How to tell a "bad" one from a "good" one??

[mnfordcowgirl]

Hey you mean old guys LOL I hope I dont get beat up, but I just bought a 97 f150 4.2 5spd. Its a great truck so far.. but I have only put 200 miles on it. It has 71000 on it and seems to run great, has good take off from the line and shifts clean and doesnt seem to be making an abnormal noises. I want to haul my 2 horse trailer a few tiems to rodeos when my friend isnt going with (she has a chevy and a 5th wheel) but do I dare haul with this truck? I wouldnt be going any faster than 65 tops but I dont want to be out a motor. I know there is GOOD and BAD.... but you can have 1000000 GREAT trucks and 500 bad and all you care about is the bad so help me please and dont kick my _SS. THANKS!

[drighten]

I thought I was gonna miss this discussion as it started way back in August, but I will shed what little light I have on the subject. I just bought a 1996 Winstar with the 3.8L in it, and I have a buddy who has a 1999 F150 with the 4.2L, and another buddy with a 1995 Winstar with 3.8L in it. Also, I got a bunch of buddies who work for the Ford dealerships up here in Canada (sorry if that's where your motors came from, but it's Fords fault, honest, it's not a Canadian conspiracy, Hahaha!) Anyway, all three of these engines, and many more have a problem with head gaskets. The gasket material is not made of a metal which is compatable with the aluminum of the blocks and heads of these engines. According to my Ford buddies, who have changed a bunch of these engines, Ford doesn't even argue. They just make the customer pay one third the cost, and give them a new engine. There has been a change in the gasket material, and they say that Ford thinks it has this problem remedied. The Winstar I bought had nine kilometers since the engine change and I got a really sweet deal as the original owner was totally pissed off about the requirement for an engine change, and so short changed himself. I thought I got a fantastic deal. This is in the eye of the beholder isn't it? By the way, for anyone who wishes to punch out anyone else, how you gonna find em? Do folks here give out addresses and phone numbers over the net????? Tough call huh? Now, on another subject I saw above. The worth of the 4.6L V8. I just lost my shirt trading in a 2000 F-150 Supercab 4X4 short box pickup with this engine and only 10,000 miles on the clock cause it wouldn't pull for #####. I have a 24' Airstream trailer, and was into low gear on some not so steep hills in southern Ontario. I thought I would destroy my tranny trying to get up over them. I came home and traded on a 2002 F-150 7700 model Supercab 4X4 short box, with the 5.4L and 3.73 drive ratio. What a difference. The fuel mileage is better with the 5.4L also. I won't come right out and state that the 4.6L is a bad engine, but I will state that it won't pull fer #####, Hahahaha! And by the way - NO THERE AIN'T NO WAY TO TELL IN ADVANCE IF THE ENGINE IS GOOD OR NOT ASIDE FROM PULLING IT APART - sorry for shouting, but I thought it was an important point. Hope everybody has a lovely day.

[BlueOvalFitter]

Welcome to the Ford club Drighten....anyway,i have a 97 with the "famous" 4.2 V6,with 77,000 miles..i'm the 2nd owner; seems the 1st owner took care of all the recalls including the dreaded timing cover leak.So,you think my motor will go bad with the head gaskets on it now? I sure hope not.

[CoupeF150]