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Back in the 60's I wouldn't have anything but a Chevy because of the way those small blocks and big blocks ran. They ruled the highways. But now, I have a phobia about GM vehicles. The Ford's I have owned over the years have been very noticeably more reliable, especially the engines.
The old school Chevy engines like the 283...327 and the 350's were pretty dependable back in the day.
Ford's 289...302 and the 351's were OK also
Chrysler 318's and the 383's did pretty good too.
The most abuse I ever put an engine through was a 389 Pontiac tri-power I had in a '66 GTO...I ran the crap out of that car and it held up great except for a few clutches!
1966 GTO I had, this picture taken around 1968. I ordered this car with Tri-power, close ratio 4 speed and 3.90 LS rear. I had air shock's aired up in this photo. Shown with Crager S/S wheels.
About 1980, I bought a used 72 Pontiac Granville 455 cu in from an estate sale. It looked great and only had about 50k miles on it. Rod started knocking about 3k miles later. Lesson learned was that many old men are too lazy to service their own cars and are too cheap to pay someone else to do it. The engine had some sludge in it and if he had changed the oil on schedule it wouldn't have had any sludge in it.
Thats one of the reasons for less serviceable parts on modern cars too i'm sure. Plus the ease of changing a whole unit out ( wheel bearing assembly for example ).
I always loved how GM engines ran, but felt safer and more reliable in a Ford. I love the aggressive LS1 in my Trans Am, but would never trust a 5.3L of the gen 3 GM small block LS series to the Triton series Ford engines.
Ford, Chevy, Dodge, GMC....Toyota.... I don't think it really matters what make or model it is, they all have problems sometime or another. I grew up in a family of die hard Ford fans, thanks to a racing addicted family. Slowly but surely over the years everyone switched to Chevys, and left me as the sole Ford owner, and I was like WTF MATE? DID I MISS THE MEMO? Well...then they came back to Fords...then back to Chevys...1 now has a GMC, 1 has a Chevy. And I went from Chevy back to Ford. Now mind you, the Chevys I drove were and Impala and an Uplander. I hate those 2 vehicles. Because of them, I will honestly say never again will I own anything other than a Ford, no matter what the other side of the fence about how crappy my Ford is. However, 1 friend of mine has a Dodge and loves it, another owns a Tundra and is so happy for himself and his truck. Good for them. Im happy they are happy. And I am happy with mine.
Isnt that what really matters? Just be happy with what you got or go get something else. Right?
08-19-2016, 02:09 PM
