Just kind of a general question...but thought I'd put it in here since my truck is a '73 F100. How much can these trucks take with out getting any danger of really hurting anything? I have a 390 with 33,000 miles on it, a C6 auto with around 58,000 on it and have it true dual'ed with 24" glasspacks and can't help but do a full throttle merge onto the highway every now and then, not the mention the full throttle start from a stop light to hear the glasspacks wind up, my only real concern is am I doing any immediate damage to the truck? I'm assuming the C6 is going to be regulating my RPM when I'm in drive? Aside from the "rallying" every now and then I change my oil about every 2500 miles or so, get a tune up and general check over done by my mechanic about 6 months or less, he builds old trucks like this and said he knew I would probably be hot rodding it every now and then. On top of general maintence I always let her warm up a good 10 or 15 minutes on the cold 15 degree mornings and always drive moderatley until my tranny and engine is all warmed up nice. Anywho...truck seems to be doing great as always, I'm just wondering if I should lay off on any of the full throttling, and whether or not I'm really hurting anything other than my wallet whenever I do it

Thanks!

 

Well, If driving like that was bad, most of the trucks on this forum would be dead.
Sounds like you are doing a good job with maintenance, you're truck will be fine.

 

Haha...alright then, so I should be good? Trucks been great the 3 years I've been using it as a daily driver and just don't want to screw anything up with the occaisional WOT merge next to a Honda, breaking the tires loose on asphalt every now and then, and a kickdown once or twice a day to hear the dual exhaust haha.

 

Alright the makes me feel better, I never know what to think with an auto...I feel pretty comfortable hot rodding a stick because I have control of the RPMs, and not so much with the C6. Another quick question, about letting it "kick down" going up hills, theres a big steady hill heading out of town here, pretty decent grade, I can pull it doing about 45-50 near the top, but if I let the auto shift down at WOT I can pass every car on it doing 70 (or faster if I wanted) so how good is it on it to let it stay shifted down going up a big hill like that?

 

Ah alright...and I'm probably not hitting any dangerously high RPM's on the 'ol 390? Like I said I can pretty much pass anybody going up these hills if I let it kick down, I'm just paranoid about running the 390 too hard and end up letting a Honda or something pass me hahaha.

 

Drive it like ya stole it and fix it stronger when it breaks! My first 390 I had would not die. It was in my first truck, a 66 F-100 with a NP435, and I abused the livin bejesus out of it.

 

burnouts are about the only thing that will really hurt your truck, mainly U-joints. Keep em lubed, check for play...

 

The way your pickup was when it was new was kinda like this...
At work we drive all the Gelco leased pickups real nice. ;)

The Chevys would give it up at about 65,000 miles.
(2 to 2+1/2 years and use a quart of oil a day!)
The Fords would easily go 110,000 miles.
(3+1/2 to 4 years and it still ran good but the seats etc were shot!)
That extra year really took its toll on stuff but at 2+1/2 years the Fords
were about the same shape as the Chevys. The Fords might have an
inside door handle broke off but the Chevys would have a bent hood. LOL :)

The Chevys "flimsy car suspension" would rebound from a jump straight
as an arrow. :) ...Up until some little something tweaked it anyway. :/

The Fords with their "tough as nails but clunky" twin I beam suspension
would rebound to the low side after a jump.

The company truck to ask for was the Chevy! :)
You'd get a new one sooner and it was more fun to drive. :)

I bought a Ford for myself. :)
Others I knew did the same and for the same reasons.
Mine's never broke down and left me stranded anywhere, ever.
Instead of hot rodding around in my clunky old Ford tho...
I had dune buggies and dirt bikes to hot rod around instead.
YMMV!

The power to weight ratio on that stuff it a little higher I believe. ;)

The Chevys were all the time broke down and having to get towed in. :/
I bought a Ford to get me from point A the point B.
It's going to do that again when I go to Animas NM for Thanksgiving. :)
...including 45 miles of dirt road. :)

Alvin in AZ

 

I put a quart or more of oil a week in my truck due to burning and leaking of oil. I still romp on it from time to time. Still gets me to work every day

 

My crewcab I had to add oil every day. It would leak at least a quart every 50 miles. When I drove it home the first time, (50 mi.) it started ticking on about 1/2 way there.

 

Sounds about like me in my 65 F100! Every time id go out of my high school parking lot id start in granny gear and wind it up to 5000-5500rpms then shift to second. with true duals, rotted out and holy glass packs, i pissed off most of my teachers. you will be fine as long as you dont try to do 100 in second

 

I will say, the ONLY reason the 390 came out was that it had over 150k+ and had the old blow-by tube and it would literally smoke you out at idle! Valve guides and seals, rings, were shot, but it would still run like crazy. If a High school punk idiot (me) can't kill it they are a good engina!

 

I'm sure glad to see you didn't mention "worn block" in that list! :)

The guy that rebuilt my 360FE told me FE blocks were hard as anything
compared to Moput's and Chebys. He was a Cheby small block fan too.
He was a roundy-rounder car owner and driver. :)

At 148k (odometer that read wrong by 10% too low) mine had no cylinder
worn more than .008" and could have gone with a .010" over bore. He said
he'd like to do it that way but the dangged .010" over pistons and rings
were way too expensive to consider using them. (?) So.. he took tiny little
cuts over and over to get it up to .030" to match what he could buy. He told
me how many "cuts" it takes for an FE block compared to the softer stuff but
I don't remember the numbers.

3 vs 8 was it?

My rebuilt 360FE with 80k+ miles can go 6k on 15w-50 Mobil-1 without
adding any oil and has more power -and- better gas mileage than the
original ever did! No kidding on that. :)

252/252 Comp cam (straight up) and Edelbrock chain and gears.

Alvin in AZ
ps- one time I found where my wife had drove my pickup 10k (!) past
due a "dino" oil change without my knowledge and another time 8k past!
She was good to add oil tho. Just couldn't trust her worth anything is all.
pps- I was working away from home when the copper mine and smelter
shut down for 19 months.