Need some truck advice - F-150 down...

[D4570]

I JUST had the same thing at 85,000 miles.
It is the heads. Ford did not use steel valve seats. They're just cast into the head, dumb Idea.
It can't be fixed you have to change both heads. The replacement heads have steel seats.
Ford will not cover it they did send out a service memo to their dealers.
It is #4 and #8 that go bad. You getting off cheap I paid 8 grand for new heads installed. I kept the truck, I just put a $3000 deer bumper on.
A, 2" lift, Airbags in the back winch on the front, and a lift crane in the back.

 

[IdahoPotato]

I'm in the minority. Fix your truck. It's paid for and up until now you have had no other issues. 89k is still low mileage and you could easily crank out another 5 years. Save up in that time and pay cash for a Tundra when you can. Pay yourself with your paycheck instead of the lenders.

But the whole engine swap? It's not a minor fix or rebuild from what I'm hearing. At what point will the truck will fall apart around the engine. It's 8 years old.

 

[IdahoPotato]

I JUST had the same thing at 85,000 miles.
It is the heads. Ford did not use steel valve seats. They're just cast into the head, dumb Idea.
It can't be fixed you have to change both heads. The replacement heads have steel seats.
Ford will not cover it they did send out a service memo to their dealers.
It is #4 and #8 that go bad. You getting off cheap I paid 8 grand for new heads installed. I kept the truck, I just put a $3000 deer bumper on.
A, 2" lift, Airbags in the back winch on the front, and a lift crane in the back.

They told me the #8 cylinder is now mis-shaped and the block has to be swapped out. If it was just heads I would be more interested...

 

[Salmonchaser]

I just bought my 6th Ford pick up. I’m 65. They’ve all gotten around 300k. Never been left stranded. Very few head aches. Overall mileage 18.6 for 16k miles.

 

[Doublecluck]

Find a wrecked 2016+ mustang GT, offer the wrecking yard 4K for the 5.0, pull her in the garage and swap em out. Use the extra 4k for a blower and thank me later.

 

[MTGomer]

Took my 2013 F-150 to the dealer for a tune up and they come back with the bad news....#8 cylinder is dead. 20% Compression. Never missed a service on it. It's the 5.0 Coyote V8 with only 89,000 miles. Dealer basically said "sorry bro". They quoted $8K for a new crate engine that won't even be here until April.

What would you do? Replace the engine or trade it in and start over? Blue book looks like it was $14k. Hard to justify putting a new engine in it for over half the value. Eyeballing new Tacos but the price of new trucks just keeps going up and I know I will miss having a paid off vehicle...

I just went through this on mine. EXACT SAME thing as you. Same piston and all. Had a light come on and then started running rough after going to Colorado and Montana in September. I had 150k on it. Was very well maintained and I never had a single issue with the truck that isn't totally routine, right up until this.
I say it was well maintained but it was also used fairly hard. A lot of offroad miles and a lot of well below zero starts and for the last several years 110+ degree days. A very high proportion of miles, compared to what most people do were off of pavement for sure, but I'm not sure how hard all that is on an engine. I've done very little towing. I think I've pulled trailers near towing capacity for ~3k miles and light things like snowmobiles a handful of times.

For a replacement, I went with a reman engine with a 100k mile warranty on internal lubricated parts and 2yr/24k mile warranty on the rest. The cost was $5k for the engine and about $2500 for labor. This includes the first few break in oil changes.
A brand new Crate motor from Ford was quoted at $10k.
Could have got used ones from a junk yard for 3800 + the 2500 labor.


I did have to take my truck back in because it was having a timing issue and it took them a while to get it right. That was frustrating, but to their credit it is running strong and they never hassled me about whether or not they'd cover it.

I too almost bough a new truck, but this route was still about $35k cheaper.

If you were going to get a Toyota, I'd get a Tundra over a taco.

 

[IdahoPotato]

I just went through this on mine. EXACT SAME thing as you. Same piston and all. Had a light come on and then started running rough after going to Colorado and Montana in September. I had 150k on it. Was very well maintained and I never had a single issue with the truck that isn't totally routine, right up until this.
I say it was well maintained but it was also used fairly hard. A lot of offroad miles and a lot of well below zero starts and for the last several years 110+ degree days. A very high proportion of miles, compared to what most people do were off of pavement for sure, but I'm not sure how hard all that is on an engine. I've done very little towing. I think I've pulled trailers near towing capacity for ~3k miles and light things like snowmobiles a handful of times.

