4.2L in the 06 F150?

[GT40 2]

Is this engine any good? or is it a piece of junk?

[YT90SC]

It is a decent engine, fairly reliable since most of the bugs were worked out early on. It is based onthe 3.8l Essex engine, so it is still somewhat more prone to problems than the 4.6. It is a good base engine, and certainly not junk, but I'd step up to the 4.6. Not much if any loss of mileage in normal driving. More power and torque. Better resale.

[J-150]

stay away like it has the plague.

 

The new F150s are so much heavier that this engine will be working harder and probably as much if not more fuel than the 4.6

[kevinb120]

Agreed, the 4.6 is about the same in mileage. We only keep about 2 V6's out of 200+ F150s. Mostly for the print ads :D

[GT40 2]

It looks like my dad is going to get the V8 4x4 insted of the V6 2x4.

[iteched]

It looks like my dad is going to get the V8 4x4 insted of the V6 2x4.

 

 

I would also recommend the V-8 as the current F-150s are heavy. I would only consider the V-6 in a single cab configuration.

 

I own a 1998 F-150 with the 4.2 and now have over 120,000 miles on it.

 

Its never been in the shop - ever.

 

I've pulled many heavy trailers (for this truck...app 4000 to 6000 pounds) including a recent move where I used a combination of 16' utility trailers and the big u-haul trailers. No problems, ever.

 

So I can't say anything bad about the engine in my truck...its met my needs very nicely. I get about 19 MPG on the highway.

 

However, as stated, my 1998 F-150 XL supercab is much lighter than a comparable new model.

 

Ed.

[old_fairmont_wagon]

Adding in my 2 cents: I had a 99 XLT short bed supercab 4.2L 4X2 with the 3.31 rear end. It was fine for getting around town, and did well on the highway as well. It moved the truck well enough when the bed was loaded out to its maximum rated capacity (and then some) and never appeared to be insufficient for the taks at hand. That being said, it never did return good fuel economy for me. On the highway, I would barely get 20 mpg (at mostly 80). In the city, it averaged 15.4 mpg for the first year and a half that I had it (excluding the first 3000 miles). After it hit 27K miles, I put a K&N air filter in it and cleaned the injectors. It averaged 15.9 mpg in the city running mostly unloaded.

 

The 4.2L seems to be only available in the regular cab short beds. That combo weighs a little more than my supercab used to. Since my truck was made, the fueling system for the 4.2L was changed to a more updated returnless system. That supposedly increased power and efficiency a little. I would expect that that would result in it giving similar results to what I saw.

 

My father in law has a 97 4.6L Lariat Supercab short bed. He gets the same mpg that I did in the 4.2L. Do yourself a favor, get the 4.6L instead. The extra power will be worth it when needed, and it isn't costing you more gas.