A minor major problem, coolant leak.
- Thread starter Ματθιας
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Oldengineer
Member
LVSteve,
I’ll take a stab at your question. You are correct; water pump design and manufacturing is not esoteric. The problems arise when you decide to outsource the part to a supplier that wins the business on price. Usually the supplier then proceeds to cut corners to optimize their profits. Ford Supplier Quality Assurance (SQA) is charged with making sure that this doesn’t happen. In this case, the concern doesn’t show up right away. The supplier likely buys the bearings and seals from another supplier, and the finger pointing begins. This happens when Ford Purchasing insists on paying $20 for a $30 part. Short story with much more involved, but hopefully you get the idea.
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Before doing anything, check around the water pump. Your milage is about the time they go.
Grayfox
US Veteran
Back in the 90s, the Ford Crown Victoria with the 4.6 engine was the absolute king of police cars. My city had a bunch of 'em. 
I'm very familiar with the problem you describe. We changed a lot of those bad intake manifolds. Our parts man kept all the needed stuff in stock and the repair was quick and easy IF you had done it before. But there are little tricks to it that the pros get used to, but amateurs don't know that will cost them time and trouble.
For example, someone already mentioned that heater pipe under the intake. Since you're already there, we would go ahead and change out the O-ring and heater hose on that. Depending on wear, maybe even the whole pipe as the O-ring end was known to wear over an extended time.
I have no doubt that a fairly talented amateur could do the job, however some things are best left to the professionals if for no other reason than just to avoid the aggravation.
I'm very familiar with the problem you describe. We changed a lot of those bad intake manifolds. Our parts man kept all the needed stuff in stock and the repair was quick and easy IF you had done it before. But there are little tricks to it that the pros get used to, but amateurs don't know that will cost them time and trouble.
For example, someone already mentioned that heater pipe under the intake. Since you're already there, we would go ahead and change out the O-ring and heater hose on that. Depending on wear, maybe even the whole pipe as the O-ring end was known to wear over an extended time.
I have no doubt that a fairly talented amateur could do the job, however some things are best left to the professionals if for no other reason than just to avoid the aggravation.
Oldengineer
Member
Again, just information. The Explorer V6 was designed and manufactured in Cologne, Germany. It started life as a 2.6 L used primarily in Europe. In Germany, you essentially own the labor force for life. The engine plant capacity was available, so the 2.6L/2.8L was made into a 4.0L for use in Explorers. Here’s the hard part; Design Verification (DV) testing is run on an accelerated schedule using dynamometers and General Durability vehicles running day and night on test tracks. This continuous testing simulates 120,000 miles which is considered the useful life. It does not address the time element, and nobody knows what happens after 120K miles. The engineers that devised the test protocols don’t have crystal balls. They rely on pre-production hardware and expect the in-production hardware to be the same as they tested. With the advent of engineering polymers used under hood, there was a lot to learn. Hope this helps.
Oldengineer
Member
Ματθιας;141890337 said:
The key to long alternator life is mounting it high on the engine, out of the way of adverse weather conditions. This is not always possible. Real estate under hood is very precious and expensive. You guys are really testing my long term memory! I’ve been retired for almost 20 years.
Doug M.
Member
Sometimes the best tool for the job is a checkbook. There is little worse than getting some distance into a modest job and finding out something that is outside your skill set. I have learned to avoid that path and pay someone to handle the matter; it usually less annoying and costly in the long run.
Costs even more if we help lol
Thanks, everybody!!! I'm taking the advice you all gave me, my friend is going to do it. I'm taking it to him tomorrow - his day off.
After talking to him and asking him what the worst case would be, a cracked manifold - in terms of auto repair, the worst case, more often than not, happens to me. Besides that, while he's in there I asked him to service the cooling system and look for any more potential issues and take care of them.
It'll work out for the best this way.
After talking to him and asking him what the worst case would be, a cracked manifold - in terms of auto repair, the worst case, more often than not, happens to me. Besides that, while he's in there I asked him to service the cooling system and look for any more potential issues and take care of them.
It'll work out for the best this way.
I got my car back. It turned out to be a gasket that hardened up, got flat and that was the cause of the leak. (Just idling in the driveway for about 5min dumped about a cup of coolant(!)) My friend can't explain why it did that, his best guess is thermo-cycling. I'm glad it's just that and not the manifold!
Other than that, no major issues!, but I asked him to do a complete 100K mile service on the car sometime next month. I'm all about maintenance.
Again, thanks, everyone!!!
Other than that, no major issues!, but I asked him to do a complete 100K mile service on the car sometime next month. I'm all about maintenance.
Again, thanks, everyone!!!
Oldengineer
Member
Ματθιας;141895971 said:
It’s that pesky problem of not being able to compress time. Accelerated testing is not foolproof. I think you may have been victim of coolant chemistry change as well. Glad it worked out well for you.
And rental cars. Gamecock put many miles on somebody else's Crown Vics/Grand Marquis.
Doug M.
Member
Our squads got used hard and serviced every 2000 miles. If they were within 100 miles at start of shift, they were supposed to go to the line at the shop. It was not hard to put 200 miles a shift on them in certain districts, and as a reserve I was often a floater and would move around the county as needed.
I've used ground pepper in my coolant system and it stopped the leak, back in the day with normal vehicles.
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