Serviced by Ford on 07/24/2000 at 39,545 miles per Program Number 99B29 bulletin (engine front cover gasket replacement)

Most recent service was a normal oil and filter change at the local Ford dealership at 72,178 miles on 04/04/2003

Tuesday, 05/20/2003 suddenly overheated and was PARKED asap at 73,366 miles

Friday, 05/23/2003 (before attempting to crank the engine again even once) checked coolant and oil dip-stick levels (coolant low and oil high?), drained a sample of what appears to be coolant from the oil pan and removed spark-plugs

Plugs dry, no extenal signs of coolant loss and engine frozen/will not crank with plugs removed

A properly maintained engine, with no previous history of problems and that has seen on light-duty service (extemely little/light hauling/zero towing) should last longer than 73,366 miles

Six year and 60,000 miles warranty expired

So far Ford is backing away from any responsibility or being much help

My 1954 Ford F-150 lasted longer and first engine failure having also owned Dodge, Plymouth, Datsun, Honda, Saturn and other Ford models whose engines all exceeded 125,000 miles and were still running when I sold them.

 

Your lower intake manifold gasket has most likely failed.

There were quite a few problems and repeat failures on engines that had their front cover gasket replaced under 99B29 before April 2000. But, by July 2000 they pretty much knew what they were doing. It's not likely that the front cover gasket has failed a 2nd time.

Ford won't accept responsibility because, by my estimate, there are at least 250,000 4.2L trucks that have the weak lower intake gaskets. Multiply $300.00 x 250,000 and you have a good idea why Ford won't fix their mistake. The 4.2L vans of the same era also have these same gaskets, so it would be very, very costly for Ford to do the right thing here.

If you have coolant in the oil this is bad. But, as long as the engine is not knocking from the coolant contamination, you just have to replace the failed gaskets and change the oil. It's really not any more complicated than that. Coolant is heavier than oil, so it will settle harmlessly at the bottom of then engine as long as you don't start it.

www.leakingfords.com

 

A far as I can tell, with the plugs removed the engine will not crank at all, indicating some serious bearing and/or ring damage?

 

Sorry

I was under the impression that you simply found coolant in the oil so far.