Nope. That's Ford Gold on top and black stuff I sucked off the bottom of the degas tank. I was thinking sand now????????

 

UPDATE:

Finally got something from Grapevine Ford. They said it's fuel in the coolant. They want $1000 to pull the heads to determine if it's gaskets or the heads. They will apply that to any repairs we do. I could be out a total of $4500 if I need heads and gaskets. They will put in ARP studs, might as well if I'm going in this far. If I need any injectors those are extra of course plus the fan clutch and a cooling system flush.

Is this price decent considering I'm stranded or are they taking advantage of us?

Should I even do this or just get another truck?

Thanks

Fred

 

If you like the truck and want to keep it, you are the only one that can determine if its worth it. Head gaskets and studs would be best case scenario. More than likely it needs heads. Can you do the work yourself and tow the trailer home with a rental? That would save the labor charges.

 

I have no way to tow 2 vehicles back to OH. I'm stuck. If I could sell them both here that would be good but it's not going to happen. I wish i had the talent to do the work, if this happened at home I might have tried it. Not really though.

I do like the truck, it's one of those older, a little rough around the edges truck. Go anywhere, pull anything, big and comfy. Hate to part with it. Have to wait and see what the ford shop comes back with. Gave them the OK to do the teardown and testing.

 

If that really is fuel into coolant, I would say to tell them to slam dunk two new cylinder heads (which comes with a gasket and standpipe), as well as the fan clutch and water pump along with your ARPs and call it good, if you have the means to do it. The cylinder heads alone, will set you back a good $1100 each if I recall correctly, so see what kind of quote they come back with.

 

<p>Actually 4500 bucks doesn't sound too bad if both cylinder heads get replaced as you have over 2 grand in parts. If your truck is 05-07 have them make sure it goes back together with the updated dummy rail plugs</p>

 

I asked what happens once the heads are off. Do they go to an outside shop for inspection and machining or do they do it in house. He said it goes out. Next question I asked was if they are cracked, new heads? He said maybe. The shop they have has a process to repair cracked heads. Do I repair or replace? Should I even trust a repair? Once they are in that far, what else should be replaced or updated.

Thanks

Fred

 

We're still trying to come to grips with the 4500 number. We can't afford 4 or 5 years of new truck payments unless we had no choice. It's the lesser of the 2 evils. The million dollar question. If the truck gets studs, new heads, gaskets, fan clutch, water pump,belt and all the other stuff to upgrade it, could I reasonably expect to get another 100K miles out of it or is best to run it for another year and then get another truck. What's the longevity of these repairs?

Thanks

Fred

 

That is the million dollar question. No one can answer that. My opinion is the truck is worth more than 5k, so someone is going to fix it even if you don't.
Btw thanks for sharing your pictures and bringing this to light. I have to say I learned something from a few on this thread. As well as symptoms of fuel in coolant.

This is great advice. +1

 

I was in and talked to bpd about my heads last month. I am told there is a tsb on how to determine where the cracks are with out pulling the heads. Also they said it is usually the passanger side thet gets the cracks which are in the head not the cups. They are testing a process to repair without removing the heads. I choose to pull my heads and the machine shop I use is the same one bpd uses. They pressure tested the heads and I had cracks near two different injector bores. They sent the heads to another guy who has done alot of R&D on the 6.0 heads apparently and has found a way to repair them and has done many with zero failures. the charge to me was 300 to repair the cracks. I think he bores it out and sleeves it but not sure. I did all the rest of the work myself and had the truck back up and running in a week for about 1k but I already had studs etc. Bpd said they would rather send the heads out and have them repaird then get new ones because the new ones could fail just a easily due to the fact there are no more new ones they are all remans. Also any orings etc in the cooling system should be replaced (water pump, thermostate etc) mine were all distorted. I was quoted 978.00 ea from auto nation for heads. When I was researching this.

 

Although this can never be guaranteed to last X amount of miles I would have to say yes it is more than worth it. There is one member on the forums here who got over 500,000 miles on his 6.0L before having to rebuild the motor. 4500 bucks wouldn't even come close to covering payments on a new truck for a year.

 

Speaking of I wonder if he could do a haul back and how much he would have
to charge. If you want to try that way. Right now I see the flowing problems.
Getting truck fixed in a fair amount of time and not costing an arm and a leg.
Getting the trailer home and/or selling it Or storage in Ca and picking it up
at a later date. One other option is having someone haul it back for fuel and
travel expense. I guess one would have to know hitch or 5th wheel also.

Now I recall you saying that you were thinking of selling it. So I have to ask
what type and how much you need out of it.

Sean

 

Funny, I was thinking the same thing. Then he could tow his trailer home with a rental truck.

 

I am not going to argue that it is a costly repair we are talking about. However, the numerous trucks I have ARP studded with OEM gaskets through the last couple of years seem to have held up quite well without further issues. More than a few that have been returning for regular maintenance have began to rust out the top threads of the exposed studs after being installed for a couple years, and now have in excess of 100K miles from the repair.

For what it's worth, any Ford/Motorcraft part installed on a vehicle at customer expense carries a 1 year/12K mile (20K kms.) warranty from the date of install at the very least. On major components like cylinder heads, you might have a 2 year/Unlimited mileage (or other unknown mileage) warranty on the part(s) and labour which is valid at any other Ford store.

 

As someone who has been stranded with an RV, it gets to be all about timing. Do you have the time to wait for the repairs? What would another truck cost? Does this ford dealer happen to have a comparable truck on their lot for sale? How much is it? Unless it has some sort of warranty, a used truck might just leave you right back where you started, but broke down in a different city. We decided to have ours fixed, drove it for a couple more years after that.

The only reason I would get rid of this truck, would be if you don't like it (other than leaving you stranded) for some reason. Looks like you like this truck, so 5k to repair it seems pretty good to me, especially if this is the first major repair. This is your second degas bottle for the same issue, so I'd say you've been on borrowed time for a while.