Is this a good motor or is it garbage, I'm a diesel guy going to be picking up a 3/4 ton possibly that has this motor in it with 80k on it.

any quirks, bugs to work with?

 

Won't win you any races, 4.10's help it alot. So will some full length headers and a good exhaust. I too had diesels, and they are a different animal.

I think it's best years were 96 and 97 but it does fine. You pulling alot with it, hauling super heavy? You might feel unimpressed with it after coming from diesels.

 

It's a geat motor with a bottom end capable of supporting upwards of 500hp without any mods, but it's smothered badly in stock form.

 

pulling 10k regularly, how is the mpg?

 

I get 18-19 with mine, going 55 on a 20 mile commute. Empty.

 

i got a 97 f350 with the 351 and e4od. It does my dads skid steer and trailer ok, the people behind you are gonna have to wait for ya to get up that hill but atleast you can pull with it. The trailer and skid steer are around 8600 pounds total, so its pretty heavy. I can pull the hills here at 35 to 40 MPH foot to the floor doing 3000 RPM.

 

ok, I'm becoming convinced how reliable are these motors? and will it last a while before I should swap another in? btw I should have mentioned some specs for the mpg question

3.55 ratio
zf5 transmission
35's(tires)

 

ya 3.55's with 35's it's gonna be lacking alot of power. I put 33's on my truck and ive got 4.10's, I can feel the difference in power. you should ether put like 4.56 gears or go smaller tires. The five speed will help you out better then a auto though. Hey if you like the truck go for it there pretty reliable I like mine myself, as long as its not rotted or looks like a fricken lowrider, you should be set.

 

oh ya make sure that the long bolt that goes through the water pump and timing cover isn't broken off, I forgot to look at that on my truck, now I got to take the motor apart to get to it. almost all of the long ones break, oh well just look the truck over really good before you buy. Just my 2 cents

 

great motors IMO....

 

So I should put a water pump in mine while the engine is out just for easy?

 

how hard is it to pull one of these motors? and drop in another 351

 

I'll tell you in about a week. LOL, I just picked up a '90 F350 with a bad motor and a '89 donor 250. Engine tranny and transfercase are going into the F350. Just started it tonight.

 

I run stock size tires, E rated. With the 4.10s it pulls pretty decent. 168k on the ticker and nothing replaced but wear items.

I'd lose the 35's or gear up. Or both if your gonna work it.

Mine pulls 6k-8k regularly and does it fine. Not quite as fast as the PSD I had, but it gets the job done just fine.

 

Easy as hell to pull. Did mine in a weekend using a wrecker, starting on a friday after work and firing the truck up that sunday at 8 PM. I even had to put the intake and oil pan on the new long block. They are cake. Bust *** and they can be done in a day.