They are throwaway motors as well. On the farm that I work at for harvest there are 4 or 5 old Fords with the 3208s in them. They are all N/A and are absolutely gutless. I finally got into one of the Internationals this year and from now on with a cummins in it and they are rocketships compared to those old Fords.

True. In the IH I have always loved the DT-466's

Mine has the 3.55's in it with 31" BFG's. The 318 I had was in a 66 Fury with a 1 barrel carb.

Yes they are, no sleeves, the 8.2 Detroits and triple nickel Cummins were also trow away engines in my opinion.

Drove a truck with the 8.2 for a while. I really wasn't impressed with the fuel pincher.

They were good on fuel, but thats about it. The DT466 is in my opinion is the best medium duty engine out there.

Of course it should live longer. It has less moving parts than the 8 hole does. I've owned a 302 of the same year as my 300 and it went through when engine at 99k and the guides were leaking a 130k.

My 300 is no gem anymore. The stock clutch is about toast and the ball joints have probably rusted away. Highway travel is a struggle unless you keep the rpms up as the compression can't be too high anymore. Its a perfect truck for running back in fourth into town.

3208 CATs? Put those in the boneyards.... They might have been decent in their time, but that was years ago. Today's engines are a heck of a lot more efficient than those old gals.

I like the 466. I spent some time in a tandem dump with the 466. I was moving a bigger load with the 466.

Is that the truth? Your 302 was what? at 99k miles? You had to rebuild it? And then it was worn out 30k miles later?

Either way, both are ludicrous. My 302 has 122k miles of work on it, and it doesn't smoke at all, uses little to no oil, and runs like a champ. Guess it just depends on how well you take care of an engine. Being that I work my truck, I change the oil every 3k miles, sometimes less if I feel like I've been too hard on it, lol.

FARM69, the 3208s , my employer had a new fleet of Chevrolet C70 Kodiaks they bought new in late '79. They were blowing up so often we kept several crate 3208s aside to reduce downtime.
We really went through some lousy diesels in that era; the best ones we had in our in the fleet were mid 70s International Loadstars with Detroit 6V-53s.

Most 302s I've come across were rugged little V8s and long lived. Not my first choice for a pickup engine (no offense to anyone), though, better suited in a Mustang in my opinion.

Those old 2 stroke Cat killers were a pretty good engine as well.

Anyways, my trucks are treated better than most as far as R/M goes. The 302 experienced more work and was used more for farm work and hauling than the 300. I sold it a few years back and it still ran decent with 40k on the reman. One of the valve guides was letting some oil by on the right side making it smoke a little at startup but it wasn't anything too concerning.

Like anything, you are going to have variables. They are all good engines. As far as the moving parts, it's sure cheaper to maintain a 6er (unless its a dang CAT)...

We've switched over to diesels for our farm trucks, but I'll stick up for a 300 anyday.

Yeah, I'm not saying it's the best truck engine, just that they shouldn't give out at 99k miles. Something odd happened there. My truck has hauled wood, cattle, vehicles, you name it, all its life. And it runs like a top. Not to mention, I take it to 5000 RPM everytime I drive it. I can't help it, it just keeps pulling so good, lol.

I'm always amazed at what a V-Gasser can rev to. My mom's 3.0 revved to 6,000 today getting on the highway. I was amazed. The highest rpm my 300 ever sees is 4,000 - I'm abusing it at that point.

How high can a 302 rev safely?

I've had mine to 5200-5300RPM, but it really slows down about when I get to 5000RPM. One time I burned out on the hill above my house, and my gas pedal got stuck down, and I don't know what RPM it was bouncing off of. I guess it has a rev limiter, if not... I dunno what was going on, it took me about 2 - 3 seconds to cut my truck off. I was stomping on the gas pedal trying to make it come back up, lol. Problem was under my hood, needless to say, I fixed that problem. That was about a year ago, thank god it didn't blow anything up. It feels like abuse if I go passed 5000RPM, but I don't know the actual RPM where things start to do damage. I think the 5.0's in the Mustangs come with a 6000RPM redline, don't they?

I"ve had both a 302 and 300 in F150s. I liked the six for the low end power and the 302 for the ability to rev. The six is easier to work on and is a true truck engine. My 302 made it to 220k miles with 20k hauling a 5000lb RV trailer. Both of my 300s have used less oil and have have been rock solid. If my 300 ever goes out I would consider the 302 but not with the 3.08 gears
As far as diesels go the absolute worst was the old Toro Flow GMCs followed by the Olds 350 diesel.
I have always liked the 466/530 and the DT360/408 "cornbinders"
regards
rikard