Learn Me 5 Speed V6 F150

Since I haven't even bothered to renew the insurance on it yet this year, I decided to throw my bike up on CL over the weekend in hopes of netting something in cash or trade towards a future trailer/tow pig combo.

So far I've got one interested party with an 01 F150 he might want to trade. It's a 5 speed, V6, 4wd, regular cab, short bed with like 175k on it. Looks pretty clean in the pic he sent, though it seems to have a bit of a lift kit that I would likely want to remove. My intent would be to use it as the designated tow pig, mulch hauler, car part fetcher, and backup DD.

I seem to recall this powertrain combo is pretty well regarded by the Hive, however I am not particularly familiar with this generation F150. Any particular trouble spots? How are they to work on? Gas mileage decent with the V6?

My biggest concern is how well the 4.2 would deal with pulling an open deck car trailer behind it. Probably my closest frame of reference here is the 4.3 equipped Chevy Express van we have at work and that thing is a total dog even dead empty.

It'll probably burn slightly less gas than the V8 when driving around empty. It'll also be slower than a snail trying to drag a building. And I don't think I've ever seen one that didn't have cracked exhaust manifolds...

What kind of bike? Sounds like a bad deal.

That transmission is out of a ranger. I wouldn't pull with it. ~3000lb tow limit and that's probably bad enough. It's a mazda (M50D) trans if I recall correctly.

In reply to Blaise:

97 Suzuki Bandit 600, runs and rides pretty decently, or did last year at least, but the plastics are fading and it's got scrapes and bruises from a few previous drops. I have it listed at $1750, but realistically think it's worth more like $12-1500 or so.

OK perhaps not a bad trade but I'd still vote against this as a tow rig because of the trans.

I happen to own one of these trucks with the same combo. my truck was used to tow a single axle trailer for 5 years daily running a lawn company. I never weighed the equipment, but it was two commercial zero turn mowers with verious weedeaters and blowers ect. the truck was bought new and has only required a alternator, it has 328,000 miles on it currently and I still use it for home owner stuff. It has been meticulously maintained by myself.

I forgot to add, my truck is a 2wd with really tall highway gears, like a 2.73 open diff. I highly recommend something along the line of 3.73 and a posi from an explorer.

We had a bunch of box stock trucks like this and they would not pull a single axle trailer with a Kubota UTV on it. Several of them would make a strange sounds going through neutral while changing gears. At least two had transmissions rebuilt.

A friend of mine had an F150 just like the one you are looking at. He loved it. For towing, back when there was an AROC convention in Florida, he took our Challenge car down with his truck. Other than loading it wrong (it was too far back for much of the trip), he never mentioned any problems. And there are a lot of hills between Michigan and Florida.

Ok, so we're 50/50 as to whether this thing will even tow an ATV vs it will tow to Florida and back or haul a landscape trailer 300k no problem...glad we've reached a consensus

Sounds like this truck would be pretty marginal, though, so that's probably a pass. Guy appears to be pulling the typical Craigslist flake out routine anyways, but thanks for the info!

Furious_E wrote: Sounds like this truck would be pretty marginal, though, so that's probably a pass.

Unless there's a good reason not to, I'd always rather end up with too much truck rather than not enough!

Well its no big deal if he flakes, Trucks are common and I would nab a V8. They seem more common than a 6 with no major fuel economy difference.

Don't put too much weight on this but my perception is that I see an unusually high number of bad clutches on those trucks. I don't know if that's related to the trucks themselves or if the price point encourages people who really need a bigger truck to buy them just because it's all they can afford or if my perception is just wrong.

The M5OD is a great trans, but its not overly beefy as has been said. They also have a plug on the side that likes to blow out on the highway and you won't know it until you have "heat treated" everything inside it.

The V6 is only slightly down on power from the 4.6L, but you're not rewarded with much (if any) better MPG. Its kind of a wash. The V8s give you more torque which really shows itself with a trailer on behind.

See if the intake manifold has been done with an aluminum replacement. The stockers like to leak around 100k.

I test drove a ranger with that transmission. Brand new truck. Stopped in traffic, couldn't get it into gear again.

Tried the usual tricks, such as trying to go into another gear when it wouldn't go into first, re-engaging the clutch, trying to get into second, then any other gear at all. Repeatedly working the clutch in and out between attempts. Horn blowing behind us the whole time.

Finally shut it off, put it in first, then restarted ​it. Whole thing didn't take more than a few seconds, but was enough for me. I bought a Tacoma.

I think the v6/5spd is the best version of that body style truck unless you want to get into Lightnings and Supercharged Harley Davidson versions.

The v6/5spd is not slow. It's only slightly slower than the typical 4.6/auto, and you don't really notice until you're flooring it at highway speeds. In fact, i had a chance to race two almost identical single cab long bed f150s (from the same plumbing company fleet) against each other. One was 4.6/5spd and one was 4.2/5spd. The difference wasn't as great as you might think. Certainly not great enough to justify chasing bad coil packs in circles around the 4.6 engine or being forced to throw a whole pack of them at it just to avoid the frustration.

