so I'm going to buy an older truck. somewhere between 85 and 95 looking to spend around 1500 bucks. when compared to the Chevy square old body and the old ford body with glass headlights why is the ford better same question when comparing the 88 up chevys vs the 87 up fords. why is ford better . where is Chevy better? and which do you prefer . I pretty much know the answer to that being we are on a ford forum but hey you never know. I dont want alot of bashing per say but more actual factual information. thanks guys and happy new years.

 

Chevy's are simple, Part's are prevalant and cheap, and noone can argue a SBC being a great engine.

Ford's alway's changed stupid stuff from Yr to Yr, Parts are more, and they are a little more complicated to work on.

I love ford, and I would buy a Ford, but I can't argue with the GM truck's from the 70's to the 88 model's.

 

Having owned both in "half-ton" configuration, the Ford wins on body and GM on drivetrain. Peeling paint and rust tend to be worse on the GM, but automatic transmissions and rear axles go out more often with the Ford. Engines? Its a tossup. I like the 4.3 V-6 for power and economy, but the 4.9 I-6 is much smoother and probably longer lasting. A 5.7L V-8 is a lot more common than the 5.8, so parts are more plentiful. Ford was using port injection when GM still used throttle body. Front suspension is a matter of taste. I like the Ford off-road and the GM on the highway.

 

Suspension wise, I prefer the old chev solid axle front on the old square bodied k series trucks to the twin traction beam Fords. I dont care for the IFS on the 88 up chevs at all. Engines and trans are decent in all of them, but I like Fords MPI fuel injection over the GM shower heads.

 

They are both good. I never really was into those years of ford due to the vacuum/electrical systems they had. To me the gm's were just simpler to work on. I had an 87 89 97 and 99(classic so basically a 98). They were all pretty good trucks. The 4x4 system on earlier 88up bodystyle had a heated element to lock in the front differential that was basically crap imho. The gm's will rust at the cab corners and rocker panels. The fords will rust above the rear fender wells. Personally I have seen alot more 1/2 ton rear axles go out on the gm's but I have also been around more of them. The 300 is an awesome engine and if your looking for a work truck thats not gonna see much highway throw in some 4.10 gears and you will have a beast. If you want a v8 I like the 350. The vortec was my favorite but not available till 96. Just some of my opinions and observations over the years but I think if you find either brand thats been well maintained and plan on fixing a few things after your initial purchase you should get plenty of life out of either.

 

My first truck was an old 1990 Ford F-150 XLT Lariat with MPI 302 V8, It was a good solid truck and never really gave me any issues...Though it did have one major issue when my transmission (AOD 4-Speed auto) went out and had to be replaced.

But other than that problum the truck was bullet proof. The Ford 302 seemed to have a little more power than comparable TBI GM 305's of the day...However the Vortec 305's that came out in 1990 were superior to the MPI 302 in terms of stock performance.

Despite my heavy Ford bias I can't argue with the fact that GM's 350 V8 was a good engine. It was simple, reliable and easier to find parts for cheaply than pretty much any other engine in exsistance. Stock for stock performance difference's bettween Fords 351 and GM's 350 seemed to be negligable, comming to who has better gearing basically

The GM 4.3L was a decent engine back in its hayday to. It was realtivly powerful (For a Sixbanger) and its known to be reliable as well. My friend had an 1996 Chevy S-10 with the 4.3L back in highschool and he drove that truck to hell and back 10 times over...Eventually almost everything failed on it because he drove it so hard...But that little 4.3L just kept chugging right along. However despite all of this I think Fords 4.9L I6 is far superior to GM's 4.3L V6...The Ford I6 has much more usable torque and is known for its reliablity even under the most extream conditions.

I do agree that Ford's of this era have better bodys and less issues with rust than GM trucks of this time. My 1990 didn't have a single spec of rust on it and the paint was in prime condition...I knew people in highschool though that had old Chevy's wich almost all of them were rusting and/or peeling paint in one place or another.

Suspension's as already said, is a matter of taste...Fords TTB (Twin Traction Beam) suspension of this era was known to be very rugged and handled rugged terrian very well. However Fords TTB suspension was prone to alignment issues which in many case's caused premature front tire wear, and they were bad about getting knocked out of alignment easily. As far as GM go's the Pre 1988 trucks used a standerd issue solid axle up front which more traditional and in any case didn't have the alignment issues that Fords TTB system did. However Post 1988 models used a Double A arm IFS front suspension which was known to break tie rods easily when put under and kind of stress. And issue Ford never had.

