Hi. The lease is up on my 99 SC 4.2L, and I'm thinking about buying a '02 4.6L to replace it. Having been on this board for a long time now, I've seen most of the common aggravations described in great detail. For those of you with an '01/'02 (especially those who also had older models), do most of these seem to be resolved now? I'm particularly concerned with the problem alot of people seem to have had with pinging, but I'd be interested in your take on the newer 4.6L engines as a whole.

Thanks.

 

People w/ pinging on this board is about 1/10 % of the Ford 4.6L buyers out thier. I have never heard of any 4.6L pinging besides a few in here.

 

I'm of the belief that much of the pinging was due to K&N filter oil fouling the MAF sensor.

 

Mine pings....I have cleaned the MAF, still pings....I am trying to figure it out by trying different things...

 

I have 4.6L in a Ford Crown Victoria with 150,000mi. It was pinging on regular gas. Ran two tanks of Gas with a can of Techron in it per the instructions. Car does not ping now on regular gas. I was amazed!

Before I tried this stuff I had tried all the stuff on the shelf at Wal Mart, nothing worked.

 

Thanks for the replies, guys. Kind of a moot point now though. I went and test drove an '02 yesterday, and decided against it for two reasons:1) I could tell very little difference in performance between that 4.6 and my 4.2, and 2) I couldn't stand the new seats. I've always thought my '99 seats were too soft, but they went the complete other way on these new ones. Hard as a rock and my back couldn't take it. Plus the hard plastic on the backs reduced rear seat knee room, and the center console seems to have shrunk. Oh well. I guess the beancounters won this year.

 

No idea about your stats, but there seems to be a lot more than a few of us with issues with pinging on here. The '97's and 98's seem to have a problem with it fairly constantly (a whole lot more than 1/10th of a percent!) Seems lately like more and more 99's and 00's have reported issues with pinging aswell lately. Last week someone on here was asking about an '02 that was pinging lightly. I've got friends with new Dodges and Chevy's with the same problem, so I'd doubt the issue is over. Seems to be somewhat of a common issue with the domestics...

 

hot42,

I will have to agree, the 4.2 vs. 4.6. There isn't much difference.....until you load it up or start to pull something (including the average hill unloaded). A 4.6 can do more work than a 4.2. I warned a co-worker about this when he was gonna buy a chevy 4.3. He said it had enough power for him. Now he is wishing he would've listened to me.

As for the seats, I didn't know they had changed them. Try one with lumbar adjustment. Or, go sit in a Dodge. After a few miles in one of those you'll be thinking that a Ford seat is the most comfortable thing in the world.

And last, but not least...pinging. My '97 4.6 just started to have a slight ping while pulling hills. The average person wouldn't even hear it, but I know because it's something new for my truck. My '97 has 100k miles.

Good luck truck hunting.