I own a 99 F-250 Crew Cab with the mighty Triton V-10. The truck has 68,000 original miles. The vehicle has been lightly used with all the required maintenance and oil changes done. For about two weeks a year, I pull a 25ft fifth wheel (6K Lbs) on family vacations but that's about as much stress as this beast sees. Until recently, I have had very few problems with the truck and no complaints except for gas mileage, but hey, it's a 6.8L engine.

Last weekend, I had trouble starting the engine. The problem initially looked like a dead battery (would not turn over). I replaced the battery and still could not get the engine started. Later that day, I was able to get the engine started with white smoke pouring out of the tail pipe for approximately 5 minutes. I ran an errand to the store ( 3miles round trip) and parked the truck. The next day, I attempted to start the truck to go to work and the engine would not turn over. Thinking I had a starter problem, I contacted the local service station to get their thoughts. At lunch, I returned home and was able to get truck started and drove directly to the service station to diagnosis the problem. The tech checked the starter & battery and felt that both looked ok. We decided to let the engine cool and let him see if he could duplicate the problem. He called later that evening saying he heard a knocking sound and that he did not have the capability to fix a problem like this. The next morning, I met the mechanic and attempted to start the engine to hear the knocking sound that he had discovered. Upon starting the engine, the worst banging and clanging that I've ever heard came from under the hood. We immediately shutoff the engine and found pieces of engine and coolant on the ground under the engine. The engine has not been torn down yet but it looks like I developed a coolant leak into one of the cylinders which blew the rod out of the bottom of the engine (oil pan).

As I see it there are too possibilities here. 1. Manufacturing defect. Maybe but the truck does have 68K so one would think that a defect would have reared it's head before now. 2. Shotty maintenance. I had Ford diagnose and repair a "check engine light" which turned out the be an EGR valve and a vacuum tube. Of course, they charged me "an arm and leg" but until this week I was a great Ford customer. They said they did not remove the head or head gasket to diagnose the problem, so I'll have to take them at there word. The vehicle is not under warranty so Ford wants nothing to do me. A engine replacement from Ford is around $6000. Ho Ho, Merry Christmas!

Does anyone have any experience with this type of problem or thoughts on how a catastrophic event like this can happen on a well maintained, babied and underused truck?

 

if you are mechanically inclined you can start playing with the wreck.

any how it si s sorry to hear about a fallen soldier, how ever i just looked on ebay and i saw a used not to tell what condition its is on but you can salvage some parts of of it. plus its only 300 dollars?



keep up the good fight

 

Sorry to read of your problems...however….WELCOME to the site, please read the Guidelines… Check out the list of forums and make sure you read the headings and Read First: notices in each forum.
Enjoy FTE

 

Yeh I think you could get an engine for less then that sice its a gas motor. You bought this truck new if I understand your post and has had excellent care. What weight and brand off oil do you use. Sorry hope you can get on the road again without spending $6,000.

 

It's obvious that you developed a head gasket failure which resulted in a hydrolock situation. It's not an uncommon problem for any engine, and probably has nothing to do with maintainence. When you force the engine to run in this condition, something is gonna give, most likely a connecting rod. Hindsight being 20/20, there should have been some symptoms like unexplained coolant loss or bubbles in you coolant or excessive white smoke that could have clued you or your mechanic in to the serious problem your engine was developing. It is unfortunate that your symptoms were not diagnosed properly before engine failure occured. One of life's hard lessons, I guess. I'll bet you will recognize the symptoms of a bad head gasket if you ever see them again.

 

the owner of the company i work for, had a similar problem. went to start his 5.4 modular 1998 expedition on a cold day recently. it started and ran 4 or 5 minutes and died. thought it was a starter also. had it towed cause jumping didnt help. turns out there was a coolant leak into the oil and the motor blew. was also babied since new. had a mechanic swing in a used engine with less miles on it and total bill out the door was $2600. took 5 days from diagnosis to finish on the job.

