Jeff, as much as I hate to admit it, Ford's "triton" series engines are very
similar in construction to the 4.7L & I can't tell you how many of the
"triton" ford motors I have seen with blown head gaskets.I've tried putting
several of them back together(new gaskets,block decked,heads surfaced),and
it just doesn't seem to work.3 of them came apart again within 1000mi.I know
some guys at the local ford place here and I was talking with them about
it.They were saying that when one of these comes into the shop with a blown
gasket(s),Ford won't let them replace the head gaskets,they send them
complete new crate motors.I saw it happening on both of my buddy's fords,his
'97 4.6L(had 3 motors in this one,traded with 60K on it and blown
gaskets),and his 2000 5.4(already on a replacement motor,gaskets blew at
6,000 mi.).When ford sends the engines in,they are complete from pan to
throttle body.If you get the motors hot,it puts incredible stress on the
gaskets,remember,we've got iron blocks expanding at one rate,aluminum heads
at another,and when the engine gets out of normal temp. range, the gaskets
just can't take the pressure.In my friend's '97 4.6L ford,he and I took it
over to the next little town one day,and it ran good.On the way back,we
picked up a piece of paper off the road and it got on the grille.He noticed
the temp. getting warmer(it got to the halfway mark on the gauge),so we
stopped immediately,shut the truck off and called the local ford place.They
sent a wrecker,and when they got there,they were going to crank it up and
"take a look before we tow it in".They cranked it up and water/coolant
started dribbling out of both sides of the block.They towed it in,tore it
down,and found both headgaskets severely damaged, and both heads warped.This
is a bunch of crap.If mine ever blow out,I will either build me an iron head
"a" motor to go in it,or trade for an R/T,considering they still have
iron-head 360's in them when it happens.
Will Coughlin willcoughlin@hotmail.com
'00 reg.cab,2wd,4.7L/hd5-spd/3.92sg(9.25")
1ST place Dakota-truck at 11th annual Houston Mopar show and race/National
DML meet!!
--Original Message Follows
From: Jeff Durling <jdurling@mindspring.com>
Reply-To: dakota-truck@buffnet.net
To: dakota-truck@buffnet.net
Subject: Re: DML: 4.7 Engines... Built right
Date: Thu, 23 Nov 2000 23:02:35 -0500
Hey Will, why would you sell it immediately if the gasket blows. If you see
it happens
and pull over and have it towed or whatever you should be fine. There may be
some other
damage to deal with but as long as you do something about it when it happens
it's not
that big of deal. I've had a couple of different vehicles in the past that
had this
happen (alot of miles, etc.) and it does cost a little bit to fix (mainly
labor) but just
being careful and doing something about it when it happens usually there is
no prob. You
really have problems when you just ignore it and keep driving. That's when
you don't want
to deal with it. Also, understand that a blown head gasket is actually a
fairly rare
thing on a modern engine especially with the way you drive. No offense in
that but since
you are so easy on it I would be surprised if it ever happens to you. As for
Josh noting
his oil I would be very surprised in modern engine if it burned any at all.
Some engine
will go through a little when you first break it in but it shouldn't really
use enough to
be noticeable. I'm not an expert but have had quite a few cars in the last
few and none
of them have ever burned a drop.
Jeff Durling
'01 4x2 QC SLT+
_____________________________________________________________________________________
Get more from the Web. FREE MSN Explorer download : http://explorer.msn.com
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Fri Jun 20 2003 - 11:57:34 EDT