Ford Courier: WL / WL-T 2.5 turbo-diesel cracked cylinder head (coolant into the cylinders)

The 2.5 litre WL and WL-T diesel used in the PE, PG and PH Courier is known for cracking its cylinder head, typically around the pre-chamber and valve-seat area, and NZ and Australian owners of work-hardened utes report doing one roughly every 160,000 km. The crack lets coolant seep into a cylinder, so the header tank slowly empties with no puddle on the ground, the engine steams white on start-up and eventually overheats. Owners also report the multi-layer steel head gasket weeping as a matter of course on high-hour examples. There is no recall and no factory goodwill on a vehicle this old, so the buyer carries the whole bill, and a cracked head that is driven on will usually take the bottom end with it. Because the symptoms are gradual, a seller who tops up the coolant before you arrive can hide it for the length of a test drive.

• Coolant level keeps dropping with no visible leak or puddle under the ute
• Thick white steam from the exhaust that does not clear once the engine is warm
• Sweet coolant smell around the engine bay or from the exhaust after a run
• Bubbling or gurgling in the coolant header tank with the engine idling
• Creamy tan sludge on the underside of the oil filler cap
• Temperature gauge creeping up on hills or when towing

Arrive while the engine is stone cold and insist on being the one to start it. Watch the exhaust for the first thirty seconds: a puff of white that clears is normal on a cold diesel, but thick sweet-smelling white steam still there after a few minutes is coolant. Look into the coolant header tank before start-up and check the level against the marks, that the fluid is clean green or blue rather than rusty brown, and that there is no oily film floating on top. Open the oil filler cap and look at its underside for creamy tan sludge. With the engine idling and warm, look into the header tank again for a steady stream of bubbles rising through the coolant, which is combustion gas getting past a crack. On the test drive, load the engine up a long hill and watch the temperature gauge the whole way. Ask the seller directly whether the head has ever been off, whether the head gasket has been done, and how often they top the coolant up, and ask to see the invoice for any head work. If a workshop inspection is possible: have a specialist pressure-test the cooling system and run a combustion-gas test on the header tank, and request a compression test across all four cylinders.

Parts involved: Cylinder head, Turbocharger.

$1,800 to $3,500 at New Zealand independent workshop rates. That is for this job on its own, not for the car.

An estimate, in NZD, for the repair as normally carried out. What a specific car costs depends on which part has failed and what it damaged on the way — treat this as the floor for a negotiation, not a quote.

• “Has the cylinder head ever been off this engine, or replaced?”
• “How often do you have to top up the coolant?”
• “Has it ever overheated, even once?”
• “Do you have the invoice for the head gasket or head work?”

The failure described above is documented in the sources below. The inspection instructions and the cost estimate are KickTyres’ own interpretation of them.

• Offroad-Express (NZ 4x4 forum) thread 'Ford Courier/Mazda Bounty 4x4 known faults?' - owners report a cracked head roughly every 160,000 km and water staining on the cylinder walls
• ProductReview.com.au Ford Courier PH (2004-2006) owner reviews and Q&A - multiple reports of cracked heads and 'the MLS head gasket leaking, which they all do'
• Mr Cylinder Head (AU) - complete assembled WL-T cylinder head kit listed specifically for Ford Courier / Mazda B2500