I am thinking about buying a 1989 F-350, crew, 4 x4 with a 460 and 225,000 miles on the stock motor. The truck has been used moderately from what I can tell and runs good right now. Does anyone know how many miles I can expect to get out of this engine before it needs a rebuild? I would like to know the lifespan of the stock bearings, timing set, cylinder bore wear assuming normal mantianence and use and do these motors need full block machining for a rebuild or will rings, bearings, valve job usually do?

What other parts might start seeing problems at 225K.

Thanks

J

 

its hard to say for sure. if its been takin care of it will last along time, but a freshen up wouldnt hurt. thats alot of miles. its fairly cheap to rering and rebearing an engine. if the oil pressures good and it dont knock, you should be fine for awhile. just keep the oil changed and use a little thicker oil then stock.

 

I would be more concerned with the chassis, springs, and front end, than the engine. Metal fatugues over time and with use. I will never forget back in 1979 a friend of mine had a 75 F250 4x4 with a 9 leaf rear spring. He used this truck for contruction alot of heavy hauling, one day he and I were heading home empty thank god, when the main leaf spring on the rear broke, by gods grace he got it stopped with minor damage. This truck had over 140,000 miles when this happened. Yes, this is an acception but it never left my mind. If you want this truck deal in you favor, because the engine is in my opinion probably not the weak point. If as stated above has been cared for.

 

A little luck and good maintenance is what they need so it is tough to say exactly. My 94 E350 dually cube van has a 460 with 185,000 mile on the clock. Burns no oil and gets 9 mph on ther highway. It weighs almost 8K empty and is a brick in the wind. I believe it still has some life left..

 

Not to be a pesamist, but with that much time on the clock its a total crapp-shoot. Could last 100,000 more miles, could last 1 more mile. As the engine ages (wears) the odds continue to tip towards the side of failure. Not just the engine, but like they mentioned above, the entire mechanical entity of the truck from rear ends, tranny, engine, door hinges, guages, brake parts, steering/suspension parts, and any other moving part has seen a fair share of use. All things in the world die, even me. I would not buy this particular truck if I were looking to buy a truck that was expected to be dependable and reliable over a long period of time. Just my view, but I usually buy my daily driven cars and trucks with 20K-50K on them and sale them at 80K-120K. My toy trucks are old....real old (25+ years), so milage is not important, but then again they are just toys to me.

 

Thanks everyone for the advice. I rolled the dice and bought the truck. It turns out the 460 is 20,000 miles new on a rebuild and everything else on the truck seems to be in great condition. I figured that for $1500 a 1989 F350, crew, XLT, 4x4 clean and in working order can't be passed up...and it does not have the E4OD tranny that has been the bane of my existance since Ford introduced it. The only thing wrong with the truck is that it has the "anti-wrenching option" currently installed, which prevents me from working on it--that not so popular option being a family of very large and nasty looking black widows...just what I always wanted.

Jesse

 

lol...the anti-wrenching option that cosists of a family of black widow spiders....where did he check the box to add that! I speak for all of us when I say enjoy your truck, and may it live a long and happy life....and may you...God help you.....survive the bites you may yet get from your new family members! Free advice, buy a few cans of raid insect killer and goto town! Yikes, those spiders would scare me away! My wife is the bug catcher/killer in my house!

 

I just bought an 89 F-250 Supercab with a 460. I had the compression checked, and the highest cylinder was 185 and the lowest was 175. Is this reasonable for an engine with 189,000 miles on it, or does this indicate that at some point this thing was rebuilt?

 

Some of you lack faith.If it doesn't have over 100,000, it is probably over priced. If it isn't 15-20 years old, I have not figured out how to work on it. One of the hotrod 4X4 magazines just said that the most fuel effecient, usable 4X4 is a late 80's 4cly Ranger. I understand overload fatigue, but do not have a clue about frame rust.

 

Well a few months back I bought a 94 model with 232,000 on it....it was fleet maintained every 3 mos. for oil change and anything else it needed.. I have full documentation on the Vehicle for proof..and it runs like brand new..

It was an Executive's Truck at a major fortune 500 company... and was kept in Like new condition...the passenger seat had never been sat on...

It looks and run like new..Just my 2 cents...

Russ

 

jman92612

I got a '89 F250 with X-cab and 1-ton chassis, a base F350 basically (minus the dually)

It did not have as high miles. But, what I learned is that it has occasional electrical and other annoying problems. Example:

Neutral Safety Switch.

Idle Air Control Motor

Power window motor gear (3 different problems with power windows)

Thermostat failure.

None very difficult or critical but an '89 is 15 year old and regardless of make that's what you get. I would expect more sensors to go bad. I have taken extremely good care of it mechanically and replace things preemptively. Replace the T-stat as part of a normal tune up.

 

I believe the 89 F350's still had a kingpin Dana 60 front end. If this is correct and the whole thing blew up next week you could sell your front axle alone for $1000. I'd say it was a great buy, especially at only 20K since the rebuild.

 

I'm not a regular poster in the 460 forum, but I can help with the spiders. Park it in the garage, and get some Raid Fogger bug bombs. Put about 5 of them around the truck, and a couple inside. Guaranteed to kill the spiders, as well as other crawling / flying insects that may be living out there.

 

If you bug bomb, make sure there are no ignition sorces. Read about a guy that blew up his house with them & a pilot light being lit.

 

Spider update: I can't put the truck in the garage to bomb it because I don't want the spiders anywhere near my two German Shepards, but I did tape some garbage bags around the bottom of the truck (removed the battery) and I hit it with a few bombs and managed to so far get 6 HUGE black widows and about 30 wasps in their nest under the wheel well. This weekend I will be tarping and taping the entire truck from the ground up and hitting them with a second round of bombs. Following this will be the chassis powerwash. Finally, I think I will blast through a mudhole and if I don't see any, then I'm ready to start wrenching! I'm really scared of widows, especially since if I am lying under the truck on a creeper I have a good chance of getting bit on the face. The funniest part to this is that now that the story has circulated to my friends, several of them are now asking me if they should also bomb their trucks....the good news is that the spiders are not in the cab, so wtih some gloves, a leather jacket, and some duct tape around my jeans and largest pair of boots, I have managed to do a tune up, which brought the 460 to a state of perfect harmony.

J