I'm in the market for an F-150 pickup and have come across one that I like but it has a V6 engine. I am concerned about a V6 engine in a F-150. What are the drawbacks of having a V6 vs. V8 in an F150 short bed pickup.

 

Hi strand0617 and welcome to FTE

What year is the truck? 4X4? Automatic or standard?

 

Depends on what you want to use it for...
What year are you looking at?

The 4.2L V6 is the engine to get if your not going to tow much or nothing at all and you want good gas mileage...But I just don't like a V6 in a heavy truck like a F-150

If I was you I would go for the 4.6L V8 if your getting 2wd and going to be hauling an atv or trailer...
The 4.6L V8 is good on gas mileage IMHO...

If your getting 4X4 get the 5.4L V8 .....
Also the 4.6L V8 is also good in the 4X4...

Give use more info about what your looking for
Year?
What are you going to haul?
Any OffRoading?
Looking for the best Gas Mileage?

 

I am working on purchasing a 2002 F-150 Sport, V6, manual tranny, 4x4, flairside bed. I will not be doing any towing. But may use the truck to haul a few items. (move furniture, trips to home depot etc.) but nothing major.

If I get this truck is there anything I can do to increase the horsepower (ie: flowmaster exhaust) any suggestions would be great.

Thanks

 

If you haven't even purchased the truck yet and you already want to increase the horsepower why not just find one that you like with the V8?

It took me about a month but I finally found the exact truck I wanted. Don't settle this is a truck you will probably have for a good long while. Get what you want.

I just bought a 2002 with the 5.4L V8 and I love it. I'm getting about 16 miles per gallon average. Better than my Jeep Wrangler.

 

Thanks for the feedback. I am not getting the F-150 with the V6 (deal fell through) and will be looking for the F-150 with the V8. I am looking at a 1999 4.6V8 XLT Supercab, manual tranny. Nice truck. Any opinions?

 

I think the 4.6 is a good compromise; that's what I have! It may be hard to find a manual transmission in the XLT trim (manuals are more common in XL), but if you find one, it'll probably be cheaper.

Good luck!

 

Hi,

You are asking for info on a V8 4.6 manual F150. I have a 2003 4 X 4 4.6 manual with the 3.55 limited slip rear.

From the long term view of will the manual transmission combo last, I can't really say.

From the perspective of a new owner (about 4k on the odo), I love the 4.6 manual. MPG about 17 in combo city/hiway driving. I do think the stick is a bit notchy but I guess that is par for a truck. This isn't a sports car. The clutch is very smooth and feels solid.

The performance that can be had if needed by dropping back a gear is wonderful.

I have driven the truck on I-68 in Western MD which has long 7 percent grades with 1,000 + pounds in the bed. I can usually get away with staying in 5th but somehow it just seems easier on the engine to drop back to 4th and I can maintain speed or even accelerate (slowly) in 4th.

You should know that like most engines these days where the computer chip is king, the engine will try to compensate (return back to 750 rpm idle) for the driver releasing the clutch slowly and reducing RPMs without giving any gas. I think this is a bit disconcerning but I had the same feeling on other recent vintage vehicles.

You may be buying a vehicle that is an orphan. I understand that the 2004 F150 will not offer a manual version but there is talk of the manual being returned to the 2005 model.

I suspect the issue may be the low number of folks that want a manual and or the issue of trying to manage air polution on a manual setup.

Lastly, I understand that a manual used F150 is priced quite a bit lower than an automatic so you might have some price advantage in your favor.

Chip

 

I've got a 2000 F-150 4.2L Manual tranny. I love it! It's got plenty of power for me and I get decent fuel mileage in town. I really haven't had it out on the open road yet for a long trip. I did get it over 100mph one time and didn't hit the fuel cutout. I bought it used back in February of this year with 69K miles. It is an XLT package and was priced almost $6k under NADA value. So charlesh's comments on priced would seem to be correct.

 

Just bought a 2002 F-150 XLT 4.2L Manual tranny, myself with 3k on the odometer and paid 17k for it. (gotta love a Repo) I absolutly love it. Took it out on a road trip this weekend and ran steady for about an hour at 90 and it did not faulter one bit.

I am new to this group and look forward to learning alot about my truck and mods here.
Steve