The trans may be considered underbuilt for the truck but as a rule even a mediocre manual is more reliable than an auto and far cheaper to repair if needed. I wouldn't worry much about what you're towing with it as that has almost no effect on a manual besides clutch wear. Nothing magical happens while towing. You're still limited to the same ~260tq passing through from the engine no matter how much resistance you put on the output shaft. If it didn't break flooring it while empty it won't break flooring it while towing either. You're not going to be stripping the teeth right off the gears with ALL THAT POWER and it doesn't generate a ton more heat just because the output shaft is harder to turn. It's just not a big deal. Drive it right and it won't break. Drive it wrong and it won't break because you're towing.

Intake manifold gaskets are common but not difficult. Just make sure not to strip any of the small bolts holding the plenum down!

Finally shut it off, put it in first, then restarted ​it. Whole thing didn't take more than a few seconds, but was enough for me. I bought a Tacoma.

Well i hope the slave cylinder doesn't go out in your Tacoma either. I'd hate to see you ditch another whole vehicle over a slave cylinder. Especially if it would be replaced for free anyway.

^ Sorry but I disagree. If you're towing you're putting stress on that shaft CONSTANTLY, whereas during acceleration you're only doing it momentarily.

I agree that driving it nicely will help a lot, but the trans is definitely undersized.

floatingdoc wrote: I test drove a ranger with that transmission. Brand new truck. Stopped in traffic, couldn't get it into gear again. Tried the usual tricks, such as trying to go into another gear when it wouldn't go into first, re-engaging the clutch, trying to get into second, then any other gear at all. Repeatedly working the clutch in and out between attempts. Horn blowing behind us the whole time. Finally shut it off, put it in first, then restarted ​it. Whole thing didn't take more than a few seconds, but was enough for me. I bought a Tacoma.

Yeah. That has nothing to do with the transmission at all.

M5OD is one of the best light truck transmissions ever built. The problem is they put it in F150s and people abuse them for things that are too heavy and they don't last long, so everyone blames the transmission.

That M5OD will last darn near forever behind the 4.2L V6... as long as you make sure it isn't leaking. The transmission doesn't care how much weight is behind it, it cares about how much torque it is dealing with. I don't care if you're towing 15,000 lbs, if the engine is only making 200 torques, the transmission will only see 200 input torques. So unless you're towing 15,000 lbs AND like to do clutch dumps, you're not going to destroy the M5OD behind a 4.2L V6.

Think of it this way: The transmission is the joint between the resistance behind it and the torque input from the engine. If you give it 6000 torques and all you do is melt tires, the transmission only ever sees the amount of torque it takes to overcome traction. Put 2000 lbs of drywall in the bed and mash the throttle though, and you better hope your health insurance covers severed legs.

Blaise wrote: I agree that driving it nicely will help a lot, but the trans is definitely undersized.

Its only undersized if the amount of torque input exceeds the capacity of the transmission regardless of how much weight its moving.

In reply to curtis73:

Towing will make more heat though, as you'll be putting more average torque through it over time than you would with an empty truck. Peak torque won't be any higher, so you shouldn't snap shafts or strip gears unless you're ham-fisted, but the extra load on the gears will make the trans oil get hotter and can cause faster bearing / synchro wear if things are hot enough.

rslifkin wrote: In reply to curtis73: Towing will make more heat though, as you'll be putting more average torque through it over time than you would with an empty truck. Peak torque won't be any higher, so you shouldn't snap shafts or strip gears unless you're ham-fisted, but the extra load on the gears will make the trans oil get hotter and can cause faster bearing / synchro wear if things are hot enough.

True, although it won't cause a catastrophic failure like so many people think. Increased wear is one thing, but so many people are mistakenly thinking that hitching up a trailer and easing out the clutch will cause a transmission to vomit the gears onto the pavement.

curtis73 wrote:

Blaise wrote: I agree that driving it nicely will help a lot, but the trans is definitely undersized.

Its only undersized if the amount of torque input exceeds the capacity of the transmission regardless of how much weight its moving.

I always had this in my head but figured there was not way it was the case (after all, ford put a diff manual trans in their I300 F250/350 than the 150). Gonna reach out to a transmission design guy I work with to see what he has to say. Stay tuned.

floatingdoc wrote: I test drove a ranger with that transmission. Brand new truck. Stopped in traffic, couldn't get it into gear again. Tried the usual tricks, such as trying to go into another gear when it wouldn't go into first, re-engaging the clutch, trying to get into second, then any other gear at all. Repeatedly working the clutch in and out between attempts. Horn blowing behind us the whole time. Finally shut it off, put it in first, then restarted ​it. Whole thing didn't take more than a few seconds, but was enough for me. I bought a Tacoma.

That reminds me. M50Ds eat slave cylinders all the time. And they're INSIDE the bellhousing, so you gotta pull the trans every time one shts the bed.

Blaise wrote: I always had this in my head but figured there was not way it was the case (after all, ford put a diff manual trans in their I300 F250/350 than the 150). Gonna reach out to a transmission design guy I work with to see what he has to say. Stay tuned.

That may have been just for a wider gear spread for moving heavy loads. And the trans was probably bigger / beefier so it would last longer in terms of bearing / synchro wear under heavy loads and at high temps.

As I suspected, the issue seems to be heat.

We do helicopters here not trucks, but my understanding from my friend is that the above statement by curtis is correct. With the bed loaded or a trailer you're going to load it for LONGER, you can't load it more than the engine can output.

His assumption is that most gears are designed for infinite life at rated max output tq. But it's likely a larger trans will handle the heat a whole lot better.