head gasket replacement parts list?

Okay, simple problem with the expedition. 303k miles oil in coolant (tiny droplets so far) and I am 98% positive I have exhaust leaking into the coolant too. parked at work today and heard hissing sound and smelled burning coolant. the hoses were rock hard and there was pressure venting off of the cap and a leak at the pass rear of engine dripping onto the cat converter.

outside of the studs and gaskets what else is to be replaced in this repair. any info is appreciated

Positive oils in the coolant?

Check this:
Bring the truck up to temp, grab a flashlight climb in look down into the valley from both sides of the alternator and see if there's coolant there. Could be filling and drains out over the passengers cat.

It's dry down in there. I already replaced that hose and I check it just about every time I am looking over engine. It was dry yesterday morning when there was coolant coming off of pass side of engine.

The 4.6 and 5.4 are pretty notorious for having the head gasket leak out of the back right corner (passenger side) of the motor and the leaking down. Also there is a drain hole in the firewall that will leak when the heater core gets backed up. I did the full PI head swap on my 1998 4.6 and ended up with total power gains of around 75 total if not a little bit more. That price tag was closer to about 3K after everything. If you budget is lower then you may want to just have the heads worked in a machine shop to resurface and install the typical new parts. You will need a head stud kit, all gaskets such as intake (upper and lower), exhaust manifold and new stud nuts, valve cover, IAC valve, EGR, timing chain set with tensioners, new thermostat with gasket, spark plugs (potentially look at doing new wires as well), fuel injector o-ring set (2 per injector), timing cover gasket set, pcv valve and plenty of rtv sealant. Also make sure you grab about 3 gallons of coolant (50/50 will work just fine) and oil and filter. One big thing for these is the rubber vacuum hoses tend to go bad on the IAC, brake booster and pcv valve. along with various others. Make sure you check all the rubber and if it feels bad or rock hard go ahead and replace it. I think I have it all covered. The biggest thing is to make sure that the heads gets resurfaced before installation otherwise its a good possibility you could have a leak. If you are interested in the PI head swap and have the 4.6 feel free to let me know and I can give you all of that info. If you have the 5.4 there are quite a few other options for power upgrades since you will have the motor torn apart anyways.

What would the quote on a shop be if i can't find the time to simply half way tear down an engine. Working 70 hrs+ week right now

IMINYOURCHAIR said:

What would the quote on a shop be if i can't find the time to simply half way tear down an engine. Working 70 hrs+ week right now

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Honestly your looking at around 3K for the job if not more depending on what shop you take it to. That is based on the heads needing machine work and it needing to be torn down and put back together. Also you are probably looking at it being down for about 2 weeks at a shop if not more depending how long the machine work takes and how long it takes them to get gaskets and parts. Personally if you can do it yourself and drive something else in the meantime I would go that route and save the money. I forgot to say earlier that based on your mileage I would see about ordering a set of rebuilt injectors on ebay for about $100 for the set. Since you are looking at tearing it down and installing new parts anyways it would be a great time to refresh the injectors as well.

For 3k I will just find a better equipped expy and part this one out. And the problem with another vehicle is right now the expy is the main vehicle.

Edit, going tomorrow to look at an 03 taurus for 1k to drive while I pull the engine apart on the expy. I guess a top end semi rebuild might happen. As much time as I have already got into her I just can't part ways lol. I will attempt to take some pics of the teardown so maybe another member can couple that to an existing text based tutorial.

IMINYOURCHAIR said:

Edit, going tomorrow to look at an 03 taurus for 1k to drive while I pull the engine apart on the expy. I guess a top end semi rebuild might happen. As much time as I have already got into her I just can't part ways lol. I will attempt to take some pics of the teardown so maybe another member can couple that to an existing text based tutorial.

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Sounds like a good idea. Honestly in the end unless you go for a much newer one you will eventually run into the same issues. Taking a bit of time to do a minor rebuild on your current one will prob be the better bet in the long run. At least the motor will be good and last a lot longer with less over all issues in the end. Keep us posted on the progress and please feel free to post up more questions about the progress or PM me with some more specifics if you like.

onlyexilove said:

Sounds like a good idea. Honestly in the end unless you go for a much newer one you will eventually run into the same issues. Taking a bit of time to do a minor rebuild on your current one will prob be the better bet in the long run. At least the motor will be good and last a lot longer with less over all issues in the end. Keep us posted on the progress and please feel free to post up more questions about the progress or PM me with some more specifics if you like.

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well if you happen to know of a good parts list/tools list outside of the obvious torque wrench and other gaskets. I could use info on the timing parts replacenent.