Hello, I have a 2006 Ford E450 with ~126k miles. Last year I noticed the engine would start really rough in the morning but would go away when I would rev the engine a few times. I also noticed that a lot of white smoke would come out of the exhaust while the engine is warming up but would go away after running it for a mile. I checked my scanner and it gave me a cylinder misfire code on the second cylinder. I changed the spark plugs and the rough start went away for a month but eventually came back and now I have two misfires, one on the second cylinder and another on the first. I took it to a mechanic and he told me that there is coolant leaking into the cylinders and that it could be a bad head gasket or a cracked head and is charging me $4000+ to fix the issue. Does anyone have any other solutions I can try before I fork over the +4k to repair this truck. The truck still runs fine and the only noticeable problem is when starting it in the morning, even then sometimes it starts fine.

 

Dont drive it like this, This will do much more damage and completely destroy the engine. I dont know about the E450 but a few K`s more and you may be able to get a rebuilt engine, although with only 126K it might be worth it to do the head gaskets, if its to replace both at the same time.

And welcome to FTE.

 

What engine do you have?

When you removed the plugs that first time how did they look---any photos? How did your mechanic determine coolant was leaking into the cylinders? If the passenger side head is proven to be leaking there's no choice but to replace it, the cost of $4K would be about right for the complete job---that would not be an easy task and possibly cost a bit more than the estimate.

At some point you'll have to spend some money to determine exactly what the fix will be. As advised don't drive this van until its repaired---you run the risk of doing further damage.