Ford vs chebby discussion
 

I just wanted to hear some of you guys opinions about fords and chevy trucks of theses years such as looks,mpgs,power,relieabilty, which you would rather work on and which ifs setup do you perfer.thanks

I think this site might be a little biased to a certain brand :) lol

I like the looks of my 95 F250 but love the reliability of my chebbys. This is a bais forum but there are some of us that -=work=- both... Only + I think the chev has over the ford is the ability to plow a half ton. (Why I have a F250 and not 150) I have a city plow account and have used chevys up till last year when I used two fords and the old 99 chev 1500. The 99 cheb half ton has seen regular service and only has had brake issues in its 220K miles (original exhaust also). Plowed every year and on its first tranny and T case. I have had other chebbys that the trannys didn't make 100K w/o rebuilds. Just not as mean looking as my F250. Sold the 95 F350 psd as it was a rot box with no hope. F250 was getting there but I decided to rehab her with only 100K miles and a strong will to live.

I dont think you could go wrong with either truck. As long as you dont plan to over work a F150. Also I am a true believer to make sure they come out of Canada ford or the chebby/GMC they just hold up better and I dont think its a fluke.

Chevies suck ass - next question.

I actually like the 70's - 87 Chevy trucks. Leaf sprung solid axle front, small block engines that you can swap parts around from almost any other GM SB. TONS of aftermarket. The carbed engines were much easier for me to work on. I don't care much for trying to figure out all of the sensors and electrical crap on FI engines. Ford or Chevy. About the only thing I didn't like was the distributor up against the firewall.

However, my favorite truck body style is the 92-96 Fords. And, with all of the knowledge on this site, I'm learning how to work on the electrical nightmare.

Here's an unbiased opinion of early 90's and late 80's trucks, as I've had experience with chevy, ford, and dodge a little.

Engines
300 is a much better truck engine than the 4.3, although the 4.3 could easily get great gas mileage and can take abuse. The 300 can do the same work as all the small block v8s. The 300 is the best gas 6 cylinder hands down. 302>305, 351>350. All the gas engines from this era (chevy, ford, and dodge) are great truck engines. They last and are easy to work on. The 6.9 diesel >>> than the 6.2 diesel. The 6.2 detroit makes as much power as the 4.3 V6 and gets nice fuel mileage, but IMO a gas small block is much better, but if you need a diesel the 6.9 is better. 5.9 cummins of the era is the best diesel

Transmissions
Chevy has the best automatics, hands down. TH350, TH400, are great 3 speeds. Fords C6 is just as good, so is dodge Torqueflite 727. The difference comes in overdrive automatics. GM's 4L60/4L80 are the best, Ford's E4OD at a close second, Dodges OD transmissions are 60,000 mile transmissions in this era...

Driveline
All are fairly stout. The worst of the big 3 would be the TTB 4x4 front axle, mainly because it has more parts that can and will wear out, but it's not a POS

Electronics.
GM has the best electronics in their vehicles through this era. GM did most of the innovation, and Ford/Dodge followed, changing the names of their systems slightly but most systems worked the same. I'm talking mainly about emissions equipment.

Frame/Body
All are easily prone to rust. Chevys like to rust at the cab corners. Ford around the wheel wells, cab corners, rear leaf spring hangers. Dodges like to rust at the bottom of the doors and rear wheel wells. It's likely paint from this era wouldn't last, unless the truck is garage kept. Expect fading/peeling on the top of the cab and top of the hood.

I drove a lot of fleet truck from this era from all 3 domestic brands. The dodges ignition systems sucked badly.. forget even trying to start them in the wet, and for cargo capacity the dodges also ranked #3. Dodge interiors were cheap plastic at this time.
Chev and Ford trucks were similarly capable but the Fords spent less time in the shop overall and when they did it was for something that was common among the fleet. With Chev you never knew what you were gonna get.. there didn't seem to be any trends, you could have a blower motor fail on one truck, the trans fall out of another, axle bearing in another, and electrical gremlins in a 4th. If you wanted a dependable work truck at this time you bought a Ford, everything else was a crap shoot.

