2004 ford f250 super duty 5.4l 230,000 miles- driving along the other day and while idling (approx. 5 mph) in traffic my truck shut down with no warning. had it towed back to the house and began checking it over. put the scanner on it and no codes show up while looking under the hood I noticed the coolant was no longer the reservoir tank. after further review low and behold the coolant was now located in the oil pan with oil so I drained it. I went to put water back in it for curiosity and the reservoir did not fill up and the water was back in the oil pan. the truck has done we well since I have bought it new back in 2004 and I would like to fix her up and keep trucking. any ideas where to start would helpful cause looking online at other threads and they point out the intake manifold gasket to head gasket and cracked head.

 

Blow head gaskets is what I suspect.


You could probably get away with just doing a top end rebuild.


I would not start it.

 

at the time of the shut down it would crank but would not start and since having it towed back home I have not tried to either. Thanks for the reply I will start looking into it more.

 

my advice... remove oil/anti-freeze stuff..

drain oil filter.. reinstall
add cheap motor oil and crank engine a few times.. to coat and protect all good metal parts and block.

if doing yourself... remove heads and have them checked for cracks.

mark all hoses and wires for location and order..
photo's are helpful.


best of luck with your Project.
.
.

 

Agree with the comments above. Has it recently overheated? You don't expect a catastrophic leak like that unless it got really hot and warped the head or blew the head gasket.
Pull the plugs to determine which bank went bad. You will find one spark plug very clean as it has been washed well with that leak.

 

Thanks for the advice guys I will pull the plugs and do the other checks as well. And no this is the first real issue this truck has given me beside tires alternator and batteryshoot the starter is still the factory original. I have changed oil and done all my maintenance on the truck since I first bought it new back in 2004. and I guess I have been lucky until this point for nothing else to have happened. Yes will be doing this myself very mechanically inclined gone though much bigger engines (tug boat diesels and train engines) just never my own. Different feelings when you work on your own things LOL.

 

Pressure test the cooling system to see where it is going. Diagnose it before blindly jumping in.

 

Hope it hasn't hydraulic'd one of the cylinders. I would not turn it with plugs in.

 

If you put oil in to lube all the metal parts, make sure and drain all the water first and take the plugs out before you turn it over, that way you won't get more water in the system and won't hydro-lock the engine if water is getting in the top of the cylinder