New guy here.

I have a 1997 V6 F-150 (purchased new). Lost coolant in that thing from day one. Back to dealer many, many times. Said they could not find any problems.
The loss of coolant was very slow. Had to top off maybe once every two or three months.
Fast forward till about two years ago. I do not put many miles on my truck so I was at about 75K and started to get a miss in my #1 cylinder. Long story short had to replace the engine.
What got my goat is the dealer never could find a problem. But they had to know. (I guess my problem was so early they did not know yet???)
When I called a shop to get a price on a new engine. They would say. "Is it a 97 V6 F-150" and gave me a price without even looking it up . the shop did that many. Walked in to an auto parts store to get a filter and the guy said "Replace the engine yet?" Stopped into a Ford dealer to look at new trucks and an old salesman was smoking a cig. walked up and said "Replace the engine yet"

Not a question here. Just looking for some sympathy from other who went through this.

Never would have replaced the engine if I did not like that truck so well.

 

It will be alright man.
There you feel better?
That sucks by the way

 

Sounds like you were the victim of the dreaded hydrolock issue that the 97 and early 98 4.2s were prone too. And yeah Ford knew about the issue, there is even a TSB out for it. The loss of coolant was caused by the wrong gaskets for the upper/lower intakes and timing cover.

 

My advice - Never, EVER go back to that dealer again. As stated, this was a major and well known issue of the 97- early 98 V6 F150's. My old 97' starting leaking coolant, but I had it fixed under warranty. Sorry to hear about your troubles, but that new engine should last you a long time now. FWIW, I bought a second 4.2 V6 in 2002 and I still have it. Great engine, other then that hydro lock issue back in the day.

 

I questioned the dealer about it one time when it was in for a recall. Looked at me like I was crazy and said they did not know of any issues with it.

About 4 years before my engine went bad I did have the gaskets replaced by a Non-dealer. I thought I had the problem whipped, guess not.

I had a friend who owned a Toyota that the engine went bad out of warranty. Toyota fixed it free because they said that it never should have done it with only 80K

 

X2

Sounds like a crappy dealer who just didn't feel like fixing it under warranty.