FORD F150 4.2L v6 ENGINES

[jimbeaux]

:mad: After reading so many of the posts here relative to the 4.2 ford engine I will not take your time adding to the litany, however, I wonder if we don't have enough experiences in an ongoing pattern to go into a class action against Ford Motors. They obviously knew they were selling us junk and continued for years. Any ideas or has anyone explored this?

[Robert Cooper]

[QUOTE=jimbeaux]:mad: After reading so many of the posts here relative to the 4.2 ford engine I will not take your time adding to the litany, however, I wonder if we don't have enough experiences in an ongoing pattern to go into a class action against Ford Motors. They obviously knew they were selling us junk and continued for years. Any ideas or has anyone explored this?[/QUOTE]

One would only think we could but I just sucked it up and bought a reman. motor from rhino for 2 grand and another grand for installation and some parts althought it took x-mas away from my daughter and others and put my bussiness down for 3 weeks I will never BUY A FORD AGAIN! but on a lighter note hope all had a merry x-mas and a happy new year

Robert Cooper

[gopher0705]

I have a 98 F150 with that 4.2 engine...I read many of the comments and mine is no different...coolant loss followed by a very loud knock. Mine is also missing. I had just turned over 100K...Will a 300 cu. in. fit?? I'll be in touch...

[JAYRAMZ42]

My 1998 F-150 4.2L has cost me a fortune. I just replaced the motor and the clutch. The clutch went out immediatly after 16 miles. The slave cylinder is internal, it went out and sprayed brake fluid on the new clutch. After a clutch gets brake fluid on it, it is useless. The slave cylinder is external on most vehicles. I spent $500 on the clutch. I had to spend another $500 on the new clutch. $400 in other parts, the slave cylinder and master cylinder. $600 to have the new clutch and parts installed. The motor R and R ran about $4,000. So in just a mater of 2 weeks the truck cost me $6,000. I will never get what I have invested back. This truck is a true lemon. I am all for a class action law suit. My dome light will not turn off. The bulb got so hot it almost caught the truck on fire. It literally burnt the plastic around the bulb and the bulb is now black. I pulled the bulb out and saved it for evidence. I also have all of my reciepts for the motor and clutches.

[stashu]

Started my 97 F150 4.2 w/ 35500 miles on it the day after christmas and all hell broke loose. Now I'm out $3500. for a replacement motor and they still have the truck. Tried to pick it up today after waiting 16 days at Power Pro Driveline Center of Tampa and they returned it with the check engine light on.
I turned around to take it back and the door was locked and the phone shut off with a password on it. I looked under the hood and didn't even recognize
anything under the hood. It looks like an older motor, the top half is totally different than my 97. It looked dirty , wet and smelled hot. I've been ripped off, so I am writing this so no one else goes there. I was promised a remanufactured grate motor from ford. What I got, I have no idea.
Now for a long fight with Craig Lambert the owner. I had to leave the truck with the key shoved under the door because I had a 25 mile drive home and didn't want to get the blame for any problems. He already had every excuse
for the 16 day wait. Anyone know of any legal recourse I may have to help me fight this guy , please let me know. :mad:

[madfordowner]

:mad: I bought a 97 F150 new. A $28,000 dollar truck I thought I would be driving forever. It now has 60,000 miles on it and was garage kept.
I had it serviced every 3000 miles, as well as had all the recalls taken care of.
No problems till last week and I had the same thing happen as the rest of you. It was fine one day and a piece of junk the next. No warning.
Looks like I will be buying a new motor at a cost of possibly $3000.
I am fuming at Ford for allowing this to happen and no warning to customers or a recall to fix the problem before it ruined motors.
I have always been a Ford truck person, but no more.
I would join a class action suit against Ford in a heartbeat.


Ford you really let your customers down this time. Shame on you! :mad:

[madfordowner]

I should add that Ford wants $4500 for a new motor and labor.

