P.S. the s6 4.9 was indeed a truck motor when trucks were trucks ! Not talking about peple on this site but there are aslot more people these days who buy trucks, not to haul,not to tow ,but just to feel tough and those are the guys you see drivin toyotas or even hemi dodges , how much weight do you really think the average teuck owner tows ? Not any where close to what me and many of you do ,thus was the down fall of the touqe rich horse power poor 4.9 oh how i wishshe would come back.

 

This thread has been around so long I don't know if what I'm going to say has been said, and I don't feel like reading 6 pages of posts -

The basic design of the 4.9 was a low tech pushrod long stroke engine - tons of torque and not much real horsepower. Just about ideal for a TRUCK. However, increasingly strict emissions and fuel economy regulations finally made it economically unfeasible to continue offering it. It would have required a major redesign, and Ford found that it was a lot easier to update the Essex V6. I also think that the major 97 body redesign made it difficult to fit such a long tall engine under the hood.

Hindsight shows that once the gasket issues were fixed on the V6, it was a solid reliable engine. It had adequate torque, a lot more horsepower than the 4.9, and got better gas mileage. Now that Ford has found a way to get the same mileage out of the 4.6, the V6 has been retired to stationary engine duty - just like the 4.9 was 12 years ago. The economy dictates that auto/truck makers consolidate as much as possible, and now all gas Ford truck engines are based on essentially the same tooling.

 

Ford of Australia makes a nice inline 6. IIRC it's DOHC. Could compete with the BMW inline 6 motors.

My thought: since Ford controls Mazda, make a stretch Miata with the inline 6. Too bad they sold Jag, they could have sold it as the Jag XK-G.

 

I had a '93 f150 XL ext cab with 5 spd maunal. I loved that truck and with 190K miles on my straight-6, could still pull a 2 horse trailer with minimal issue. Yes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Bring it back!

 

sorry to bring up a dead thread......yet again
but i just wanted to mention that this past saturday my truck (93 F150 2wd with a 300 straight 6 4 spd auto) and trailer weighed in at just over 9,100 lbs at the local dump when i turned in the rubble from my bathroom remodel im doing. truck pulled with no problem. i bought the truck 2 years ago. driven it in 2 detroit winters, NEVER gotten stuck in deep snow, all ive had to do is a water pump and regular maint. truck is ugly as all hell, but it keeps going even at 198k miles. bring back the 300 straight 6

p.s. i grew up a chevy man, was always tought that ford was crap. i bought the f150 cause it was cheap. now i want to get more fords, gotta love a dinosaur of an engine that changes peopels mind about an entire company after YEARS of "brain wash" lol

 

I have a 1985 f150 with the 6 banger. Love it!!! But i was to that upon oil change, to give it 7 quarts!!! Is this true? I gave it 5. I'm pretty sure he was wrong.

 

Chevy brought back the I6 in the trailblazers as a cost saving measure. With dual ohc engines, it is cheaper to machine/manufacture one head than two for the V6.

Besides, the straight 6 is dynamically balanced better than any other configuration except for the V12 which is 2 6cyls.

 

that's what I've always heard.

one of the reasons BMW has liked it as an engine arrangement for so many years

 

Sorry, but I had an 86 with a straight 6 at one time and it couldn't pull a trailer with any real weight. I never had to double clutch a vehicle so much as that one with any load. I figured it wasn't meant to tow and it was the six I used. We used a Buick V6 w/ T350 in a little Totota pickup for a trasher on the farm once, that would put that Ford to shame. There's nothing like the Ford 5.4 V8's and Powerstrokes of course, -or IMO anyway.

No, leave that Sissy Inline down under.

 

the 300 had it's time in the sun, now it's time to move on...

 

This is like the argument about they never should have dropped the 302 351 windsors. Lots of hot rodder ford guys are pissed because chevy kept the push rod motor and they feel had ford kept and improved that design they would now own the hot rod market instead of chevy. The I6 300 is a good design bu so is the 4.2 design it actually goes back to the early 60's. Ford is said to have replicated the buick V6 to create the 3.8 engine. I've had one and other then the bad head gaskets the one I had went though it was pretty good.
Ford comes out with new engines every once in a while unlike other companys and they are cutting edge. Good and bad with that. I do think it time for a new 6 cylinder alltogether. The 4.2 is dated and the I6 is history.

 

Ford should no doubt bring it back the 4.2 is a joke compared to the 4.9 if you ran the 4.2 with no oil it would break in like 30 seconds the 4.9 would probably run for a day. Also i know off topuc but another great engine as you can tell by my name the 3800k made by chevy also nicknamed "bulletproof" its the same thing as the 4.9 runs forever i had a ford f150 with the l6 that sat for 5 years without having power or nothing put just a gallon if gas and a starter and vroom off i went. Then i had to give it back to mom and tried to look for another with no look and then found the 3800k made by chevy and damn my transmission with 60k miles broke before the engine of 350k miles like what is wrong with that picture nothing beats the manufacturing back in the day.

 

I'd buy one.