All and all I think both would make you a good truck. The best thing you can do I think is to go test drive a few of each from both Ford and GM and then decide which one floats your boat better...They both have their positive's and negitives.

Anyway
Goodluck!

 

Old trucks are cheap enough to have both brands. It's no different than having two different computers or two different coffee makers. My Fords and Chevys don't get jealous of each other.

One thing both have in common is "dirt cheap aftermarket parts", and that make 'em economical to keep as second or third or fourth or whatever vehicles even if gas prices go nuts.

 

At one time I had an '81 GMC at the same time my father in law had an '86 Ford and I never did like the Ford as much as the GMC. I felt mine was simpler, had more power and was much easier to work on since they hadn't changed much in the past decade.

 

Anything from 87 and older (91 and back on 3/4 and 1 tons) from GM is okay in my book. The newer GM trucks flat out suck, everything about em is cheap and flimsy. The IFS front ends other than the nice ride are garbage IMO. They eat ball joints and steering parts like crazy, the cast aluminum front diff is a joke, the axle disconnect system sucks. And CV axles in a full size pickup... 3/4 and 1 ton?! Pathetic! The frames on the newer trucks are much weaker, trucks with snow plows expect to find stress cracks behind the rear upper control arm mounts. I have actually seen where the frame completely breaks off in this location. The 8.5" 10 bolt rear axles are pretty weak, prone to bending the housing as well as pinion problems. The 700R4/4L60E auto trans are short lived if not WELL MAINTAINED. The good points, the TBI 4.3 V6 and 5.7 V8 are great engines that run for a long time, the 9.5 and 10.25 14 bolt rear axles are close to bulletproof.
I admit I am partial to Fords and they do have their problems but seems like less compared to GM.
John

 

I am by no means a Gm truck man, but I very rarely see their truck transmissions fail and i am in the business of repairing cars and trucks. They seem to have pretty good drive trains imo. The only things i see go are rear ends, both the small 10 bolts and the bigger 14's. Quite a few howling like banshees around here.

 

I don't know what generation trans you are talking about, but I doubt it's the 700R4/4L60E trans. My '89 Chevy 4x4 had been through 700R4's before I got it, and I had one rebuilt while I owned it. Then there's my God-forsaken '97 Suburban. It had 3 4L60E transmission failures by the time it had 70K miles on it and it had NEVER towed anything! GM builds truly horrid transmissions that cannot stand up to even grocery-hauling duty. By comparison, my F250's 4R100 is purring along just fine on it's original trans at 110K miles and it tows and hauls plenty.

 

The 700R4/4L60E slushboxes are okay in a 2wd 1/2 ton pickup or van that doesn't do any towing. Now granted the aftermarket has come up with a number of updates to beef them up a little, but it isn't cheap to build one up. Even with that they're still weak, I would dare say the Ford AOD was a stronger unit... and they weren't anything to write home about. My old 95 GMC Jimmy 4wd went through three 4L60Es (along with a long list of other stuff), and it was babied most of the time. Like I said before, the old square body straight axle GMs were much better... and even they had their issues. If you ask me, GM quit building TRUCKS in 1972!

 

700R4/4L60E are light duty, no question. They can be built up pretty stout, but I would never have one in anything bigger than a 1/2 ton. I replaced lots of them over the years. Sorry, have to say the E4OD/4R100 were not very good. Seen a lot of those blow up early, usually it's that weak center support bushing that starves for oil goes out, then the planets start jumping up and down, then it's adios, amigo. The AOD-E was a good light duty automatic. GM's 4L80E is very stout, but first gear is too high. Have to run low gears with that one. Dodge, don't get me started........

 

The 4L60E in the C1500 held up much better than the E4OD in the F-150. Same driver, similar duty cycle. The Chevy did occasional light-medium towing, the Ford, no towing at all. Yet, the "Heavy Duty" Ford transmission failed, twice, and the "Light Duty" GM did not.

 

I would stay away from a 80-87 Ford The mid 90s Fords were good trucks. I owned an 86 F250 4x4 I would never own another one in the 80s. Now the 90s Fords that is different. They were much better trucks.
As for Chevy The last one I owned was a 79 CK20 4x4. It was a great truck in always. The weakest link was the frame by the steering box. But if you keep the steering box tight I never had any issues.
Chevy parts are cheap & Chevy did not change crap every year or so as Ford did & does.
So if it was me I would look at both until I found the right one for me @ the right price for me.