'04 3L V6 cylinder heads shot at 71K miles

'04 Edge bought new and after 71K miles the cylinder heads are shot.

Warranty gone after 36K miles. Cylinder 6 has no compression and #5 very little.

Rebuilt heads installed cost $2100 with 12mo / 12K mile warranty
Rebuilt engine costs $3500 installed with 3yr 75K mile warranty

There was a TSB that listed different heads to reinstall if the originals failed.

Is there another engine (maybe 302V8) that would come close to fitting?

Should I go rebuilt heads or complete rebuilt engine with better warranty?

Price a reman too,stay away from one from Autoparts stores and I know why.The one from the autoparts stores use cheap parts and the warranty sucks.I have seen evidence of this,a jasper rep that comes into my father's shopsince my father is a Jasper dealer brought in two sets of bearings,a King set made in Isreal and a Clevite set made in the USA.Jasper uses the Clevite set and the cheap reman engines use the King bearings with pistons made in China.Sometimes a reman is cheaper and go with a Jasper whom put in High quality parts.The warranty from a Jasper is the best,3 year warranty and you can take it to any Jasper dealer for warranty work,they even pay the labor claims

Just curious. Know what caused the heads to get "shot" at 71K miles? Were both heads shot? What do you mean by "shot" - cracked beyond repair?

Hello Don,

Just checked compression and #6 was zero, and #5 almost zero per the mechanic (Both passenger side heads?) He read the TSB's which simply said replace both cylinder heads if this condition found with new heads which had an updated part #. The computer diagnostics suggested some other problem but the TSB said if this diagnostic result occured to check cylinder compression and replace both heads (with upgraded heads) if compression on any cylinder was sub-par.

Replacing the engine (reman) costs $1500 more ($3500 vs $2000)but carries a 3 yr / 75K mile wattanty (vs 12 mo / 12K miles) which seems a better route.

A 3 yr old Ford apparantly is not as good as a 8 yr old Honda or Toyota.

It would be cool however to go back in with a 302 V8.

Have you pulled the heads out and check what was ailing them. If they're cracked then its terminal but if they are only warped they can be resurfaced at a much lower cost.

Don,

I haven't looked at them. The mechanic said the valve guide(s) were shoved back (or warped?) and the valves (exhaust?) probably aren't seating based on my understanding. It's still being driven until we fix it. Less power and uses more gas according to my daughter. Probably have to do something this week. The TSB from Ford says to change both cylinder heads. I think the current ones must be defective in some way.

The valve guides can be easily replaced. If the valves do not seat, they can grounded easily. What you need it looks like is a cylinder head job whereby they will pull the head out, check it and repair whatever needs to be done, certainly not cost near what you listed.

Pulling the head and replacing and machining a few parts sounds simple and cheaper until you look a little closer. Just pulling a head and replacing with a remanufactured one takes 10-12 hrs with an experienced mechanic. Replacing the other while the misc parts are off the engine takes maybe 3-4 hrs more. The cost of sending the head to the machine shop (instead of replacing) won't save much money by the time they replace a few parts and machine (one head costs about $500 complete with gaskets). Plus this takes time. What do you drive while this machine shop and mechanic are doing all this? Plus if this head failed in 70K miles, it is simply defective and the same procedure may soon be needed. That's why Ford switched to a different replacement heads when this defect became obvious.

I can't see where sending heads to the shop saves anything over replacing with a remanufactured head.