I just posted about a friend's truck. This one is mine...

It's an 02 F150 XLT 4.6L Romeo. About a month ago, I started smelling burning oil. The smell you get when you spill a little oil while adding oil. It drips down on the exhaust manifold and burns off and I'd say everyone here knows what smell I am talking about.

At first, that's all I thought it was. But I kept smelling it so I got suspicious...

I checked my oil level and I was a little low but nothing alarming. When I popped the oil filler cap to bring it up to proper level, I noticed the dreaded frothy-milkshake on the underside of my cap. When I looked in my radiator reservoir, the fluid was brown (could be just dirty but could also have oil in it). I crawled under the truck and I could see oil on the passenger side, apparently coming from the back of the head, down the block, and on the under side of the engine and on the bell-housing of the tranny.

Needless to say, I'm suspecting a blown head gasket. I don't have much money right now (and I keep sinking money into this truck). I can do the head gasket repair. But the truck has 123,000 miles so I was thinking I could possibly find an engine with less miles, spend a little more money or about the same, and just do an engine swap.

Can anyone help me find an engine at a good price? Or help me save money at all?

Right now, I'm losing around a quart per month - but it will get worse...

 

Were it my truck, I'd maybe line up a source for the engine, but not buy one just yet. First thing to do is pull the head (s). IF the head is in great shape after cleaning, no warp, no cracks, etc., repairing the gasket issue is much less $$$ than swapping the engine.

If you repair the head gasket issue, there is a service repair gasket just for this ( besides a clone to the original). If you can find that gasket, use it.

At 123,000 mi., it's just nicely broken in. Another engine may give you the same problem eventually. The only way I'd consider an engine swap is if the original head is junk. Replacing that probably will cost more than another engine would.

Dave