5.4L 188K

I let my sister borrow my truck because she was moving. She called me and said my truck was running rough, and the SES light was on. In addition, she said she could hear what sounded like sloshing water. Fine, I thought, probably a misfire, nothing major. I told her to keep running the truck, and I'd look at it when she was done at the end of the day.

I got the code read, and it was a P0301. Didn't seem like a big deal, so I swapped coils to try to narrow down the problem. The truck ran the same. I was about to pull the plug, but I noticed the air around the truck smelled sweet. I was 60 degrees out, and the exhaust coming out of the tailpipe looked like the steamy exhaust on a cold morning startup.

I hopped in to investigate the "sloshing" noise my sister complained about, and it sounds like it's coming from behind my radio, and is related to engine speed.

I looked at my degas bottle and it was a little low, but not empty or anything. The coolant inside isn't really clear, but I haven't changed it in forever. On cold starts, the truck idles rough, but once driving and warm it runs and idles smoothly. The light has since gone out, but I'm fearing the worst. The bottom of my oil cap had oil that looked a little light for being 5k miles old.

I haven't had time to drain the oil and check it, but I've parked the truck until I can take a closer look at it. Did my head gasket take a dump? Is it worth swapping out?

 

Coolant system makes a sloshing sound when it is low on coolant. I have heard mine at start up when it was low. However, I don't think your other problems are related nor do they sound like a bad HG. I would say top your coolant level off, fix the misfire with either a plug or cop, clean the IAC to fix the cold rough idle and the white residue under the filler cap most likely from condensation.

Forgot to mention. The sweet smell under the hood could be from a rad leak. They were common to leak around the bottom corners/seems. I had a leak in my last F150 that I let go for a long time because it barely leaked and only required me to top off the coolant every 3 months or so. But, I could smell it every time I got out of the truck or walked in front of it. It only takes a few drops and you can smell it. So check around the bottom mounts for any wet areas. Otherwise for it to be a HG, if your smelling it under the hood you would have to have a visual leak somewhere around the heads.

Tail pipes condensate, steam and drip water, that is normal. Cold starts on a cool day will do that. But, like GLC said, hydrocarbon test the coolant. That will tell you if you have exhaust gasses present. More likely than not though you would have other issues though. Like over pressurizing the coolant system, over heating, white smoke from exhaust, sweet smell exhaust or plugs may show signs of coolant.

Could be wrong, but they seem unrelated. Then again. They signs are kind of there. Sloshing water could be air being forced into the system.

 

Sniff the exhaust-smell like antifreeze? bad head gasket. It really would have to have been overheated pretty good to cause a head gasket failure. Toyz is right. Fix the middfire top off the fluids and keep an eye on it..

 

The exhaust smells sweet. The truck was never overheated.

 

Do a hydrocarbon test on your coolant.

 

sounds exactly what imne was doing besides the sloshing, I have a '97 F-150 XLT with 165k miles, and it had a cracked head gasket.

 

Did the hydrocarbon test. Looks like it's a head gasket.

 

Well, I'm in the process of pulling the heads off. I can't seem to pull the oil dipstick out.

 

After ruining my parent's garage, I finally got my truck up and running. I broke a lot of rules with regard to timing procedures, but the engine didn't blow up, and I'm so glad I don't have to drive the family beater anymore.

 

I did the job with only hand tools in a driveway... it sucked.

I'll probably just buy this if anything else happens...

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Ford-Lightning-Crate-Engine-/291138903903?pt=Motors_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories&hash=item43c93b1f5f&vxp=mtr

 

Nice.

Check the surface of the heads? Or just new gaskets and back on

 

My dad had an old straight edge, and the head seemed flat enough, so I skipped resurfacing the heads. Hopefully that won't be a bad decision.

 

Gotcha.

Also would have been a good time to replace tensioners and guides being it has 188k

Looks like you have some damaged plugs threads on one cylinder? Or is that anti-seize?
I would have cleaned those up real good and make sure you torqued the new plugs down to 28ft/lbs to make sure you don't have any blow outs down the road.

But looks like your back on the road.

 

Ah, thanks.

I didn't mention it, but I did replace the timing chain, guides, and tensioners, so I pretty much took care of these issues... It's soo nice to get rid of that embarrassing startup rattle.

https://www.f150online.com/forums/v8...-oil-leak.html

https://www.f150online.com/forums/v8...iming-set.html

I also did a few other parts based on how sketchy they looked, how hard they were to reach, or if I flat out broke them:

-Head Gasket
-Intake Manifold Gasket
-Throttle Body Gasket
-Thermostat O-ring
-Injector O-rings and Pintle Caps
-Timing Cover Gasket
-Valve Cover Gasket
-EGR gasket
-Exhaust Manifold Gaskets

-Passenger Side Exhaust Manifold
-Exhaust Studs
-Spark Plugs
-Oil Dipstick

As for the plug threads, I chased them, but hole #3 looks pretty bad...



The rest of them look like this...

 

Looks a little iffy. I can see threads, but they look like they were crossed up at one point.
They may hold...? I would personally put an insert in there just to avoid being stranded or a tow bill.

How did the cylinder walls look?