Project: Adventure F150

[PDenbigh]

So, I did something bad to the Tan F-150ÔÇÖs 4.6 engine. Zero compression in Cylinder #3 . Whoops. Should have taken it a little easier up Afton Mountain pulling the XR I guess.

Man. For a second I was like "Holy crap, your F-150 blew an engine towing a dirtbike?" Then I remembered you're crazy car is a XR too.

But still, I peg you a person that takes overzealous good car of his motor vehicles, shouldn't the F-150 have been ok towing a car up Afton or were you being ridiculous?

*edit* It's a serious question in case I needed to clarify that. When I got rid of the Dakota and looked into a new vehicle I realized that I had pushed that thing beyond it's limits because of my GVWR / towing capacity math was .. well straight wrong. That and I had a tendency to floor it and speed up going up mountains instead of doing the intelligent thing of slowing down and getting back into torque range.

Yeah, as the other guys eluded, it was mostly my fault. The truck had a 4.6, no towing package, and 3.31 rear end. To go 70 up Afton required holding it at the redline pretty much the whole way, and that's the story of that engine's life. At 149k miles, I'm happy it made it that long. I've pulled dumptruck trailers with Chad's Mustang on it, and all his tools in the back, I've pulled big 4x4 Jeeps for 500 miles, and everywhere I drive is a race to me it seems. When I drive home to WV over 33 west, it's pedal to the metal the entire way. What takes my parents 5 hours (with 1 bathroom break) I do in 4 (best time of 3:51) with zero breaks. I fade the brakes going down the mountain (on stock pads) and I get about 10mpg going up.

Maybe it shouldn't have blown yet, I can't be sure, but I can be sure it has had a really rough life. I have performed standard oil changes, and since 100k miles I've used synthetic oil.

I think that engine might have been born with problems though. I had to have the head gasket replaced under warranty due to a leak, and that's the same side that lost compression.

The rest of the truck has held together well though, so I decided it was worth it to change engines. The 5.4 is great though, I'm really happy with the added power.