i'm looking into getting a f250 or f350 for towing and pulling. i need a nice heavy duty truck. i do lots of hauling of firewood, and mulch stone, etc. i was wondering if anyone could give there opinions between the 5.4l, 5.8l, and the 460 engines that these trucks carry. what id the advantages, disadvantages. i know the 7.3l des. would be the best, but the trucks i used sit for periods of time, and i know that is not good for a des. truck. any help would be great.

thanks

460's are really cheap because of the lower mileage. although 93 and later has selective cylinder shutoff and can get 20 mpg highway with no load. 5.4's are all fuel injected and are fully capable. They are the most fuel efficient choice. As a fully computer driven engine, you can do a little maintenance based on reading the codes, but there will be times it has to go to the Ford dealer for a session with the diagnosis machine. 5.8's come in both fuel injected and carburated versions, f.i. is better for stop and go city traffic or idleing a lot with the radio and A/C on. 5.8's are not very fuel efficient light, due to the low ration of valve to cylinder stoke, but are probably better then 460's. Older 5.8's with carburators can be repaired with a vacuum gage, a timing light, and a multimeter, but will require a lot of clean up of the vacuum hose systems and emmision control valves (often stuck) between 120000 and 200000 miles to maintain performance. 7.3's are pretty capable and pretty fuel efficient, but by this time most of what is available has been beat to death by users and needs a complete overhaul. As the engine overhaul industry is almost 95% smoke and mirrors (Jaspers and Fomoco's are okay to my knowledge) I don't recommend any overhaul I didn't do. The last overhaul I commissioned, I specified the work to be done, and caught the guy cold putting cheaper parts in than I had paid for. He still got me, "replaceing" a cracked block, with "another" that cracked again within 1500 miles. Letting diesels sit is no worse than anything else, but you need a really good fuel filter to catch the water, probably better than OEM. My brother with 7.3's runs truck stop fuel only because he says he has trouble with water in the fuel anywhere else. I use local fuel, but have a 1 qt fuel filter on my Mercedes diesels and my diesel tractors, with a drain on the bottom, that I drain the water out monthly in the summer, and weekly in the winter. Ford 6.0diesels are pretty cheap, possibly because the top ends allegedly wear out. The last Ryder Ford I rented had a 6 cylinder diesel, ran fine for me, got 15 mpg in a 350 cube van, then was not available for rent 2 weeks later because "it had water dribbling out the exhaust pipe".

This post has been edited by Indianajo: Jan 25 2010, 04:16 PM