So I think the head gasket died today and I'm not having a lot of hope for the engine. Hot day going through mountain passes the heat dial shot to max. Due to the spot I couldn't stop safely, but was luckily starting to head down hill. Well I maybe drove a few miles and found a safe location large enough to pull off the road. Truck immediately died when stopped. Let it cool for an hour and tried starting it. It started....but only for a couple seconds and did not sound good then died.

She's currently 114 miles from my house. Luckily I had tow on my insurance and had her towed to a Dodge Dealership and had my wife come pick me up. Signed up for AAA and they will tow her to my house after the 5 day grace period. When I get her home going to drop the oil pan and start tearing in. If the engine is damaged I may see my options for dropping a new one in, but I'm sure that will be a minimum of $3K if I'm lucky.

 

If you think it's the head gaskets, why would you start by dropping the oil pan? Pull the heads off....

 

Ha. Was a long frustrating day yesterday. Will be pulling the heads.

 

Depending on how bad it is, I would pull the pan too. There's probably ALOT of water sitting in that pan, not to mention in the cylinder(s).

 

Thanks guys.

Finally got the truck home today and pulled the drivers side valve cover and found the furthest back (closet to the driver) rocker was off. My neighbor (he is a Ford mechanic at a Ford Dealership) thinks we may be able to put it back in. He admits he is not familiar with this engine though.

Oil is not milky but the truck did overheat. He believes the thermostat failed (its clear coolant came out there) and the truck overheated. Reading other topics it sounds the lifters can go bad.

Should I replace the lifter? While I have it open anything to look for or check?

Also, I'm worried it all goes back together and things run fine for a few months and then have issues again.

(I have a feeling it's going to be a long night searching forums and reading).

 

Given your language, I am not sure if this is a 4.7/3.7 OHC or a 3.9/5.2/5.9 pushrod engine - can you please inform us?

The rockers are known to fall off on the 4.7, but i don't think the OHC design uses lifters, just followers on the rockers. The rockers on pushrod engines are mounted with a 1/4 or 5/16 bolt and unlikely to fall off.

If the oil is not milked, then you may have gotten away lucky and it leaked to the combustion chamber and not to the oil. I am assuming you drained the oil pan? If not, use something to contain the oil you drain, and see how many quarts you get out vs how many you're supposed to get. The extra may well be water.

 

Hi Magnethead,

It's a 4.7L. The engine does have lifters (or at least that is what everyone I know is calling them). I did end up purchasing a new one (was only $11) as the one it would not compress at all. The new one could be slightly, very slightly by hand. When I put the old one in vise-grips I still could get no movement.

I put the new one in and got the original rocker back on. Hooked everything up and fired her up and she sounded good. Only ran it for 30 seconds though as I need to still get coolant back in her.

Tomorrow my hope is to drop the pan to see if I see anything. I'll do as you said and see how much is in there. The dip stick currently says she's good.

What the odds I may have got supper lucky and that single lifter just failed after overheating? It is the one closest to the cab on the drivers side. I did have to replace the gasket as a part of it had became brittle as well. Could it be as simple as the radiator cap failed, causing me to overheat and that lifter failed? Seems to lucky.

Thanks.

 

Lifter may have gotten hot enough to lock up, hard to say. Rockers falling off are a known issue on the 4.7, as you've seen, nothing exactly holds them on.