With ford having the Triton 4.6 and 5.4 and chevrolet with its Vortec 4.8 , 5.3, and 6.0 which is a better engine-durability, HP, and torque? Looing at a 02 1500 4x4 with 3.73's and a 5 spd. Seems like a sound truck with a good reponse. I have heard nothing but bad things about the triton's.

Thanks

 

Watch out for piston slap. I've heard that both the Ford and Chevy's have it, with the Chevy's having it more. Check here: http://www.pistonslap.com/

Try and get the quietest engine they have, if you have a choice.

 

Both my '01 5.4 and my wife's '96 4.6 are smooth-running trouble-free engines.

 

I have a '97 Ford Expedition 4x4 with the 5.4L Triton, 3.73 gears, tow package, off road skid plates, etc. This truck has 107,000 miles and has gone everywhere and been used for just about everything. The engine has been absoulutely trouble free.

My family is in the engine rebuilding business. We see a lot of Ford Triton and small block Chevy engines. Frankly, both have been holding up very well. People get in trouble when they allow them to run hot or when they fail to change oil frequently enough, or use the wrong weight oil. With the Triton engine and its OHC design it is VERY IMPORTANT to strictly follow Ford's guidelines and use 5W-30 oil. The oil return passageways from cylinder heads back into the block are very small (for a technical reason beyond this post) and viscosity must be thin, especially in startup and cold weather conditions. If the oil gets pumped up into the heads and can't get back down into the block fast enough because it is too thick, then the bottom end gets in trouble.

Cylinder wall to piston clearance is also very small in these engines because modern engines are using short skirt pistons. This reduces friction and does lead to longer engine life and more power. But short skirt designs can produce the "piston slap" referenced in another post here, but that has not been a noticable problem for us with Triton engines.

When buying a used vehicle, I'd want to look at service records, particularly oil change records to see how frequently and what viscosity oil is being used. If that checks out good and the engine has good compression, doesn't make any abnormal sounds, there has been no evidence of overheating and the oil looks clean, I wouldn't let the type of engine stand in the way of the deal if it is otherwise a good truck.

We do see more Chevy's with excessive cylinder wear than Fords. There can be a lot of reasons for that, most of which have to do with use and maintenance rather than engine design. But the Tritons are failing when customers or quick-change oil shops are putting 10W-30 or 10W-40 oil in those engines.

 

Armada, Excellent description of Triton engine concerns. I've talked to engine techs here at FoMoCo and they reiterated what you have said. When the 5.4 runs there is alot of oil in the upper engine, returning to the sump is critical. Oil viscosity and quanity are they main concerns for reliability and long life.

 

I believe the newer tritons use a 5W-20 oil.

 

The right oil is critical to these triton engines. There pretty durable otherwise. This pistonslap with th newer chevy vortecs is terrible. I dont think they got the problem solved yet. This has hurt GMs reputation bad. I wouldnt even think about a GM product with these problems.

 

This is so true for many engines, very good wrtie up