Oh Gods Of The Blue Oval, Why Have You Forsaken Me?

Some days, it's hard to be a Ford guy. Trust me, you won't find a bigger Ford guy than myself. I was born with a Blue Oval on my chest. But my F350 starting to remind me of when I owned a boat. You know what a boat is, right? It's a big hole in the lake that you throw money into.

I've already replaced the oil cooler (not cheap) and fixed various nickle and dime problems. HA! HA! Fooled you! There are no "nickle and dime" problems. Nothing is less than $10 and consider yourself lucky if what you need is under $50.

Now, more good news. I have a cracked head (the truck, not me personally altho I am beginning to wonder). Fortunately it's only 1 head that's cracked and I caught it before it caused more problems. Unfortunately the parts alone are over $1500 and labor is close to that. In their infinite wisdom Ford designed a vehicle that you have to either raise the cab or pull the engine to replace the head. I guess it looked good on paper.

While it's torn down I'm replacing both head gaskets and upgrading the head bolts to ARP studs to hopefully avoid future problems before they happen. For what I paid and what the truck is worth, I'm still coming out ahead if I sold it. But it suddenly isn't such a great deal anymore. The truck has spent more time in the shop than in my driveway.

Friends gave me a hard time when I bought my Mercedes because it was an expensive, high maintenance car. At this rate, it's an economy car compared to my Ford.