2000 ext cab 4x4 5.4 92350 miles

Took my truck in on Friday for New Plugs, fuel Filter, New SI/DO Exhaust, New 285/75/16. When I picked the truck up it looked great except when I went into pay. The guy told me I am going to have some major problems down the road he showed me the plugs they were the original plugs and they had white corrosion on them, he said it was coolant and that I had cracked heads he said that these motors were known for this. Any ideas???

 

Known for cracked heads ? Not to my knowledge. Most likley the gasket. - Unless you overheated it , but I don't think that's even possible before "limp mode" kicks in ..I think that's around 315 degrees F.

 

doubt its a cracked head... Do you have coolant in the oil?

 

Do a coolant pressure test, AZone will loan you the tester.

 

How would I tell if I have coolant in the oil?? No one has ever mentioned it ot me when I had the oil changed. I am a little confused now that I think of it becasue if I have a cracked head or a blown head gasket wouldn't I be going through coolant??? I have had the truck for a year and put 22,000 miles on it and coolant is the one thing that I have not had to add to since I got the thruck???

 

"White corrosion" on spark plugs could be normal fuel deposits..........

 

With 90K on your 7 year old plugs they might look like alot of things If your oil doesn't look milky or your not blowing coolant out of the tank I'd wouldn't get too excited.

If the leak is big you can get that steam cleaning action going on in the chamber so when you pull the plug and they look so clean.

One way to tell if you have a crack head is to removed it and have it pressure tested. You can even tell from looking at the head gasket if it's blown.

But if your truck in running good and there's no puddle under the engine

 

Cracked head? I have been in on the testing, buildup and teardown of well over a thousand of these 4.6's. I cannot recall a cracked cyl head. Blown gasket is possible but as others mentioned you should be pressurizing your coolant system with combuston gases. White specks in combustion chamber and inside exhaust manifolds are a indicator of coolant being induced into the chamber. However the engine should be emiting white smoke. I hate too question the mechanics knowledge on this but like someone else stated white deposits on the plugs can be deposits from the fuel. I personally would not get to worked up about this unless the truck is running bad, smoking, etc. I have seen red deposits, blue, grey, white, orange, you name it, all caused by fuel additives from various areas of the US. Canada,and Mexico. Take care.