Older Ford Pickups

[grislyatoms]

I have had 2:

'77 F100 with a 302 / 3 speed on the column / 2wd

'79 F150 XLT Lariat with a 400 / auto / 2wd (showroom condition, oil cooler, tranny cooler, trailer brake, dual tanks) (I still weep over getting rid of this one)

And just got

'88 F150 300ci inline 6 / 5 speed (granny 1st gear) / 4wd

Any weak areas on the '88 that anyone can tell me about? I have heard about the reliability of the Ford inline 6, any widespread / known problems with the '88 and later EFI ones?

Transfer case, axles, driveshafts, etc. all seem to be in pretty good shape. One spot of rust on a front quarter panel.

Anything to watch out for?

[Guest]

nothing worth mentioning.  the 300-6cly thinks its a volvo motor,  you should have no problem getting 250-300k out of it.  keep up on maitance and she'll serve you well

[Brad Johnson]

+1. The only problem you might run into is u-joints. Some of the "permanently lubricated" sealed units were bad about getting dry and failing, especially if they were run hard. U-joints are an easy, relatively cheap fix so it's no big deal of you know how to change 'em yourself.

Brad

[mfree]

well, there's... *boggle* can't think of anything.

I recently just gave away a '69 F100 with 15/16 of a 360 V8, three on the tree, manual drums, manual steering, and most of a longbed. If it weren't for the hellish rust, I'd probably still have it, but my cousin wanted the rear end and transmission and I wanted it gone. Title showed 600,000 miles when I got it

[grampster]

I had a couple two, tree Fords.  One notable one was a yellow 76 with a little V8, auto, 2wd, owned by the City of Dearborn that I picked up for $600.00 in the late '80's.

Sombody had painted over the City logo with yellow paint.  When I got it home, my neighbor walked around it and then asked, "how much of that truck flaps."  I had to put a 4 X 8 sheet of plywood in the bed, cut some more plywood for the floor boards and tie a bit of rope around the hood.  I drove that truck for 4 years before I sold it to a guy that cut the bed off it and turned it into a trailer.  

I figgered out how to take the wander out of the front end of old Ford trucks.  You buy two re-tread snow tires (they are flat to the ground) and put them on the front.
Voila, no more wander.

[French G.]

Change the oil regularly, use a good oil like Rotella or Chevron Delo. I think the motor is pretty bulletproof if you do this, here is why. I recently rehabilitated a truck my wife bought before we were married(as in without my input). The thing test drove fine but 100 miles later it lost all oil pressure. What had happened was extreme carbon build-up that clogged the oil pump pickup. I ran it on engine flush, Chemtool, paint thinner and all kinds of other stuff, each time getting huge amounts of carbon out in nearly dime size crunchy chunks. Still, no consistent oil pressure. I admitted defeat and took the truck to where I could drop the pan. Not wanting to disassemble the motor It got pressure washed with some really foul soap through the valve cover and from underneath. Carbon was 1/2" thick around some of the main webs.  After that it got ran in the shop on 50/50 diesel and oil a couple of times and then straight oil for a couple of 10 mile drives, each time still getting massive amounts of carbon out. When it was apart I looked at the main bearings, having already bought replacements, no problems so I left the old ones in. Changed the oil pump, cut the shroud off of the oil pump pick-up so chunks could not pack in there and modified the oil pan so that there was a sump away from the pick-up. After a couple of 300 mile oil changes, a 500 mile change and a 1000 mile change I now pronounce it healthy.   Tough motor to go through that.

  What does this mean to you? the straight 6 300 has a rep for having oil drain back issues where you get oil starvation because it is all trapped in the valve cover. The why is the oil passages run through the pushrod area which is right by the cylinder walls and a prime location for carbon build-up. With mine at first there was about a 20 second delay from pouring fresh oil in an empty motor to hear it start trickling into the pan. My situation was made so much worse by previous owners who did not change the oil and based on evidence(spare bottles and window stickers) used Quaker State and Slick 50, a deadly combination if I ever heard of one.

Change the oil, it should run forever. I love my wife's, I need low range 4WD where I am at. The more it snows on her driveway, the less she talks about selling it. Plus it has character; a former owner had an ND with his muzzleloader while it was laying on the seat, as a result the passenger door has a nice exit wound. Luckily the door is silver and so is duct tape.

