82fordtruck said:
He has it in a half ton. That's a pretty good engine for a half ton. It's underpowered for pulling a trailer in a bigger truck, but good for a 3/4 ton or 1 ton that just needs the load capacity. It's real nice with that zf5 behind it though.
I don't disagree with you on the 300-6. Is a pretty good engine, not a power house, not great mileage etc. so it doesn't really fit into my needs. I either need mileage (daily driver) or power (working truck) and the 300-6 doesn't fit either bill, but then really what full size truck does get great mileage. Having owned Chevy's up to now, I have just not had these types of problems. They weren't diesel either though. I guess from that standpoint, I never looked at firewall etc. before buying because I was not a Ford owner and it just didn't come to mind, kind of one of those things learned.
My father worked directly with Ford for years. He had clearance into many test areas that most of us don't even know exist as he was a QC manager for a company that supplied about all of their dashes, front ends etc. and found the QC process in place by Ford to be one of the best, although mis-understood by even many of their engineers. That being said, he has owned two Fords in his 35 year tenure there both were used cars and purchased as "good deals". If you look at many of the parts in our Sable, they are cracked and such and even though the company my dad worked for told Ford what they wanted wouldn't work, Ford insisted things be made a certain way, so they made them as spec'ed.
At any rate, I have had 4 GM Vehicles that were sold with over 300,000 miles on them with no major problems. The worst being my 1983 Celebrity which stripped the nylon timing gear at over 200,000. None them were babied, but all were well maintained. My hopes with this truck was that with a little TLC, it could be nursed back to a useful product and I think I am well on my way. I just didn't think that in the end, getting the clutch problems fixed would be a major part of the budget (firewall kit, master and slave cylinder, pedal bracket etc. etc. etc.). Having owned many GM and even a Dodge truck up including up to tandem axle trucks, I have never had to fix a firewall and pedal bracket in anything but a Ford. Yes, there have been other repairs, but nothing so brand specific such as this. At any rate, my truck is up and running, is much better with the current axle configuration etc. and at a point that someone shows me the right amount of cash, I will continue to drive it and use it as planned!
