Yikes! My Headgasket is Leaking Worse Than I thought!

[SwampSurvivor]

The truck does have a nice big engine bay. Which is nice, but the problem is the engine is not in the engine bay. It's under the dash. I'm not even sure how I'd be able to get the valve cover off (super rusty bolts) and I imagine the cab would have to come off to get the head out. May be easier to remove the entire engine to change the head gasket?

eh, they dont bother me anymore at this point. Been fixing them my whole career. The oil filter location on a 5.4 in a 97 F150 is the greatest location ever for ease of service...no so good for protecting the filter in the event of a front end impact though

We had to relocate the filter when we swapped in the 97F150 engine. Unfortunately on the superduty , there's a crossmember right where the oil filter goes.

 

[Timmastertech]

Nope. we do them in chassis, there is plenty of room

 

[SwampSurvivor]

I know how that would go for me though.

Well I should do cam chains, guides and tensioners while I'm in here
Well I should do the drivers side head gasket while I'm in here
Since I have both heads off I should have them milled
While I have both heads off I should get new valve seals put in
I should upgrade to a high volume oil pump
I should do a new water pump

Then I end up with $2000 into an almost 240K mile bottom end that still ends up wiping a rod bearing or something on a hard pull haha.