So what was the story behind this truck? I mean, when it first came out I thought it was a fantastic looking truck. Then it never really caught on and kind of fell to the way side...

 

Assuming you are talking about the "Blackwood", from what I have researched, it didn't sell well because it only offered 2 WD, & there were complaints that the rear cargo area was too fancy to carry anything except maybe golf clubs, certainly not a bale of hay or chopped wood. Of course the original price tag of $52-$54 grand slowed down a lot of sales, I would imagine. Personally, I have my Blackwood because it is so rare & beautifully designed.

 

Within 3 days of the announcement that Ford was discontinuing the Mark LT, there was not a single one left on any dealer lot in SoCal & the Bay area.

 

Just for the record, the bed can haul plenty of stuff. I have hauled LOADS of field stones (3 hour drive one way) on many occassions. Not ot mention wood, hay bales, corn stalks and 1/2 a cow. I've also hauled furniture (granted I couldn't close the lid, but it still made it to its intended destination, ever time).

 

There were a lot of reasons. Basically they missed their target. I understand just about that time extra-long putters became popular making the bag too long to fit in more than one, and then there was the incident of the big unveiling where the wheels set the grass on fire around the trucks. Their supplier for the fiberglass beds was unable to meet production deadlines and that created big problems. Then the non-removable tonneau meant you couldn't haul that new range or dryer home. But hey, it makes a GREAT tow vehicle.

It does have serious problems though. Bad tonneau modules, bad heater cores, bad spark plug threads, bad exhaust valve seats, bad torque converter clutches... the list goes on. It can be, not just an expensive truck to buy (at least originally) but expensive to own as well.

JB

 

Could you please elaborate on the "bad spark plug threads". Are they going to any easier to remove on my truck with low miles(23000)? I have one bad coil, #8, & it's corresponding spark plug.

 

To save a penny here and there some bright young engineer decided these heads could get by with only 4 threads in the spark plug holes. Not a real bright decision on an aluminum head to begin with, but then they had a robot that went out of spec on the assembly line and failed to correctly torque the spark plugs on an unknown number of engines. So in keeping with Ford's general philosophy, instead of letting the owners know so that they could properly torque their spark plugs, they kept quiet. What happened is pretty obvious, a rash of blown out spark plugs. The loose plug would rattle around in it's threads until there were no threads left. For you, with your low mileage truck, the smart thing to do would be to pull all of the coils and re-torque all of your plugs to make sure this doesn't happen to you. And then cross your fingers, because these heads also have a tendency to drop valve seats. It's a lot like the lottery. You might win, you might lose. There's just no way to know. But the driver's side head seems to be the one that causes all the trouble. I use anti-seize too and then tighten by feel to probably something around 50 inch pounds. (25 is recommended) Just cheap insurance.

JB

 

12,000 on my Blackie. Love the truck, just don't drive it much as I have 3 vehicles and two motorcycles. Keeps the mileage down on all 5. Put about 1000 miles a year on the Blackie, have yet to see problem # 1. When I bought my truck the dealer did not tell me that I had to buy the CD's for the nav. They wanted something like $1100 for the CD's, I told them kill the paperwork, I don't want the truck and so they ended up giving me the one CD that I needed for Ca. If I go out of state I am screwed, but have a Garmin, iPhone with GPS, iPad with GPS so don't really use the nav. anymore. Has anyone attempted to make the Blackwood ride better? I would like to lighten the springs, anyone have any ideas?

Blackalope

 

I did. Monroe shocks seem to be the softest, I swapped in F-150 shocks and that helped a lot. Then lowered the tire pressure to about 25-30 psi. That made a big difference in ride. Eventually the suspension loosened up a bit.

JB

 

Jim Blackwood said,
(It does have serious problems though. Bad tonneau modules, bad heater cores, bad spark plug threads, bad exhaust valve seats, bad torque converter clutches... the list goes on. It can be, not just an expensive truck to buy (at least originally) but expensive to own as well).
JB

Most vehicles will have some of these same problems, usually as their milage gets higher. Are you saying that these problems occur pre-maturely before they should?

 

That is exactly what I'm saying. Those particular problems that I pointed out and more are things that can be expected as the vehicle nears the end of it's useful life. For modern vehicles the drivetrain itself is commonly good for close to 200K miles or better, as is the chassis and coachwork. For all of those things to go bad halfway through the vehicle's useful life is a significant failure and indicates either improper planning, faulty engineering, or excessive attempts to cut costs. Here we have the latter two at the very least. To build a 200K mile vehicle and then fit it with a boatload of expensive components which have a useful life of only half that is poor engineering at best and could be construed as fraudulent at worst. The list of components on the Blackwood which have a 100K or less replacement interval is very long and expensive, so as I said, an expensive vehicle to own. But this appears to be commonplace within FoMoCo, therefore it should be factored into the initial cost of the vehicle, significantly increasing the overall cost of ownership as compared to other, better engineered vehicles of the same general type. Therefore when purchasing a Ford vehicle it would be prudent to require an offset in price to account for the expected future expenses. How much this offset should be would depend on the cost of replacing every component with a life expectancy less than that of the vehicle itself, except for brakes, tires and normal maintenance such as oil changes. With the Blackwood we are looking at thousands of dollars and when you add in the head failures, heater core replacement and such it can easily go over 5 figures. That's what I mean by expensive.

JB

 

So at this point, as my 2006 Mark LT is basically a new truck, even though it's technically out of warranty, the cost of an "Extended Warranty" is worth every penny (if I can find a dealer to sell me one).

The truck sat under a carport for the last couple years, had approximately 10000 miles on it when I got it a few weeks ago. Ride is stiff, interior still smells new, it gets horrible milage, but getting better (was averaging 11.5 when I took possession, dropped down to 10.6, has slowly crept up to 12.2 as of today - mostly highway miles).

Thinking about trading out the stereo for something different, it is about as stock as it gets. The truck I believe is a limited edition, came with factory 20" Lincoln wheels, Pirrelli Scorpions, sprayed in liner, not sure what else is special about it.

For the life of me, I cannot seem to find either fuse panel. In my old 99 F150 XLT, I've got an engine compartment fuse box, and a cab fuse panel. In the Mark, I can't find either. Can anyone tell me where it is?

 

My Blackwood has a little over 70k on it, and it has killed 2 tonneau modules so far (have the third to put in myself, got from Tasca with a 30% discount), and has a slow leak in the A/C that needs to recharged every year for the last 3. Put the Lubegard anti-chatter additive in the tranny for the shutter; its about time to change the fluid and maybe put in a Transgo Tugger shift kit and a Hytec tranny pan with an extra 8 quart capacity. It also brioke the blend door for the climate control setup, costing 350 for replacement. The Blackwood is not an economy truck in the city, 10-12 mpg, but mine gets 19-20 on the highway; mine has a lot of extras for that to happen, such as a Cherry bomb Vortex dual exhaust, MMR cold air intake, Granetelli MAF from a ford Lightning, and a Jet performance chip. I'm crazy enough to put up with it, and I agree it is an excellent tow vehicle. I never found the ride harsh, but then it is still based on a truck, so it is very good compared to most. The biggest contributors to the bad ride is the gawd awful Michelin tires it came with; fortunately mine has Pirelli Scorpion Zeros on it when I got it (used with 16k on it). Mine still gets a crowd around it at a cruise, and it is fun to dust off rice burners who think it is another slow truck.