Market Place Bargain Ford flex, Or so I thought, I might need an intervention.

Added: 2026-05-27

[00:00:00]Oh yeah. I don't think he was lying when he said I might need an engine.

[00:00:08]>> Stupid marketplace.

[00:00:12]Hey guys, welcome back to SH's life. We got a uh I don't know, another headache, I suppose you could say. So the other night we're up at the bowling alley for a burger and a beer and well turning like three beers and next thing you know I'm on Marketplace and oh lo and behold, another Ford Flex. Just what I need in my life. Another one. Starting to understand how Joe feels out there at the Lost Cause Ranch. He's a uh hoarder of Land Rovers. And evidently I'm becoming the uh hoarder of Ford Flexus.

[00:00:43]So yeah, here we are. 2013 Ford Flex Limited.

[00:00:49]And it's in not as a clean a shape as I thought it was, but if you've been following the channel, you kind of know where we're going with this one. The same way place we were going with the red one. Same place we were going with the blue one. I don't know. This is number four. So yeah, 127,000 miles.

[00:01:08]Evidently belonging to an 80year-old lady. Her son said it stopped running and it won't crank over. He thinks the engine needs to be repaired or replaced.

[00:01:19]And I thought I just happen to have an engine for one of these sitting back here in the outdoor storage area. Like I said, if you follow the channel, you know where I'm going with this. If you don't follow the channel, you're new here. Let me catch up real quick. So, last fall I bought this 2014 blue Ford Flex Limited EcoBoost at salvage auction for my wife to drive as a winter beater with the agreement that when winter was over, I get the car back and I get to chop it up and put some 40-in tires underneath it. Well, then springtime came and went and uh she decided that she likes the car and I don't get it back.

[00:01:58]And since she has never argued with one project I've ever built, I couldn't really say no. So, a couple of weeks later, I bought this red 2014 Ford Flex Seal. So, it's not a limited, non-ecoboost.

[00:02:11]And I figured she can't have two, right?

[00:02:14]Actually, she wanted this one, but since it's not a limited, it has a key. She didn't want nothing to do with it. So, good for me. So, now I got my own car.

[00:02:22]So, this one is hitting the left front.

[00:02:24]The suspension was damaged. I didn't have any suspension. So, cruisers in the marketplace, I found this parted out 2014 Ford Flex with good suspension and a good roof. And that roof is going to be important later on in life, just not today. Oh, I bought this Ford Flex. I could use a suspension on the red car, which I already did. And that was going to be the end of the Ford Flex, right?

[00:02:47]But the plan is to put the Ford Flex body on this Expedition chassis. And we're going to use a rear wheel drive engine transmission setup out of that car. So, I don't need the engine out of the red car, but it runs perfect. So, that's why we bought this car here because it supposedly needs an engine and I just happen to have one. So, now that you're all caught up, we're going to see if we can figure out why this thing doesn't run because I would like to drive it off the trailer. So, I found this over in Rockford, Illinois, about an hour and a half trip from where we are. And yes, I'm $2,000 poor now. But if I can take that red car engine and put it in this car, I can sell it for a profit cuz this one's a clean title. The red one's not a clean tile, but this one's a Limited. The other one's not a Limited. So, it's got the better headlights and a key fob and power fold mirrors. So, there's a chance that the red one's going to get sold. And this one's going to become my monster truck.

[00:03:42]So, I do know that the battery is completely junk in this thing and it's got a lot of oil around those sensors there. But for the most part, I mean, there ain't no rods or anything hanging out the motor. So, it's a good start. So, I think what we'll do is we tried to start it when it was there and it just kind of clicked because like I said, the battery is junk. So, I think we're going to throw the jump pack on here.

[00:04:10]Good noise. And I think we're going to just throw the top down one on it and see if there's any codes or anything we need to know about. There is a Amazon link, affiliate link in the description for this bad boy because this thing is pretty handy.

[00:04:27]Well, it's a little hot over there in the sun, so we're going to scan it over here in the shade and see what we come up with.

[00:04:35]Well, that's a lot of red squares, so let's just kind of go through and start seeing. APM, that's all audio, ABS.

[00:04:41]Don't really care.

[00:04:44]Well, there's nothing obvious in here, so I think we're just going to go through and clear codes and then we'll see what we can figure out. All right, so we cleared all the codes. Key fob is in here. Just see what happens with the jump pack.

[00:05:02]Nothing.

[00:05:09]Okay.

[00:05:14]Well, I mean, there's nothing obvious right out of the hole here. Uh when the overflow is lower empty.

[00:05:32]Well, that don't smell right.

[00:05:37]Smells weird in there. Boy, oh boy. Oh boy.

[00:05:42]That's a lot of milkshake and a lot of oil. Oh yeah.

[00:05:49]I don't think he was lying when he said it might need an engine.

[00:05:53]So what's the deal? Is it full of water?

[00:05:56]I mean, obviously the oil is full of water.

[00:05:59]Does it hydrolocked?

[00:06:01]That's why it won't turn over.

[00:06:04]Okay. Well, I guess we're going to So it's a V6. I can get to the front three plugs, but I can't get to the back three. But if it is in fact hydrolocked if we can unhydrolock it. Well, there's Well, or it could be internal water pump because the water pumps are internal on these motors. This thing's only got 127 on it, but it doesn't look like it's very well taken care of. If the water pump fails internally, something about drops the bearings down the timing chains and then jumps timing and then things meet things that aren't supposed to meet things. You know what I'm saying? Or the head gasket and the cylinders are full of water.

