5.0GN tow

I had a 92 150 with 5.0l auto and 3.55s which pulled our boat at the time ok, but shifted all the time. It pulled 2k rpm at 70mph. I traded it for a 95 with the 4.9l auto and 3.55s, that truck was a towing machine. It was a peak torque at 70mph and almost never dropped out of overdrive pulling the boat. Both trucks could get 20mpg highway non towing.

Kean

So how was the 4.9 better than the 5.0 in towing?

hertfordnc

Because towing is more about torque than horsepower. I had to look up the definitions and I barely understand it but that;s the difference.

96bb6truck

Bought my 96 4.9 5speed with 250,000 on the odo in 2012
at 300,000 it developed a bad cylinder on the highway across Texas (driving between school and home) and had a very obvious dead miss. Still drove the remaking 3 hours back to school at 70mph. Not bad for a 6 Cylinder.
When I made it home, I did compression checks on all cylinders and found that the cylinder 1 exhaust valve was stuck open from carbon build up. After a new head and valve train each cylinder now reads 150psi dry and wet test.
this tells me that my 300,000 motor still has a solid bottom end, with no leak-down past the rings.
In all honesty, most v8s I've worked on need at least a re-hone or boring with oversized rings in order to true up the cylinder walls at 200,000; but on this i6, I probably can reach 500,000 without touching the motor again.
anecdotal experience: when I was shopping for a truck in 2012, I looked at all sorts with 5.0, 5.8, 7.5, and 4.9 motors. I've driven each motor before. From 0-40mph, they're all the same acceleration. From 40-60 they 5.8 and 7.5 are faster, but the 5.0 only feels faster when empty. The 4.9 even with a load, pulls to 60 harder than the 5.0