Coolant leak horror

[ayoustin]

My truck had small coolant leak a few months ago. Luckily my local dealer has some fairly competent techs. Was a leaking coolant line fitting/crush washer on the passenger side turbo. New gaskets and crush washers (covered under warranty) and had my truck back in a few days.

I first noticed the leak when changing my oil and saw coolant on the bottom of the engine and running down from the starter. So as others have said, it's not likely a head gasket, probably something smaller further up on the engine. Best of luck, hopefully your dealer takes care of you.

 

[Old-Raptor-guy]

Thanks as always FT1!

Any update on this?

 

[Beenjammin]

I picked the truck up Saturday 3/4/23. It was a head gasket failure and it had leaked coolant internally in to two cylinders as well as externally. it required a complete break down with pictures sent to Ford. The dealership determined there was no warpage and the rebuild was handled completely through warranty. Mind you this was the ESP Ford gave me last year from the second cam phaser failure ( so thankful for that)

So I have been driving it two days with no visible leaks or temp issues. With the fresh rebuild and new water pump, and new coolant lines hopefully I should be good to go for a while. Mind you I have 97460 on the truck. Chalk this one up as a success story with fingers crossed. I have until 112k or one year from Saturday whichever comes first on the warranty should anything else happen.

I appreciate the support.

 

[New recaros]

It really cool to see satisfactory conclusions. Thanks for the update.

 

[EricM]

What did they install? A new long block? Reman?

Should've had them put new turbos on there when they had it all torn apart.

 

[FordTechOne]

What did they install? A new long block? Reman?

Should've had them put new turbos on there when they had it all torn apart.

There is no reason to replace turbochargers for a head gasket defect. Stop trying to mislead people.

 

[EricM]

Did I say he needed to replace them?

At 100K miles, putting those turbo back in front of a new engine is dumb- esepecially when it would have taken NO labor to put a brand new unit in place of the old worn ones. It was a missed opportunity. That's why I said "should have". It's too late now.

 

[New recaros]

With that logic, valve job, new phasers and chain, fuel injectors etc… all not covered under warranty. So the free repair just shot up to thousands in out of pocket costs. A set of turbos is probably 1000.00 bucks. I see your point, but how much do you really want to put into a truck with 100k miles?

 

[EricM]

Turbos are so failure prone compared to all of that though. I wouldn't recommend any of what you listed to be replaced- ever on any engine, unless it's already failed.

It's not just that turbos fail so often compared to the rest of the engine either, or the massive labor savings that was missed.

The reall issue is failed turbos can potentially destroy the entire engine do when they go. That's why I would have done it. He has a new engine now- it's not a 100K mile engine anymore. Who cares if the truck body has 100K on it?

 

[New recaros]

No, he just got a head gasket replaced