[woodland01]

Brand New1998 F150 4.2L v6, just ran 84,000 miles, water start to leak into engine and cause the piston to break and hit the oil pan. Warranty is expired. Then spend $3500 put a rebuilt engine in, I thought I had bad luck at the first time, rebuilt engine should be run forever. Just 10,000 miles white smoke, water leaking to my engine again. Just passed the 1 year warranty. What's going on this 4.2L engine?? I though "Ford Built a Tough Truck" it should say Fix or repair Daily. Now I understand what is that mean. Anybody hear about the law suit, I will join it. Let me know. Thanks! :mad: :mad:

[woodland01]

[QUOTE=eviltesla]ford sent a recall but not a nation wide they used and elec recall for the cruise crontrol and the upper control arm recall to check the torque failure bolt on the #1 cylinder its the tsb report elec system failure cruise control, but the torque on the bolt close to the #1 cylinder was a miss print to 96 pounds not 69 pounds and from my info it caused a warp on the surface and a complete gaskete failure not a good engine wikipedia esg461[/QUOTE]


Where do you found the torque 96 pound?? I look at the repair manual long bolt- 36 pounds; short bolt--32 pounds plus additional 180 degrees. Still don't have 96 or 69 pound.?????? Can you tell me what is the correct torque??? Thanks! my e-mail is woodlandwood@hotmail.com

[atlas819]

i have the same problem with the truck. im getting this knock on it and i got it checked by my mechanic and said it was a lifter if this happened to all of u im getting rid of this truck get a different car one thats not ford.

[tekdan3]

1997 Ford F-150 with a 4.2L V6. Same story, it bit the big one, nothing new so I won't bore you. I took it in for recalls, performed routine maintenance and spent about 1-2K replacing the infamous gasket and other preventive maintenance.

Did anything ever come out of the many complaints Ford received from pissed off truck owners?

[nanci]

We have also had a problem with this Ford engine. In July 2007, our engine had to be replaced at considerable expense, over $5000.00. It is now in the garage again making a worrisome knocking noise!
I was unsuccessful when trying to contact the Ford Motor Company of Canada. A registered letter I sent was not acknowledged. I tried calling the customer "care" centre, and was treated rudely and was not given any assistance at all.
I've decided to contact CBCs Market Place show and hope that if enough people complain, they will do a show on it. If you're Ford engine is a lemon, contact Market Place at: 1-866-535-3786 and leave the details. You can also write them at: P.O Box 500, Stn. A, Toronto, ON, M5W 1E6.
I am also going to register a complaint with the Ministry of Government and Consumer Services. You can do that online or print off a form to send in.
Please contact CBCs Market Place everyone!!! We need to have some justice here.

[badtimn4rd]

:eek: Well, it seems as though I am not the first to experience the dreadful "rod knock." After two hard days of work (thanks to my dad and his buddy, a great mechanic for many years) which we replaced a leaking interior slave cylinder. Hop in the truck to start and turnover, turnover, POP! Anyone I know with a '97, '98 Ford F-150 V6, 4.2 as I had, will definitely be warned. Don't let these trucks sit for periods of time equalling 4-5 days, apparently too much coolant leaks from that gasket. There is also a preventitive measure to take that I heard but not sure about. Apparently tightening bolts along the engine somewhere every 40,000 will help prevent?

Anyone have a long block engine for sale?!

[andy1850]

Same story, My engine was running great, truck sat for a couple of weeks and engine turned to crap. 5k to replace. Called ford, they said each problem is handled on a case to case basis. They are not able to help me since my vehicle is 11 years old and has 85k miles. Talked to supervisor, he said the same thing. Have to wait two days before his supervisor calls me. :mad: I can assure you that I will never buy a ford truck again. If a class action suit is started, contact count me in andy1850@aol.com

[srchasjc]

I also have the same issue with (98 ford F-150) the coolant in the #2 cyl. It drove me crazy trying to figure it out, so I had it towed to a mechanic that took the spark plug out and the thing cranked! I asked him how he knew it was the #2 and he said he has seen it several times, and it will cost $500 to replace the gasket, mostly labor. He advised not to crank it even though it will crank because it will bend the rod as the water/coolant in the cyl causes the pressure to jump more than 10X. This is certainly a defect. The fact it has lasted 10 years amazes me, but the point is they don't have to do anything since it's way out of warranty. I would think they would anyway, at least offer credit at the dealership for a piece of the labor, after all, we didn't break it, (they did) it was a design failure.

srchasjc at hot mail

[sparkymark58]

I had to have surgery on my ankle in Jan., so my truck sat for about two weeks. When I tried to start it, the noise was not good. My mechanic is having my engine reconditioned for about $3000.00, so I feel more fortunate then some you others out there. I would love to have ford pay for this, so if there is a class action suit started, please e-mail me at sparkymark58@hotmail.com. Thank-you

[go_astros]

i've been reading your posts and its sad that ford was not willing to live up to its name and fix the problem before these trucks made it to your driveways.

