Water pump contacting cover is normal???

lmorris · November 13, 2013

Hotline told me this... WTF?? This is the one with that I put in an enhanced long block and a water pump(because it looked like it was rubbing, or had some possible cavitation wear). The impellers on the replacement pump spun on the shaft, so I changed it. It came back with degas bottle purge, so I pulled the heads, nothing obvious found, so I put new gaskets in. 10 days later it is back, further inspection revealed the block deck flatness is out of spec. AND the water pump looks like it took a beating again. Makes no sense to me.

mchan68 · November 13, 2013

You just can't seem to win with this particular one, can you Leon? You're posting this and I can picture perfectly how it's playing out in your head, more than you know.

If it helps, you're not alone with 6.4L issues. I had one that dynamited two roller lifters which I ended up long-blocking under warranty. On the post-repair road test, all went well until cylinder #1 intake rocker decided to go South during the drive back into work (I drove it home for the night). To complicate matters, this truck's warranty expired during the initial repair process (by time). So, there was a big shit hitting the fan situation there.

Now fast forward to a couple months later, said truck came back with a complaint of random stalling and hard starting. Unable to duplicate the stalling issue, I was going to release it until the customer requested that I drive it for the weekend (he would pay for the fuel). Low and behold, I finally managed to get it to intermittently not start or require extremely extended cranking to get it to start, due to FRP slow to climb, or insufficient when it wouldn't fire up. But again, those symptoms were extremely intermittent and random that it was difficult to perform any diagnostics that would reveal anything conclusive. That said, I was going to ship it and tell him to bring it back if it got really bad. Well, I got a phone call from Ford Hotline (after I opened an assistance request). Not only did they give me information that there was an issue with 6.4L remanned injectors during such and such dates, some of which made their way into some FQR engines, of which the one I installed falls smack dab within the middle of the date range. Without even requesting, I was granted prior approval to throw eight new sticks at it. Remember, at this point the truck was completely out of warranty, which I very clearly pointed out to the guy at Hotline. I was then put on hold, while he consulted with some higher ups about the warranty expiry issue. Despite this, he gave me the green light to throw eight sticks. Vehicle fixed, warranty claim submitted, and promptly kicked back!!!! My manager appealed it, with all the very detailed documentation submitted. To this day, it still hasn't been paid!!! Sorry for the novel.

And no, I don't know what to say about your ongoing coolant issue with this one. Fan clutch? Blocked or restricted flow through the cooling system?

lmorris · November 14, 2013

This seems to be a quality control issue on block re-useage. Funny you should mention warranty. The first head gasket claim was kicked back with the question "Did you use the coolant loss TSB to diagnose this concern?" .....Cough" An idiot say what?"...Seriously?...So I printed it up the TSB for our waranty clerk and she read it and almost fell off her chair laughing. She then promptly replied "This TSB only applies to the 6L engine, which this vehicle does not have." As far as the waterpump goes, I will put thre old one back in the new short block, after I check deck flatness, that is.