The head gasket blew on my 1997 F-150 for no apparent reason other than it was poorly designed. The engine never overheated, even with 94,000 miles. The ford mechanic that did the work told me he had two more to do this week for the same reason--blown head gasket resulting in a new long block. To say the least, this is unacceptable!

 

Hi and welcome to the forum
We dont allow any talk of law suits on here so I had to edit your post.
Even though your truck has never been overheated, it does have 7 or more years and 94,000 miles on it. Things do break and wear out.
Hopefully you caught it before it did any damage and the engine will last a long time still

 

I see a lot of these too...

about 99% of the owners don't bother to take care of their vehicles, and that is the primary cause....

 

I'm curious as to what specific "taking care of" a person can do to prevent this problem with the ford v-6 engines (4.2 and 3.8)?

 

Replace the engine !. Mine locked up with the same problem. WOund up bending the connecting rod. Cost of a NEW Marshall engine and install was $3600.00. I thought I always knew how to take care of vehicles but gaskets like these are something else to consider. I love my truck but I wish Ford would own up to their 'mistake' instead of trying to slide it past the consumer !

 

Head gaskets going bad is not uncommon for vehicles of this age. Yes, some cars are more prone than others to this due to faulty engineering, but I've never heard of the F150 being one of them. I know, it sucks, but EVERY car or truck is capable of blowing a head gasket!

 

Racerguy,i'm surprised to see a response like that from you! You being a Ford tech,along with all the other Ford techs,know this is a Ford mistake! The 97s and some of the 98 4.2s are prone to lower intake gasket failure! I had Ford replace mine before my engine locked up and the tech said I was lucky because mine had a small tear in them and were soon to fail! Also,I have yet to see a post on a 4.2 head gasket going bad,unless it were run hot! When the person who does post about it being a head gasket,then tear into the motor and see its the lower intake gaskets that went bad,they repost that! My friend,who was a Ford tech for 15 years,now has his own shop,says Ford and the techs,know all too well about the lower intake gasket problems! Anyway,for more information on this,go to this website;
www.leakingfords.com

 

Well whatsThisButtonDo?'s mechanic said it blew a head gasket. I'm assuming he actually diagnosed it properly and that's what he found. If he had said he had a leak or was losing coolant or something then I would maybe have suggested he look at the intake.
In different parts of the country you'll different problems too. Hot weather places see different problems that places that are cool, different water can cause problems not seen in some places etc.
Where I work I dont honestly think I've ever seen an intake gasket leak coolant on a 4.2. We get problems here that arent seen in other places and other places see problems that we dont see here. A good example is plugged EGR ports. Maybe it's due to different gas here but that just doesn't happen where I live. In other places it happens regularly.
And hey...we can't all be perfect anyway

 

Racerguy,very well said.That is why I,and everyone in your forum,have so much respect for you; you dont beat around the bush with your replies.But,can you honestly tell me that you,as a Ford tech,have not known about the lower gasket issues for at least 3-4 years now?

 

I can honestly tell you that if I hadn't seen people on here with the problem then I might not know about it
We don't have too many 4.2s around where I live either so that makes a difference too.