As the title says i would like to hear your opinion on a couple issues my truck has. The truck is a 99 F250 Super duty 5.4l, and has 230k miles. Has the common passenger side head gasket issue and is dripping oil onto the exhaust. Also seems like it has a bit of piston slap or something on start up, not as loud/noticeable once warm. What i am wanting to do is to fix the head gaskets and noise that seems like piston slap. Not my video but thats exactly what it sounds like: Should i buy the headgaskets and do it myself? Should i replace the main bearings, rod bearings? If i did change the head gaskets my self i would replace the timing chains, guides, tensioners. Should i check compression and if its low on any of the cylinders buy a re ring kit? I was looking at this one: https://www.summitracing.com/parts/f...view/make/ford

Rob

 

I would definetly do a compression test and see where that leads you. That will tell you where you are heading. If your going to be doing head gaskets then your going to go a little deep so that is going to be a key indicator of how deep you want to go.

If you are planning on keeping your truck for a long while yet then lets say you want to replace the stuff you mentioned, I would then look at what it is going to cost you for the parts to reman the engine. If you would rather do the work yourself, nothing wrong with that but I would think you may want to consider whats a reman engine would run you

I dont believe that the 5.4 2v are really expensive compared to it's 3v cousin which seems to be rather pricey still. If it were me and I was going to be doin rod and main bearings etc, then I would go thru the whole shebang and inspect it and consider whats good and what needs to be replaced to make it last a long long time

 

Does the ticking go away after 1 or 2 minutes?
My Exped has 170k and has been ticking when cold since around 100k.
The ticking is on the passenger side, front of the engine, so I've been thinking it is timing chain related.
Once the oil pressure has built up the ticking slowly goes away after a minute or two.
Car runs great with no other noise until it sits for a few hours.
I've been reading when changing the timing chain it's a good time to replace the oil pump.

 

Thanks for the input pocketlint. I plan on keeping the truck for ever. Lol eventually I think I'll buy a Jasper crate engine and put that in once the stock motor finally has had enough. Im just tired of smelling burnt oil every time I drive the truck. I'll definitely check the compression and see what it's at and decide what I'm going to do from there.

 

R&T Babich the sound is more of a tapping sound rather then a ticking sound. Hopefully the ticking sound your hearing isn't a spark plug that's getting ready to take flight! That happened to me about 4 months ago...

 

I change plugs/boots at 50k, torque to 25 ft-lbs and retorque at 10k so it's not a loose plug.
I did have #3 blow on the Excur right after I bought it.
It was an OEM plug with 108k, never made a sound, just blew out.

 

Small update, i crawled under the truck and cleaned all the oil off with brake cleaner and drove the truck around for about 10-15 minutes. The oil is definitely coming from the head gasket and is dripping onto the exhaust once enough has leaked out. Also while i was under the truck that "Piston Slap" Tapping noise seemed to be coming from the catalytic converter???

 

I had a 97 expedition with a 5.4 for a while. It was a $500 find that was a lets see what happens. I ended up replacing a couple coil packs and replacing intake gaskets. I drove it around for a year and sold it for $800. It had 233,000 miles on it. It was a good runner.

Part of me wishes I would have kept it. But I had too many vehicles.

 

Oil leak coming from a head gasket?
Do you mean the valve cover gasket instead?

 

Good luck. Anything is fixable. I had a 5.4 in a 09 super duty crew. When I was told it needed the cab lifted to change the manifold gaskets I cringed and stopped by the local Ford dealer. Came out with a 2015 super duty crew with a 6.7L. Yes not cheap date but I like it a lot!
Regards,
Chris

 

If you can pick up a reman for about $2000, I would suggest to do that and you can take your time and rebuild the other one on the weekends and have it ready to install, when the reman, gives out, after all, you did say you were keeping it forever...LOL

 

I had an '04 250 with the 5.4 in it and what has sparked my interest in this thread. I think with 230k on the engine and you're considering doing a head gasket I'm not sure stopping there is really the best thing you can do. With that many miles my thought is something else is "next". If you have the thing out of the truck and 3/4 of the way torn down you should probably go all the way and do a full rebuild. Do it yourself, have someone else do it, buy a low mileage used engine, a rebuilt replacement or a crate "better more powerful" engine is really up to how much you like tinkering, how long you can be without your truck and your budget. I wouldn't just replace the head gaskets on an engine with over 200,000 miles on it.
Please keep us posted - and if you do decide to rebuild the thing yourself please share the rebuild with those of us whose talent level and ability to tackle a project like this are either not there or behind us. Please post plenty of pictures of your progress - we'll drool over them and you'll have them to show folks and be proud of forever.

 

The oil is definitely coming from the head gasket.

 

i have no idea what im going to do. i think a engine swap would be the best option as the motor has almost hit 230k. When i finally get time to fix this motor or swap something else in ill be sure to update everyone and take plenty of pictures!

 

If you want my opinion your going to have to go in deep and the list of what you ought to do in while your in that deep would grow. I think it's time to make some calls and find out what a reman engine would cost, whether its from Ford or elsewhere and the cost of installation. Most remans will have a warranty of some sort so that will be a little insurance down the road.

Then you need to figure out what it would cost you just to do the head gaskets, because obviously it will be more than that valve cover gaskets, fron cover gasket various seals etc. So you would need to add up the cost of doing the head gaskets and think about a fudge budget cause you never know what may be lurking that may also need to be replace or redone.

If you want my honest opinion get a reman engine, talk to a bunch of ford dealers for a reman and get everyone to give you a price and make sure to tell them your also getting quotes from other dealers and work on getting the best price. I believe fords 5.4 remans come with a good warranty that you can use at any Ford dealer.

You can also try other places that do reman engines like Jasper and other places and see what pricing you can get and go from there.

To go as deep as you may have to there comes the choice of is it worth it to rehab it and can you do all the work, because like I said you would have to have your budget set up for everything to the head gaskets and then a fudge budget for anything more that might need to be done and that's why I say you may want to keep a reman engine spec'd and priced out and see what you believe is in your best interest