Thinking about getting a Tacoma...

[Eddie_Shack]

How long do you keep your vehicles? Those plugs will last a couple hundred thousand miles. There's a chance you'll trade/sell it before they need changing.

My current vehicle is an '01 Olds with 155,000 on it, bought it in '03 with 33K... I plan on keeping my next car for a good ten years.

 

[Eddie_Shack]

If you but a Toyota, and they are chasing you in a Ford/Chevy/Dodge, they will break down before they ever catch you.

Oh that's right, I forgot about the whole "unintended acceleration" thing... pretty tough to catch something that is physically unable to stop.

 

[Forty_Sixand2]

not one comment on my awesome video

seriously, fuck you guys

 

[Eddie_Shack]

If you want a diesel (which you say you don't since it is 1/2 ton) go with Dodge. If you want anything else, go with Ford. The foreign ones all look nice (except the damn Honda one), but a foreign truck to me is like a domestic car. Ain't gonna happen.

Personally I hate Chevy. I have caught grief from my friends that swear by their Chevy's, but they don't hold up. Even if you get an F150 v-6 ecoboost, it will pull almost anything you need unless you are doing heavy construction. gas mileage will be good, and the v-6's last for freaking ever. The transmissions are good, the suspension will hold up, and if you get used you will save a lot because they will hold up. 4x4 is a little more sketchy because you never know what some kid might have tried to do with a stock 4x4, but a few quick checks will find slide marks under the kick panels and on the diffs.

So I'm obviously pro-Ford. Dodge makes a good diesel(made by ford). The Chevy duramax is a piece of crap. It's fast, but who drags a diesel. I want one that will last. Dodge Ram used to have suspension issues, they would start to sag real bad. That was 8-9 years ago so they might have fixed it. I know you can typically get a real good deal on a crew cab, 6' bed on the F150s. My dad and brother bought new ones last year and got great deals.

A guy named "Fordman" trying to get me to buy a Ford? Seems legit...

I have owned two Ford Escapes, and we couldn't be happier. The drive train on those things is indestructable. My wife totalled out our first one with almost 200,000 miles on it and if you didn't know any better, you would think it was brand new. Ran like a champ. So I have no problem with a Ford.

Just out of curiosity, how hard is it to find a 4x4 F150 with a V-6?

Also, maybe this is for another thread, but why the hell don't they make a half ton diesel? I'm far from an expert, but it seems they could drop a decent sized (3.8L or so) diesel into a four wheel drive half ton, and it would perform just as well if not better than a V-8, plus get 30+ MPG. Why has this not happened yet?

 

[Eddie_Shack]

not one comment on my awesome video

seriously, fuck you guys

There were multiple, you fucking nerd!

 

[Forty_Sixand2]

There were....I honestly didn't read the thread.

 

[Forty_Sixand2]

I'm going to buy it, and then go peeling through a muddy construction site, demanding that the crane operator drop a pile of cinder blocks the size of a house into the bed of my truck.

I like that step! Didn't realize they had one of those - would be quite useful when piling dirty whores into the back of my truck to take home.

A guy named "Fordman" trying to get me to buy a Ford? Seems legit...

I have owned two Ford Escapes, and we couldn't be happier. The drive train on those things is indestructable. My wife totalled out our first one with almost 200,000 miles on it and if you didn't know any better, you would think it was brand new. Ran like a champ. So I have no problem with a Ford.

Just out of curiosity, how hard is it to find a 4x4 F150 with a V-6?

Also, maybe this is for another thread, but why the hell don't they make a half ton diesel? I'm far from an expert, but it seems they could drop a decent sized (3.8L or so) diesel into a four wheel drive half ton, and it would perform just as well if not better than a V-8, plus get 30+ MPG. Why has this not happened yet?

There were multiple, you fucking nerd!

Indeed......

I am

 

[NE1tm2nv]

I also don't like the idea of a 2004-2008 Ford, and having to buy an extractor tool just to change a damn spark plug.

^^^This and the IWE system for the 4 wheel drive actuation sucks balls. It's designed to fail.
What happens with this system is when the vacuum is released it engage's the front hub's. Their is a diaphragm on the actuators, when vacuum is applied the hub's are pulled back off the splines or disengaged. Short story, these actuators engage and disengage everytime you start and stop your engine. That's a lot of needless movement, and the diaphragm will fail.
The cost to replace 1 actuator is $230-$250 w/part depending on who does it for you. Cost of the actuator only is $125. It will fail at some point, guaranteed.

