Possible bad head gaskets?
#1
Possible bad head gaskets?
Alright gents, I would highly appreciate some advice. So I drove my 97 4.6 f150 over 17 hours to where I'm currently stationed and made it fine. A week later it started girgling and the temp Guage would spike and the oil Guage as well. It would go into limp mode and I could turn it off and back on after a min or two and it would be just fine. I replaced the thermostat in hopes it would fix my problem, it stopped overheating afterbi burped the aor out, but I smell antifreeze and today I found coolant leaking from what looked like my passenger exhaust manifold. Does this sound like a head gasket or could it be an intake manifold gasket?
#2
Senior Member
Hard to say, you'll just have to try and see where it's leaking from. Head gaskets can allow exhaust gases to get in the coolant causing temperature spikes.
#3
http://www.napaonline.com/p/BK_7001006
Head gasket tester that detects the presence of combustion gases
Head gasket tester that detects the presence of combustion gases
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USMC-22-MECH (02-22-2016)
#4
Senior Member
A really cheap method is to, when it's cold, take the cap off the coolant fill bottle. Get a latex glove and fasten it around the hole in the bottle with a rubber band. Start it up and if it fills up with air, it's got exhaust coming through.
Pilfered from Google for example:
Pilfered from Google for example:
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USMC-22-MECH (02-22-2016)
#5
If its leaking coolant near the exhaust manifold it could be 2 things. It could be a head gasket its also a possibilility of a busted heater core. But since the truck got hot enough to go into limp mode (235*). I would go out on a limb and say it needs head gaskets and the heads are warped.
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USMC-22-MECH (02-22-2016)
#6
Mine did the exact same thing before Christmas. Overheated like yours once due to low coolant/bad thermostat. Then started dripping coolant near the pass. exhaust manifold. Mine turned out to be the intake manifold cracked around the coolant crossover ports. It was an easy $150 fix plus coolant. Just something else you should check.
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USMC-22-MECH (02-22-2016)
#7
Thanks for the advice I'm really hoping that it's just a cracked intake manifold. Could it be a manifold gasket? I don't think it overheated enough to warp my heads because as soon as it happened I turned it off. And it's not like it was actually overheating, I was told that air pockets just got in my system possibly when I changed my thermostat and that's what triggered it go go into limp mode. I'll check it out I really hope it's not a headgasket, I've heard it's a bitch to do, and shops are quoting me 2500 for the job. If it's a head gasket I'm considering buying. A new motor. Not sure if I could get a crate motor for it around 2000 of kt. Just ready to have it fixed, so I can move on to doing cosmetics.