One of my buddies cousins had a 300 in a 76 F100, he managed to throw a rod threw the oil pan. He dropped the pan, pulled the remains of the rod out from underneath. Got another pan from the junk yard, put oil in it, and drove it on 5 cylinders for 4 months; then he finally DROVE it to the junkyard the following spring. The only way you can kill a 300 is by revving the hell out of it, although mine has seen 5200 RPM... the pedal got stuck to the floor!

 

hey guys i got interested and went and found out how many mine had.....all the inspections recipts had been kept and it worked out to 326k.. i know the guys that had it b4 (they are family) They DOGGED it..i mean mud water..pull offs.. rocks...8000 mile oil change intervals (and i aint talkin synthetic) i got it and put about 5 k on it and it started smokin i decide to go ahead and rebuild it...the bottom half of the engine was fine. THe only thing i would have had to do is replace the vavle seals or put in some umbrellas..but even with it smokin it burnt MAYBE a half a quart every 3000 ( i make sure i change mine bout 2900) but i was using AMSOIL and that stuff is REALLY good. so if you take care of it...and treat it right it will LAST ....and last...and last..etc..the pistons werent burnt the rings wernt bad the cranks bearings had lost about .005 of the original width but thats not bad..not for 300k...anyways thats my testament to the 300 Great job ford....and im a chevy guy....lol


james

PS...the only thing that had been done to it was the carb was replace like in the mid 90s the truck is an 80 f 150

 

My 300 has been a fantastic engine, it's mated to a 4 speed granny box. I swear if it weren't for gravity I could climb trees with the doggone thing! I bought my 84 from the original owner (my boss) he over loaded and maxed the towing capacity of that truck nearly everyday one the way out to the construction sites. I USED TO BE a hard core Chebby man, this old Ford changed my ways for life. It just blew me away the things that little 6 banger would do. When he bought a new F250 and it was time to part with the little red beast I dove on it! Granted the old ford needed a lot of work but it was worth it. I still load it down with a load of firewood, cinder blocks, and occasinally tow a big trailer. I definately would not hesitate to buy another pickup or even a Bronco with a 300 I6 in it. Oh I forgot mention 180k and she'll still get rubber!

 

You cant kill a 300 6 cylinder. I tried for nearly 3 years to kill the one in our 76 F-350 Dually Flat Bed. My grandpa bought the truck new in 76 and the put 325,000 miles on it then parked the truck in 1995 well in the fall of 1999 me and my dad pulled it out of the fence row put a battery in it, and dumped some gas in the carb and it fired right up. We worked on it all winter replacing nearly everything except for the engine, transmission, rearend and half the frame (i little tip if you have a shortbed F-350 and want to go to long bed just cut the frame off about a foot from behind the cab and a long bed frame will slide right over it, its almost like Ford did it on pourpose) the old rear frame section you could put holes through it with 1 or 2 hits with a hammer. We have loaded it with 120 bales of hay (about 5500 lbs + a truck that no one knows how much it weighs) and it would pull it up anyhill you could find (you would start at the bottom doing 50mph and only be doing 10 mph when you get to the top in granny gear) we ran that truck with only a couple pounds of oil pressure, sometimes low on oil, over reved it and the only thing that that engine did was refuse to go over 55 mph (start shaking realy bad) and got a lifter tick. So this spring we finaly gave up on trying to break it and put a newer 300 6 cylinder in it the new one has only 40000 miles on it and now the truck has alot more power and it will do about 65 on the highway.

 

well heres another torture story. My bor an i were towing our lawnmoring trailer whith now my f-150 (the trailer was about 1800lbs, nothing big) But we were motoring down the interstase at 70mph when we heard a clankedy clank...
well i looked out the back window to see what looked like an oil filter. It took about 30secs to register whant had happened, we then looed at the oil presure gague at it read 0psi. It took us another 2-3 mins to hit the next exit and another 4min to get it parked. Put another oil filter on it and put new oil in it (it was due anyway ) and got back out and got our days work done too.

 

I was on leave last week when I got a call from one of my buddies, he had hung his 86 Suburban on it's pigs. He was up to his doors in a muddy field, and I was the only one with a 4wd truck willing to go out there to get him. It took a lot of yanking but I got him out with my 300, the I6 is a true work horse. And it won't let you down.

 

Well, I've got an '83 F-100. 300, 4 speed manual. For a while after it was born it had regular oil change and all that, but believe it or not, it went for well over 100,000 miles with NO OIL CHANGE! Just add as needed, and it rarely needed. At around 280,000 the oil pump went out, drove it for 4 miles on zero oil pressure, knocking like a ****! Put a new pump in, started right up with NO noise. Other than the oil pump, fuel pump, and one alternator it's completely stock. Rebuilt the tranny 2 times, but now its got another one in it thats doing fine. Another thing, if you want some more low end power, advance your timing a few degrees!!! My truck is unstopable. I can lay rubber in 3 gears, sometimes gettin posi. 1/4 mile in about 17 seconds at 85 mph. Not too bad I think. On a good day I can almost keep up with mom's 97 chevy x-cab, 2wd with a 350 Vortec, no kidding.

I'll have to post some pics of me smokin the tires sometime... FORD TILL I DIE!!!!!

BTW, it's now got 287,500 on the odometer...

 

i crack the head on mine at 110k and had some bearing wear

 

I've got the original 300 out of my '82 Bronco - on an engine stand in the garage. I expect my son will be running it when he finds these words in the FTE archives. Hi, Jes - be good to it... Love, Dad. 05/2003

P.S. if you're not sure what to do, - read on...

 

I am very hard on my 300 sometimes... over reving, over loading, you name it but she just keeps on runnin strong as ever!

 

My stock 87 I6 4x4 has 120k on the clock and runs great, the only thing about the truck I would like to improve would be the transmission. I have a 4 speed grany, I would love to get a little more MPH on the highway. How about a 5od Mazda?? How are they holding up for you guys??

 

my 92 custom has 222,000 on it and runs perfect

 

My best friend's dad has an early 80's f150 stepside w/a 300. He put 336,000 miles on it and was still driving it when his auto tranny went out. He got the tranny rebuilt and was still driving it. Well, to make a long story short my friend was driving it one night and another one of my friends (die hard ch%vy fan) wanted to race in his '87 1500 w/ a 350 and th350 trans. It only has like 75k on it. My best friend ran off and left him w/the 300 and never even revved it over 3 grand. I was in the truck!! His dad replaced the 300 w/a rebuilt one about 10k later, but the old 300 is still fine, he just wanted a little more power. His new one has a cam and a few things like that in it. I think they plan to put the old 300 into a mid 70's f350 they have. They go forever.

 

my 300 I-6 is going on 300,000 soon......rebuilt at 97,000

 

Well I have'nt won too many races with my 84 300 I6 but I can say I have surprised a number of people with it. I hooked bumpers with my best friends uncles 85 K1500 Chebby w/a 305 4speed and dragged his a$$ all over the field. I take my truck off road a lot and have succeeded in pulling several vehicles twice my size and weight out of bumper deep mud sand and snow with out having to come close to the red line gotta love all that low end torque ! I have about 50k on my rebuild, hell my grand kids will probably be driving this truck! Ford 300 I6 strong and dependable as an ox! Gotta Love Em!