Hi I'm looking at up grading to a 1997 F150 4200cc V6 whats your take/opion on those?

 

Going to a 1997 is not an upgrade (not by a long shot).
Can't say much more than that - don't want to offend anyone.

 

The 1997 and early 1998 4.2's had bad gaskets and hydrolocking issues. You also will have a difficult time with the electronics, your PCM and wiring harness are not compatible.

NOT recommended. You would have a much easier time with a 5.0 V8 swap.

 

Thanks guys, there a 1997 here in nz that's been converted to rhd but on that note may persist with the old girl lol

 

Oh - you are considering a whole TRUCK? It sounded like you wanted to put the V6 engine in your 89.

The truck is a great truck, but the engine does have the gasket issues - be prepared to replace the upper and lower intake gaskets and front cover gasket.

 

Not to take anything away from anybody who owns a 97 but.. my brother in law bought a 2002 which is pretty much the same truck about 8 years ago. It has some nice things about it, but I never liked it compared to a 95, and after owning it for 8 years, he doesn't have much of anything good to say about it.
Personal opinion, you might be a lot further ahead just putting the money into the older one. And you already know what it does and doesn't need.

 

Hi Guys well its been a while I parked the old girl up while I concentrated on other projects and ordered a new temp sensor from rock auto, the other issue I was having was the engine management light was coming on and I tracked it down to low oil pressure reading, which is purley the guage as ive now put a manual guage and its reads 50pis all day long!running the sender light wire to ground stops the engine light coming on. with a 180 thermostat in it cant seem to get it to run above 160 with a test gauge in the rad, I'm gonna giv it a run to a swap meet tomorrow so see how the fuel millage goes now cheers Barry.

 

180 is too cold - you need a 195, which is OEM spec. That's a big reason for poor gas mileage.

 

Hi there ye after posting that realised I had a 190 on the wall so popped that in and does seem marginally better,still the temp gauge is only 1/4 way up and with manual gauge in radiator reads about 165-170 which I tend to believe that more that the gauge in the dash so maybe muff the radiator next?

 

Hi guys, decided to replace the ex/intake manifold gaskets the other day as I was hearing some chuff chuff noise, there are no ex gasket on a efi engine I see but think I have found my stumble/idle roll problem the lug off no6 intake was broken right off opening up to the intake runner! as theres limited parts for these here am having it repaired,so while its off having injectors checked and serviced.
found the temp gauge sender easy while intakes off so replaced that now and checked operation off gauge seems fine, got a 195deg t/stat to put in now and replacing rad hoses etc so s how all that goes when I get I back together.