I'm thinking of buying a 1989 F250 with a 460 motor that has 93,000 miles on it. I haven't talked to the owners yet but assuming it's had reasonable maintenance how many miles do those motors go ? I'm more used to diesel engines but I'm thinking a gas motor is usually 100,000 to 125,000 miles.

 

It's utterly impossible to predict.

You could buy it and it might throw a rod on the way home. Or you could never change the oil again and it will last another 500,000 miles. The truth lies somewhere in between

FYI, some gas engines (the 300 is a good example) regularly run past 300k.

 

I've gotten 175000 mles so far. but looks like its about time for a rebuild... major problem i had was replaced Trany at about 150000.

 

The 4.9 and 7.5L engines are two of the best engines ever made imo.
It is not unreasonable to expect to get 300K out of either one.
my .02
Popa Tim

 

I like Andym's answer. It is always a gamble with vehicles. I put 300,000 miles on two Ford trucks, one had the 460 and one had the inline six. My current 460 has about 120,00 miles on it and runs fine. My pal Mark has over 500,00 on his 1986 F250 with the 460, but it does not run so fine, and looks worse. It is running on the original block but really eating up the oil. Good luck.

 

Here ya go, My dad bought six F-350's for company trucks,5 460 and one is a 351, all dealer maintained under a full maintenance program and well taken care of by the people driving them, Dad said that these were the last trucks hes going to get for them so make em last,that was in 1997 and so far they all look great, the 5.8 has 310,000 and runs like a top,one 460 croaked at 80k,another at 109k the other 3 have 275-300k on em and run exellent,go figure.

 

I agree with andym. My 351 has 216,000 and runs like a champ. My ranger has 305,000 although thats a little 4 banger. I've seen fords engines go for 300K like most have said here, and I've seen em puke at 120. I did see a dodge 318 puke at 76,000 and it has regular maintenance!

 

Well you would really need to know the history and how well it was maintained. It is almost unpredictable for buying a used vehicle. A well maintained and not abused 460 can easily top 100 to 200 thousand miles. But as andym said it could go anytime or not at all. Buying used is always a risk when you don't know the history.

 

My '90 has almost 140,000 and it runs like a champ to(save for the MPG's), the only thing I have to worry about is oil pressure that is way to high(110psi cold at idle, 60 hot at idle, 80 hot when going down the road, i'm thinking relief valve). I got all those numbers off my mech. gauge before it blew the nylon line one morning.

 

I have 198000 on my '97 460 right now. Runs fine so far....

 

I had a '92 E150 with a 351w that had ~200k on it when we sold it. It didn't use any oil between changed and still got 15 to 16 mpg on the highway. Ran great. The guy that bought it is a painter, and he travels close to 80 miles a day, maybe more. I see it all the time.

 

It hurts to sell a truck, but to still see it around relieves the pain

 

The only real answer is "until it breaks or wears out". Could be 2 miles or 300,000 plus. To many factors to pin it any closer.

 

The 302 and 351 were by far the best motors ford made in the v8. I have seen 302's with 500,000 plus still running with great compression. granted the head gaskets and stuff liek that had to be changed regular routine maintnance. I dont know nuch about the 460 though. the highest miles that i have personally seen is on my gredat gramps ford ranger it had 580,000 miles on it when it went and it was an inline 6.

 

Like everyone else stated there is no pat answer to the how long will it last. when I was 18 I worked for a motorcycle shot, and while test riding a new bike had the engine through a rod through the block at 2 miles, when I worked for a chev dealer I replace an engine under warrenty at 20,000 miles yet the place that owned that vehicle had another one with the same type engine that had over 250,000, and at 3000 mile oil change intervals was only down hlf qt of oil
For 460s the engine I bought to use as a base for my race engine had 117,000 miles on it had been rebuilt once because it had been bored .030 and had so much wear in the cyl that I had to bore it to .060 to clean up, yet I got another engine from a guy that had according to him 280,000 miles on it and needed rebuilt cause the hot oil preasure was only running 20psi well when we checked the bores they cleaned up at .020 over same year engines both from 79 ford vans so go figure