Teach Me 4.2L F150's

My little work truck went to the big guy in the sky today total motor failure. It was about time.

So what can you guys tell me about the V6 New body style F150's. The 4.2L seems to have a good reputation for reliability.

I am going to take a look at this one this afternoon,

http://sandiego.craigslist.org/csd/cto/2621704446.html

Automatic with AC and aftermarket CD player. Bigger newer tires as well. Its a small biz fleet truck so it has a maintenance history according to the owner.

I mainly haul motors around in the back, a 2-3K lb load of mulch, kayaks and surfboards. Drive ~5K miles a year or so in the truck. Might haul a hot rod 2-3 times a year less then 300 miles.

Decent mileage, no balls, amazingly stout and reliable. Like any Ford V6 it won't wow you but it will never let you down.

My buddy has the cloth seats in his 04 F150 and they are stained and gross looking. Of course thats kind of how my buddy rolls, but I've heard the cloth seats show wear/stains rather easily, anyways. So in my mind, if the seats look like they are in good and clean condition, I'd imagine the truck has had a nice and easy life.

And I love my '06 F150, but mine is optioned completely different (V8 4 door, short box, FX4, leather...)

Looks like a pretty decent deal.

i can't say anything bad about them. not meaningfully worse than the 4.6 V8 in my opinion. i realize that's not saying a lot.

One thing I noticed about the example I drove was the brakes did a remarkable bad job of actually giving you the impression they work but otherwise fine.

I am going down to see it at 2:00 will report back. If I get another 50K miles out of it it would pay for itself 10 times over.

Isn't the 4.2 an "upsized" 3.8 V6? I don't know, just asking. There's is a very similar truck in my area for sale at one of the Ford dealers, I think. It's that darker grey. A BIG reason why I don't look closely at these trucks is that I had trouble getting into and out of the model before this one and I figure this newer one is worse. At 6 foot 4 I have trouble getting into or out of most newer full-size pickups, even ones that haven't been lifted.

BTW, even Consumer Reports gives this year of F-150 a "black mark" for the weak brakes...so 93CivicEX isn't the only person with that gripe.

I've got an '05 with the 4.2 V6. Aside from the overwhelming lack of motivation to go anywhere, they're great trucks. The only time mine let me down was when the coil pack died (just shy of 100K) towing a Uhaul trailer to Tennessee.

Two words. Bullet proof.

OK, maybe not bullet proof, but close. I have put close to 300K on three of them in E-series vans. Two of them are still going strong, one threw a rod at 298K. That was after hauling around a 8000 pound E250 it's entire life. The replacement motor is over 420K now.

They aren't real big on low end torque. Merging with traffic requires matting the go pedal. In a van it spends a lot of it's life in the upper parts of the rpm range. In the vans fuel economy isn't the best, but I usually get 16-18 if I keep the speeds under 80, and have seen 20 on several occasions.

I wonder what a turbocharger would do for it?

Toyman01 wrote: Two words. Bullet proof. I wonder what a turbocharger would do for it?

Good because its sitting in my driveway,

6000$. It has new tires, new tags, fresh oil change, and it passed smog like a champion. It does have a leveling kit and leatherette captains seats which are mucho comfortable and FX4 wheels and tires. Also no carpet which is a big plus for me.

No CD player BOOOO, but thats easy to fix with a XLT dash radio from egay.

God I love having a truck. So happy to be out of my Mini. This will as buy me some time to find the right Vantage.

Good to see another GRMer in San Diego

monark192 wrote: Good to see another GRMer in San Diego

I thought that I was the only one!!

Are these things capable of pulling a ~2400 pound race car on an open trailer... From say NC to Lincoln?

It makes an interesting option

1slowcrx wrote: Are these things capable of pulling a ~2400 pound race car on an open trailer... From say NC to Lincoln? It makes an interesting option

No freakin clue but I will report back how it does with 3K worth of mulch in the bed; a week or so.

Yes, as long as you aren't in a big hurry.

