Bought a lemon

[Kenooghk]

Hey everyone,I recently bought a 04 sierra 4.8L 4x4.never owned a truck and was really happy about it but the deal was I had to get the transfer case changed out before I could drive it and I figured the price was right so I did...2 days later I put new tires on it and went to get an alignment and the mechanic said he couldn't align it because it needed a right side hub bearing and the right front shock was broken so I got a new bearing and had the shocks replaced... A week later I noticed that the TC seal on the back was leaking already idk why cause it was a new seal supposedly so I went to napa and bought a new seal and changed it ... After arguing with the guy who rebuilt it....a week later I noticed that my coolant was down so I added some, and the engine was running really rough so I changed the plugs and did an oil change... This didnt help the engine at all so I took it to a mechanic and he put his reader on it and said that the o2 sensor on the left side before the cat was bad so I unplugged it and it is running great ... Lots of power etc no more rough idling... But I still see that every other day it looks like my coolant level is a little low... I've been doing a ton of reading about this and it's probably a blown head gasket or I have those castech heads... Man I'm such a sucker.. I put 3000 into this thing already and it doesn't seem like it's never gonna stop,will this beast ever be reliable or should I just park it?

[txab]

Caveat emptor!

 

Check the water pump and wp gaskets.for starters.

 

Mileage?

[Kenooghk]

Lol ain't that the truth!!

[Kenooghk]

160k miles ... Ya I will do some investigating before I jump the gun

[Chris]

I lost a head gasket at 110k in my 4.8 so it may be the problem. Check cheaper parts before jumping into the head gasket. I jumped to a new engine.

 

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[Kenooghk]

Ya for sure I will and I also made a mistake when I said 160 miles I did the conversion wrong were in km up here it actually has 120 k miles on it ... The white smoke really worries me though although its cold up here in the mornings when I sit at a light and see that no one else has smoke coming from their tail pipe but me it makes me think the worst lol

[Chris]

I only swapped engines at the first sign of trouble because I was going to do it 2 months later anyway. I wanted the 6.0. But check the water pump. If its fine check out head gaskets. There are a couple tests I think you can do without pulling the head.

 

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[waumo1]

White smoke from the exhaust - does the exhaust smell of antifreeze?

[KMGZ400]

all of those things are really normal things that go wrong on these trucks... you cant buy a nearly 14 year old truck with 160k and expect it to be perfect. but you should just suck it up and fix everything and you should get another 100k out of it.. the motors go forvever.

[txab]

Pull the valve covers and check for the castech problem.

[Kenooghk]

Thanks for the tips... I don't think the exhaust smells like antifreeze but it smells awful,not the way it should anyway and btw the truck is only 9 years old not 14 and these are normal problems for a truck with 120 000 miles?but I appreciate the help... I drive tractor so I'll get on it when I get home