1993 F-150 Flare Side

[gadget73]

You live in PA? What was in that one, a 5.0? No one ever asks me when I drive Red, but my wife gets questioned on a regular basis. They either guess 4.9 or 5.0. I've never seen a regular cab shortbox with a 5.8 from the factory. Although there's always "that guy" who claims they're everywhere. When I poised that question on the Ford trucks forum, "that guy" claimed to have personally owned two. Didn't have any proof, of course.

New Jersey, and I have no idea. Dont know who owned it, I just remember seeing it.

[DerekTheGreat]

I have seen ONE OBS 5.8L regular cab short bed automatic pickup that was a fleet truck (XL).

Now that's a rare bird! Surprised a fleet order would be a short bed, but glad it exist(ed). Guessing it wasn't a flare side? I'm not sure what trim they came in, but since ours says "XLT" on the inside I'm assuming that's what they all were. Ours was a run of the mill 5.0. I wonder if Ford incentivized the 5.0 as they're far more common (to me anyway) than the 5.8, when compared to GM where pretty much everything was either the 4.3 or 5.7, until the Vortec era where the 5.0's seem to be a bit more common. I like to think the regular cab, short box 4x4 5.7 K1500 I've got is close to unicorn status. Had to be a custom order...

New Jersey, and I have no idea. Dont know who owned it, I just remember seeing it.

That's the way it goes.

Even though this is an automatic, I really enjoy driving it. Probably my favorite of all of these that I've owned. Now to tie up the few loose ends it has and have it painted. That's a new feeling for me, I've never felt compelled to have any of our "junkers" painted.

[sly]

Yeah, it was not a flare side. The VAST majority of regular cab short beds I've seen are 300i6 (4.9L) tractors with a 5 speed a dual tanks.

[gadget73]

I knew someone years ago with an 80s step side single cab, it was a 3.8 v6 manual truck. I think it was an F100, not a 150. They were made for a year or two before giving it up as a bad idea

he somehow ate second gear out off it and after a few too many 1-3 shifts it died. Not sure if it shot the rod out off the block because of or unrelated to the head gasket failure.

[DerekTheGreat]

Yeah, it was not a flare side. The VAST majority of regular cab short beds I've seen are 300i6 (4.9L) tractors with a 5 speed a dual tanks.

"Tractors." LoL. Yep, the one other regular cab short box F-150 I had was that exact combination. Although short of the drivetrain and Trac-Lok, it was fully loaded & red on red. I regret selling that one

I knew someone years ago with an 80s step side single cab, it was a 3.8 v6 manual truck. I think it was an F100, not a 150. They were made for a year or two before giving it up as a bad idea

he somehow ate second gear out off it and after a few too many 1-3 shifts it died. Not sure if it shot the rod out off the block because of or unrelated to the head gasket failure.

Now that's a unicorn. I had no idea Ford offered a V6 in their trucks, given the popularity of the I6. Make sense though, Dodge & GM did so why wouldn't Ford at least experiment? Nothing I'd want though...

[Mainemantom]

Ford had the 4.2 V-6 available in the 97 F150 with the new body style This replaced the inline 6 motor which was a very bad idea to discontinue. I find no information on the v-6 being used prior to 97.

[gadget73]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_F...nth_generation)

"For 1982, a 110hp 3.8L V6 was introduced as the standard engine for the F-100
....
For 1984, the 3.8L V6 was dropped from the F-Series (as the F-100 had been discontinued),"


looks like 2 years on the F100 only, 82-83.

[Mainemantom]

Interesting , my resource is wrong. Odd offering but wise choice to drop the 3.8 in a pickup.

[DerekTheGreat]

Two years is very short and indicative of a bad decision. I read about those 3.8's in trucks and they were considered horrible by those who lived through the era, much like the car variant. I lived through two 3.8 equipped cars as a kid and both died due to head gasket failure. One was a 1986 Cougar and the other a 1988 T-bird.

I knew about the 4.2 V6 amidst the newer, roundy trucks. Never been interested in one of those beyond that 4.2 though. I prefer the previous generation and applaud Ford for keeping their straight six alive when GM and MoPar killed their inline sixes.

Speaking of bad decisions, how many years did Cadillac's 4-6-8 last? Tom, have you ever driven one of those?

[gadget73]

Those engines were underpowered turds, and they popped head gaskets. Not a winner, the 300 was a much better engine.

Amusingly the Caddy engine that replaced the 468 was a much bigger heap of shit. The old one had funny vibrations in 6 and 4 cyl mode but unplugging one wire would keep it in V8 mode. At that point its just a scaled down version of the 472. The HT4100 required Barrs Leaks tablets from new to keep it from dumping coolant out.

