I have had a 97 F150 LWB 4.2 with 190000 MI given to me (read forced upon) as a company vehicle. I like the ride and the room and I wouldn't be caught dead without an 8 ft bed. However, this has to be the most gutless truck I have driven. My 52 F2 with a 215 dual carb six will slap it around.

I have had it tuned, replaced injectors, replaced coils, etc.; to the tune of almost 2 grand and all that did was get rid of a miss.

Once the truck gets up to speed, things are OK until I hit a rise in the road and then the tranny has to downshift. I'm almost afraid of pulling out into traffic because she is so damn slow. And the mileage sucks!

Any ideas?

BTW, if I would've been allowed to put the 2 grand into my previous company ride (94 F150 XLT 5.0 150000 MI dual tanks) I wouldn't be complaining right now.

 

I dunno. I had a 99 4.2 and that thing whipped like nothin. It was a real fast ride, off the line I could take on almost anyone, any other truck no prob. Had the 3.55 gears which I'm sure helped. Sounds to me like it could just be a tired truck. I mean, it's a 97 and already has almost 200k miles...that sounds to me like alot of hard harsh driving for a truck that's not quite 4, 5 years old.

Ryan

 

The info I've gotten from everybody in the company who has had experience with this truck has said it was like this from day one.

It doesn't burn oil, has no leaks, and you can eat off of the engine. Its just a dee ohh gee.

After driving one of our other trucks today, I'm starting to think it may be a bum torque converter.

BTW, the powers that be told me if I didn't like my "free truck" I could use my own and take a mileage and maintainance allowance. My reply was that the chairman of the board would be eating middle management butt when he saw a maintainance bill for a 50 year old pickup.

 

Hehehe, what is your personal rig? That may be the way to go though, if you think about it...if they pay for maintenance and mileage you could probably get some allowance to keep her in her prime, ya know?
Ryan

 

From my experience with my '01 F150 LB 4.2, I would have to guess that your truck has some sort of mechanical problem...but on the newer computer-controlled engines I'm not sure what it could be. Nowadays you'd think that any major problems would set a code in the computer, but I'm not sure if something like a plugged cat would do that.

Before I got my '01, I had a '91 F150 w/the 5.0L - and the new one with the 4.2L is definitely faster off the line. As far as downshifting goes, I have a manual tranny instead of the auto...though it will pull any of the hills around here in 5th, and that's with the 3.08 gears. Overall mileage for the last 1500+ miles is 18.8 mpg, which is a mixture of city and highway driving. The highway driving is at 75mph, and I've found that I can get an extra mpg or two by slowing down to 65 or 70. Best tank ever was 23mpg, and the worst was almost exactly 17mpg. Since you have the longbed, you should have the 30-gallon tank...and I would guesstimate that you should be seeing about 450 miles on a full tank before the 'low fuel' light comes on. If you aren't seeing at least 400, I would guess there was some sort of problem. (BTW, my light seems to come on when there are 5 gallons left in the tank.) I know the auto tranny reduces mileage, but I wouln't think it would be by more than 1 or 2 mpg...

Right now I'm running an experiment where I don't use 5th at all on the highway, in anticipation of switching to 4.11 gears - but I haven't run enough miles yet to accurately know how it'll affect the mileage (I'm guessing about 2mpg).

Wish I could be of more help - maybe the engine is just worn out from the high mileage, or perhaps the auto tranny has issues that prevent it from transferring power properly.

LK

 

Before you consider 4.11's/.10's, whatever they are, consider how fast you normally drive. On my 99 F-150 4.2 I have 3.55 gears, those are excellent for not only off the line, but cruising speed and even high speed. But the 4.10/11's I have on my 86 F-250 HD, those help that truck off the line no doubt, it's fast as all heck, I take on V-Techs and other long grain rice of the sort all the time, and normally beat them off the line no problems. But top end is poor, starts whining at about 75. Push it to 80/85 and all you have is a loud drone, doesn't sound healthy at all. So if you normally drive fast all the time, I'd consider 3.55's, maybe 3.73's at the most.

Ryan

 

The personal rig is a 52 F2 with a mildly tweaked (twin carbs, dual point dizzy, hot coil, and shaved head) 215 six. With a 4.86 rear end she gets up to speed pretty quick but runs out of breath real fast, too. I plan on putting a 3.54 rear axle in it this winter along with a syncro trans and a dual exhaust header. I also have the head from a 61 223 six that may end up on the engine. That will boost the CR from 7.15:1 to around 8.6:1

Having driven this truck from NW Chicago to Ashland, WI and back (825 mi) the thought of maybe having to drive it to Missoula, MT and back frankly makes me hurt all over.

I know for a fact that the first bill turned in for this would result in alot of backpedalling from middlemanagement. (No Sir, I never told Mike he could do that. I don't know where he could have gotten that idea. Yes Sir, I'll see to it personally that he is properly discilpined. Might I say that you are looking quite well today. kisskisskiss). Get the picture.

After the first of the year, I'm getting the trans and converter gone thru. Thanks for the ideas guys.

 

In general, I rarely drive over 75mph - at least in the pickup. That's part of the reason that I'm running it in 4th on the highway right now, because the RPMs wind up being about the same as 5th would be after swapping in 4.11's...and it's not too bad, but it does start to whine in the 75-80mph range. What I really wish is that Ford would put a creeper-low first and reverse in all their truck transmissions - no wonder the tow ratings for the manual tranny are so low. Maybe I'll just the 4.11s, get a set of larger tires (w/wheels) for highway driving and keep the factory set for when I'm hauling.

I have also given some thought to perhaps 3.73's if the mileage drop & driveability issues prove to be a problem. I'm not *too* worried about the higher RPMs on the highway, provided that the V6 can take it - heck, I used to own a full-size Jeep pickup that came from the factory with 4.88 gears...and this is in the days before they had overdrive trannys. She couldn't go over 65mph, but she'd pull down a house. I also had a '47 CJ-2 that (I think) had 5.38 gears, but that didn't hurt much as it wouldn't have gone over 45mph no matter what gears it had (supposedly it could go 60, but I think that was if it was dropped out of a plane).

LK

 

My dad has a 97 F150 4.2 5spd. I have to say that indeed it is "Gutless". I have ridden in two others which are the same except auto. It is like night and day. The auto has awesome go. I dunno what's wrong, but it's been like this ever since we got it.

I drove it down to Fargo to pick up a new box for my 77 F150. I was towing a small faltbed (12ft) and the truck would not stay in 5th on the slightest incline. Eventually, we gave up and ran it in 4th. It has descent top end tho, which makes me wonder about the gears in the back.

Anyways, I have seen some awesome 4.2's so I know that it is a good motor, just mine isn't ...

Thanks
Riley