Just joined this forum looking for some help! Sorry for the long post.

The wife and I were sitting at a drive through waiting to order some food. The vehicle started shaking and the "restricted performance" message came on the dash. I saw white smoke/steam coming from underneath the vehicle. I was able to get out and park it. After 5 minutes of sitting there, I checked the oil level and the coolant temp and both were normal. Called a tow truck. While waiting, I was looking for any coolant leaks and couldn't see anything. History... we were getting check coolant level message. Would top it off about once a week. I could smell coolant but couldn't find a leak. Did some research and found out about the rear and front crossover coolant pipes that fail!! Anyhow, back to the problem. I tried to start the vehicle again and all it did was crank over. I took my finger off the start button and it continued! Took my foot off the brake and it still continued cranking. I had to open the door for it to stop cranking. Tow truck got there and as it was getting towed onto the flatbed I could see coolant leaking from the front of the engine. I ordered all the parts and a new water pump just for the heck of it. Water pump was replaced by the factory 20,000 miles ago. Here's the problem, I get nothing when I try to start it. Push the start button and the dash lights up, radio works, door dings, etc. apply the brake and push the button again and everything shuts down. Nothing. I can continue to this with the same results.
Hooked up my reader and I got misfires in the #2,4,6,8 cylinders. I pulled the plugs looking for coolant thinking blown head gasket and found nothing. The spark plugs look great for 99,000 miles on them. I'm able to turn the engine over by hand so I'm thinking the motor isn't seized. Battery tested good and I still replaced the battery. Still get the same results. I have no trouble codes on my reader but still get nothing. Found the mega fuse at the positive cable had blown and replaced it. Try it again and we could hear the starter try to engage but nothing. Now the starter won't even engage. Talk to the dealership and an Indy guy and they know nothing about my symptoms. No safety features that would cause this. I did a hard reset on the ECU. Still nothing. All my grounds looked good and took an ohm meter to them with no breaks. I'm heading down to the starter next. Maybe it's fried?
Any other ideas? The Indy guy said if I'm not getting any DTC's he probably wouldn't either with his high dollar reader! Very frustrating and I'm too far down the rabbit hole now to have it towed and fixed.
Thanks in advance for any assistance in this. Any more information needed by me?

yeah, manually apply power to the starter solenoid and see if the starter works better.

have you fixed the coolant issue ?

Are you talking 5.0 SC or NA?

Have you got a DTC reader that reads the last 2 numbers of the full DTC?

Could the coolant have corroded terminals, solenoid or motor windings on the starter? 2019 5.0 SC SVA (Current)
2012 5.0 SC AB. Sadly written off by a campervan
23 plate Focus ST (Current)
1942 VEP Ford GPW Jeep (Willys) (Current)
1943 Whites M16 Halftrack (Current)
16 plate Eurofighter Typhoon, 2 x Eurojet engines with 20,000lbs thrust each. 1380mph

Thank you for the responses.
Yes, the reader I have will. I have the Foxwell 510 Elite for Land Rover. I will be heading in the direction of the starter. I'm hoping the leak has fried something down there!! I have not replaced all the coolant parts yet. I was hoping I could get her turning over first. But I'm so far into it, I will be replacing all items mentioned.
I'll let you know what I find out. Thanks again.

Probably the long cranking that damaged it



And we still don’t understand why it wouldn’t start ?

I was wondering if coolant may have caused the solenoid to have seized in the engaged position and therefor causing it to continue cranking. 2019 5.0 SC SVA (Current)
2012 5.0 SC AB. Sadly written off by a campervan
23 plate Focus ST (Current)
1942 VEP Ford GPW Jeep (Willys) (Current)
1943 Whites M16 Halftrack (Current)
16 plate Eurofighter Typhoon, 2 x Eurojet engines with 20,000lbs thrust each. 1380mph

I had the wife try to start it while I was underneath with a volt meter and I was getting 11.9v to the starter through the solenoid. Got nothing from the starter. Took the starter out and hooked it directly to 12v and still got nothing. I'm ordering another starter motor and in the mean time I will be replacing all the coolant parts that I ordered to fix (hopefully) the original problem.

While waiting for the starter to arrive, we went ahead and replaced all the coolant stuff I ordered. Replaced the rear crossover pipe, the front crossover pipe and the water pump. Found the leak!!!! Both tubes that fit into the block on the front crossover pipe were broken. When we remove the intake you could see the coolant residue and when the pipe was removed, we had to dig out the O-rings and pieces of both tubes! Total hard failure. I can't believe how many different coolant routes are on this thing. Failures waiting everywhere?
No too bad of a job overall. Feel confident about any coolant issues now.