Leaking head gasket diagnosis?

[Cswedeen]

Hello all,

Unfortunately my first post here is on the heels of bad news. Bottom line up front: independent auto shop diagnosed my ‘17 Explorer Sport as having a leaking head gasket, with no overheating indications preceding.

Background: Bought this ‘17 Sport in 2023 at 94,000 miles, and have since put another 18,000 miles on. Car has been great for us, and has required no mx other than routine oil and transmission fluid changes. About two weeks ago I took a trip to Sedona (5 hr trip) pulling a 1,500 lb pop up camper, and the day after arriving the car smoked an excessive amount upon startup in the morning, before clearing up within 3-4 minutes. Obviously concerned, I checked fluid levels and noticed the coolant res was halfway between the max and min fill lines. Oil looked clean, and was full on the dipstick. The next day I had excessive smoking upon startup one time, the rest of the startups smoke was unnoticeable. Checked the coolant level the next day before heading back to southern AZ and noticed the level was just below the fill line, so I added coolant. Drive home was uneventful, and I have monitored each startup in the last two weeks for white smoke as well as coolant consumption, with neither occurring. No external leaks as well, including the weep holes near the water pump location. In my research I assumed the water pump was failing as I had no overheating indications, no observable coolant in oil (milkshake of death) and no loss of power whatsoever.

Today the shop was able to get the Ford in, and notified me that the external cooking system exhibited no signs of leaks, but that the engine failed the test and has a head gasket leak.
I am not a certified mechanic by any stretch, but I manage to do most of my own repair work and am relatively literate- how can a head gasket leak with zero overheating indications? I am very gentle with my vehicles and scan my gauges very frequently (by product of my aviation profession I suppose) so I can confidently say the temp gauge has never risen above the very middle of the temp range.

Thanks for any info you can give!

 

[Cswedeen]

Additionally, the shop quoted me $10K for parts and labor, including an entirely new cooling system including radiator. Aside from the high estimate on labor ~$3600 and parts ~$3900 (IMO) why would I need to replace the entire cooling system out of hand? I anticipate replacing the water pump, timing chain, etc. while the head gasket gets replaced, but reaching $3,900 in parts seems like a stretch, even adding in the entire cooling system.

 

[Steve8316]

Sounds like that shop doesn't know much about these vehicles, and they're pricing themselves out of the job because they don't want to learn.

You could buy 2 for that much.

Do some reading & YouTubing about the water pumps, and then look underneath. If there's a drip of coolant on the pan running down from the A/C compressor...

 

[peterk9]

Hello all,

Unfortunately my first post here is on the heels of bad news. Bottom line up front: independent auto shop diagnosed my ‘17 Explorer Sport as having a leaking head gasket, with no overheating indications preceding.

A late Welcome to the Forum.
Any update?

Peter