The contact owns a 2013 Ford Escape. The contact stated that while driving at various speeds, the vehicle stalled. The contact was unable to pull over to a safe place. The contact shifted to neutral(N), turned off, and restarted the vehicle, and the contact was able to continue driving. The contact stated that the failure had been recurring while driving. Additionally, the contact stated that there was a misfire coming from the engine on cold starts intermittently. The contact, who was an industrial technician, used a code reader to scan the vehicle and retrieved DTC: P1299 and P0304. Additionally, the contact inspected the vehicle and determined that there was coolant intrusion in cylinder #4. The vehicle was taken to the dealer, where the contact was informed that the failure had occurred due to an engine short block factory defect. The dealer recommended that the short block be replaced; however, the dealer had not diagnosed the vehicle. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was notified of the failure and referred the contact to the NHTSA Hotline for assistance. The failure mileage was approximately 170,000.