For a replacement, I went with a reman engine with a 100k mile warranty on internal lubricated parts and 2yr/24k mile warranty on the rest. The cost was $5k for the engine and about $2500 for labor. This includes the first few break in oil changes.
A brand new Crate motor from Ford was quoted at $10k.
Could have got used ones from a junk yard for 3800 + the 2500 labor.


I did have to take my truck back in because it was having a timing issue and it took them a while to get it right. That was frustrating, but to their credit it is running strong and they never hassled me about whether or not they'd cover it.

I too almost bough a new truck, but this route was still about $35k cheaper.

If you were going to get a Toyota, I'd get a Tundra over a taco.

Did you take the reman engine back to ford to have them install or did you use a local shop?

 

[MTGomer]

Did you take the reman engine back to ford to have them install or did you use a local shop?

5 star Engines in Phoenix built it, a local mechanic in my town of Maricopa installed it.
For The timing issue on warranty, I took it back to my mechanic and he dealt with 5 star for me. They opted to do the timing work themselves instead of pay my mechanic labor.

Like I said, so far it is running good. I haven’t had it back that long though so I am keeping my fingers crossed.

 

[IdahoPotato]

5 star Engines in Phoenix built it, a local mechanic in my town of Maricopa installed it.
For The timing issue on warranty, I took it back to my mechanic and he dealt with 5 star for me. They opted to do the timing work themselves instead of pay my mechanic labor.

Like I said, so far it is running good. I haven’t had it back that long though so I am keeping my fingers crossed.

I like the idea, but having a hard time with sticking my hand back into that engine...Several people just on this forum had the same problem, cylinder failure. I don't see why a reman engine or even a new engine would fix the problem. Seems like another ticking time bomb.

 

[MTGomer]

I like the idea, but having a hard time with sticking my hand back into that engine...Several people just on this forum had the same problem, cylinder failure. I don't see why a reman engine or even a new engine would fix the problem. Seems like another ticking time bomb.

I have a hard time wrapping my head around how my engine from Ford when I bought my truck new had a 60k mile warranty but this reman has a 100k mile warranty.

 

[dan.kirkpatrick]

ford as well as alot of others have enginerred on newer motors what they call "low tention rings" for better gas milage,,sounds to me that that could be a posibility of your problem ? was it eating any oil? the old 5.0 motors of the old days were pretty good motors//dont know much about the newer 5.0 though//posible stuck ring lands?sounds to me ford wants to hammer for some money??maybe do a patch job just to make er run good enough to trade in??

 

[dan.kirkpatrick]

another question?? did they just do a cylinder balance test with a scan tool,or did they tear it down?

 

[dan.kirkpatrick]

a true compression test,,and or leakdown test will tell ya.

 

[LCH]

I bought a 2015 Jeep with a bad engine a couple years ago. Found a 3k mile motor from a wreck for $1800, then paid my mechanic $1500 to swap in.

The Ford might be a bit more expensive, but I think you could do better than $8k.

 

[Gellar]

Is there an independent shop you trust?

This! At least for a second opinion. I know several people who have had the dealer tell them it’s going to be a major fix and they take it to a independent mechanic and it’s much easier/less expensive. I’m not suggesting this is the case but dealers do like to sell new trucks.

 

[Gunner46]

I won't spend good money chasing bad anymore. Sell it NOW. Car Guru is your friend......

 

[MTGomer]

What can you get for a 8 yr old truck with bad engine though? I can’t imagine much. That was my dilemma. And i wasn’t going to just have the code cleared and sell it to some poor schmuck

 

[JLS]

I think a lot of your decision is based on your financial position. If a new truck is going to be a big financial burden and you’ll need to finance it for 8 years, then i would strongly consider repairing your current one. I’d sure explore other options before i paid the dealer 8 grand.

 

[shootbrownelk]

Hard to swallow the price of the Tacos. But then again I don't really feel like going back into a Ford dealer after this mess. And the Tundra MPG is a joke. I'm not optimistic about the price of gas in the next several years. My commute is ~60 miles a day.

The taco's mpg is an even worse joke for the size & power difference. You could probably get a Tundra cheaper then a Taco.

 

[JLS]

The taco's mpg is an even worse joke for the size & power difference. You could probably get a Tundra cheaper then a Taco.

They were when I was shopping.