Yes. It's been doing that, however slowly for about 7 months. Could be the gasket itself. But knowing these composite manifolds are known to go to crap after a while, might as well spend the money now. I'm still stumped on why the engine is not getting up to operating temp. It's bugging the crap out of me. I would run it without it, but that could cause more issues. I can confirm that there is no water getting into the oil because the oil is still clean and no milky color with it.

 

So did you get this fixed? Was the intake the culprit or was it air pockets?

 

Haven't had it fixed yet. Been waiting on tax returns and paychecks to come through before I get the shop to work on it. Will update this soon as I can have it fixed up.

 

As the title suggests, I'm starting to think that stop leak might be contributing to my under heating. I'll be having the repair done this week hopefully and I'm wondering if I should have them do a coolant flush to get the junk out? Would a complete flush even work at this point?

 

Ordered my intake manifold, gaskets, thermostat and a new serpentine belt (it needed replacing anyway). So now it's just a waiting game for the parts to arrive at my dealership and then I can setup an appointment to have it all done. Yes it's all Motorcraft parts.

Eventual list of stuff to replace:

Power steering flush
Right side valve cover gasket
Rear pinion seal on transfercase
4 new tires
Brakes and flush

Vehicle has 195K miles on it and we are hoping to make it to 250K.

 

Well got my parts today. I guess the FNG in parts thought it was for a customer not an employee, so my parts have been here for a couple weeks. MSRP for the manifold, is about $425 for a genuine Motorcraft part, my cost with discount is $358. Still very expensive. I got the gaskets for the manifold, new thermostat (Motorcraft number RT1234 and it's a 192F), and a new serpentine belt. My total cost for parts alone is $545.67. Labor for me will be about $546. It's 3 hours for the intake manifold, and probably about 30 minutes for the belt, at my cost of $84 an hour. The dealer I work at charges $120 an hour for labor.

Later today I'll give all the part numbers and actual retail prices. I'll be setting up an appointment soon to have this all done. Like I've said, I'd do this myself, however living at an apartment, I don't get that luxury.

 

So after fighting tooth and nail to get it into the shop (set up an appointment for this past Monday) and it's taken until today for it to be worked on. Excuse number one was because the fuel rail had to be lifted and they were worried that the o-rings on the injectors would rip, so they wanted a set on hand just in case.

So the service advisor just told me because of the age of the vehicle, the guy has to take his time to take it apart and put it together so it does not tear or rip any vacuum or any or important lines. It was brought in at 11:30 this morning and it's now 3:30pm. The mechanics leave at 5 and 6pm. So there's a small chance it'll be done today, other wise I'm without a vehicle, unless I want to pay $35 per day for a loaner car, probably be a Dodge Dart.

So glad you only pay for book time and not actual, unless they decide to really screw me over.

 

boy this is turning into a money spending adventure. im too cheap and non-trusting of others to let them do anything to my stuff. hope they take care of you. good luck

 

I'm lucky enough to be an employee and get a discount on parts and labor. You only pay book time (customer and employee), so since it's been over the 2.9 hour book time, I'm only paying for 2.9 and not over 8 hours. Regular is $124 per hour, my discount is for $84 an hour.

Now here's for what we've waited for, the leak was from a crack in the aluminum Thermostat housing, so the whole manifold needs to be replaced. That was my original intent, so I bought a Ford manifold. The composite manifold was fine, just a crack in the aluminum was all the cause of this issue. I have a loaner vehicle to drive for the day, and the Mountaineer should be done tomorrow.

 

Found out today by the tech that a coil pack is shorting out because of a torn boot, which was causing a misfire. I'll have to ask him which one again it was so I can get that fixed. Quick question, what's a great alternative to Motorcraft coil packs? How do Borgwarner hold up to Motorcraft? And who is the manufacturer of Motorcraft coil packs? If I can get a food deal on a Borgwarner, I'll do that, unless they are not as good as OEM.

So paid for the vehicle now, grand total $347.60. Poindexter didn't want to take off labor for the thermostat so that added $50.50 to my bill. Oh well, hopefully I won't have anymore stupid no heating problems. I'll get the coil pack replaced within the next few weeks and should be golden.

 

Okay now I'm pissed! Drove home tonight and the water temp gauge didn't even really get to the first line and I live a good 10 miles away from work. Got home, popped the hood and grabbed the upper radiator hose, wasn't even hot. Pulled the reservoir cap off, and the coolant wasn't under pressure. Far as I know, not losing coolant anymore, but I'll know more in the morning before I leave for work. Brand new Motorcraft 195F thermostat not helping. Hell they even just used the old coolant they flushed out, not even putting in much new in. The heat was on when they gave it back to me with the fan on full blast. When I looked at the dash, the water temp was at cold, and thought maybe it's been sitting in the tech's stall or outside for a bit and cooled down.

I honestly have no idea what the hell is wrong at this point. Thermostat was replaced, intake manifold was replaced. System should have been burped of all air...December and Janurary it was running fine, then i replaced the thermostat because it was stuck, or at least not opening all the way and not letting the system warm up all the way, and then the 180F one wasn't doing anything. Is there some sensor that I don't know about that's causing this or am I just going crazy over phantom problems at this point?

 

So decided to try something, I unscrewed the cap just enough so it would not hold pressure in the reservoir and drove about 20 miles around town. I stopped at a parking lot for a bit and shut the engine off, popped the hood and tighten the cap down. I did feel the upper radiator hose and it was very hot. Turned the key and started the engine and the water temp gauge had gone to the 3rd line, but then dropped back to the first line as I drove away. So is it a bad cap at this point?

 

Before reading your most recent post I was going to ask if anyone has tested your pressure cap or pressure tested the cooling system. Also, keep in mind that the sensor for the gauge is different than the sensor for the PCM.

As far as if Borg Warner is as good as Motorcraft, it's kind of hit and miss. Years ago I was replacing all the coils on my wife's Lincoln LS for a similar issue as your coil is having. I bought 6 Borg Warner coils from the local auto parts store and 5 of the 6 actually were stamped Motorcraft with the Motorcraft part number. The one outlier had an odd part number and no brand label.

-Rod

 

Nope, haven't had it checked, though I know the cap itself is 6 years old so it might be bad. I'll get a Motorcraft coil pack at that point.

 

From everything I've tried to read, a bad cap would mean that the engine is over heating because there is little to no pressure in the system to raise the boiling temperature. What I don't get is, I unscrewed the cap enough so that it just stays on the reservoir, not holding pressure. After about 40 minutes of driving around, I parked the vehicle for a moment, shut the engine off and screwed the cap back on tight. Started the engine and the needle went from the first line off the stop, up to 3 and then when I started driving again, it dropped back down to the first. I did put my hand on the upper radiator hose and it was hot, but not so hot as to burn badly, maybe about 120F (it's comprobale to a super hot shower). That was just before I screwed the cap all the way down.

So I'm at a loss.