[00:06:44]That explain that smell coming out of that tank cuz it it doesn't smell like antifreeze, that's for sure. Anyways, I'll grab some tools and we'll pull the front three plugs and see what it looks like.

[00:06:56]Cylinder one. I don't know if that's one. It's not. Nice and dry. Looks Don't see anything in that one.

[00:07:06]That one we're never going to know. Oh, there it is. Okay, number two is nice and dry. Third one I can't get out because the coil ripped off the end and it's stuck on the spark plug. So, I'm going to say that that's not the problem.

[00:07:21]So, let's pop the intake.

[00:07:36]Never done one of these before, so don't know what I'm getting into. But it's one of those deals where it's already broke, so I can't make it much worse.

[00:07:48]Oh, okay. Maybe not.

[00:08:00]Well, it's loose, but it's not loose enough. There's something like right there.

[00:08:08]I don't know what what could that be?

[00:08:20]How can they flop around but not just come right out of there?

[00:08:24]Well, that's sharp. You bastard. You cut me right open, didn't you? You're plastic. You're not supposed to do that.

[00:08:36]Okay. There seems to be some sort of brackety brackety back there with a bolt in it that I can't reach.

[00:08:48]That guy. Oh, look at that.

[00:08:58]What is that? Antifreeze in the intake.

[00:09:05]Why is there antifreeze in the intake?

[00:09:08]Cuz it This ain't looking so good, boys and girls.

[00:09:13]Okay. What does that tell us?

[00:09:20]What does that tell us?

[00:09:23]There's water on the backside of the throttle body.

[00:09:31]Yeah, that is coolant in the intake.

[00:09:36]Okay.

[00:09:38]All right. Well, I'm going to try to peek down in there and see what we can see.

[00:09:46]Okay. This is both valves are open on this one.

[00:09:51]Both valves are closed on this one.

[00:09:55]Both valves are closedish, but nothing looks super wet. Kind of closed.

[00:10:03]Really close. Sounds like Conor's home.

[00:10:10]I'm going to do some more looking.

[00:10:13]See what I can figure out. Okay. So, looking down all the cylinders, we know these two are dry.

[00:10:19]The valves are open on this cylinder here.

[00:10:23]So, that should not be an issue. So, I'm going to say it's either this one or this one. There's got to be cooling in one of them. If it was in the intake, could be in this one here yet, too.

[00:10:35]But let's pull these back ones.

[00:10:46]Dry as can be. Dry as can be. What is going on here?

[00:10:52]There's water in the intake. There's water in there.

[00:10:56]How did it get there? Let's try to turn it over with five spark plugs out and see if it does anything.

[00:11:12]Well, there's only one spark plug left, right? It's the one with the ripped boot. So, let me see if I can get that out of there and we'll see what we can come up with. I tell you, you know what I've been missing lately? Coat hangers.

[00:11:24]Not that new plastic crap that we got today. The old school metal hangers. You know, the ones that hang your jeans or your coat or unlock a door in a car, pick out a rubber boot out of a cylinder of a Ford Flex. It's piece of 12 gauge wire. It's about the best thing I got.

[00:11:42]It's kind of working, but still. Coat hanger. Way cooler.

[00:11:49]Can you even buy those anymore?

[00:11:53]That guy Dry. How can there be water in the intake and no water in the cylinders?

[00:12:05]This making no sense.

[00:12:08]Dry. Dry. Dry. Unless it was hydrolocked and bent something really, really, really, really bad. And now it won't turn over.

[00:12:31]Well, I don't know why there's water in the intake and not water in the cylinders, but there probably was water in the cylinders and now it's in the oil, but the damage has already been done. I'm assuming. I don't know.

[00:12:42]Anybody ever been into one of these motors before? Leave it in the comment.

[00:12:46]Let me know what you think is wrong.

[00:12:47]Obviously, I'm not fixing it. The decision has to be made. Do I take the engine out of the red car and put it in this car? Or do I just fix the red car, which needs to be fixed anyways to get inspected? I could just fix it a little nicer, clean it up, throw some for sale signs in it, sell that one, which will reimburse me for this one, and I'll get this one for free and my money back for the red one, and my money back for the parts car. I think I get like 4,500 bucks out of that red car. I got 1,400 bucks in it. I got $300 worth of parts so far to fix it. I'm not going to have much labor in it. I got $2,000 in this one. So, that's $3,400 in both cars plus a parts car. That's $200. That's $3,600 I have in flexes parts flexes. I took $800 worth of tires off of the red one and put them on the blue one.

[00:13:42]So, if I sell the red one for 4,500 bucks, I get all my other cars for free.

[00:13:48]That sounds like a pretty good deal. I think that's what we're gonna go with.

[00:13:52]Well, anyways, this one's not going to run. So, I'm going to button it up enough and find a hole and push it off the trailer.

[00:14:40]Heat. Heat.

[00:15:14]Well, it's off the trailer anyways. It's all that really matters. And like I said, I'm not really worried about screwing up anything underneath the back of it cuz it's all getting thrown away.

[00:15:30]And this shall be her final resting place for a little while anyways because I just need that unloaded because I need my trailer so I can put it away because I need the truck because tomorrow we're going to start getting this thing ready to be for sale. We need to get these scratches fixed on the side. Scratches here. Couple dings. Couple spots on this fender I don't like. Fix a couple things and get this thing for sale cuz I don't need three trucks right now. So anyways guys, that is it for the flex for now.

[00:15:58]Wish we could have got that old girl running, but it ain't happening. So, catch you on the next one, guys.