Hello, I recently made a cross country move and sadly my 2008 F-350 with a V10 and 88k miles did not make it. I was going about 70 mph towing a trailer and the engine high revved making me think the transmission died because I lost power but everything seemed to be on and functioning otherwise. I did not hear any odd sounds or smells. while pulling over I lost power steering and brakes because the engine stopped and for a very brief moment there was some smoke after coming to a stop... probably like 30 seconds and a slight burnt smell with no fluid leaks and still had oil. when attempting to start nothing happened other than the lights coming on... if I remember correctly the starter clicked. I was pressed on time as I had to make it 1500 more miles to close on a house so I left it in Idaho at a dealership... they were weeks out so I had it towed the rest of the way and then had to fly back due to a family emergency so I never had time to look at it myself.

Fast forward a couple weeks the local dealership called and said the engine is seized and needs replacement. Before I consider this insanity does this seem plausible... should I have it towed and get a second opinion? I asked questions such as how did the tech confirm this and possible cause. The service manager was not clear about it just something like "it wont turn over because its seized" So I am unsure if that means they just tried to start it or actually attempted to manually turn it over. I finally made it back to my new home and plan to go in Monday to talk to them..

Thanks in advance for your insight!

 

There is nothing wrong in wanting to see for yourself , especially since this can be quite costly..
Don't know how much it will cost you to actually get there and see it.
We would like to believe the diagnosis was correct, but for what it would cost, I would still like to see for myself.

 

Its pushing towards 12k dollars

My reason for questioning only comes from the fact I heard nothing. I guess I would expect some sort of event to occur for such a catastrophic failure other than simply coasting to a stop.

 

Stranger things have happened because the wrong grade of oil or infrequent oil changes allowed engines to go south in some late model engines.

 

It very possible something cracked and in sitting a while water got into a cylinder and hydro locked it - AKA seized

 

Good point.
Can you ask if they pulled the spark plugs and tried to turn it over?