Jezebel
Junior Member
So here is my truck, I'm new here. I have lurked quite a while just never had an issue pop up where I really needed to register. 07 5.7 ... you know the deal.... Had it for a few years just now has 155k on it. Been a great truck.
MY ISSUE SUMMARY:
Basically it was a cold 9 degree night & I had the munchies. I took the truck out at 2am to waffle house. It did fine on the way, I got my food. I left. On the way back the temp guage snuck up into the RED & the truck started flashing the engine light. I noticed it then, pulled over. Let it cool for a few minutes.
(Truck had a slow leak at the top of the radiator & as a result I had been topping it off with water about every 4 days. Amateur mistake but I am pretty sure I had flushed all the antifreeze out of it by the time winter really set in & I just hadnt prioritized ordering the radiator like I should have.)
After it cooled off, I started it back up and drove home another 8-9 minutes. IT RAN FINE.
I parked it in the yard & shut her down for the night. The NEXT day it had warmed up again to about 40 degrees, bad temp swings here in NC. I went to start it and it just spun, no fire. Spun freely, starter engaged, no fire, like no compression. Got to looking around noticed the freeze/core plugs on the back/front of the head(s) were pushed out & leaking water after getting under the truck.
I wondered if somehow this had also made the timing tensioner break & somehow caused it to go out of time. Because it would spin, but no fire except for after about 3 attempts you'd hear like a little pop coming out of the tail pipe. You know like it was out of time & I had heard of timing tensioner issues before from hemis. I was pretty busy with things so I just drove my expedition until it warmed up.
**The truck sat like this for about 2 months untouched. It warmed up & I finally decided I could begin working on it. I had also periodically checked the oil level during the time it sat. I noticed it was getting higher & higher. I was afraid this meant water was settling in the bottom of the pan. But the dilusional part of me wanted to believe this was not the case.
I started taking it apart, got down to the timing chain area, went ahead drained the oil also. To my horror, but not really surprise, this comes out the oil pan for about 6 or 7 seconds before the actual oil came out. I could do nothing but take a photo & remorse for a few moments over what was happening.
I left the drain plug off after it all drained out, and after taking the timing cover off. The timing chain looked nice, the tensioner doesnt seem to have skipped a beat anywhere. So the no start, free spin with occasional pop through the tail pipe has to be from either a blown head gasket, or what I REALLY hope it is not, a cracked block I guess right? Its obvious water settled down into the pan over the 2 month sitting period. So I am at the point where I have to figure out what is exactly going on before dropping 2k on a used motor assembly.
I noticed that when I put some water into the water pump holes, obviously it leaks out of the plugs but it also trickles out of the oil pan drain hole when I do this. Thats squirting a light little stream of water into the water pump holes on both sides, does the same thing = little trickle out of the oil pan drain hole.
What are the chances this is a blown head gasket issue from the overheat & not a cracked block?
I'll be pulling the heads soon but just trying to get prepared. Outside of this the truck has always ran great for 5+ years now.
THanks for reading!
MY ISSUE SUMMARY:
Basically it was a cold 9 degree night & I had the munchies. I took the truck out at 2am to waffle house. It did fine on the way, I got my food. I left. On the way back the temp guage snuck up into the RED & the truck started flashing the engine light. I noticed it then, pulled over. Let it cool for a few minutes.
(Truck had a slow leak at the top of the radiator & as a result I had been topping it off with water about every 4 days. Amateur mistake but I am pretty sure I had flushed all the antifreeze out of it by the time winter really set in & I just hadnt prioritized ordering the radiator like I should have.)
After it cooled off, I started it back up and drove home another 8-9 minutes. IT RAN FINE.
I parked it in the yard & shut her down for the night. The NEXT day it had warmed up again to about 40 degrees, bad temp swings here in NC. I went to start it and it just spun, no fire. Spun freely, starter engaged, no fire, like no compression. Got to looking around noticed the freeze/core plugs on the back/front of the head(s) were pushed out & leaking water after getting under the truck.
I wondered if somehow this had also made the timing tensioner break & somehow caused it to go out of time. Because it would spin, but no fire except for after about 3 attempts you'd hear like a little pop coming out of the tail pipe. You know like it was out of time & I had heard of timing tensioner issues before from hemis. I was pretty busy with things so I just drove my expedition until it warmed up.
**The truck sat like this for about 2 months untouched. It warmed up & I finally decided I could begin working on it. I had also periodically checked the oil level during the time it sat. I noticed it was getting higher & higher. I was afraid this meant water was settling in the bottom of the pan. But the dilusional part of me wanted to believe this was not the case.
I started taking it apart, got down to the timing chain area, went ahead drained the oil also. To my horror, but not really surprise, this comes out the oil pan for about 6 or 7 seconds before the actual oil came out. I could do nothing but take a photo & remorse for a few moments over what was happening.
I left the drain plug off after it all drained out, and after taking the timing cover off. The timing chain looked nice, the tensioner doesnt seem to have skipped a beat anywhere. So the no start, free spin with occasional pop through the tail pipe has to be from either a blown head gasket, or what I REALLY hope it is not, a cracked block I guess right? Its obvious water settled down into the pan over the 2 month sitting period. So I am at the point where I have to figure out what is exactly going on before dropping 2k on a used motor assembly.
I noticed that when I put some water into the water pump holes, obviously it leaks out of the plugs but it also trickles out of the oil pan drain hole when I do this. Thats squirting a light little stream of water into the water pump holes on both sides, does the same thing = little trickle out of the oil pan drain hole.
What are the chances this is a blown head gasket issue from the overheat & not a cracked block?
I'll be pulling the heads soon but just trying to get prepared. Outside of this the truck has always ran great for 5+ years now.
THanks for reading!