On another note im not sure if im allowed to post this on here but if im not just flag me or something, if you want to get rid of yours, i work for a car dealer that buys these with the engines blown and exports them to central america or mexico somewhere, where they get the engines repaired dirt cheap. the prices are reasonable depending on condition and will pick up within a 1000 mile radius of houston. you can e-mail at astrosfan9@gmail.com for more info, if you dont want to spend the big bucks repairing what you have. again sorry about the misfortune.

[eviltesla]

go to www.jasperengines.com (resource library) (literature downloads) (gasoline technical service bulletins) (09-03) broken or bent connecting rods 1997-1999 3.8 vin 4 & 4.2l vin 2

[LoneStar]

Well shoot...my last post was 2/27/06 and I then thought my 4.2L was dead.
Did a upper gasket overhaul and now I am reaching 223,000 miles on my 97 F150. Yeah I keep up with all fluids and maintenance, I also drive it like a 4x4 and load it like an F550. I swaped an old jon boat for another 4.2L.

Comp Cams makes a few cams for the 4.2L Ford...why not?! Let's make this one somewhat radical and run it harder...they seem to respond well to abuse, not neglet, just abuse.

life is short, enjoy it!

[unibear]

This very same thing just happened to me, if this is happening to soo many people why can we not do something about it? MY 1997 F150 just spun a rod and the reason I was given? the front gasket coever let coolant leak into the cylindar #2. Sigh It is both a relief and bummer to find this thread, seems like mine is not an issolated problem. :mad:

[eviltesla]

still the gasket failed and u did a fix and it held, no rod problems, but how does that help the thousand's, that actually got hydrolock and ben't a rod, and the garage tells yah 2500 to rebuild the top end, or just spend the extra 1300 for a longblock? the fact is i love this 4.2l and i would love to see the best in the 1997 trucks jasper engines

[eviltesla]

was really and industrial engine and they just threw it into our trucks, esg-642 was built for the power plants, but chevy built the 4.3 with 190 hp and ford gave us the 4.2 with 205

[cincy67]

after green puddles spotted under my truck I had timing chain cover gasget replaced w/new water pump 500$. still losing coolant but not externally, so far as I can see! If i replace intake gaskets now, will this fix me?? I read the report at the jasper web site one of you guys left here. Runs rough for few minutes until it warms up. losing gallon of coolant every 500 miles or so. Any help will be greatly appreciated- I got 4 teenagers cant afford this B.S. :mad: Count me in any legal action against Ford. --jschultze@excite.com -thanks

[joseph]

Got both 97 4.2 E & F 150’s new in late 1997: November and December. October 2003 at 82000 the F lower head gasket went and in November 2003 at 78000 the E gasket went: replaced both myself. April 2008 at 180000 the F head gasket went and should be back together tonight, I pound this truck. The E has 208000 on it so as a preventive measure I will change when done with truck. I suspect pistons 2&3 were knocking on the E at 78000 – have had no problem to date. The tell tail sign the first time around was having to top off the radiator level now and than. The issue with the 4.2 is making sure the water jacket is full of water whenever the radiator is drained, just doesn’t want to purge all the air out and the 4.2 temperature sending unit does not indicate low water by indicating a high temperature so this gasket issue may be due to steam blowing out the gasket.