[Tiggie]

Can confirm the 3.8. Was in an early 80's f-series I considers buying back in high school. Looking for a "hot rod", I was seeking the 302 and expected a possible 300. Popped the hood and that ugly carb'd 3.8 with eleven horsepower was camping out. Plus it was an automatic. I ran far, far away and ultimately got my first panther, the 82 LTD with that feisty 302 and 132 fast ponies. At least it sounded fast.

I believe the 4.2 only came along as it could be share similar parts with the 3.8. Just like they built the 4.6/5.4/6.8 with similar parts. Never understood why they didn't swap the bellhousing pattern to the modular on the 3.8 and 4.2 V6.

[Mainemantom]

[QUOTE=DerekTheGreat
Cadillac's 4-6-8 last? Tom, have you ever driven one of those?[/QUOTE]

Around 1982-84 I worked at a dealership selling Cadillacs, Oldsmobiles, GMC trucks, Datsun (just as they changed to Nissan) and Hondas. I wanted to sell Ford, Lincoln and Mercury but the owner of that dealership and I did not get along at all.
The Cadillac dealer had a 4 6 8 in the showroom for many months. It was a holdover car that no one wanted. Brown with brown interior. I drove it once but do not remember how it ran. I also sold those terrible Oldsmobile diesel cars. Gm really made crap motors in the 80s due to emission standards. A couple of years later owners of those diesel Oldsmobiles did the 350 swap.

[DerekTheGreat]

Those engines were underpowered turds, and they popped head gaskets. Not a winner, the 300 was a much better engine.

Amusingly the Caddy engine that replaced the 468 was a much bigger heap of shit. The old one had funny vibrations in 6 and 4 cyl mode but unplugging one wire would keep it in V8 mode. At that point its just a scaled down version of the 472. The HT4100 required Barrs Leaks tablets from new to keep it from dumping coolant out.

"Heap of shit," "Barrs Leaks Tablets." I heard that too, about said heap of shit. How many of the original owners knew that though? I think there was a recall on 'em, that GM converted it to a craporator and changed the dash out so it wouldn't display an error code or whatever they did.

Can confirm the 3.8. Was in an early 80's f-series I considers buying back in high school. Looking for a "hot rod", I was seeking the 302 and expected a possible 300. Popped the hood and that ugly carb'd 3.8 with eleven horsepower was camping out. Plus it was an automatic. I ran far, far away and ultimately got my first panther, the 82 LTD with that feisty 302 and 132 fast ponies. At least it sounded fast.

I believe the 4.2 only came along as it could be share similar parts with the 3.8. Just like they built the 4.6/5.4/6.8 with similar parts. Never understood why they didn't swap the bellhousing pattern to the modular on the 3.8 and 4.2 V6.

"..and that ugly carb'd 3.8 with eleven horsepower was camping out. Plus, it was an automatic."

Need info on this '82 LTD. I assume it was a Panther and not a Fox? I remember those days though, scouring Auto Trader and the classifieds for used cars.

Around 1982-84 I worked at a dealership selling Cadillacs, Oldsmo[buicks], GMC trucks, Datsun (just as they changed to Nissan) and Hondas. I wanted to sell Ford, Lincoln and Mercury but the owner of that dealership and I did not get along at all.
The Cadillac dealer had a 4 6 8 in the showroom for many months. It was a holdover car that no one wanted. Brown with brown interior. I drove it once but do not remember how it ran. I also sold those terrible Oldsmobile diesel cars. Gm really made crap motors in the 80s due to emission standards. A couple of years later owners of those diesel Oldsmobiles did the 350 swap.

The color combo of that car sounds appealing. I read somewhere that by the end of GM's diesel fiasco that the issues were worked out? I still wouldn't own one. The older I get, the more I hate diesels. Stinky stanky.

[gadget73]

The recall was unplugging that wire to force it into V8 mode. It kept the EFI.

I dont believe they had any particular issues with eating cams or lifters or any of the crap the AFM on the modern LS engines do either, so arguably not that terrible. Kind of glad my truck has the 4.8, v8 all the time, and it even pre-dates the variable timing cam phasor stuff that later ones got.


84 they 'fixed' the diesels but still never put a real fuel filter on them so the pumps died even if the engines did not. Ford learned from this, my car has a real water separator fuel filter and a water in fuel indicator like the trucks got. Diesel injection systems don''t like dirt or water. The thing that always baffled me about all of this, GM owns Detroit Diesel. They knew how to make a diesel engine, and they knew about fuel quality problems with diesel engines.

[Tiggie]

Need info on this '82 LTD. I assume it was a Panther and not a Fox? I remember those days though, scouring Auto Trader and the classifieds for used cars.

It was this machine. Sold in 2007. Miss the car but don't regret selling it. It had the tripminder with a carb, used this funky fuel flow sensor on the intake. I think those are pretty unusual. Also had a barometric pressure sensor that played games with the Duraspark box to change the timing with altitude. And the tow package with a 3.08 open axle because it was the "class II" and not the class III. Audiovox radio with the premium sound. It had a lot of options that made it weird.