I have an old 96 F150 with over 372,000 miles on her. I take care of my babee!! "Little Red Riding Hood"

I took her to a local shop to get a PS pulley replaced and find the oil leak on Tuesday. Had ALL seals replaced bout a year ago. Also wanted them to hook it up to the diagnosis code machine to see the codes and find why it stalls out sometimes, replaced tons of little parts. Codes revealed a Distributor shaft was needed and I had them replace the rear main seal & shaft on Wednesday. (Yes, they drove it 15 miles, for a test run) Picked it up on Friday and spent $560. I drove it 7 miles, stuck in low gear and was getting hot. (Live on country roads, speed limit is 70mph...could only get up to 50mph max). So I stopped, turn it off and opened the hood, no coolant/water in radiator or reservoir and found a large washer on frame radiator cover.

Called the shop for them to tow it back and found out what is wrong with it.
Today, Monday, called them and they told me that I had a crack in the timing cover and it would cost $850 to fix it. (I'm going down there later to get pictures and see if it is old or a new crack.)

But what I am asking is....

Do you remove the the radiator and/or reservoir hoses to replace the pulley?

And running it 22 miles total (empty radiator) cause it to crack the timing cover?

All Replies is greatly appreciated!!

Thanx bunches,
Leela

 

Getting hot was certainly not good for it, but I really don't see that causing a crack there. Maybe someone else will chime in and refute me.

Old London or New London? My grandmother had a cafe in Old London, about 55 years ago.

welcome to the forum!

 

I drove it 30 miles to the shop and didn't have any problems with her. So I guess you can add those miles too (72 miles total). The pulley had a chip out of it (still worked, but I also don't have the "special tool" for the pulley to replace it myself) and my carport told me bout the oil leak. I have done alot of work on her to keep her in shape. But there was NEVER a coolant/water leak on my carport.

Neither Old or New London....just plain London, north of Junction on 377.

 

I guess if it got hot enough, it could cause the crack if it was already weak. It's just that there is no water behind it and I would think head gaskets would blow or even a head crack first. Now that I think about it, I would push them to replace it as I don't really believe in coincidence.

Didn't know there was a London down there. Pld London is in East Texas, near Kilgore and Tyler.

 

That's what I was thinking of too. They should replace it for free, especially if they removed the hoses and forgot to refill her up with coolant mix. Didn't know if the hoses needed to be removed or not. And maybe just human error, didn't replace the coolant. I don't think its a big deal if they was just honest and replace it.

Guess Texas has a few "London's"....lol