cracked head question

[Giant squid]

2000 4.0L, i took the heads off my truck so i could rebuild my lifters, and just to see the general condition of things as my engine has a bit of a ticking sound to it. I replaced the rocker shaft assemblies form a picknpull yard perviosly cause the rocker arm were pitting pretty bad. That took most of the ticking away but now its returned about 2 months later. So after gettin the head off my brother noticed a large crack over cylinder 6 right between the valves, so i guess that does that. So i currently have 98tm heads and they seem really few and far between where i am. All ive read, says the only difference between the 95tm/98tm is the exaust port being bigger. If this is the case i dont see why i cant use it, it has the same fast burn chamber.

 

[Giant squid]

ahahhahahhahhah guess im on my own. Im going to the yards today so im just going to give it a shot ill let you guys know what the final outcome is. I should do fire up tomarrow evening

In god we trust

 

[mlunsford]

I have 99 and had the crackeds. There was a thread somewhere, maybe the explorer site on the heads and goes into pretty good explanation, but I would not go with eariler heads. Go with aftermarket heads is best as they are less prone to cracking, I got mine from Kingclinderhead.com. There is a guy on ebay that sells remanufactured heads with new castings pretty good deal, but there is a core charge. Buy the good felpro gasket set with rubber valve cover gaskets. I went with the 180 thermostat to keep the temp down a little.

 

[mlunsford]

and get NEW head bolts, do not reuse the old head bolts.

 

[Giant squid]

Well i got a set of 97tm heads inplace of the 98tm. They seem too be holding quite well no codes trippin, quiet as all hell, havent ran this smooth in a long time. I did use new head bolts and also got a top end gasket kit.
So final cost for a cracked head

Heads with rocker assemblies/pushrods/lifters/valve cover/exuast manifolds(didnt use)
Got all that from a 97 explorer for 90$
Head bolts and topend gasket kit 188$
oil/2 oil filters, coolent 60$

New heads and all new seals on top end for 340$ Hell yeah.

 

[Giant squid]

Woooo

 

[mlunsford]

Good deal, glad it worked out for you.