Bronco's

[Fishin4Life]

I was look at possibley buying a second vehicle. I found a few bronco's at a resonable price. One that I am considering is a 1990 with the 4.9 six, manual trans, 4x4 for $1200. Minimal rust, and it looks in pretty good shape. Tires good, recent fuel pump, they say it doesn't use oil. Also new rear brakes.

How is the 4.9 six for power? I used to have an s-10 with the 4.3, will it be pretty comparable to that? or a bit more?

Any thing to watch out for with these trucks? Any opinions would be appriciated, good, bad and inbetween.

[Gissert]

I have a 1990 with the 5.0 V-8, automatic transmission. It just sits now, but has been a good rig.

If the rig you are looking at is in good condition, 1200 is not out of line.

I bought mine with 49,000 miles, and it currently has about 265,000 on the clock. Overall, I was very pleased with my Bronco.

It was a good runner, and a good tow vehicle. Very manoverable with the short wheelbase.

Some issues I had:

*In tank fuel pump went out while elk hunting

*Alternators tended to go bad about every 60k

*Back window switches in the tailgate can be fussy. Keep the latches clean and you'll be ok.

*Prone to rusting

*Replace auto hubs with lockouts when one auto hub went bad after a brake job

* Front brakes tend to be hard on rotors, my F150 was the same way.

*One ignition module failure.

Not bad considering I put over 200K on this rig. I replaced the motor at 195,000. I did not need to but I had the time and money. i figured it would need one soon anyway.

[ChuckN]

The 4.9L straight 6 was the best motor Ford has ever manufactured, if not THE best motor ever, in my opinion. My Dad's owned a 1988 F150 since almost new and that motor has never had any issues at all that I can recall. Sure, there have been minor issues (fuel pump, clutch, brakes), but overall, the entire truck has been the toughest and most durable. If I recall it has 260K miles now and a friend of the family recently bought it.

Combine that with a clutch, you will have plenty of power. Ours had a 4 speed. I've driven the automatics and it was less power. That truck hauled an enormous amount of building materials in it's life for building the family lakehome, being in the construction business for some years and hauling everything else.

Dad liked the straight 6 so much he bought a '96 truck, the last year the motor was in production.

Mileage is around 17 if you keep below 2500 RPMs on the highway with the 4 speed.

Way more pulling power than the 4.3L Chev motor. The 4.3 is more peppy and quick, but for pulling any load I feel the 4.9L Ford is far superior.

[McGurk]

I may be off here, but aren't those old straight sixes torque monsters? (I think GM and Toyota had them for a while too)

[Gissert]

Most engines with an inline six layout have excellent torque curves.

[Powerstroke]

That was the point I was gonna make. The 4.6L is an inline six while the 4.3 is a V-6. The feel will be totally different as the 4.9 will ahve way more torque. Lots more pulling power and off the line power.

[Steve Bakken]

Ditto on the 4.9 Our '87 had 185K on when we sold it and the only service it ever needed besides reg maintainance was a valve cover gasket. Tons of torque.

[Fishin4Life]

ok how about the Ford 4.2 V6? is that a pretty lame engine for an F-150? Seems like it might be. Wasn't able to get my hands on the Bronco

Why did they discontinue the 4.9???