I am a new poster here.

My dad and I own a small fleet of vehicles for our business. Our most recent purchases were in the spring of 2014. We picked up a matched pair of 2011 F350 SD, CC/LB/4WD/XLTs with 6.2L gas engines. We purchased the pickups very reasonably and they are very nice pickups. At purchase they had 114K and 125K miles.

The pickups now have 150K and 190K on it and we love them. Well, loved. Our miles traditionally go on in the summer and fast, Jan-April the pickups do not get 2500 miles put on them.

My pickup had the exhaust plug on it in December, after having a couple dealers look at it and diagnose it as the right bank having no compression an old mechanic told me yank the exhaust at the manifolds and see what happens. I did. Ran great. I modified my converters and the pickup has run fine. I decided today to take it out and drive it before we addressed the exhaust/check engine light. Made it six miles, the engine went to wrapping and rattling, pulled over, it is locked up. Drained the pan and it had antifreeze in it.

It is my assumption that pickup is worth little to nothing (<$2000) with a down engine. The pickup is way, way, way to nice not to fix it.

So I need an engine. I have built a couple gas and diesel engines but nothing this new. I don't really have the time to attack it. So my question is, what should I do for an engine?

Used?
Reman? Ford or other brand?
New?

Is this common at this milage? Should I be looking to dump the other pickup ASAP? Was my exhaust plugging the cause or a symptom of the problem?

 

It seems to me that the plugged cats caused the head gasket to go bad. I had this same problem on a early 90's F150 some time ago. Plugged cat converter=higher back pressure=blown head gasket=water in the oil. Jasper usually has good reman engines with a good nationwide warranty. Don't want to do it yourself? Once you take off the electronic BS, its just a gas engine with 2 plugs per cylinder.........

 

The swap does not scare me, I will do it. I just don't have time to build the engine. Though I have not looked at it, as simple as pulling the cab is I bet the engine swap is a piece of cake. Maybe not, either way I will do the swap myself.

 

I would go ford re-man,