 

[Eddie_Shack]

^^^This and the IWE system for the 4 wheel drive actuation sucks balls. It's designed to fail.
What happens with this system is when the vacuum is released it engage's the front hub's. Their is a diaphragm on the actuators, when vacuum is applied the hub's are pulled back off the splines or disengaged. Short story, these actuators engage and disengage everytime you start and stop your engine. That's a lot of needless movement, and the diaphragm will fail.
The cost to replace 1 actuator is $230-$250 w/part depending on who does it for you. Cost of the actuator only is $125. It will fail at some point, guaranteed.

Is it a difficult job, does it require special tools? Also, is this on all Ford 4x4s, or just certain years? Would this effect my '01 Escape?

 

[OregonDucks]

I was just thinking the other day why the heck Jeep didn't make a truck, then I see page 2 of this thread. Those things look bad ass. Shows the interest in Jeep Wranglers, and why they hold their value so much...People can do all sorts of fun things with them, also doesn't matter if you have a 93 Wrangler or a 08 wrangler, parts are all the same and you can basically rebuild it all.

 

[fordman84]

I was just thinking the other day why the heck Jeep didn't make a truck, then I see page 2 of this thread. Those things look bad ass. Shows the interest in Jeep Wranglers, and why they hold their value so much...People can do all sorts of fun things with them, also doesn't matter if you have a 93 Wrangler or a 08 wrangler, parts are all the same and you can basically rebuild it all.

Because as cool as they look, they don't sell that well. The Scrambler is highly sought after now, but I don't think it sold well in the showroom.

 

[OregonDucks]

Because as cool as they look, they don't sell that well. The Scrambler is highly sought after now, but I don't think it sold well in the showroom.

They hold their value real well...A couple years ago I was looking into buying a Wrangler. Was shocked seeing '95's with 200k + miles going for $8,000 +

 

[fordman84]

This would have been true between the years '03 to '07, when the 6.0 was being put in Fords.
But the New 6.7 Powerstroke Scorpion kicks all of their asses, and it's not even close. 400 hp @ 2800 rpm and 800 lb-ft torque @ 1600 rpm.
This will be my next diesel without a doubt. And it's all Ford engineered, no more International.

I'm never an early adopter. I'm going to need to see how that lighter aluminum setup holds up. The Powerstroke is bulletproof and weighs as much as a typical car, but will last forever. the new ford uses the same tech as the old GM duramax if I remember correctly, and the duramax was total garbage. Still can't go wrong with the tried and true 24V Cummins.

 

[fordman84]

A guy named "Fordman" trying to get me to buy a Ford? Seems legit...

I have owned two Ford Escapes, and we couldn't be happier. The drive train on those things is indestructable. My wife totalled out our first one with almost 200,000 miles on it and if you didn't know any better, you would think it was brand new. Ran like a champ. So I have no problem with a Ford.

Just out of curiosity, how hard is it to find a 4x4 F150 with a V-6?

Also, maybe this is for another thread, but why the hell don't they make a half ton diesel? I'm far from an expert, but it seems they could drop a decent sized (3.8L or so) diesel into a four wheel drive half ton, and it would perform just as well if not better than a V-8, plus get 30+ MPG. Why has this not happened yet?

4x4 v-6 F150 might be tough actually to find. I know they made V6 4x4 explorers for a while, but not sure about F150.

As for the small diesel in a half ton, good question. Now that they have these more powerful diesels that are much smaller, you might just see one soon. There are guys that do it themselves though. I've seen it all, from a buddy that used to work for a diesel performance shop. One of the things his shop was known for was taking a reg cab, long bed F150 diesel 250 and cutting the bed down. People were using them for rock crawling. Lots of weight, lots of torque, short wheel base...more money than sense.

One day I got a call to come see what he had int he shop. This was in 2002-2003-2004 timeframe. A guy had bought two trucks, a 2500 Dodge and an F250. Both brand new right off the lot. Brought them into his shop and was having the engines swapped. The guy wanted an F250, but wanted the 24V Cummins. So he spent the stupid amount of money to do so. I'm guessing he turned around and got a good chunk of his money back by selling a 2500 with a powerstroke. Not sure if it was enough back to make that route cheaper than just buying a kit 24V. Rednecks...whatcha gonna do?

 

[hunzworth]

4x4 v-6 F150 might be tough actually to find. I know they made V6 4x4 explorers for a while, but not sure about F150.