[eviltesla]

the 4.2 1997-1998 was a bad design flaw, bolt scarred the gasket causing the 2nd cylinder to fail, this in first stages cause slow start, turn the key and u think its just a cold start, no it's your pistons burning water and gas, and your on your way to hydrolock, im not here to b.s. anybody, i built a jasper longblock with fpro gaskets, k&n intake,hypertech labs, sorry for all the failures but there is a time yah gotta say **** my truck kicks ***

[swat4hire]

Description of Ford F150/4.2 Engine Problem:
I have owned a 97 Ford F150 XCab for >7 yrs. I kept up on ALL maint & oil/fluid changes. I have cared for my truck as i have my own kids! It ran well on Friday night (4/4/08) then on Saturday morning my husband turned the key and the engine started to bang loudly and spit out white smoke. There were NO PRIOR SYMPTOMS OR ENGINE WARNING LIGHTS leading up to this so I checked the internet to look into it. I came to find out that there are thousands of people that this has happened to AND that FORD knew all about it! My truck has only 116000 original miles in 10 years! Not abused. Apparently, Ford issued a recall on a faulty gasket that allowed coolant to leak into the plugs/oil but it was NOT a recall I was offered or told of when we asked if there were any recalls on the vehicle over the years! Today I found 2 more recalls 4 it on their site (not the gasket 1) that they didnt tell me of on 4/7/08 when asked 4 a VIN when calling about the problem. I asked 4 the price of a rebuilt engine as they said they wouldnt fix a rod & quoted $5500. When I asked if it was for everything, he replied "No - parts can really add up, honey"! I TOOK GREAT CARE OF THIS TRUCK! I opted to tow it to another accredited shop since they wouldnt give me a total price. Not including 2 tows & paying $150 to diagnose I was quoted a min of $7300 to fix w/rebuild +/- 12%. Why should I have to pay 4 something that is Fords fault? They made a faulty engine & left thousands of us to pay 4 it! I can either buy a new car or walk now! Im handicapped w 2 disable adopt foster kids & husb whos a police officer! 1 income/ WE rent, so wont qual 4 cash loan! It is totally cool to find this site where other FORD 4.2/ 6 cylinder engine owners are suffering the same issue & their responses fm FORD! We need help or direction on how to start/join a class action suit against them to get repairs done or money paid back to us to pay for the damages their faulty engine has caused us!
I AM IN ON ANY CLASS ACTION LAWSUIT - JUST LET ME KNOW! EMAIL IS SWAT4HIRE@MSN.COM

[eviltesla]

http://www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/complaints/results.cfm

[dadams1963]

I too, have joined the ranks of having a huge paper weight in my driveway. About a year ago, started loosing coolant and when using the heater, would notice the air going from cold to hot to cold. Then over time, engine started to hard start with huge jerks. Took it to my local mech, told me I had a coolant leak on the right side head/block, wanted about 2 K for a head gasket replacement. I opted to try a sealant used thru the radiator that worked some what. But then a few weeks ago, went to start the truck, made a God awful banging noise with of course oil dumping down the back side of the block with white spole from the pipes. Never knew of any re-call the other post refer too, it's just amazing that this 4.2 has has such problems with this same issue yet Ford has really left everyone hanging. I am currently dropping in a brand new crate motor from Ford, yes, another 4.2. My question is this, with all the history with this, surely the brand new 4.2 being shipped from Ford, will have the upgraded gasket some spoke about that was used on the re-call. Has anyone purchased a new 4.2 over that last year and if so, did you still have coolant leaks problems?

[jashep]

Count me in as one of the unlucky ones. My 97 F150 bit the dust last week, Sorry to see their are so many of us.This is just plain wrong, and they wonder why their sales are declining? I will never buy another ford at all, So much for being a Ford Truck Man!

[James Stewart]

Ive joined the ranks of the happy owners of a new lawn decoration. I purchased a 97 f150 supercab in 2004, it had a blown motor with a bad rod. I purchased a brand new crate motor from ford, 4years ago to today exactly, the motor blew a rod. The engine was one year out of warranty, and had only 10000 miles on it, i sent into for service because it threw a code on monday for the idle sensor on the manifold. Took it to Healey Ford in Ansonia,Ct. they installed the new sensor bushings... Took it for a test drive, and the motor blew on them... If anybody has any legal knowledge or recourse with ford i would greatly appreciate their help. I installed the motor myself, made sure ever nut, bolt, and gasket was installed properly. Now i am looking at a $4000 bill to replace the motor at the dealer.

