knobbie33

another dreaded victim of the passenger side head gasket failure, does anyone think Ford will fess up and do a recall, and possibly a refund for the cost of replacement? This is clearly a big mistake on their part. By the way, mine was $1800.00 and it only had 80,000 miles.

torkum

Was that cost just for one side?

knobbie33

1821.54 was the final cost for one side, I also had them replace the spark plugs and boots, cam chain and cam chain tensioners, and perform a coolant flush/oil change.

Good old Bill

For those of us who are not familiar with the woes of the 4.6 or 5.4, what exactly was wrong with the head gasket? Leaking what, oil, water, compression? Just trying to get updated on these new engines!

obusnizzle

head gasket failure in a 4.6L? Since when has this become a chronic issue? My 4.6L Pi engine has had 20 track passes and nothing has happened.

You do realize that the timing chains have a service life into 300,000 miles....and you wasted money replacing them and the tensioners.

knobbie33

yeah, I thought the engines had a 300,000 mile service life also, I was wrong. And check all of the Ford forums, yes this is becoming a chronic issue. According to the dealer the head gasket was defective, and since then has been upgaded to a design that does'nt spew oil.

Good old Bill

OK, was reading elsewhere that the heads had very course milling done and leakage was in these tool mark areas. Makes sense that a softer coating on the gasket material could fill the milling tool marks. I guess?

torkum

The updated head gaskets have 3 layers and I think the old ones had 2. Kinda hard to see but I have the 3 layers separated in this pic:

Good old Bill

The man with a 1000 PICS.

obusnizzle

you arent wrong. Ive seen chains with 300k and they showed virtually no wear and little stretching.