Hey guys...recently purchased a 97 f150 with a 4.2L thru a private purchase. Test drove great..on the way home started bogging down, throwing codes..barely made it home. Took to autozone pulled the codes, a bunch of misfires. Changed the coil, plugs, and wires. Truck still has been running rough, no low end power, little bit of a miss. Was checking things out today and opened the coolant reservoir to find it full of brown mud like material. Any ideas on what would cause this, or what would be more likely..Head Gasket or Intake Manifold Gasket. The truck will still start and run so im not sure. I plan to attempt the repair myself but want some input on what I should look for.

This forum has been help getting the truck running to where it is today.(just joined today although I have surfed this site several times for the last two weeks) Would love to hear what you guys think. Truck has 130k on the clock, have no history on previous repairs

Thanks alot

James

 

If you can, pull some plugs out and check to see if they're wet. Sounds an awful lot like bad head gasket(s).

 

Kinda what I was thinking...gonna pull the plugs tomorrow and have a look..Would hate to only do the intake gasket and it be the heads...no over heating issues..oil cap is still clean

 

How does the oil look?

 

oil seemed to look ok...going to take a better look tomorrow at that aswell.

 

check the build date of the engine. There should be a sticker on the driver's side valve cover. If the date is after 1/15/98 you are ok. If not then you make be a potential hydro-lock victim. If you plan on doing the gaskets, I'd suggest doing the upper/lower intake gaskets and the timing cover gasket. If you want to do the head gaskets if they need then go for it. Don't get the fel-pro gaskets, get the good ones from Ford.

 

^^ This.

Also check for vacuum leaks. The elbow under the throttle body, PCV, lines by the battery box, etc.

 

If it's a 97, you should probably do a rebuild. With the coolant looking that crappy, you definitely have some issues that need to be taken care of before it hydrolocks.

 

no vacuum leaks were found....im sure its a couple things adding up to the problem...main concern is the oil type substance in the reservoir..going to pull the plugs in a bit and see how they look


I did a compression test also last weekend (as suggested by my mechanic) and my numbers were 160-170-160 on passenger side, 190-190-190 on drivers side.

 

anyone got a rough estimate on what this job would cost parts wise? going all the way do to the head gaskets

 

Are you doing the work yourself? If so, it would just be the cost of gaskets. If you're paying someone, count on probably 4-6 hours of labour, I'd say.

 

I plan to do the job myself...with the help of a friend....My question is..what should I look at replacing along the way..the best way to go about the job...head gasket kit, plenum, lowering intake manifold, timing chain and water pump, timing chain gasket..etc

 

When I had mine done, since I didn't have a proper place to work on it, it cost me about $1200 for upper/lower gaskets & timing cover gasket. Took about 14 hrs but only got charged for 11. Also be aware that some of the bolts on the timing cover gasket might break inside the motor. One of mine did and they had to drill retap it.

 

I think you will find the rebuild will go a lot easier if you pull the engine and do it on a stand.

It looks like an upper gasket set is in the $150 range - this is head gaskets, exhaust manifold gaskets, valve stem seals, etc. A set of head bolts is about $30. Intake gaskets including plenum is about $60. Front cover gaskets are about $20.

By the time you get done - I'd estimate you will need to spend $300, not including the machining bill for the head rebuilds. If you have them off, I'd recommend you do that.

 

Do you have a aluminum or composite upper intake manifold?