I keep sporadically reading about these engines having problems with coolant leaking into the cylinder. Is this the head gasket? And I also read people say that the gaskets on these engines were terrible in the late 90s, which makes it sound like ford took care of the gasket problem. Does that mean my 2003 4.2 should be ok?

Hoping someone has more knowledge on these than me, I don't want to make any assumptions.

 

My 2000 hydrolocked so I have the same question.

I've decided to throw a used 4.2 in my truck so I'm looking for the most recent engine (assuming I swap over all my external parts) which will fit.

Since I'll have the engine out I'll replace the lower intake gaskets anyway. (The head gaskets aren't an issue.)

The good news is it's not a difficult job to do the intake gaskets in the truck if you ever want to do it yourself.

 

But how about the van? haha

Ive ordered the gaskets and plan to make that my weekend

 

I'm just going to answer my own question here for reference-

As monckywrench suggested, the issue of coolant getting into the cylinders is due to the lower intake manifold gasket. I never figured out any information about years, most of the people I read about having the problem had late 90s vehicles. I needed to change my upper intake manifold gaskets/isolator bolts so I figured what the hell and did the lower gaskets too.

If you know what you're doing this job doesnt need to take more than a day, but I'd plan a full day around it. If you are new to this sort of thing like me, it could take 2 days. I take my time with making sure I'm sure about what I'm doing every step of the way, cleaning, re checking things, yadda yadda. I also made some rookie mistakes like not draining the coolant and not using a torque wrench correctly which added significant time to the project. I had to change my coolant tainted oil after it got into everything, and clear the cylinders. I also broke 3 bolts which became their own project.