That's a great idea.... I've read how to do the COP replacement.

 

You're right. And that was more of me asking me "should I buy it".

 

if you do end up getting it, keep an eye on all fluid levels, ect. i bought my '97 and after about 4k of driving it the lower radiator hose started leaking, i replaced the alternator, and had to replace the broken EGR line.

 

Definitely! Until I'm really comfortable that's she's stable and strong, I'll be checking under the hood regularly.

My current vehicle is a '78 Toyota Land Cruiser FJ40...not much under the hood to go wrong with her. And if something would go wrong, it didn't take long to figure it out. But these new trucks have just a bit more going on under the hood. Wow. Should be an interesting learning process. I imagine working on it will be both harder and easier in different ways.

 

You'll be fine purchasing it, especially with so low miles. You may want to search on here some more to learn which things to look for specifically, but from my experiences, really they are no different than any other car or truck. The test drive will tell the story.

 

ditto on the being safe buying it with so low miles, like he said with a dead cylinder hopefully its fixable with a COP, i almost bought an 04 OBS with a dead cyl, but found out it needed a head, and a whole new front clip... i can do motor work, and limited body work, but i doubt my wallet can keep up...

 

Any 97-03 Modular engine ford car/truck I looked at I'd look at the starter see if its oil soaked. common head gasket issue. If the starter is covered with oil pass..

 

Great Tip! I'm guessing that that would throw an error code.

A big part of my decision will be if I can get it to an Autozone type store and scan for codes and see what it spits out. Hoping for a an P0305 type code and it's just a bad COP.

How bad is it to drive 70 highway miles with a bad COP - will the injector just dump fuel into a non-sparking cylinder? Not good for the cat?? Can you just disconnect the cable going to the injector?

 

you'll melt the cat and will need to replace...

 

Was worried about that. How do shut the injector off? Can you 'pull the plug' on it some how?

 

that i'm not sure.. go search it in other threads. i think you can, but im not 100% with these modular engines.

 

yes you can unplug the injector..

 

Great...makes sense. So I can just unplug the electrical connector to the injector on the bad cylinder and I should be able to get home on 7 cyl without frying the cat.

Thanks!

 

The seller went ahead and fixed the missing cyl problem. 2 bad COP's. Now runs smooth (he says)...but wants $3200. Still a great deal, I think.

 

Just got back from a test drive. Fluids look clean. Engine looked good...not oily (just a bit dusty). Test drive went good...engine and tranny seemed strong. I was going 75 and was very comfortable. That 5.4L V8 engine does have some umph.

Interior was not good - Really dirty...but that's ok, especially for the price. Drivers part of the bench seat is worn and needed replaced. I'm pretty sure this was a farm truck from outside of Dallas, TX. Could that be bad? And I'm sure it towed something behind it...there was the box for the electric brake. I wonder how hard that is on 5.4L and the tranny.

The button on the gear shift that puts it overdrive was missing. Can that be replaced easily?

Body has a few dings here and there. No rust on the lower doors. A few scratches have some rust line and there an area 6" in diameter area on top that is rusting - it got a dent and the paint flaked off and rusted.

It's the base model f150, XL, 3rd door extended cab, 8' bed.

And only 108,000 miles on a 2000 for $3200. I think I'm gonna go for it. I bet I could clean it up and sell it for $4000+.