10th Mar 2005, 08:12

Beware the various problems afflicting the Ford six cylinder truck engines!

http://www.ford-trucks.com/ has more info.

BTW, I'm also a mechanic of many years experience.

Also, web search and check the above forum for info on the cruise control switch recall. The switches short and cause under hood fires.

26th Mar 2005, 12:45

I have a 1997 F150 XL 4.2 V-6. I really like the truck, but at 88,000 miles the transmission went and had to be rebuilt, at 89,000 miles I lost the engine due to a bad oil pump and driving on the highway at 70 M.P.H. when it went.

I was fortunate enough to be able to do the removal and installation of the engines myself and see what went wrong with the old engine. I was never hard on my truck, no towing or hauling a lot of very heavy items and I always serviced the transmission and performed regular oil changes.

I also had a slow coolant leak that nobody could ever find.

I purchased a new 4.2 V-6 from Ford November 2004 to replace the old engine, of course I took the old engine apart before I turned it back in, I noticed several things, re-designed oil pump, re-designed oil pan, re-designed head gaskets and some differences in the camshaft. I also found the coolant leak on the engine, it would seem the head gaskets were leaking very small amounts of coolant on both sides of the engine, I guess that explains the re-designed head gaskets.

The transmission, who knows, lost second gear. The transmission guy told me it was very common.

I have to say though I really like the truck enough to fix it. I would buy another one.

21st May 2014, 11:13

Well, that comment is true if it's an upper plenum gasket or a portion of the lower that only involves vacuum... but most "intake gasket failures" are lower intake gaskets that flood the exterior of the engine or the interior of the cylinders with coolant. That is pretty common, much more common than vacuum leaks. Coolant infusion into the cylinders tore up many Taurus and Mustang 3.8L's when I was swapping gaskets under warranty for the Ford dealership where I was a line tech.