anyone else have a problem with this on these motors? i have a cracked one on a 4.6 with 143,000 miles. the shop we took it to quoted us $1900 for a new head. wow. then what? one or both? that comes to like $3800 for both. then compare that to a new motor? and then is it worth it with 143,000 mi.? as of right now they put some stop leak stuff in it to see if that would get by until we can get some money (we farm) and find a new one. yea so what if we do the heads.....whats next then? i'd sure like to think nothing is next. but there is always something waiting to happen......throwin a rod......stupid stuff like that. the thing about it....with a new motor we know what we got, with new heads we know there should be nothing on the top end for awhile. either of those 2 routes it will stay til at least 200,000. if we can get by and find another truck with 100,000 whats to say that we wont have problems with it? so what spend $4-5k on a truck thats worth $8k, or sell it and get one for $10k and possibly have repeat problems?

what would cause a cracked head anyway?

the stock gauges dont impress me......about a 1/2 inch of coolant in the overflow and the gauge was where it always is.........nice huh?

 

The coolant temp gauge is actually a head temp gauge. It measues the temp of the cylinder head, not the coolant. So it wasn't running hot, even though it was low on coolant. They changed to this in 97 I believe because often, a coolant temp gauge will not show hot if there isn't enough coolant in the system to touch the sending unit. My Stang did this years ago, after idling around for a bit, I took off and at about 3000rpm, the water finally splashed up onto the sending unit and my gauge pegged at 270!!! Luckly, it was under warranty and my blown headgasket was replaced for free.

I don't think that cracking heads is much of a problem on these engines. I really haven't read much about it happening. Could have just been a bad casting from the get go.
Personally, I would replace the engine with that mileage. Just replacing the heads may last you another 100,000 miles, but for $3800, you could probably replace the whole thing with a low mileage junkyard engine.

 

thanks for the advice and the info about the temp gauge. this is an amazing place....i learn something everyday here!!!! after they are done with ear corn harvest ( about 3 weeks) i will get my dads pickup while mine is gettin the new motor. like my dad said.......with a new motor and 12k mi on a rebuilt tranny there shouldnt really be anything wrong for quite awhile. the motor comes with a 2yr/24,000 mile warrenty. im not really sure about the price.....but there are just somethings that i dont need to know......or want to know

thanks again

 

Good luck, I hope it all works out for ya.