As for GM leading the way with engine electronics.. that's a laugh. Ford introduced multipoint tuned port injection on truck engines in 1986 while GM was still using throttlebody injection(a glorified carburator) well into the mid '90's on trucks.

A Chevy 350 is alot cheaper to build up than a Ford 351... I know that much. That being said, I like Henry Fords politics so that makes me a Ford guy.....

I didnt include dodges because there a joke but all my brothers chevys are tough and I own a 300 nuff said

ZI just don't like the way Chevy has turned lately, the older trucks are good tho IMHO.

A very large portion of our fleet used to be 02 and up chevy hd. CEL stayed on no matter what and we lost quite a few front diffs and transfer cases. But I have to say they run in 4wd all day in frame deep goo. It may have been more of lack of preventive maintenance then anything else but our newer fleet is Fords. The only problems we've had with those is the auto hubs. And one sprung a leak on the radiator due to some plastic clips popping loose. We do abuse those trucks to be honest.

Chevy imho has the best small block v8 in the 350. Most are reliable, well built and last-Im talking about the older 98 and down with less electronics and simpler. 95 and down 350s are even better. They make good power and do ok mpg. Newer Gm engines SUCK. 6.0 commonly busts motor mounts, CEL's all the time, poor mpg (even vs the 5,4L ford) and just plain accesseries (alt, etc) break down to much. i drove in a fleet 3 different ford vans, all were 3/4 ton or better and the trans lasted in one (bought them used) till 225k and it looked like black glue and we had just left it knowign it was a goner. other two lasted for eons, one had 300k on it and still is going. Same for the engines. One spat out a plug once and was repaired, never had an issue either. I drove one for over 200k with no problems besides the blower motor finally going at like 280k. These were fleet trucks that saw between 100-300 miles a day, usually were never shut off and always idling. They carried 3000lbs of weight at all times and handled it like a champ. 5.4L was peppy but you felt the weight thats for sure. The chevy vans we had had no real issues either besides pulleys and idlers kept going and one the 350 head gasket went. The fords were by far more comfy to drive tho, chevy was just to soft for me.

As for everything else I like ford. the suspensions tougher and better offroad (save for the old rot box 70-97 chevys with SFA-good luck finding one that isnt made of bondo tho). Chevy suspensions are just WAY to soft for me. Dump a load of gravel in a 1500 chevy and it touches the bumpstops, F150 handles it better. Step up to a 3/4 ton or better and the fords have a much tougher suspension. I drove even the newer 3/4 ton HD series (truck was an 03) and what a joke it was vs a f250 super duty or even the old f250. And yes it was a real HD and not one of those fake ones chevy likes to call hd with bumpstops, 6 lug axles, etc lol.

As for tranmissions, seen both have issues. People change engine oil, but never trans oil so what can you expect. People also beat stuff and wonder hwy it fails.

i dont like any chevys really, just not heavy enough to do the work i want. Look at the landscapers in your area-they all drive fords pretty much. Same for the contractors, the masons, any trade has a ford truck/van really. Sure I see chevys and dodges too-but many more fords-that speaks in volumes in my opinion.

Well to me they are just tools to get a job done. Just like I use only snap-on screwdrivers (the older poly handle high torque ones, not the newer) I find that in full size trucks the Fords works and fits me well. In smaller trucks - it has always been the S-10 over the Ranger.

David

I just tell my brother I only got a little 6 cyl its not fair against his big bad v8 lol but I am impressed with his trucks his 305 v8s do everything my truck does but I got 70,000 more miles

It could be a matter of opinion, but I'd prefer the TBI over an early ford truck multiport system. I know MPFI was in production by GM on cars before 1986 (I had an '86 with MPFI) but when it started idk. My TBI C1500 had one fuel pump, steel fuel line, a fuel filter, a TBI unit with 2 injectors, 34 gal single tank, and only required 8-11 psi to run, so a fuel pump could potentially last the life of the truck since it wasn't pushing too hard. My '88 F150 with 2 tanks (36 gal total) has 3 fuel pumps...2 sending units, a fuel selector valve , 8 injectors, plastic(?) fuel lines held together with little clips that break if you look at them wrong, and requires somewhere around 40 psi (I forget exactly). The fuel system on my F150 could be the most troublesome part of the truck.