[joseph]

97 F150 lower intake at 80k in 2003 and 97 E150 lower intake 3 weeks later at 75k. Replaced both. March 2008 97 F150 at 175k eroded water ports on heads – both sides right at back of dome into cylinders. No warning, just going down the freeway and on the off ramp check engine light flashing and running rough. No smoke, no steam. Compression leak into water jacket pushed water into transmission apparent leak in trans cooler (YEA REAL APPARENT). Took a gamble installed rebuilt heads: 3 rods bent or 3 pistons hitting crank. Renewed AAA towing!!!!! Runs good, quieted down at 500 miles. Transmission had real issues - flushed trans with 6 gallons fluid and after about 300 miles of driving it hard the only issue with shifting is backing up and while moving dropping it into forward – little slip. How have 2500 miles on it. I’m trying to make the chevy people happy - Found On Road Dead but I’m just not having luck. When it goes I'll drive the 2004 Mach I.

[RedTruck]

Glad I found this site. I began experiencing occasional problems with a very rough start from cold - happened maybe once a month. I'd leave work and my 98 F150 would start fine but run really rough until I leaned on the gas for maybe 20 seconds, at which point it evened out and ran fine. As time went by idling got just a tad rough, barely noticeable. As more time went by the rough starts became an every day thing, at which point I did some online searching and found this website.

That's when I initially decided it was time to trade in the truck! But after a couple of weeks of frustrating car searches, in which I discovered my truck was only worth MAYBE $3000 (it's the red and gray truck in PRISTINE condition), I decided to try to hold onto it a few more years. Interestingly, it's the FORD dealers who lowballed me on trade-in value, and I could only assume it was because they knew what I knew about this model/engine.

Anyway, on Monday I called my local Ford dealer and talked to the mechanic there who I DO trust, mentioned to him the problems I was experiencing, that I suspected the head gasket issue, and told him about what I'd been reading here. Interestingly, he didn't even protest or suggest it was something else - he KNEW what this site was saying about the issue was correct!! He told me, among other things, that replacing the head gasket would be about a $1200 job, but that he suggested I try some Stop Leak first, to see if that would correct the problem. I also asked him several times about the issue of these trucks "locking up" as has been mentioned on this site. He said his experience with them is that if they blow out and are driven even a LITTLE BIT when the knocking starts, then you're looking at a really expensive fix. But if I were to start the engine and heard some knocking and shut it down immediately, I'd probably still be looking at only a gasket job. ?? I have NO IDEA if he's correct - I'm a female and don't get me started on females and mechanics (!), but there it is.

ANYWAY.... I bought some stop leak (by the way I also asked him repeatedly if adding that would in any way HARM/HURT my engine, and he said no). He told me the specific type to buy, I installed it Monday night, did the recommended driving around for 20-30 minutes to let it work through the system and then parked it. I normally only drive this truck for local, brief trips maybe once a day (I'm on my motorcycle the rest of the time). Knock on wood, keeping fingers crossed, crossing anything else I can think of - the stop leak appears to have done the trick. I noticed almost immediately that the rough idle while sitting at a stop light was just GONE, and again knocking on wood I've not had a single rough start since installing the stuff. And it had been an every day occurence.

My mechanic did mention that if the stop leak worked, I'd have to probably re-install it after about 6k miles - no big deal. My 98 F150 only has 77k miles right now.

I'm figuring if the problem reoccurs I will just break down and spend the $1200 to get the gasket repair job done. For me it's still worth it - if I can get 3 more years out of the truck I'll be in a better place to be able to buy a new vehicle. Which, by the way, will be a Honda CRV - not a Ford. :(

[RedTruck]

Forgot to mention in my earlier post that just about a month ago I'd taken my truck in because my oil pressure light kept coming on. As I was driving to the mechanic the temp gauge on my panel suddenly spiked?! I mentioned it to the mechanic and when I picked it up he told me the radiator overflow had been EMPTY. I knew I didn't have a leak (I have a brand new driveway), so I just assumed the Express Oil Change doofus had "forgotten" to top it off the last time I had the oil changed. But I checked the coolant again after about 2 weeks and it had lost a bit more coolant - not a significant amount, but enough for me to notice. I topped it off again, checked it in a couple more weeks - again a minor loss, but enough for me to notice. THAT was when I started doing more research and found this site.