Long time lurker. First time poster.

Is it time to lay my 1997 Ford Econoline Club Wagon to rest?

Starting about a year ago, if I let the motor sit for longer than a week, it would be tough to start. Sometimes it would start fine; sometimes it wouldn't. When I would turn the key to start, it would go turn-turn-turn-turn-CLUNK and just stop. I would then go under the front with a socket and breaker bar and manually rotate it by hand past the resistance. I could hear some liquid and gasses moving around the engine (which I now know to be coolant in the cylinder being pushed through the intake/exhaust valves). Then, I would go to start it again (after manually moving past the resistance), and she would start fine. If I ran the motor regularly, there were no issues. It only happened when I would let her sit for a while (1-2 weeks). Also, pretty much every time she would sit for more than a day, there would be white smoke in the exhaust starting about 30-40 seconds after starting the engine, and it would continue for 3-4 minutes, but would eventually stop.

I think I recently put the final nail in the coffin. I think she's done. I went to go start her, and she went turn-turn-turn-turn-CLUNK. I went to go rotate the crankshaft by hand (socket and breaker bar), but this time I couldn't turn it. I tried turning it both ways, but no joy. It got to the point where if I put enough force on the breaker bar, it would tighten the pully-to-crankshaft bolt, and if I tried to rotate the crankshaft backwards, it would loosen the bolt. I decided to remove all the plugs to relieve the compression and try to push the coolant out of the spark plug holes. At this time, I didn't know which cylinder had coolant leaking into it, so I removed all the plugs and looked down into the cylinders with a borescope. Cylinders 2-8 looked fine, but cylinder 1 had a good bit of coolant sitting on top of the piston (at least 1-2 inches). I vacuumed out the coolant with a shop vac and tubing. I went to start it (with the starter), no joy (it didn't even move). I went to turn the crankshaft by hand, still no joy (same as before). At this point I figured she was doomed, but to rule out a few other possibilities, I went a bit further. I removed the serpentine belt: still locked up. I removed the starter: still locked up. At this point, I'm not really sure what to do or what I can do. I think I hydro-locked cylinder 1 one too many times. I'm thinking I bent a connecting rod or snapped a valve or something.

After doing some research, it looks like my problem was the gasket between the intake manifold and the head on the passenger side was compromised and allowed coolant to go from the cooling channel into the intake for cylinder 1. The coolant would either collect in the intake manifold or in the cylinder depending on the position of the intake valve. In hindsight I would have just changed my intake manifold gaskets, but hindsight is 20/20.

Any ideas?

Thanks for your help.

 

 

 

Sounds like it's time to replace your intake manifold gaskets. Hopefully you can get them done before doing any permanent damage. Here's a picture I found through google showing how close the cooling channels are to the cylinder numbers 1, 4, 5, and 8 intakes. Doesn't take much to compromise that gasket and have some crossover of coolant.

 

Had the same symptoms. Hydro-locked cylinder #8. Head gasket leak from letting old coolant leak so in the motor too long. Anti-freeze turns acidic over time and if you don't flush your sysyte once in a while, and you let it sit for too long, the old style head and intake gaskets become compromised. If you can catch it early, you're okay. Your options are;

• pull the intake and heads and replace the gaskets.
• Use a "fix in a bottle

You may think a bottle fix is a gimmick, and most are. The keys are using the right one and using it properly. The only product of this type that I ever found to actually work is Blue Devil Head Gasket Sealer. Use it exactly per directions and it works like a charm . Breathed new life into my 4.6 for @ $100 ( two applications). Been running strong for two years now with no issues.