"98 Expedition 5.4 that we rarely use had a bad head gasket, got hydro locked and broke a connecting rod while cranking the engine. Short story, there is a small chunk off the bottom of the cylinder. I wanted to just put rings and head gaskets,used piston and rod, just the cheapest patch I can do. Has anyone rebuilt an engine that had this condition? The concern of course is an engine knock or perhaps damage to piston skirt that might lead to something bad.

 

You might find that the cost may be pretty even replacing the engine with a good used one from an identical vehicle compared to doing the engine work and hoping you won't have addl problems up the road from the anti-freeze getting in where it shouldn't be.

Sometimes we forget that old one, " We don't have time to do it right, but always find the time to do it over" !

 

Hanky,
Thanks for being the voice of reason, but I'm pricing junkyard engines at $700, reman is $2400. Your junkyard warranty is they will replace it if doa in thirty days. Rings and a gasket set is less than $200. Piston and rod on ebay for 30. Book value of the car is around $3000. but with a broken rod you're looking at 250 salvage.

 

It will be a gamble either way, used engine or patch job. Those patch jobs always come back to haunt us and once anti freeze got loose in the engine you can practically pick your trouble because it seems to come with that guarantee.