96 F-150 4.9 Straight Six 5-speed Just Purchased...any problems I should worry about?
 

Just purchased this truck the other day and for $2900...great condition, motor runs great and strong with no smoke.. It has the straight six with a 5-speed. Never had a ford with the 6 cyl...should I be worried about any issues? Any info would be great!

First off...welcome to FTE!
You'll find lots of great info here and a good bunch of guys&gals too
Congrats on the purchase.
No issues with the 4.9....these engines are bulletproof!
Just do a tune up and you should be good. You can also pull the codes to see if that turns up anything. Some codes are stored and will not trip the check engine light. You can find more on that at Fordfuelinjection.com. There is a link in the tech section at the top of this forum.
Again, welcome to the board and all the best with your new truck!

edit: Here's the link for reading the diagnostic codes
http://www.fordfuelinjection.com/?p=13

i had a 96 xl that was identical
 

i ate shift forks seems to be common to the trans guy i know. other than that absolutly bulletproof.

One more thing to worry about: The transmission has three rubber plugs on the top cover and they like to dry out and leak transmission fluid. The tranny runs low on fluid, overheats and cooks some of the internal parts and you need another transmission. Keep an eye on the fluid level.

The motor is rock solid though, they produce a ton of low RPM torque and run forever.

I've got a '94 F150 supercab with the same engine tranny combo, that my wife received as a gift from her father, who bought it new. The only thing that's ever gone wrong was the tranny, it was replaced once before we got it, and we had to have it rebuilt after she got it, something about the tranny not liking to back up steep inclines at high speed (never make a woman mad when she's in a driveway like that). Other than that the engine is pretty much bullet proof like previous posters have said, Just do the normal maintenance. And if you live in Calif, like myself, this 4.9 has always passed emissions with flying colors.

heres what you need to worry about: never being able to upgrade to a newer truck because your old one will not die. good luck killing that 300, they seem to love being worked. and you got one with the 5spd, so you are pretty much set drivetrain wise. take care of her now, they arent making new ones any more:(

I have the same engine/tranny combo. the only complaint ive ever had from her is the vacuum hoses. some of the ones under the hood like to dry rot and fall apart. it might be a good idea to just do a quick check under the hood for hoses starting to dry. no biggie, easy fix. good luck

You hit the nail on the head about the rubber plugs ! I checked my grandsons and it looked as if it had just leaking, I replaced them and topped the tranny off.

the 300 is bulletproof, it will eat that tranny up many times before the engine itself dies...worst you gotta worry about this thing is rust, that will get it before anything

as said, this truck likes to work and if you drive it like a ole lady you will be disappointed, drive like your 16 and the truck is very capable of showing off and is actually pretty impressive when you go balls to the wall with it.

i have the exact same truck, engine runs damn fine with 210000miles on it, crappy MPG at the moment but im thinking either exhaust or a broken vac line is the cause of this

no matter what anyone tells you there is no "normal" MPG rating for this engine, they seem to go from about 10 MPG up to claims of 22 and higher...mine sits at 12 :(

and they also seem to like diesel engine oil, i run shell rotella T and i noticed an improvement when i switched to that FROM mobil 1 synthetic

how many miles on it? not unlikely for this truck to hit well into the 200k-300k miles, all depends how the previous owner treated it, last owner of my 95 beat it to piss and it runs awesome with 210k miles

dig it. 300 is bullet proof. mine had 305k miles on it before i scrapped it. the motor was still strong. but all the lines were rusting out. when i got rid of it the gas line was leaking and i had no front breaks. the final straw was when the clutch line broke.

I also had the same combo and loved it! Hey just curious, where do you get theses rubber plugs from from the trans., i want to look into this. take care everybody

I got my rubber plugs from the Ford house. This same M5R2/Mazda tranny was used in the newer trucks also. The dealer knew immediately what I wanted and had plenty in stock. When a dealer has a part in stock-you know that there are a lot of failures of that part. :-X18

Be sure to use RTV around the outside of the plugs and let it set up before using the transmission. There are also aftermarket metal plugs that can be placed in these three round holes in shift tower.

Just boredom--the Big Six is bulletproof.

I had the same combo in an '88 F-150. And I'm kidding about the boredom--I LOVED driving and shifting that truck!

Check your rear spring shackles, however. They do rust, and need replacement, preferably before they break. You may have a few years left, depending upon the corrosion. A simple visual inspection will tell the tale. New ones are easy to get, and can be bolted on, with bolts in place of the original rivets.

You've got, IMO, the best engine in the fleet--enjoy!

Big Six

There is a specific post to the M5OD (M5R2) plug issue:

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/2...uild-info.html


I haven't done mine yet but methinks the PO did as there are obvious indicators. :rolleyes:

I have input shaft noise (do a search on this forum) but I'll wait awhile before I tackle that.

Have fun with your truck. I really do enjoy mine - both working on and driving. This forum is a great resource.

/Ricache

:-X25

I second that rear spring shackle, everything underneath needs checked for rusting away... oh and most of the gas tanks on these just rust out and start leaking too. yea, just read some posts here and you'll get a good idea what to look out for.
Good luck and enjoy that fine Ford...