The 4.9L can tow!

[Sevensecondsuv]

I picked up the "other" 1990 ranger from my parents back yard today. It has an oil pressure-less 2.9L, but otherwise is just fine. I recently picked up a good 2.9L with bad lifters, so combining the two engines into one good engine is going to be my winter project.

Anyways, I used my 1989 F-150 to go get it. It is a 2wd, 4.9L EFI, 3.08 rear gears and T18 granny 4-spd. The trailer weighs about 1500 lbs and the ranger is about 3500 without all the crap in the bed. So the trailer was 5000+. This is the most I've ever towed with this truck since I picked it up a couple months ago.

It was no where near its limit with the 5000 lbs. It walked up the hills at 60mph like there was nothing behind it. Every day that goes by I get more impressed with the old cast iron six in a row. These 4.9s are just incredible!

Here it is:


The greasy, leaky, ticker itself:


Also had a spare 2.3 in the bed, destined for the scrapper (got some sand in it while it was sitting open in the garage )


And here's one of the old exploder. 181000 and still DD

 

[Andres629]

Wow, good truck for sure! I had a 94 F-150 4x4 with a 5.0 and E5OD. Towed a trailer and an Explorer for 20 hours through mountains. That ol' truck did pretty good, considering! Sucked back the fuel like no ones business, but got the job done!

 

[BRUTUS_T_HOG]

300 I6's were built to tow. older f-series came standard with sixes

and you probably don't need to scrap that 2.3l just blow out/vacuum the cylinders and intake. i doubt the crank has been turned since it was pulled.

and even if you don't want it- consider giving it away to somebody that can use it

 

[Sevensecondsuv]

No I had the oil pan off and the crank out with the block up side down when my mom lifted a sandy tarp over it. That engine doesn't even have pistons in it. It is the turbo block that I stole the forged pistons from when I built my turbo ranger.

 

[BRUTUS_T_HOG]

hmm i still say the sand can be cleaned out. might be a useable core for somebody. im just sayin better to recycle a block that's not in production anymore rather than recyling the metal itself

 

[Sevensecondsuv]

Yeah, that's true, especially since it's a turbo block.

 

[BRUTUS_T_HOG]

yeah i've felt this way ever since taking a load of REAL scrap to the scrap yard and seeing tweakers bring in NICE old trucks that had TONS of life left to them whether they be parted out or just being restored. thus making those irreplaceable parts HARDER to find and more expensive. it just pisses me off to see such a waste of something that can't be replaced.

ANY vehicle that gets taken to the scrap yard has irreplacealbe parts on it that can be used.

but your block can be easily cleaned out even if it was burried in sand. just as long as moving parts were not scraped across eachother there is no damage done.

you could probably sell that turbo block to someone willing to clean it and put their own forged crank/rods/pistons in.