Vehicle: 2006 Ford E250, 4.6L, on its second engine and trans. 340k on the chassis. Rust free. Its fully built out for living in, with a high top conversion, 12V DC solar power, fan, big bed, sink, refrigerator, water, etc.
So back in April, I made a post about the van using coolant and making occasional smoke, along with a P0420 CEL. Based on that info, I was hoping the intake manifold was where the leak was.
I finally had a shop do some diagnosis, as I just haven't had time. They called me yesterday with some very bad news: low compression on the left cylinder bank--the headgasket is blown. Ugh! They believe the head is likely warped, and that it makes more sense to pull the engine and put a new one in, rather than try to fix the HG. The rough estimate was $7-8K all in. He said he could do the numbers and let me know the exact estimate.
I really love this van, and it's super useful/functional as both transportation but also for living.
So what to do? I see three options:
1. Do nothing for now. It drives fine, just some very intermittent smoke (usually after idling when the engine is warm), I could throw some seal tabs in there and see if that helps. It uses about a half gallon of coolant every 1k miles currently. CEL is on, but I could just ignore it.
2. Save my money, and have a "new" engine put in. The thing is, it's also going to need a new cat, so add another ~1k onto the price. And there are other issues, like the suspension needs some attention.
3. Sell it as is. I got a killer deal on it ($6,500) and I might be able to recoup some of that cost. I don't really NEED this van anymore, as my wife and I are no longer doing the vanlife thing full time anymore, even if it is super handy to have around.
I'd love to hear your thoughts/suggestions/questions.