I have pulled 3-4000 pound trailers behind my vans on multiple occasions. It will sound like the engine is about to jump from under the hood and beat you to death climbing the steeper hills, but they'll take it.

sure. not super quickly.

Only issue I know of with them is that the intake manifold gaskets get vacuum leaks and need to be replaced. Not a tough job. Get a Fel Pro gasket set and it will never leak again.

The earlier ones do have the typical Ford EGR solenoid failure, but they're $23 and take about 10 minutes to replace.

A friend of mine bought 3 new ford o2s before he finally believed me about the intake leak i had suggested since day one... so dont be like him.

Anyway i like that motor with a 5spd. With auto, boring as hell, but functional. And i like 4r70s too.. i just like more driving involvement. But thats not a knock, it's a good combo in a lot of ways.

Common for the lower intake gaskets to fail (same manner and reason as GM 3.1/3.4: plastic/rubber composition gasket un-compositions - note that Dex-Cool has nothing to do with it since Ford does not use Dex-Cool) but in the case of the 4.2, the coolant can leak directly into one of the intake ports. Mystery coolant leak for a while, then one morning it has enough coolant in #4 to bend the connecting rod. Usually the engine will still run okay, aside from the knock where the piston keeps hitting the crankshaft due to aforementioned rod shortening.

Also common for the EGR passages to plug, causing misfires when the EGR is trying to function but sends it all to only one or two cylinders.

Knurled wrote: Common for the lower intake gaskets to fail (same manner and reason as GM 3.1/3.4: plastic/rubber composition gasket un-compositions - *note that Dex-Cool has nothing to do with it since Ford does not use Dex-Cool*) but in the case of the 4.2, the coolant can leak directly into one of the intake ports. Mystery coolant leak for a while, then one morning it has enough coolant in #4 to bend the connecting rod. Usually the engine will still run okay, aside from the knock where the piston keeps hitting the crankshaft due to aforementioned rod shortening. Also common for the EGR passages to plug, causing misfires when the EGR is trying to function but sends it all to only one or two cylinders.

Looked up some of the ford manuals. They say that they fixed this with the 99+ motors.

Vigo wrote: A friend of mine bought 3 new ford o2s before he finally believed me about the intake leak i had suggested since day one... so dont be like him. Anyway i like that motor with a 5spd. With auto, boring as hell, but functional. And i like 4r70s too.. i just like more driving involvement. But thats not a knock, it's a good combo in a lot of ways.

my 98 had a vac tube that ran from somewhere on the back of the motor to just under and behind the TB with two rubber 90 elbows on it that rotted out, causing a vacuum leak and CEL, crappy idle, etc.

the 4.2 is based on the 3.8, which like the GM 3.8 and 4.3 are based on the smallblock v8s, with two cylinders lopped off. the 3.8 has the same bore and stroke as the 302 v8, and valvetrain parts interchange between the two.

the big things that took them out was the intake manifold gaskets failing and dumping coolant into the intake causing hydrolock, and something else that failed dumping coolant into the oil, can't remember exactly, that was long ago. i asked the dealer once about changing the timing chain, and they said there's no need, you just wait till the motor blows up around 150k and replace it.... no, i'm not kidding. mine lasted past 150k and was still going strong when sold with 170k or so on it.

2.5" true duals with turbo mufflers dumped in front of the axle sound similar to a stock 302 at low rpms, and not too raspy in the higher revs, made a huge difference over the glasspacks that were on it when i got it.

as for the EGR, most of the codes were caused by the dpfe sensor crapping out, $13 part and all was well.

wearymicrobe wrote: This will as buy me some time to find the right Vantage.

You know I hate you.

93EXCivic wrote:

wearymicrobe wrote: This will as buy me some time to find the right Vantage.

You know I hate you.

Dude the last three I have had inspected have failed or had significant clutch or oil leak problems. Might just go back to another Viper, at least I can find a good one of those any day of the week.

wearymicrobe wrote:

monark192 wrote: Good to see another GRMer in San Diego

I thought that I was the only one!!

Well, now we know that there are at least two of us. I'm up in North County.

Pics?