Hey all,

Hope you can help me out here. I may have a chance to buy a '93 F-150 4x4 pretty cheap. I believe it has a 351 for a motor and an automatic transmission. I have been a GM person my entire life. Never ever have I driven a Ford, so consequently I know nothing about them. Hope you folks can give me some advice as to what to expect.

It should pull my boat ok. With boat, trailer, full tank of gas and all the stuff in the boat it goes to just a shade under 5000 lbs. How about stopping all that? Are the brakes pretty good?

Transmission - Is an auxilliary cooler a necessity? Are the automatics pretty reliable?

4x4 system - Stock ok, or is there anything I need to swap out right away? Mostly I use 4-hi on the GM trucks for getting up slimy boat ramps and driving on snow and ice. Otherwise I stay in 2-hi all the time. Never really have a need for 4-lo.

The iron moths have been eating at the body pretty good on the truck I may purchase. How hard is it to find replacement panels?

I know the gas tank needs replacing as it leaks. Well, it did leak. Then the rust continued and rusted the leak shut. Soon, though, it will leak again. How difficult is it to replace the gas tank? Anything special to be aware of?

Anything else I should know about these trucks?

Thanks!

Mike
Grand Haven, MI

 

A 5,000lb boat is pretty big - does it have a smallblock Chevy engine and an outdrive?

The safety sticker on the door jamb tells what it's rated for, but you can tow about double what it says if you've towed heavy loads before and know what you're doing.

Brakes need regular maintenance to perform well.

Yes, you need an aux cooler for heavy or regular towing.

4L will give you more control, even if you don't lock the hubs. If it has automatic hub locks, you should immediately swap in good aftermarket manual locks.

The F-Series was the most popular truck line in the world for a LOOOOONG time, so used/OE/aftermarket parts are easy to find.

Replacing the tank is straightforward: look in my signature link at the EFI Fuel Pump photo album.

 

Welcome to FTE!

You will want to add an aftermarket trans cooler for towing that load to keep the temps down. The 351 will do a good job for you.

As far as the 4X4, A friend of mine has a '90 that came with a quad shock absorber frontend, not sure if they all did or not. He hasn't had a lick of trouble with it.

I have seen on this board people having a pretty hard time removing the gas tank. I think someone said it would be easier to remove the bed to change it.

Others that know what tranny you have will let you know if it is one of the preferred one's or not. There is some that are known to be weaker.

I think you'll like the brakes, they really are a good system.

 

Thanks for the information. Looks like the transition from GM to Ford won't be as big a deal as I thought it might be. Fuel tank swap looks almost identical to the process used for a Chevy. Tracking down body panels will be a bit of a job - but it if for any vehicle. My father-in-law is restoring a '51 Ford convertible and goes to swap meets all the time looking for parts. I'll tag along sometime to see what I can scrape up for the truck.

Mike
Grand Haven, MI

 

I have seen in my travels across the net a bunch of sites selling replacement body panels for F-series trucks at pretty reasonable prices brand new. One was referenced on here, I can't remember the name but if you do a search on google you should be able to start drumming something up.