OK, so i was up under the truck a few weeks ago and i noticed that one of my exhaust manifold bolts was broken off in the block... This problem is well documented in these forums... Anyway, i actually read the 2003 warranty manual and to my surprise, the manifolds were covered under the "California emissions warranty" for 7 years 70k miles (have 65,500miles on her) so i brought her in.

A nice young lady called me today to tell me that the manifold is fixed, but "it has a cylinder head leak on one of the cylinders". Im not exactly sure what she is talking about here... i figure i'll search the forums tomorrow to see if there is any info on it. Now i was not surprised that the truck needed something else done to it... in fact i was expecting them to try to milk some money out of me...

but the next thing she said BLEW MY MIND. she said "OH, and its also covered under warranty, so we'll go ahead and fix it if we can keep the truck for a few more days."

Now, i ain't complaining and they can keep the truck as long as they want if they keep fixing stuff for free... but i can't find anything in the warranty that would cover anything having to do with cylinder head seal...

any ideas on what this cylinder head leak could be or why it would be covered under warranty on a 2003 truck?

 

Wild guessing on my part...

I would be surprised that your warranty went past 5 years 50K miles, but the manufacturers have been edging this up. Several now have 100K mile warranties. But I don't think Ford did for 2003.

I would GUESS maybe there is a TSB on the head leak, maybe called a customer satisfaction program. Maybe the V10s had an issue with this. Either way, be thankful that it is being covered under warranty. The usual charge is well over $1000 per head I have read, and that was a few years back and on V8s. I would guess that since they have to remove the exhaust manifold, half the work was already done so it was not a lot more to replace the head gasket. It would be nice if they replaced both head gaskets, but "... Gift Horse...". I am just of the opinion of "if you have two of these and one breaks, the other one may also break". But odds are reasonable that the other head is fine.

Guess on why you have a leak is maybe you overheated the engine in the past? This can sometimes cause a head gasket leak. Another guess is maybe there was an electrolytic reaction due to the aluminum heads?? Shouldn't happen but I suppose it could, especially if the coolant was weak.

Otherwise... Stuff happens.


Like I said, mostly guesses.

Good Luck and be thankful for the free fixes,

Jim Henderson

 

I think the sweet young thing is trying to tell you that the exhaust manifold is leaking around one of the cylinder exhaust ports. There was no gasket from the factory, and as the manifold warps a little it can leak. They will just add a gasket. And yes, any exhaust leak before the cat will be an emissions issue.

This is not to be confused with a head gasket failure.

 

x2.........

 

Hmmm..., but the exhaust manifold is what they just got done fixing.

I would call, but I'm afraid to ask too many questions. I don't want to jinx the "free" part.