The engine i replaced was because the oil was leaking and hitting the ground, customer saw oil drips in their drive. The engine ran great, just leaked oil.
As far as replacing it, it depends on how bad it is, when i did the tear down for inspection the dimples I talked about before were to deep to be machined, between machining the head and block, so unless you tear it down, you wont know where you stand, might be able to fix it, might need a new one, 50/50 shot. Or if it aint leaking too much, leave it alone

 

Watching ebay most likely wont help. When the heads leak like this, with an engine with many miles, the block will most likely be too severe to fix. Like the above member said, the block surface will form dimples from the burrs in the cylinder heads.

 

Oh , my bad , I thought it was just head damage..

 

On a rare case yes. In my case, I can garantee my block is ruined. Alot of miles and it seeps pretty bad. Basically driving a ticking(literally) time bomb.

 

Well before I blow my $1,600 budget on re-gearing:

Assuming my block isn't trashed, what kind of job am I looking at installing Cometic head gaskets, and just to make it worth my time, some cams??? I could have Mike re-do my tunes for the cams so no problem there. I assume this would also be a good time (depending on cost) to have the heads / intake extrude honed and intake restriction knocked out? I would need to go ahead and step up to #24 injectors too. Guess I'd have to pay to have everything shipped off as well. If the price is unrealistic, I could just dremel out the restriction and leave everything else as is. I'm just wondering if the Cometic gaskets will do the job since I can't exactly check the surface of the block / heads myself, so It would be a bit of a gamble.

Has anyone done a write-up on this kind of job?

 

Any more input here?

 

Start looking into wrecked F-150s and pulling the engines out. I myself am going to start doing that after school. Going to look for a nice 5.4, rebuild it, and boost it.

 

That sounds like an awesome plan

 

Has anyone come up with a solution to bolting up the M5OD to a 5.4 yet? Are there any new 4.6's (3v???) that will bolt up out there these days? How about 3-4 years from now?

What should one expect to pay for a pulled engine vs. new?

 

I wouldn't worry about a little seepage from the head/block area. We have an engine like that on a tractor and it has been like that ever since I can remember. Unless it's a show truck, I wouldn't worry

You could always do the head gasket job for cheap if you do it your self.

As soon as you get those gears in there, you will be having too much fun to worry about a little ol' gasket seepage anyways

 

Hahaha...thanks man.

 

Hi, this is Gary B.. I just joined this forum yesterday looking for info regarding leaking head gaskets on my 2000 Expediton (4.6L). Can anyone tell me ... does the engine have to be pulled to replace the head gaskets? And does anyone have experience with after-market gaskets that have been re-designed to address the problem? I see Ford offers "service-only" replacement gaskets ... are there any brands better than this in the after-market world? Any help is greatly appreciated. -Gary B.

 

Engine does NOT need to be pulled.

I priced all my parts today at work, came out to about $396 my costs for just about everything you need. Look at about $450 for you guys, maybe even more.

The gasket will contiue to erode more and leak more and more until you loose a qaurt or two a day. I'm putting mine off til summer so I can get my IROC done first.

 

Thanks ctc ! Any recommendations on using the Ford "service-only" gaskets vs any after-markets brands. I've had good luck with Felpro gaskets on Cougar and Malibu intake jobs. -Gary B.

 

Ford revised the gaskets for our engine 3 times. The last one stuck. Its about twice as thick as the stock gasket. I would with the Ford ones, I'm not one to put aftermarket products on that revolve around engine teardown. Just go aftermarket with my Camaro. The gaskets my costs are $91, probably around $115 for you guys