup, that disappeared after getting closer to a normal range warm engine.
I have driven crap cars for many years and I've never seen a plugged radiator which makes me skeptical of it being that. All the radiators I have changed were because they were eventually leaking from cracks in the radiator.
I would also be interested in doing an informal poll if you have read this far and have had this era of F150 that overheated. Have you ever repaired the head gasket? And/or have you ever changed the radiator?
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I have been having some issues with my 97 ford f150 4.6 liter, started out running rough, then hydrolocked with no serious damage, blown intake manifold gasket, fixed that, alternator over charging do to bad voltage regulator, fixed that. and airbag code 52, still working on that, as well as failure to connect when trying to do diagnostic scan. now I am wondering if the engine diagnostic is still even working. still running good just a very slight vibration when warms up. I am not getting any code. or my check engine light is not showing any codes. What I want to do is force a code. What would be the safest way to force a code or force engine light to give a code?
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On July 18 my 1999 Ford Windstar van was towed and diagnosed with a blown head gasket. I FINALLY got it back on Sept 4th and was told it was idling a little rough, but it was probably due to water that got in the catalytic converter and would work itself out. The next day we drove it about an hour away it was idling VERY rough and started to stall every time we came to a stop or tried to slowly pull into a parking spot. The following Monday September 8th it wouldn't start and the shop came and towed it back in. It's still there and they are saying they aren't sure what's wrong with it, but are assuring me the problem is unrelated to their repairs. Every time I call they continue to say they are working on it. Where do I go from here?!?!
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