Why can't they make an engine that will hold water?

[NYEngineer]

My wifes 09 Kia Sorento had a badly installed timing cover gasket that leaked from day one. I ended up fixing it myself.

The ONLY vehicle I can remember leaking coolant was my 1998 GMC Yukon. The water passage seals in the intake manifold failed. I replaced it with a Fel Pro gasket and it never leaked again.

We had a whole bunch of Ford vans and pickups from 70s to present, some of which we put over 300,000 miles on and I dont remember ever doing any head gaskets.

 

[gathermewool]

Thank goodness I've only got two Subies - no worries here!

 

[pbm]

I've had a few Fords and have never had an intake or head gasket leak.
I've had a GM 3.1 in my 2002 Buick Century that had the infamous intake gasket leak.
A relative had a Buick 3.8 which had coolant leaks.

I certainly don't think this is a Ford specific problem....and I'd venture to say it's more common with GMs....

 

[Burt]

Thanks for the comments on my intelligence together with idle speculation. I was hoping to get a little more technical insight from knowledgeable people, but guess that is not to be had on BITOG today. From anecdotal information, it may be the case that V-8's are inherently better than smaller engines.

 

[Exhaustgases]

I have a ford vehicle with a 460 I overhauled over 10 years ago, it hasn't leaked any coolant.

 

[bullwinkle]

You guys must be lucky, the last 4 Ford work vans I've had ALL leaked-
'04 Ford E-350 6.0 PSD had bad HG from day one, took 4 dealers and the body off the frame for 2 months for Ford to finally fix it
'12 Ford E-250 4.6 2V also had bad HGs from day one, visible AF tracks in engine valley, finally quit leaking after around 85K (& guessing stop leak from lazy dealer)
'15 Ford Transit 250 bad water pump (out of warranty)
'18 Ford Transit 250 bad degas tank, bad heater core slip-on quick disconnects (at least, haven't got it in yet @ 48K miles).
Biggest annoyance is the diagnostic fees when a blind moron could see where they're leaking, without even putting a pressure tester on it!
BTW-it's a NEW Ford issue, both the MGM & F-450 in my sig have been fine, just needing minor things like hoses & thermostat.

 

[CR94]

Head-gasket failures seem to afflict modern engines of nearly all brands, which is annoying when the industry seemingly could get that important detail right many decades ago.

The bi-metal engine of my Mazda (below) ran a long time without head gasket troubles---although it managed a good simulation at only 476k due to erosion of head coolant passages. It's very disappointing to learn after buying the Prius that it features a time-bomb head gasket---which hasn't failed YET. No such problem with my brother's '95 Avalon after >340k. It failed on his daughter's '94 Camry with <300k.