Bad Heads
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Bad Heads
I have a 98 with 4.6 motor. I had coolant leaking under the thermostat. Diagnosed it as leaking manifold gasket. Wasn't that but have two other problems.
1. The outside wall of the water passage on that head is extremely thin. It had cracked and the previous owner put regular epoxy on it and the epoxy cracked. I have cleaned the area and will put epoxy putty to build the wall back up.
2. Bought Fel-Pro manifold gaskets as listed by the parts store. The alighnment pins are on the opposite side of the small holes in my head. The gasket has the pins on the bottom side, the heads alighnment holes are on the upper side.
Question: Has anyone else had this problem, and any ideas about the index pins? What year motor do I have? Also, why is that water passage wall so blasted thin?
1. The outside wall of the water passage on that head is extremely thin. It had cracked and the previous owner put regular epoxy on it and the epoxy cracked. I have cleaned the area and will put epoxy putty to build the wall back up.
2. Bought Fel-Pro manifold gaskets as listed by the parts store. The alighnment pins are on the opposite side of the small holes in my head. The gasket has the pins on the bottom side, the heads alighnment holes are on the upper side.
Question: Has anyone else had this problem, and any ideas about the index pins? What year motor do I have? Also, why is that water passage wall so blasted thin?
Hotshot
Joined: Aug 2002
Posts: 12,679
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From: BC, Canada
Bad Heads
Hi F100_72 and welcome to FTE 
I have never seen a head crack like yours so I dont know what to suggest but I think I'd try some JB Weld epoxy and see what happens. It hardens enough that you can drill, file it etc. It's good stuff.
I have never used FelPro gaskets on a modular engine but I know that Ford has bad gasket listings in their catalogs. It seems that quite often we just have to take in the old intake gaskets and match them up.
Let us know how it goes.
I have never seen a head crack like yours so I dont know what to suggest but I think I'd try some JB Weld epoxy and see what happens. It hardens enough that you can drill, file it etc. It's good stuff.
I have never used FelPro gaskets on a modular engine but I know that Ford has bad gasket listings in their catalogs. It seems that quite often we just have to take in the old intake gaskets and match them up.
Let us know how it goes.
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Bad Heads
Thanks for the reply. Since my post, I have contacted FoMoCo. There appears to be a slim chance they may do something about it, if it a bad casting and apparently they think they should. Now I have to haul it 45 miles over a mountain to the closest Ford Dealer so it can be inspected.
I was planning on using "Quick Steel" an epoxy putty that can be kneaded and doesn't drip. I now have a hole that has to be plugged. My concern with this is the heat. I have two tubes, one rated at 300F and the other 500F. I'm thinking either will work. If those alumn. heads get over 300F they will probably go south anyway.
There does seem to be something about the Ford Numbers. I called a dealer with the original intake part #. Found out it was an engineering number and the best they could tell me was that iit was from a Windsor Motor. I knew that from the VIN.
This little project has convinced me to finish rebuilding that '72 sitting in my yard (make my wife happy also). Get rid of this supposedly new and improved truck and stay away from anything new then '96.
I was planning on using "Quick Steel" an epoxy putty that can be kneaded and doesn't drip. I now have a hole that has to be plugged. My concern with this is the heat. I have two tubes, one rated at 300F and the other 500F. I'm thinking either will work. If those alumn. heads get over 300F they will probably go south anyway.
There does seem to be something about the Ford Numbers. I called a dealer with the original intake part #. Found out it was an engineering number and the best they could tell me was that iit was from a Windsor Motor. I knew that from the VIN.
This little project has convinced me to finish rebuilding that '72 sitting in my yard (make my wife happy also). Get rid of this supposedly new and improved truck and stay away from anything new then '96.
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