In terms of the old straight 6, my dad has one in an 89 150 with 250,000 miles on it. Runs great only thing he has had done is a new clutch. If I remember right the old straight 6 developed almost as much torque as the 302 many years ago. I have heard rumor ford is working on a new straight motor 5 or 6 cyl, OHC,etc.

 

The 2005 model will have an "updated" (whatever the hell that means!) V6 and 5 speed. Got that information from a person who works at the Virginia assembly plant who was up at the Detroit Auto Show. They are already building them in there.

There that will satisfy the 5-10% segment-just got to wait a year.

 

The 4.2 is a crappy truck engine, IMHO. It has marginal horsepower for a full size truck engine but lacks torque. Who wants to listen to that thing buzzing at 4000 grand all day keeping a load moving? I know, I owned one. Bring back a decent inline 6 with lots of torque for hauling and towing.

 

I don't know how true this is, but I read somewhere that the 300 I6 wouldn't meet California emissions so it was phased out.

That and you can't have a 4.9 when your V8 is smaller at 4.6.


Another thought... Ford will sell every 2004 they make. The classic will still be made through 2004 so any budget conscious owners out there can still buy a V6 manual before a new V6 is brought back.

I also believe that I read (I think here) that the 4.6 and 4.2 were also scheduled to go to 3valve design. This would make sense as the new Mercury minivan is powered by the 4.2. Ford needs the extra volume for the 4.2 to justify putting it in a low volume Mercury.

 

The March/April 03 Truck Trend says a new V6-powered F150 with a stick shift will be available for 2005 model year.

Ford would be making a huge mistake if they did away with a V6 option. Many F150s sold as fleet vehicles are V6 equipped for organizations who just want cheaper base model veicles that get decent mileage. Our local water company has a bunch of V6 base model F150s as well as whoever runs the highway courtecy patrol.

 

I had a 98 s/cab 4x2 with the 4.2 V6, then upgraded to a 2000 s/cab 4x4 with the 4.6 V8. I was quite surprised that despite the extra weight of the 4x4, my mileage stayed almost exactly the same, if anything the V8 was a bit better. It seemed the V8 just needed to work less hard to do the same job, kept the rev's lower.

my $0.02 from experience.