I borrowed a friends 2000 Excursion with the Triton V10, along with his 3300lb, 28' trailer to tow a car from Ashland, OR to Reno, NV to begin a restoration project. His Excursion has 175,000 miles on it and made the trip down flawlessly, but as they say, "No good deed goes unpunished." When attempting to return last Sunday, had to turn around due to overheating problems. Analysis at a local automotive shop concluded a bad radiator cap. Attempted the return trip Tuesday and the same thing happened (only got farther due to the new cap and ability to hold pressure longer). Finally got into a Ford dealer and have been informed that the truck has a bad head gasket causing pressure to leak into the cooling system. They suggest replacement of with a remanufactureded engine as opposed to replacing head gaskets, due to the time on the entire engine (who knows what else might be bad?). The vehicle can be driven around town for miles with no problems. But put that heavy load on it and grades and it spews out nearly "all" of the coolant. Trying to determine the best and most costly approach to repair. Reman-ed engines appear to run $2100-$3400 and install $1500-$2000. Any ideas or suggestions out there in the cloud?

 

Ouch! Are you footing the bill to fix this since the truck ran perfect when you borrow it?

That's $5,400 total cost. Need another opinion beside the dealer...

 

I would make sure the HGs are bad first. Bad thermos and caps can raise havoc.

 

Thanks EXv10- the Excursion has both new cap and thermostat. Analysis detected exhaust in the coolant. Doesn't sound promising.

 

You might want to do a compression check also.

 

Yeah...will do.Compression along with leak down test for ring quality check. But working on getting the vehicle home first. Thanks for your input. Have any input as to why the $1300 disparity between the engine suppliers? Nationwide Reman's, Austin, TX - $2100. Barnett's engines, Virginia, $3425.

 

No but I would shop around.

 

Wow, that doesn't sound good.

Head gaskets aren't a common point of failure on these engines, but like anything mechanical they can break. I don't think you should be on the hook for this; it's virtually impossible to blow a head gasket through abuse. If it didn't happen to you it would have happened to him. No clue why the disparity in reman prices, but I would evaluate the choices based on warranty and cost and go from there.

 

I have to differ, if you continue to drive with a hot engine it can happen. Luckily mine went into failsafe mode over and over when I had my thermo and cap problems.

 

This is true, but is that what happened? I should have said that driving style can't blow a head gasket.