I have an 89 F150 4x4 w/302 and T18. I've had for almost 2 years now, it's got 171k miles and had it's share of down time. I've had to replace the power steering box, pitman arm, rebuild the 8.8with a truetrac lsd , serp. belt, new tires front & rear, spark plugs & wires, new brake master cylinder.

I've put about 30k miles on it since I bought the truck for $1100, the engine has a leaky rear main seal or oil pan (unsure, waiting for friend to come home this december so we can pull the motor) and it loses a quart of oil per week. I get on average 11 mpg, (due to the T18, no od really sux) and it's starting to really take its toll on my wallet, I guess it wouldn't be so bad if I wasn't adding a quart of oil every week. Also there are numerous vacuum leaks, at idle after about 30 minutes of driving the engine light comes on and the oil pressure goes down unless I rev the motor to around 1k rpm.

My clutch is also starting to go out, it'll probably last to the end of the month Basically when I'm in gear and press the pedal more than a quarter of the way down the clutch will slip and the motor will rev a little bit. First off, will I just have to replace my clutch or will I also need to replace the slave & master cylinder? and second, is the juice worth the squeeze?

What would you do in my situation? Please note, I'm a struggling college student making roughly $120/ week until December when I can work full time. Also if anyone knows of any ways to make some quick cash lemme know.

 

Clutch may not be bad. If your rear main seal is leaking, it could be leaking right onto the clutch disk causing a slip. First things first, go to an auto parts store and pick up some engine oil stop leak. It'll help with the oil leak and it'll possibly stop the clutch slipping problem.

Vacuum leaks shouldn't be to hard to find and/or fix.

As for the clutch master and slave cylinders...I do not think that you have the internal slave cylinder so I wouldn't worry about them at the moment unless you have a reason to believe their failing.

Can anyone else verify that he's got an external slave cylinder?

 

The oil leak's been going on for about a year and a half now, and the clutch slippage just recently started. That stop leak stuff works on minor leaks but mine's bad, I've used countless bottles of the stuff. There's 171k miles on the original clutch, and since I've had the truck I've taken it wheeling, dumped the clutch on occasion (not as much since I got new tires last november), so it's taken a pretty bad beating. The T18 has an external slave cylinder, Auto Zone's website has a tutorial on replacing the clutch.

Is this truck worth repairing, or should I just cut my losses and get something else?

 

Once you get thru all the little stuff, it'll probably be a very reliable truck. If the body and frame are in decent shape I'd keep it. The T18 could always be swapped out later on for a 5 spd unit.

Have you checked to see if the oil pan is loose somewhere?

 

Yeah, On the oil pan the gasket tends to get squeezed out of place. You can loosen the pan and then press in around the lip and then retorque to specs. For holes thru the pan you can use JB Weld to patch them for a year or so. If its the main seal(s) then your in for some work sadly.

I'd keep it as long as the cheap fixes work.
Good luck,
Tim