I just bought my 15 year old son a 2001 F150 XL extra cab 2X4, 4.2 liter, automatic with 73,000 miles. This will be his first set of wheels. The truck is extra clean and appears to well cared for. We plan on having the cooling system and transmission flushed, engine and rear diff. oil changed, new plugs, and check the hoses, brakes, shocks, etc. I haven't had any experience with this V6 and other than the horror stories about the manifold gaskets and is there anything else I need to check? I wanted big, safe and fairly slow for his first vehicle and I know this will fit the bill.

F100/150s owned, 1963, 1969, 1970, 1974, 1979, 1987, 2004. I'm sorry I did the Dodge thing between 1987 and 2004.

 

Well, my oldest son bought a 2000 F-150 XL with the 4.2 and 5 speed. He has approx. 95k miles on it and still on the original tires! I have never seen tires go this many miles on a truck!
The only problem he has had was the time he ran over a piece of metal on the intersate in Memphis TN(during rush hour) and it punctured his fuel tank. A used tank fixed that.
The engine has run flawlessly over the years with just a minor tune-up on his part. Other than the infamous "crack" in the driver side door, which hasn't enlarged as of yet, his truck has not had any problems.
He told me that based on this truck alone, he would go Ford again.

 

Don't hold me to this, but I believe that was an issue only on the 97, 98's. I think I read that here???

You're a cool dad...lucky kid.

 

Use only ford spark plugs.

 

luckey kid, i wish my dad would have gotten me a new truck when i started driving, my first truck was a 1978 Ford Bronco 351M. cost me all of 200 bucks. it started and ran and the 4x4 worked, other than that... but anyway the 4.2 seems to be an good running engine, i worked at a Ford dealership and i drove F-150's that were 4.2's and the run realy good. the rangers that had the 4.2 (or 4.0 cant remember which) were very powerful.

 

The rangers a 4.0 hey man a 78 Bronco 4x4 is a good first truck