Mike.357

I had a 99 with the 4.2

Put 214K on it before letting it go in a trade.

I put money into it in the fourteen years I had it, but basically nothing into the motor. It had a head gasket leak at the end. If the Blend actuator was not fubared, and the factory clutch was not done I might have opted to have it rebuilt or replaced.

FWIW my regular mechanic shop never balked at working on it, and the owner told me if I wanted to have it rebuilt he could and would do it.

It was the best truck I have ever owned.

It was a solid motor and was very reliable.

texasedition

I had a 4.2 with over 300,000. I really miss that truck.

CreepinDeth

+1

biggyfries

Here is my exact problem The same poster shows the cause of the noise--a broken piston and bent rod. He was able to install the parts needed on the old engine and it sounds like new again. Looks like I will go the same route--I have lined up a mechanic who likes this job and will follow up when its finished.
The truck is worth fixing IMHO--we're taking the plunge.

Manuellabour247

Awesome. Let us know how everything goes.

biggyfries

Here we are months later, I am finally getting around to following up on my project.
I decided to find a shop that would tackle this job--I found a mexican who does auto repair, engine overhauls. I hired him to remove the engine, planning to disassemble it myself with help from a friend who seemed excited to assist in the rebuild/reassembly.
So out came the engine, I ordered a rebuild kit on ebay, along with a used piston/rod, and started the disassembly. I found my friend's enthusiasm vaporized due to him getting a new girlfriend who had some farmland and he devoted all his time to farming her property, so I stalled on the rebuild in my driveway. I told the mexican mechanic about my problems and he said he would do the assembly job too so I brought the motor back to him and it sat for awhile--he had other obligations first so my engine sat on a stand for weeks. At long last he jumped into action and had my motor apart, inspected, I saw it during the reassembly and I was pleased to see that it looked beautiful inside, it showed no signs of abuse, no sludge anywhere, no wear/ridge/damage in any cylinder. He had it apart and reassembled in a few hours. I washed many parts myself, and when assembled it had the look of a new crate engine. The next day the mexican called and said it was running like a new engine, he had installed it and it went back in without any problems. His bill came to $1000, my parts came to around $5-600 (I need to collect/total all my reciepts) including a new battery/cables, and I have been driving the finished product for a few weeks now--it drives like a new truck! I did gamble a little and the time element was lengthy, but the finished product is so nice I am a happy owner at this point.
I am now turning my attention to the job of improving the look of this truck. It sits tall on the stock suspension, I am wanting to start with a slight reduction in ride height since this is just for use as a commuter vehicle, it will never tow heavy or be loaded heavy. I will try to find some Ford Lightning rims or something similar, and polish it up in the near future, and just enjoy it for awhile.

Manuellabour247

Congrats. Just make sure to do the maintenance and it should run for quite a while. Did you paint any of the parts before reassembly?

biggyfries

I only painted a couple of parts, biggest being the oil pan. I painted parts where the original paint looked bad, but valve covers for example looked like new when clean. I washed all aluminum parts and they came out looking new. I made a battery hold-down and painted it.
It looks new under the hood now--the entire truck has few signs of deterioration. Drives better than I hoped. I'm very gratified, hope it has a long life ahead.