I bought this truck from lg3rd when it had 261,000 miles on the clock. He had replaced two transmissions and one rear axle (damage from an accident, I believe), but he religiously replaced the oil with Mobil 1 and took very good care of the truck. The engine popped a spark plug through the coil when he was on the turnpike, but it was quickly repaired and the engine suffered no damage. I have replaced the rear springs (one leaf broke!), added front add-a-leafs to carry my snow plow, replaced the front rotors, replaced a brake line to the rear brakes, "welded" the coolant reservoir back together with a soldering iron, rebuilt the Sterling posi (next time I'm getting a Powertrax!) and replaced the factory hubs with Warn manual hubs. Built in June of '98, I think that it's a "ringer" truck for how well it has behaved! Although the engine is tired, it does not smoke at all and it still rides very well!! Sorry you asked? I was going to try towing a fifth-wheel, but I think I need a truck with more engine like yours!

 

I'm interested in what the PH of your old coolant was.

Your patch job looks pretty good. Rep points for the update.

 

Has anyone ever tried this stuff? Hammer
aluminum welding, pot metal repair, cast iron, silver solder

 

The link didn't come through.
It is aluminum welding, pot metal repair, cast iron, silver solder

 

I guess it did. Hammer

 

Thanks! I couldn't see replacing just one head (or anything else major, short of the entire engine!) in an engine with that many miles. I wish I had an intelligent answer for you about the pH of the old coolant. Since I did this repair, I have added zero coolant and have had zero leaks. Now, if that big ol' oak tree in my front yard will just fall on my '06 E-350, I can have a donor engine & trans!!

Hammer - I have seen these guys at swap meets and they are very good at what they do. I have been in the HVAC field for 22 years and I couldn't reproduce their results. Maybe I'm an old dog who can't be taught new tricks or maybe I just need more practice!

 

If the coolant turned acidic the PH would show it. The area you repaired obviously looks like a thin area in the casting.

In order to do any kind of good welding or brazing repair of the head it would have to be pulled, stripped bare, cleaned, baked to remove impurities and the weld area cleaned again. If you try and braze or weld on a dirty porous casting it isn't going to work very well. As soon as heats applied the crap in the casting is going to start to flow.

For the $$$ JB seems to have been the best option. Let us know how its holding up in another few years.

 

I've read about this somewhere... the casting was too thin around that area, and the moving water just wore right through the aluminum.

There WAS a fix for it from Ford - an insert and some epoxy...

 

Being a retired Caterpillar Dealer Rep, I know that there were some 988B heads with the same problem. Caterpillar had a fix, but there was also an epoxy repair from someone that worked. I don't remember who the supplier was. I'm sure a google search would come up with something. Hammer

 

Well, I'm saying "goodbye" to an old, tired friend. My engine went 276,880 miles and blew a head gasket. The reason I'm posting this here is that I found a limitation to my J-B Weld repair. Apparently, obscene steam pressure and insane temperatures generated by running an engine on no coolant caused the repair to pop. I'm confident that it would've held under normal conditions and I applaud J-B Weld for an amazing product!

As far as the "ask-and-you-shall-receive" department is concerned, one of our '06 E-350 work vans was perpendicularly hit so hard by a speeding car that it broke the rear axle! I called dibs....

 

Boy that J-B Weld stuff SUCKS! (kidding! that's a JOKE!)

Is that E350 a V10?

 

6 years ago, my dad patched a crack on an outboard head with JB weld. The crack was through the compression dome fo a 50hp monoblock (head and cylenders all one big piece) He did the whole thing from the top with rope ontop of the piston to insure that the JB weld did not drop below the line of the dome. The last I heard, the owner is still using that ourboard on a regular basis.

Just goes to show you how strong JB weld is.

 

And Marine-Tex, and most of the other two-part epoxies do a pretty good job.

 

hope the eng goes to a good rest home it is well deserved. May it rest in peace

 

I wish! Or, a diesel...Actually, it's a 3-valve 5.4L. I'd have 325 HP, drive-by-wire, and a whole lot less miles! That particular one has 40K on the clock. I'm kicking around a Ford-rebuilt or a Jasper engine if the E-350 doesn't pan out.

Senix - It's funny that you say that...I was considering notifying Papa Ford to see if he wanted to do an autopsy for product development!