Ron these engines don't blow head gaskets by themselves.. They need a little help from the owner! How often do you raise the hood and LOOK at the engine? How often do you look UNDER the engine.
The heat in the engine occurs right there at the head gasket. If there is the proper amount of coolant in that engine, or any other engine for that matter, the coolant pulls the heat off of the head and the gasket. If, however, there is a small coolant leak undetected by the owner. Then the PLACE where the low coolant does it's damage is the HEADGASKET! Every day there are posts about the headgasket in someones ride.. I'd betcha in 99% of these cases the problem was the owner not knowing the coolant was low! Even a few that the owner was pouring more coolant in the radiator once or more a week! Not knowing the chance he was taking...
Big JIm
Big "Condescending" Jim (LOL):
I regularly check everything on my vehicles. By regularly, I mean once a month at a minimum. Also, at every oil change I ask my mechanic to check everything (brakes, fluids, tire pressure, etc.). There were no indications of any leaks.
My mechanic and another one I spoke to both said these 3.0 flex fuel engines are prone to all kinds of problems, including head gasket issues. They guess that with me driving it a lot recently in 4WD due to the snow it may have stressed the cooling system and there may have been a blockage. (Nowadays I typically put about 3K miles per year on the truck, and have done half that in the past month!).
They quoted me $2500 for the work, if the heads are okay and do not need rerplaced they can do it about a grand less.
Beings it has 104,000 miles on it and is worth about $3K, I may just sell it "as is." I have two other vehicles to get me around. If I do, I will miss it. I have had it since Halloween 1998 and it has treated me well overall.