Does anyone have any ideas, I have a 5.4L that has alot of coolant in the sump. If I put a pressure guage on the radiator and start the engine, the pressure climbs quickly and would ruin my guage if I left the unit running. The Ford dealers state that the head gaskets "never" fail, so other that a cracked head, does anyone have an idea, I don't want to tear the head off unless I have to.

Thanks for any assistance.

 

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I may be just an amateur, but anything that drives up the pressure in the cooling system is cylinder compression leaking into the water jacket. Or exhaust, somehow, but improbable.

Either way, I think there's no option but to pull the head. What else can leak cylinder pressure to the water jacket except the cylinder wall (cracked), bad head gasket (we hope) or cracked head.

art k.

 

I heard a rumor that there is something with the water pump that can leak into the crankcase, anyone heard this?

 

The water pump itself? Nope!

It bolts onto the block and has no access to the crankcase. Back to cracked block if it's behind the water pump.

On edit: and that does NOT explain compression getting into the cooling system.