Originally Posted By: ls1mike
Originally Posted By: Cujet
My 98 F150 with 4.6L V8 now has well over 300,000 miles on it. It's one of the most reliable engines Ford has ever made.
My co-worker has similar truck with the V6, 240,000 trouble free miles.
Friend just purchased a 2002 F150 V6 with 150,000 miles. It runs perfectly and has plenty of power. He got 20MPG on a recent trip from FL to TN.
My boss owns a 97 Suburban 5.7L since new. It's been horrible, with cracked cylinder heads, fuel injection problems (located under intake manifold, leaks into oil) , multiple transmission failures, rear end differential disintegration, and on and on. I'd suggest a somewhat newer GM vehicle, as this vintage is very problematic.
I know people make all sorts of reliability claims. I prefer real world, objective "data". Go on "www.truedelta.com" and look at how reliable the various brands are. Look at the costs for major repairs and so on.
Ford does far, far better than GM or Dodge from 2000 through 2004 , then during model change, suffers reliability problems 2005-2006, after which Ford is most reliable again.
Interestingly, some years, Ford is twice as reliable than GM and 3x better than Dodge. And, a few years, GM is better. Overall, from 2000 through 2015, Ford does better. (ecoboost excepted)
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Proof?
I have a 2002 Silverado 2500HD with a 6.0 4L80E bought for 12,000 with 23,000 miles on it. Equal to or better than a Mod motor from that period that blows out spark plugs. I tow a 35 foot 7500lbs travel trailer with it.
Cujet usually you make pretty decent post, but 2000 and up trucks that are gas and not an 8.1 are LS based and just as good as Ford. You are wrong this time. The last truck(not van) to have a 5.7 was 99. In 99 you could get the 4.8, the 5.3 or the 6.0 as well. The 6.0 in a 3/4 ton tows much better than a 5.4 mod motor in a 3/4 ton. LS parts are cheaper, no bad cam phasers, no blown spark plugs, no cracked intakes and no #9 Torrington bearing bad.
Bearing
You get some piston slap but that is pretty much it.
64 percent of the 3/4 ton trucks GM made had the 6.0, very common and can be had cheap with good miles.
I camp ALOT, and we talk to other when we camp. The guy I camp with just ditched his 90,000 mile 5.4 for a GM 6.0 when I had to tow his trailer home.
Any truck you are looking at for about 15,000 will be good if you check condition.
Model change? The drivetrain has been the same form 1999 to 2007, when they shifted to the 6 speed. They made updates, and change the sheet metal, but that was it. Where are you getting your data?
www.truedelta.com
And, I will not dispute the (unmitigated disaster) Ford problems with spark plugs. However, not all the "mod" motors had spark plug issues. My 1998 F150 4.6L, 2 valve engine has been 100% trouble free. As has my 2009 5.4L 3 valve engine. But, neither was subject to spark plug problems. Like the OP, I knew better than to purchase a Ford with plug issues when I purchased my 09. Once properly repaired, the mod motors with plug issues seem to be trouble free.
The earlier GM products (1997) were very troublesome. The later ones with updated fuel injection are far better. But, generally not as good as Ford.
The column with numbers is the number of "repair trips per year, per 100 vehicles". If there is an asterisk, there are insufficient responses, so the dataset is too small.