I know the V6 was pretty common in F150's at least into the early 2000's not sure if they put them in many neweer trucks or not. The new 6 cylinder is supposed to be a beast but i've not driven one.

*btw it would be the 4.9 litre or 300 v6.

 

[hunzworth]

Because as cool as they look, they don't sell that well. The Scrambler is highly sought after now, but I don't think it sold well in the showroom.

the +/- 50k price tag prob doesnt help.

 

[JohnRandle]

I'm never an early adopter. I'm going to need to see how that lighter aluminum setup holds up. The Powerstroke is bulletproof and weighs as much as a typical car, but will last forever. the new ford uses the same tech as the old GM duramax if I remember correctly, and the duramax was total garbage. Still can't go wrong with the tried and true 24V Cummins.

I agree, it's too bad the rest of the truck can't hold up.
Honestly, the only years I would have strayed from the Powerstroke was the 6.0 years...In hind site that is. Because like an idiot I bought two of them.
But I heard the 6.7 Cummins was going through head gaskets almost as bad as the 6.0 Powerstroke was.

 

[NE1tm2nv]

Is it a difficult job, does it require special tools? Also, is this on all Ford 4x4s, or just certain years? Would this effect my '01 Escape?

No, no effect to your '01. They came out with system in '04, I believe they stayed with this system through '08, although I could be mistaken on the year ending that type of engagement system.

It doesn't require any special tools to do the job.
I used a vacuum gun to confirm which side was the problem.
If you have this type of system and your 4 wheel drive won't engage or you hearing an odd grawling noise, you can test the actuator by applying vacuum to larger port, the smaller port is a vent. With the front tires off the ground pull the hose off the ports and apply vacuum to larger stem, if the wheel can spin freely and it holds vacuum it's good, if the wheel doesn't spin and it won't hold vacuum the actuator is bad.

When mine failed the first time it made a grawling noise, which meant the actuator wasn't being pulled completely off the spline's, you don't want to let this go, get it taken care of right away. It was still under warranty when this happened, and it only had 20K on it. They were wanting $800 + for just the part at that time.

The second time, the front wheels would not engage, everything else worked, light came on telling me it was engaged, it would drop into 4 low, but no front wheel drive, no grawling either. Which meant the actuator had seized disengaged, which was a good thing, at least it wasn't wearing on the splines.

Oh, and I forgot to mention. This is an OEM part only. There is no after market part available, you can only get this part from a ford dealer. But the cost for this part has dramatically decreased in cost from what it was in '07

 

[Eddie_Shack]

No, no effect to your '01. They came out with system in '04, I believe they stayed with this system through '08, although I could be mistaken on the year ending that type of engagement system.

It doesn't require any special tools to do the job.
I used a vacuum gun to confirm which side was the problem.
If you have this type of system and your 4 wheel drive won't engage or you hearing an odd grawling noise, you can test the actuator by applying vacuum to larger port, the smaller port is a vent. With the front tires off the ground pull the hose off the ports and apply vacuum to larger stem, if the wheel can spin freely and it holds vacuum it's good, if the wheel doesn't spin and it won't hold vacuum the actuator is bad.

When mine failed the first time it made a grawling noise, which meant the actuator wasn't being pulled completely off the spline's, you don't want to let this go, get it taken care of right away. It was still under warranty when this happened, and it only had 20K on it. They were wanting $800 + for just the part at that time.

The second time, the front wheels would not engage, everything else worked, light came on telling me it was engaged, it would drop into 4 low, but no front wheel drive, no grawling either. Which meant the actuator had seized disengaged, which was a good thing, at least it wasn't wearing on the splines.

Oh, and I forgot to mention. This is an OEM part only. There is no after market part available, you can only get this part from a ford dealer. But the cost for this part has dramatically decreased in cost from what it was in '07

Thanks, that's some really good info to have.

 

[JohnRandle]

^^^This and the IWE system for the 4 wheel drive actuation sucks balls. It's designed to fail.
What happens with this system is when the vacuum is released it engage's the front hub's. Their is a diaphragm on the actuators, when vacuum is applied the hub's are pulled back off the splines or disengaged. Short story, these actuators engage and disengage everytime you start and stop your engine. That's a lot of needless movement, and the diaphragm will fail.
The cost to replace 1 actuator is $230-$250 w/part depending on who does it for you. Cost of the actuator only is $125. It will fail at some point, guaranteed.

This is definitely the worst design. It was from '04-'08 only.
It's a cheap fix, if you do it yourself.