Hey guys, I have seen a few posts on here about front cover/ intake gasket failures on 4.2's. I have over 120,000 on my 97 F150 right now and have noticed some coolant leaking in the front of my engine. In your opinions, while I have the truck down for some tranny work, should I replace these gaskets? If so, is it a big job for a "so so" mechanic who owns and knows how to read a Haines/Chiltons? Leading to my next question... how much would it cost in a shop, if it is a big deal? Thanks for the help.

 

If they are leaking I would replace them soon as you don't want to cause bigger problems such as coolant getting into the oil etc.
It's a fair bit of work to replace the gaskets but with some good instructions you should be able to do it

 

thanks Racerguy. I think I'm going to go ahead with it. Maybe I'll take some pics of the process for the forum since it seems pretty common

 

That would be great to have some pictures on here

 

First off no haynes or chiltons is going to cover the front cover recall ( I hate haynes manuals,the info is usially vague and incomplete) If you can get your self a printed copy of the recall procedures that Ford would have issued the dealerships (find an independent repair shop with Alldata or Mitchel On demand ). See if Your comfortable with the procedures in replacing the front cover seal. Me being a tech and having done it, I can tell you its not a fun job, the truck was down for a couple days (I could only work on it after hours at work) and be carefull when you remove the timing chain cover, mine was stuck from the gasket and the factory RTV. I put some Umph into removing it and the aluminum cracked, Luckally my friend with a Mig welder and some aluminum wire was able to fix the crack for me. It still weeps a bit, but its ok. While your there you may also want to consider replacing the waterpump since its going to have to come off anyway and maybe the fan clutch. Another part of the job is removing the fuel timer from the front of the cover, It looks like a distributor shaft sticking out of the timing cover with a hall effect sensor on the top of it, I dont know how the novice mechanic gets around removing and reinstalling it since it has to be timed to a certain spot in the engine like a distrubutor. Since I work at a Mazda dealership and we have a few Ford engines powering our vehicles, one of our special service tools is a device that slips in place of that hall effect sensor on the top of that shaft to keep the shaft locked into a certian position so it can be timed. Another recall that came up for thoes early F-150s is an updated intake manifold gasket set, The gasket inbetween the waterjacket of the head and the intake ports can fail allowing coolant to enter the intake ports of the engine and cause the engine to hydrolock and possibly bend/break connecting rods when this happens. This isent too too bad a job, but I again recomend getting the recall procedures from the orginal bulletin and FOLLOW them, when you go to bolt the intake down there are two bolts which MUST go first, or else no other bolts will thread in. well anyway best of luck!