Full history of the motor is it always consumed a little coolant from day one. also i was to lazy and missed registering for the warranty. In any event it would probable hard to get warranty coverage for a blown gasket with out a fight. So the motor is out and ready to pull heads. Do I get both sides done or just the bad side. Full symptoms p0303, hydrocarbons in coolant, milky oil, air pressure test on cylinder 3 shot air out degas bottle. thanks for you info

 

You didn't give year or mileage which is a factor in answering your question correctly. But IMO, with you being that far into it it's silly to not do both sides. If there's over 200K on the engine a valve job would also be in order while the heads are off.

 

so the vehicle 05 expedition xls 142000 ish miles motor has 7000ish miles. replaced after original died from plastic from chain guides choked off the oil supply. i am 3rd owner planning on drive this guy to the grave

 

7k and a blown head gasket? Where did you get this motor from? Big motor chain or a local rebuild? I'd do a through check and/or have someone that is experienced check it. That kind of mileage and then that issue I would be suspect on how it was put together as a whole. Check those head bolt when you take them loose for tightness. I'd put a straight edge on the block and heads to check for warping. Good luck and keep us up to date on the cause of this.

 

Did it come with a warranty?

 

i checked the head bolts with a bar style torque wrench they went past 100 foot pounds. Too tight? waiting on some "ford" tools to dig in. does the cam need to come off the head or can i carefully support the head assembled? looking in on the pass side first. i just hope it is super obvious.

 

head off looks in ok shape flat as a pancake

 

Is this a garbage gasket? couldn't find a name brand online that looks similar

 

and the kick in the pants. after pulling the drivers side i checked the piston heights on both sides and #3 came up a little short

 

So far i have head bolts and felpro performance gasket set. i have a rod and bearing in a cart waiting on opinions, the piston heights for the banks are pretty uniform in relation to each bank the passenger side is a little shorter in height compared to the drivers. #3 was 1/4" short. i guess everything should be equal. so does that mean new rods? or just one bank? how could the crank be off? is it? or get the one rod in and get the passenger side equal?

 

This engine only has 7K on it? It looks more like 170K!

 

Hydro-locked?

is this a 2005 with a leaky injector?
Or did it get loaded up from a leaky head gasket?

 

Looks like its been hydro locked. You'll need to get the crank and rods at the very least checked. I'd plan on a new crank, rods, and pistons. Those water passages don't look 7k unless its been pure water in there. How does the cylinder wall look in #3? Whats the block surface look like? Did it lose anti-freeze or smoke? That intake valve is rusty (maybe a crack in the head?) I'm not familiar with the Tritons so not sure if they are prone to any failures. Have you talked to the company that rebuild the engine? Maybe they used old head bolts that didn't torque or stretch correctly.

 

the injector were checked at the "stealership" before the engine swap. i believe it is water because i was constantly topping up i thought i was chasing an air bubble. the oil remain clean until the extra noise from the bent rod

 

it was pure water for a long time. it was clean oil until it was noisy one morning and it sat for a while before i could open some garage space and time. the cylinders look pretty clean. the deck is straight and clean.