My F150 finally died :(

[lego1970]

My 13 year old F150 finally died on me He has been a great truck and dear friend of mine (I know it's wierd, but my truck is a guy). I had to tow a car to St. Louis (250 miles away) when the truck started making a slight ticking noise off the pasenger side head. It made it to St. Louis and back with no problems and still got good fuel mileage. Then this morning I decided to try and figure out what it was. As the truck sat idling for 10 minutes while I poked around it all of a sudden died .
I didn't bother trying to re-start it as I knew he was tired and just wanted to rest. I will take him to the Doctor tomorrow.

I will give an update on his condition when I find out more.

[MICRider]

Yikes, hopefully it's nothing serious! Though, ticks are a lot better than loud knocks so it might not be too big of a deal to fix. Hoping not anyway.

Cheers,
Stew

[lego1970]

Thanks MICRider,
I feel fairly confident that it will be something minor but at 13 years old, 150,000 miles of some pretty heavy hauls, I wouldn't be surprised nor dissapointed if it's something serious. It doesn't use any oil so the rings should be good and the oil pressure has always been good so I don't think the bearings have any abnormal wear. My guess is it's something in either the valve train, or something that age would be more a factor, like exhaust manifold crack or gasket failure.....maybe a sensor? Who knows. Thanks for your support.

[Jim]

Hopefully it turns out to be nothing major

[SpudRider]

Originally Posted by Jim

Hopefully it turns out to be nothing major

X2!

Spud

[lego1970]

I guess it was something simple


They said the return line on the oil cooler was collasped causing the engine not to get enough oil. They also said they didn't think the engine
suffered much since the ticking was "faint" and since I got it in soon. What they didn't explain is why the engine shut down, and why the oil pressure guage was reading normal. Oh well, I don't care as long as my buddy is feeling better.

[MICRider]

Good news! Love it when it's something simple

Cheers,
Stew

[FastDoc]

Great news! Sounds like a good mechanic too. It's good you paid attention to your old friend. I like Ford trucks.

[Weldangrind]

Glad to hear that your buddy is ok.

I'm concerned about the oil cooler line collapsing; did they show it to you? What did they do about it? By the nineties, Ford was using excellent quality lines and fittings, so I'm quite surprised to hear that one would collapse. It makes me wonder if the cooler bypass valve is suspect.

There's usually a bypass valve inline with a factory cooler, so that oil isn't forced through the cooler in very cold weather (or if it's plugged). Maybe the valve didn't open when it should have, and maybe it was blocked. The collapsed hose makes me think that it cavitated under suction.

I'm no expert, but I love working on trucks. Which motor do you have?

[lego1970]

/\/\ It's a 98 F150 with the 4.6. No they didn't show me and I should clarify that it was the service writer, not the mechanic that told me this. Eitherway it's not ticking now, so that's good. I went out and looked at the truck and from what I could see, the line they replaced actually goes to the remote filter, not an oil cooler, which while that wouldn't fit in thier description of coming from an oil cooler (which I don't even know if this truck has one) and or collasping, it would make some sense because that line sits pretty low and I'm always running over limbs and branches that stick up and scrap along the bottom of the truck when I'm doing tree work. Or, maybe they did replace another line that I just couldn't see. When it's daylight I'll try to take a better look so we will know for future reference.

Thanks for everybody's words of support. Only fellow gear heads would understand

[lego1970]

I was out having a beer with my neighbor and we got to looking at it with a light. It does have an oil cooler on it and it does have a new line coming from it, so I guess that what it was.....knock on wood. Maybe they just replaced the other line to the oil filter as precaution.

[Weldangrind]

I'm glad to hear that you have the 4.6. My buddy has the 4.2 six, and the intake and timing cover gaskets leaked and caused a milkshake in the oil pan. He caught his right away, and I installed the Ford gaskets that were noted on the TSB; worked like a charm.

Is the 4.6 truck motor a mod like the car version?

[lego1970]

Modular? Yes I believe that's what they call it. It's a clean little motor that gets decent fuel milage (mine gets 17.5 to 18.3 actual mpg at 55mph, 15 to 16mpg at 65mph and 12.5 to 14.5 in city). While the numbers say otherwise (292lbs versus 265lbs of torque), it doesn't seem to have the torque as the old 4.9l inline 6 with similiar tires and gearing but otherwise a good motor that has served me well. I'm guessing that has to do with where the peak numbers are on the RPM band.

[Weldangrind]

It might have something to do with the rear gear ratio. If you have a four speed auto, you might be able to gear it a little lower and still be in the 2500 rpm range on the highway at 60mph. A little higher engine speed might make your torque converter (if equipped) remain locked, rather than locking / unlocking, which hurts economy. They performed a gear change on Extreme 4x4 and observed those very results.

Also, I once drove a Montana mini van (through the State of Montana) and cruised at 75mph, vs 65mph in Canada. I actually used less fuel at a higher speed, likely due to finding the engine's sweet spot that I had never observed in the past (I don't stray from the speed limit).

A buddy of mine once had a deeper set of rear gears installed in an Astro for hauling a trailer, and I recalibrated the speedo for him using a Hypertech Power Programmer. Very simple. While at it, I was also able to firm the shifts.