my1stford

After charging the battery this morning I went to start my 97 f150 4.2 manual 5 speed. It kicked over for a split second than made a loud metal to metal sound and stopped. It was a pretty loud bang like a blown engine. I tried again and it just makes an awful grinding banging noise. I've had blown starters before but this was something different. I've read some posts on bad intake gaskets causing seepage but I'm hoping it's the starter.
I will try to turn the engine by hand tomorrow and hope it's just a starter. I have only 67k miles on this truck and it's in mint condition with no rust no dents and original paint. Hate to see it dead in the driveway like this. I use it only during the warm months to keep off that nasty road salt we get in the winter. Any suggestions or thoughts.

jstockert

Probably hydro-locked. Pull your spark plugs and see if one of the cylinders is full of coolant. The 97 and 98 4.2 is known for this. Good luck

my1stford

Looks like my holiday will be under the truck. Thanks for the reply. If what you say has happened, a new v8 will be next.

my1stford

Hydro-locked it is. Other than a new ecu, and exhaust manifolds, can i swap the 4.2 with a crate 302. Will the 5 speed manual flywheel work and are the motor mounts the same.

rcairbear

white89gt

Give this a look...

https://www.f150online.com/forums/19...swap-more.html

rcairbear

white89gt

Yeah, not too sure. The nice thing about the 4.2 is that the trans bell housing is the same pattern as a SBF. I think the 4.2 has one more bolt, but it's easy enough to just leave it out. Won't hurt a thing.

kd4gij

Ford racing used to sale a module and harness for the older 5.0 with EFI. Don't see it on ford performance web site.

white89gt

You don't need all of that overpriced stuff. If the OP is serious about this, I can tell him what to get. It's actually as simple as can be.