Ford Fans Help Solve Mystery Surrounding Redditor’s 1982 F-250
Ford truck owner ask Reddit for clues on how to identify the engine in his new-to-him truck, and he scores some great advice.
If you buy an old Ford truck from someone you don’t know, there’s a chance that some of the details could be incorrect. A Redditor named “Santoduro” recently shared a pair of pictures in the FordTrucks Reddit channel, asking for help in identifying the engine in his new-to-him 1982 F-250. He was told that it was a 460, but he is skeptical, so he turned to the internet for help. He got that help, but in seeing how some people aren’t sure how to identify the engine in an older vehicle, we wanted to highlight the ways that you can figure out what is under the hood of your Ford truck.
F-250 Assistance
When the OP on Reddit shared the pictures of his 1982 Ford F-250 on the site, he posted them in two different threads, titled “What engine do I have” and “What engine do I have part 2”. In the first, he shared the engine bay shot above and in the second, he shared the far more useful image below. The OP didn’t share any details with the picture, but he provided information on the truck during the course of the discussion.
I bought a 1982 F250 and can’t figure out what engine it has. The owner said it was a 460, google says 330, and I say I’m lost. Your assistance would be greatly appreciated.
The first person to respond was “Millbilly84”, who provided the answer that would ultimately solve the riddle.
It should say on that decal on the valve covers? Check the door V.I.N and decode it.
To which the OP provided some of his early research results.
I tried decoding it but one site came back as a 2012 f250, the other side did say 1982 but wanted me to pay to get additional info and I passed. The label doesn’t say what engine I have. It gives a range of 5.7 to 6.6.
A few others comment with their guesses as to which engine is in this F-250, until the OP provided more detail from the sticker.
I can’t figure out how to add pictures but the sticker says displacement 6.6l. This just added to my confusion, chilton does not list that engine type for 1982 models. I guess it could have been swapped right?
At that point, the mystery was solved, but “SlavSausageking94” provided the easiest way to know for sure what engine is under the hood.
You can go to the auto parts store and they can look up your vehicle’s information by the VIN which might give you what your engine was originally if it had not been swapped out
To which the OP provided this last bit of information on his saga.
Sweet, thanks for the info, I’ll give it a try and report back. I did go to pep boys and the guy there said it was a 400 just by looking at it. I told him my dilemma and that I needed spark plugs. He said he was a ford guy so.
In his other thread, in which he shared a close-up shot of the sticker on the valve cover, we can clearly see where it says “6.6L”, making it a 400-cubic inch mill.
Figuring Out Your Engine
If you have an older Ford truck and you don’t know what engine is under the hood, the first thing that you should do is look all over the engine bay. Some older models, like this 1982 F-250, have a sticker on the valve cover with the key information. In newer trucks, that sticker is generally located somewhere in the engine bay other than on the engine, such as on the radiator support or the underside of the hood. In just about every case of a modern American vehicle, there will be a sticker somewhere under the hood with the engine size, usually accompanied by some emission information.
If you can’t find a sticker anywhere in the engine bay, the next-simplest way to figure out the size of the engine that came in your Ford truck is to run the VIN. When you go to a parts store and they ask for your VIN, the reason is that their computer system can figure out the key details of the vehicle based on that number. The eighth digit in the VIN identifies the engine, so once you have that digit, you can search online for a list of engine codes in Ford VIN numbers. This method is nearly flawless, except in the case where the engine has been replaced with something other than the stock unit.
If the VIN decoding method doesn’t work and there is no engine sticker anywhere under the hood, identifying your engine becomes much more difficult. What you will need to do is begin looking on the cylinder heads, water pumps and engine block itself for part numbers. The engine block number is obviously the most helpful, but they are often the hardest to locate with the engine in the vehicle. Once you find part numbers, you can attempt to search them online and find out which engines they apply to, or you could post in the applicable Ford-Trucks section and there is a good chance that a member will be able to answer the question for you.
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