[Parker Dean]

About the only things  recall are minor items, like the crank damper/pulley isolator goes bad and the outer hub spins in relation to the inner hub. You likely won't notice unless you try to check ignition timing.

They're kinda rough on their injectors, what with them sitting right above the exhaust. Ford put a small blower on some of those trucks to blow air across the injectors for a few minutes after shutdown in high temps. Real fun to figure out why the battery keeps going dead when the system malfs.

Some trucks ahve a surge at low freeway speeds due to EGR overfeed. Ford tried to fix this for a few years but apparently they were having problems with NOx reductions and the 4.9 and could never quite seem to get it out completely. Unfortunately, disabling the EGR without doing some changes to the timing tables gets you part throttle ping. Rock and a hard spot.

[garrettwc]

+1 on all the comments about the 300 6cyl. The thing is bulletproof. It does love the gasoline though. My 300 cyl got worse mileage than my 302 V8. Keep the oil changes and hoses fresh and the engine will be good.

The weak spot, if you could call it that, is the drive train. The engine runs so long that people tend to neglect the rest of the drivetrain. Watch the u-joints as someone mentioned. Keep the wheel bearings well packed and watch the seals in the axles and make sure the rear end has plenty of lube. That's where mine eventually failed.

[Tallpine]

Not much experience so far but I got my daughter an 89 F-150 4wd with the 300-6, but it has a "close range" 5 speed with nearly worthless 1st and reverse.  You have to use low range to do almost anything delicate like backing a trailer without killing the engine.

The hydraulic clutch "went out", but we discovered it was just a little o-ring leak down at the coupling on the bell housing, that was sucking air back into the system.  If the slave cylinder goes out you have to pull the transmission because it fits around the input shaft along with the release (throwout) bearing.

We are really disappointed in the gas mileage, and can't figure out why it won't get 15-18mpg like a Chevy 350 4wd ??

A bunch of crappy stuff has broke, like the windshield wiper knob and the ignition switch linkage.  Rather than fix the latter, we took off the collar where the steering column goes into the dash and put a split bolt connector on the push rod so that you can push it down with your fingers/thumb to get it to start.  The key switch will turn it on/off but not engage the starter.

Now it's making noises when turning in 4wd - probably one of the knuckle u-joints....  It's hard to figure out what the problem is without getting it up on a rack.  Anyone know how to diagnose?

Overall, I guess it's a good old truck but I still prefer the Chevy/GMC. (this is our first Ford)  Our 91 Suburban has over 200K miles and the engine & drive train are all still good.  The Ford rides nicer with the independent front suspension, but I still like the old straight/solid front axle 4wd for reliability.

[mfree]

let's define something here. "old" ford truck is pre-80, or at least I think that's when the revision happened for that series. "new" ford truck is '80 on. At least that's it to me, when they lightened all the bodywork and some of the chassis components and the motors started going south as to useability and repairability.

[grislyatoms]

Thanks for all the advice, folks.

I am going to pack the wheel bearings this weekend and check the brake linings for wear. Next weekend I am going to change all the u-joints (I am going to use those "Gorilla Joints" or whatever they are called, I put those in my '79) and probably change out the rotor and the plugs and run some fuel injector cleaner. Gonna pick up an extra serpentine belt too, just in case.

This pickup is going to be used mainly for a weekly commute from central New Mexico to southern Colorado where my parents are looking at buying some land to develop / work. This pickup MAY see some pretty heavy use, as we may need to do some clearing and grading, clean out / dig irrigation ditches, build fencing, etc. May end up pouring quite a few slabs, as well, that remains to be seen.

Again, all, thanks for the advice.

[Gun Runner]

Don't do too many burnouts or you'll end up with broken axles.  Seen that done a time or two.  

The only problem I've ever heard of with this engine is my friend cracked a head on one by severely overheating it.  He's the same guy who snaps axles.  Go figure.

This was on an '89 F-150 300 I6, 4spd(?) manual trans.

[grislyatoms]

I grew out of the "doing burnouts" phase close to two decades ago, so I won't have to worry about that!

Also tend to keep an eye on my gauges, but thanks for the info!

[Larry Ashcraft]

Didn't know if you were aware of it, but UPS trucks used the Ford 300ci I6 until they went with diesels a few years ago.  Says something about the reliability.