Ok Yall, I have a Ford f150 xlt 4.2 L. It's got 146,000 miles on it. I've reading a lot of stories on here about people haveing problems with them. So far i've only had to change the sparkplugs and wires and fuel filter. I've had very much good luck with it. Is all these horror stories on all 97 f150"s? I've read on some that before 100'000 miles some have already gotten new motors in them. I am starting to have the antifreeze disapearing, i can smell antifreeze i usually loose a little over a quart every 2 weeks and theres no leaks anywere so i dont know were it is going. Then i have been reading about all these haveing gasket problems and there block busting. This scares the crap out of me reading all this. Like i said does this stuff happen on all the 97's? Thank's yall

 

No reason to be paranoid. It seems you have done excellent with the life of your motor. You might be experiencing a heater core leak that is causing your anti freeze to slowly disappear.

As far as problems with the 5.4, there have been some issues and people have had some minor problems to major problems, but that has happened to other car makes also. Enjoy your truck and keep taking care of it the way you have. If you have a problem, you have definitely gotten a decent value out of your engine.

 

There is a good chance it's the water pump sometimes the heat from motor burns it off the anti-freeze dripping from a small leak. With that many miles it would not a abnormal to replace that part.

 

I have a 99 F150 and a decent amount of miles on it with no complaints, but i have friends that have had theirs a quarter the time that I have had and have had several problems. I guess its the luck of the draw with some of these trucks

 

Check the V-6 Forum. There are a ton of people in the same boat.
To my knowledge the two main things to look out for are the timing chain cover gaskets and the lower intake manifold gaskets. Both leak coolant into the motor and will do major damage. Check with AjRagno and JnBmx. They know quite a bit about the V-6

 

I had the same problem with my wifes 98 monte carlo.It was obviously leaking coolant and had to fill it back up weekly.I could not find a leak for the life of me.I decided to add some stop-leak stuff to it to stop it from leaking cause it was p*ssing me off.About a week later I came home and there was coolant under her car.I popped the hood and it turns out there are "weep holes" in the water pump below the pulley and I think the coolant was leaking out so slowly that it was dissapating.Anyways,look at the water pump and feel directly below the pulley to see if you can detect and antifreeze.I replaced the water pump and it is no longer leaking.Hope this helps.