To keep this from turning into an epic novel, I will keep this straight and to the point.

12 photos for your viewing pleasure. The first one shows pieces of the engine that I picked up off of the road while waiting for the tow truck. The last one is from yesterday about an hour after we picked up our truck.

Last September after an oil change I found a small piece of good quality metal in my oil drain pan. I emailed photos immediately to my Ford Dealership in Panama City, Florida and got the piece of metal to them. Ford engineering got involved and had them take the top end of the engine apart to inspect the valve train. Nothing was found and the truck was returned to me. In my mind I figured that maybe it was just a piece that was left in the lower end during assembly. No telling where it came from but I wasn't expecting them to disassemble the engine.

Fast forward to March 23rd of this year. I took the day off from work to perform the 30,000 mile service on the truck. While pouring out the used engine oil, I heard the sound of a piece of metal sliding in the drain pan. It was very similar to the piece that I found back in September. Once again, I emailed pictures to my Ford Dealership in Panama City, Florida. They got in contact with Ford and wanted me to bring the truck in for a few days so that they could inspect the engine. My plan was to bring it to them 1st thing in the morning on the 30th of March, as I could not get away from work before then. On the 29th of March while driving home from work, I was passing some cars on a two lane highway and the engine came apart. I initially thought that I had lost a tire because of the smoke and debris that was flying and then I looked down at the instrument panel and saw the warnings. I knew the engine was gone. The truck had enough momentum built up that I was able to finish passing the cars and get back over into my lane and start to pull off of the road. I was fortunate in that it was a good spot to pull safely off of the road. The bad thing, my wife and I have joked in the past that if we break down, it will be on this section of the road where there is almost no cell service. I was going to get in the bed of the truck to gain some height and try to make a phone call but there was oil everywhere and I really didn't want to ruin my business casual clothes. I stood on the driver side running board and put my phone on speaker phone and held it as high as I could and was barely able to get cell service. I was able to contact the service manager at my dealer and he made the phone call to Ford to have the truck towed to Panama City (not the closest Ford dealership), and it was.

Fast forward again to yesterday, 27 April about a month has passed by since the catastrophic failure of the engine. I picked up my truck. This is what the Diesel Technician typed on the repair order:

PERFORM SELFTEST NO DTCS, CHECK RELATIVE COMP, CYL #2 LOW 48%, VISUAL INSPECTION SHOW HOLE IN OIL PAN, PERFORMED MANUAL COMPRESSION TEST CYL# 1,3,4,5,6,7,8 AROUND 150 PSI TO 175 PSI CYL#2 WAS AT 0 PSI, REMOVED RH VALVE COVER AND FOUND ALL ROCKER ARMS BROKEN, AND ALL PUSH RODS BENT, REMOVED LH VALVE COVER ALSO HAD ALL ROCKER ARM BROKEN AND ALL PUSH RODS BENT, REMOVED CAB. REMOVED BOTH CYL HEADS, FOUND #2 PISTON NOT MOVING, REMOVED ENGINE AND DISASSEMBLED FOUND HOLE IN PAN AND SIDE OF BLOCK, #2 ROD IN PIECES AND AT THE BOTTOM OF THE PAN, INSTALLED NEW SHORT BLOCK, OIL PAN, ROCKER ARMS AND PUSH RODS, REASSEMBLED AND RETESTED OK

I have driven about 100 miles since yesterday and I'm planning a 150 mile trip tomorrow. So far it is driving and performing as good as the day it was purchased.

In summary,

This dealership is absolutely the best. Everyone is professional, well trained, and very helpful. If Ford needs a dealership for others to model after, this is the one. They gave me an F-150 with 1,900 miles on it to drive while the truck was being repaired. They detailed my F-250 so that when I picked it up yesterday, it literally looked and smelled new. Also, Ford gave us the Premium Care extended warranty plan to extend out the vehicles warranty to November 2015 or 75,000 miles.

My wife and I drove out of the dealership having to pay nothing. We will be customers of theirs for life and will give a glowing recommendation for this dealership to anyone that is looking to purchase a Ford. Great place, even greater people.

Thank you Cook-Whitehead Ford Inc

 

Appreciate you taking the time to share a positive experience. They do happen and the dealers that make them happen deserve the credit. Glad to hear you're happy with the results!

 

Thanks for posting this.
The dealership really does matter.

BTW - the URL to the pictures isn't working for public viewing.

 

Very interesting, thanks for posting! Any idea what this metal was and how it came apart? With the valvetrain damage on both banks it seems like it may be a camshaft or timing issue to me...

 

Thanks for the post. Always good to hear the positive stories too and that there are some great dealers out there.

 

COOL!!! Glad to hear some good news out of the FOMOCO camp.

I'll have to put Cook-Whitehead Ford in my Google Maps favorites. I wonder if they've done any HPFP's?

 

http://photobucket.com/2011engine

 

I was told the damage was so severe that they could not determined what happened. I got to talk to the Diesel Tech that did the repairs when we picked up the truck. He felt the pieces that I found during the oil changes were pieces of a piston skirt.

 

congrats on the successful repair. To tell you the truth the way it all happened was probably the best way.

It ensured that all metal is now gone from the internals.

 

I can't get it to work. Might I suggest you upload them to Photobucket and share from there? Check out THIS THREAD for better instructions.

 

How about this link?

Pictures by azbphotos1 - Photobucket

 

Is this truck a job 1 or job 2?

 

That works better. And from there I can click the "IMG" tag for each link and paste here...

EDIT: Added to OP.

 

Not sure which "job" it is but the OASIS shows it was built November 12th of 2010.

 

Thanks for providing us this link. Seems similar to my situation except there was no exterior clue on mine. Well, and also that they only found 7 pistons......