 

Go to your selling dealer and ask for Fords help. There is a request form to fill out which asks what you want Ford to do about the problem. Have all of your service records prepared in chronological order. Make sure your truck is in presentable condition. A neat and clean truck sets the tone for this situation with Fords representative (unless it's already at the selling dealer). Be sure to indicate that you are a LONG TERM Ford owner, and even list the Ford veicles you have owned. Ask your selling dealer to go to bat for you on the engine. There aren't any gurantees, but...


My tranny went out at 31,000 miles, but it was 3 1/2 years old. Ford sold me an extended warranty for $500.00 and rebuilt my tranny. Ask if you can purchase a warranty "post mortem".

Your engine is probably 1/2 through it's service life. Ask for a factory rebuild installed for $2000.00 (?) Don't ask for the moon and be unrealistic. They MAY help you. You have nothing to loose but a little time and effort. Don't be a jerk about it, just a concerened consumer.

BTW they faxed me this form, and may do the same for you too.

The Triton V10 has really been a good engine for most people here. Spark plug blow outs have been the #1 issue on the older models.

Good Luck.

 

I agree with Outpost. Try Ford again. A friend of mine had a 6 speed tranny go out with over 70K on it and Ford helped out with what they called 'after warranty assistance." I think in that case they covered half of it. I have had two V-10's and thought they were good, except the gas mileage, but as you said that's the nature of the beast. My brother has a 99 with over 160000 miles on it, no problems yet!!! knock on wood

 

Yes, one lives and learns...
White smoke out the exhaust means you should immediately shut down the engine.
Head gaskets do fail now and then, with a great degree of unpredictability. A friend bought a Dodge truck and a head gasket blew while he was following me on the highway. HUGE cloud of white 'smoke' (likely steam), and I-75 in Central FL was almost a white-out for about 5 minutes. He tried to start it for me, and it wouldn't crank. I knew then that the cylinder(s) was/were full of coolant. A tow job and new head gaskets fixed the problem with no other engine damage. The trick is to catch it in time.

 

I've heard of a few other V-10s coming apart this way and have developed a theory about them, although it isn't real popular.

Was the truck parked for 3 or more weeks before this failure?

My theory goes like this; You park the vehicle with the V-10 for a few weeks, the gas starts to go bad. When you finally do start it, varnish from the bad gas causes one or more fuel injectors to stick open. This causes the contents of the fuel rail to dump into one intake port. When the intake valve opens all that gasoline gets sucked into the cylinder. The piston tried to compress it and you get a failed head gasket (at best) or catastrophic mechanical engine failure (at worst).

Having said that, one would ask why the V-10's little brothers (5.4 and the 4.6 V-8s) don't also suffer from this hydrolock failure. My guess is that the V-10 has an abundance of torque at idle speed (compared to the V-8s). This extra torque is what is causing the internal damage.

I can't recommend enough; use a fuel stabilizer if you know your truck will be parked for a couple of week. If you can't ahead of tie, get some stabilizer and "top oil" into it as soon as possible.

 

Moral of the story: White smoke means immediate engine shut down and compression check on each cyl. I would suspect the head gasket going is from lack of use. Worse thing for a big engine is to sit.

But, you should be able to find a drop in engine at a junk yard for $1,500 or so.

 

That really stinks. Sorry to hear about your rotten luck. Outpost relayed some great info. I think you ought to give it a shot. Your gonna have more people willing to help if you present a positive attitude. Good luck

 

The OP was from Dec 2004. I'm sure it's fixed by now, or he has a new truck.

 

I'll take clues for $100 please Could have swore it was a new topic. I sure hope my day gets better. WHATTA WEEK I'M HAVING!!

 

if the truck has low mileage, gaskets will go bad faster cuz the heat then cold and heat etc. is bad for gaskets. the short little trips you said you made will be hard for all the gaskets