Major Engine Failure

[Gary Crist]

Jay88 the clue you gave was " Yes we think she's been in storage (barn) for a couple of years!! " That
might be the clue you needed. If the fuel was that old, then the octane degraded from what it was
when stored. Ref: Does Octane Play A Role In Gas Shelf Life? | Fix Your Dirt Bike
God knows what fuel was there originally so, drain the tank too.

The pics you posted especially piston view 2 shows classic spotting usually caused by detonation/ pre-ignition.
The origination looks like at the end of the squish area of the combustion chamber.

Do you have a pic of the plugs or heads?

 

[Jay88]

Jay88 the clue you gave was " Yes we think she's been in storage (barn) for a couple of years!! " That
might be the clue you needed. If the fuel was that old, then the octane degraded from what it was
when stored. Ref: Does Octane Play A Role In Gas Shelf Life? | Fix Your Dirt Bike
God knows what fuel was there originally so, drain the tank too.

The pics you posted especially piston view 2 shows classic spotting usually caused by detonation/ pre-ignition.
The origination looks like at the end of the squish area of the combustion chamber.

Do you have a pic of the plugs or heads?

She had no fuel in her when we collected her, only enough to get us to local garage! At which point we filled her with 95.

She's now sat with a full tank of fuel worth over $150 which we can't get out!!

 

[jr230]

Hello,
My names Jay, I'm based in New Zealand & have had a horror time with my newly bought Ford Explorer. I'm hoping that one of you guys might be able to advise how the following could have happened to my beautiful new truck

My truck was purchased only in March 2020 just before NZ went into lockdown. She has only 62,000 kms (40,000 miles approx) on the clock. We had her independently checked by a specialist that conducted compression checks etc on her & she passed with flying colours!

Since purchase, we have only travelled less than 1,000 kms. 3 weeks ago I went to start her up & she sounded like a tractor!! We called the AA out and they stated that she might have cracked head! That the truck wasn't drivable & needed to be taken to a local garage. As she was being pulled onto the tow truck, coolant poured out of the exhaust!!

The garage finally removed the heads a couple of days ago & yesterday I managed to take some photos of the engine.

As you can see from these pics, piston 5 & 6 have large pieces broken off!! Nobody over here can give us any explanation as to why a truck with only 62,000 kms on the clock would have such a massive failure! Our new truck is now dead & we're left paying for a truck we can't use

Any advise from you guys who I know are really experts on all things Explorer would be greatly appreciated.


Jay Collins

there useally good trucks . but you said it might have sat for a long period wonder if it ceased and they did not carefully restart it. if you can't get your money back. i read your having trouble finding an engine. try to find a wreck that the engines still good run it and buy the whole thing use engine save some spare parts then scrap the wreck. i had a very cheap 03 rand it till it was too much trouble . found a reasonable clean 04 used parts from the 03 to fix a seat belt and a few other things. saved the mirrors and some other parts then junked it at 196000 miles