So grab a snack and settle in. This is gonna be a long one...
I bought my 2003 f250 from the previous owner in February. Pulled up, cranked her up, east start and she purred like a kitten. left her running for 20 minutes while i spoke to the owner about the problems with the vehicle ( no ac, hole in muffler, abs system, gas gauge, easy fixes). did the paperwork handed him the money and hopped into my new work truck. it was about 100 miles to my house so after 20 miles or so I stopped to grab some food. when I pulled into my parking spot the engine hesitated, rpms dropped, then it went right back up and seemed fine. "huh, that was weird. gotta keep an eye on that". ate, hopped back in and turned the key. hard start, but start. "oh well, it's an old truck with 300000 miles, cant expect perfection". hop on the interstate and start heading home. I'm going 70. cruise control on. about 10 miles down the interstate rpms drop and speed drops to 60. cruise control struggling to bring it up so I turn it off and bring my speed down to 40. everything seems to be running pretty good at this speed for a few miles. "just get it home slow and steady and you can figure it out there". suddenly I lose all power (electric was fine) no gas, no rpms, everything slows to a halt. crank, no start. crank, no start. crank, grinding, clicking. starter gave out. tow it home (great story if yall want to hear it later) new starter, new battery, new fuel filter (tested pump). hook up code reader, nothing. cranks and runs rough, idle about 500 rpm and it stalls often especially when i put it in gear back fire and afterfire. hook up code reader again. lean mixture both banks. play with intake, clean some stuff, check some sensors and hoses. no difference. then it just stops cranking. turning over fine, but no fire and no start. bring it to the local shop, they tear off the valve covers and check my timing chain and oil lifters (not sure how they checked chains without pulling off the front, but im not a mechanic). the conclusion they came to was that at some point the guide broke, timing chain jumped a tooth and blew my head gasket. they won't touch it from here on, but the didn't charge me anything so I can't complain. their recommendation was to sell it or just buy a junk yard engine. I don't think so, I think I can just replace the gasket. so i towed it home and started writing this post. no one around here will touch this head, so I'm about to go ahead and give it a shot. valve covers are still off and it never overheated so hopefully I can just replace the gaskets.

that was a long roundabout way of giving every last possible bit of information. does this forum agree with the mechanics? any tips or advise? any help would be appreciated. I'm mechanically inclined to be sure but this is a little more than I usually do myself.

 

Have you considered removing the engine yourself and swapping it out with a complete from the ground up rebuilt from like S&J engines?

Sounds like you don't have a problem turning a wrench & with that many miles I'd consider it. I only payed about 3800$ total for mine give or take, with a 400$ port and polish with it.
My ONLY regret is telling them to REBUILD MINE not give me someone else's. As I just "blew" a plug out (appears to have slowly unscrewed out?) Haven't fixed it yet. Never had an issue
with that on my old engine. Maybe someone had over tightned their plugs on the core engine I got.

At that point your going to get into the engine teardown, need about 200-400$ in Ford specialty tools to hold the cam and timing in place while you remove the heads. Now your oil pump
your gonna wanna replace while your the deep into it. After all that work you'd be much faster just swapping it out. I know you just purchased it, but that's just how it goes somoetimes. I have a ton of pictures
of the process from doing mine if you wanted them.

Good luck!

 

don't have the money for that.

 

For a timing job done by someone else I'd guess your going to look at anywhere from 2K to 3500K for it and that's only replacing the timing parts, nothing else while their inside.
Maybe someone else can chime in and add to that.

Otherwise another option is to find a lower mileage motor from the junk yard and swap them out? More a gamble of what your getting at the junk yard at that point.

 

I have a 2002 F-250 5.4L 2V 238,000 mi, CCLB 4WD and I also have a head gasket that needs replacing. I have this fantasy that involves me doing the work myself. Problem is she's my daily driver but wife works from home for now. I have a friend who is willing to help as I would take the engine out, have a machine shop work the heads, do the timing chain replacement, and whatever else I can get done in about a 2 week process. Otherwise a garage did quote me about $4,500- $5,000K to do same.

 

There are infinite videos on youtube on how to swap head gaskets on the modulars. Start there, many are short, and you can collect the tools / confidence to do the job. It's not that bad, but it's no oil change or brake job.

From the original post (admittedly, I skimmed it, so take this with a grain of salt) it sounds like you may have hydrolocked the engine, so before doing any of the work, I'd take all the plugs out, unplug the injectors, and run compression test on each cylinder.

 

no warps or cracks in the head and no visible damage to the gaskets (replaced anyway). timing chain was waaaaay off but how now been reset. but now its back to the main problem that i have focuses on. not enough air in my fuel mixture.. I'm blowing air out of my intake (which I checked and cleaned multiple times) rather than sucking. very confused.

 

I've had that happen on an I-4 engine when the cam timing was off. The exhaust valve was closing and intake valve was opening before the exhaust stroke was completed.

 

I am sucking air into my intake. now.