I might try a 5.4L swap just because that was was/is a decent engine.

Well I got back to Lincoln early Monday morning (about 4am) and went to back to work. Nothing happened that whole drive, no loss of coolant, nothing. Went to work today and soon as I parked the vehicle, I heard that gurgling sound. Popped the hood and coolant was shooting through the cap and onto the ground. So after setting up an appointment at work to have the dang thing looked at, the service advisor I work under, talked to her boss (our main shop manager) and told him the situation. Well I told him what happened and what not and so he had a guy pull the vehicle into the shop and they burped the system.

Now, no one told me directly anything when they left (back shop leaves at 5pm, I get off at 8pm in the Express Lane). No one said hey you might want to get a ride home and to work tomorrow, or anything. So I got the vehicle back (our night service advisor pulled it around to me after talking to the shop foreman) and I drove it back home. Soon as I got home, it shot all the coolant out they added in. So not only did they not fix the issue, nor kept me informed, I have no way to get to work now.

 

that things cursed i tell ya!!! CURSED!!!

 

Well I think it pretty much died today. The guy that has been working on it, never replaced the cap, or double checked the pressure in the system for leaks, did not give me extra coolant just in case. Nothing. Drove to work today and about half way in, the engine started to be down on power, shudder and started to make a grinding noise. Once I got it in a parking spot, it does before I was able to get it into park. Came back out to it an hour later, tried turning it over and nothing.

The shop foreman came out and got it started, and it started blowing black smoke and I guess started back firing in the intake. They never bothered to even attempt to fix this thing at all. Never bothered to order parts to help maybe fix it. Never communicated with me at all. Just kept me in the dark the whole time. So at this point we (fiance and I) do not have a vehicle. Needless to say, I'm beyond furious and not sure where to go from here now (vehicle wise and whether or not I should resign working here).

 

So you never did a pressure test on the cylinders to see if they bubbled into the radiator? The cooling system pressure is a lot lower than cylinder pressure and by how sporadic it is I'd bet it's a small leak that grows as your engine heats up over time (head bolt failing or stretching)? As for the black smoke and backfiring that sounds like timing issue. You can pull your plugs and see what they look like. At the least it sounds like you'll need to pull the heads and check the timing tensioners.

 

I do not have the money to do such a huge project. The dealership will allow us to trade it in and hopefully get us something similar (looking at a 2007 Explorer 4x4 Eddie Bauer edition), and get it rolled into the existing loan. I did think at the time of the major rattling, I thought timing chain went out.

I have not authorized the dealership to tear down the engine, until they buy it off of us.