Hey if your looking for a good truck... I have a 3/4 t F-250 2x for sale right now. The 460 is one of the ONLY engines that ford made which actually had more power and torque than the desiel during the time. Even when they came out in 1996 the 460 was the heavyweight contender. But, while the big D's made a little better gas mileage... so also went the cost of running them and maintaining them.
We had a fleet of them which were used all the time for various things from escort services to boat transfer. The 460 won hands down. We did the math and it turned out to be the cheapest engine to maintain as well as NEVER gave us any problems. Can't say that for the Big D's. Fuel filters, injector pumps and drive line problems became a issue. When the PU goes down because it has to have the drive train replaced... not good.
You can get lousy gas mileage and still be ahead of the dollar game in the end when compaired to the price of the engine vs the useage.
A lot of people use the PU for jumping in and out of places. Diesels don't work that good doing that. They like running down the road at a constant speed mostly. To start out when the weather is cold.. you have to wait till the oil warms up. This after hitting the TWO batteries pretty hard to get the glow plugs warmed up... and then the starter... gas its pretty simple.. just hit the starter and go... Much simpler engine because it has less moving parts than a diesel.
Wait till you get to the oil change... and find the diesel is much more expensive than the 460. both in amount of oil needed and what it cost.
Another factor to think about is the turbo that is on most of the big D's It too had problems in the local vehicles. Seems that it is still spining when the engine shuts down --provided you don't let it sit their and idle for 5 min.-- when the engine quits... so does the oil pressure which also lubes the turbocharger.. ouch. Wait till you find out how much one of them golden plated things cost. Must have come off a airplane the way they value it.
the current PU I am selling is my dads old truck. He used it to pull his 31 ft airstream with... has 3.73 limited slip gears in it... and also has the oil bath air filter which at the time was the heavy duity (dirt enviorment) option for the 460. He liked it because he could take it apart and clean it... said that the oil also allowed the engine to be top vapor lubed...well!! don't know about that. It is set up to pull over 17,000 lbs... and while he bought it new back in 1977 it really hasn't gone anywhere. He got sick and died shortly after 1979. It is the camper special that has the two battery option so that one can power the trailer from it.. has the 100amp alternator... a special order item that he wanted too... has dual tanks, heavy running gear, cooling and trans.. all ford factory. Has the larger mirrors on it that you can really see out of... again factory.
Built like a truck but rides like a car.
Had I not already gotten mine back in 96 ... again I use the 460 ... instead of the diesel because of a bunch of reasions... smell and reaking of diesel is not what I want when I am out crusing the country side. While ford has improved the gasous output.. some states are now moving to curb the smell and partiuclates even more on the diesels... we have been told that we can not use several of our trucks after 2010 because they do not meet the new standards. I would assume that PU diesels are also going to be pulled into the ruckus.
Ford right now only has one good engine that we have found... and again its gas... the smaller 5.4 cast iron series... any of the ones with alu heads are JUNK. We have found that even the dealer doesn't want to mess with them when we take 'em back for serviceing and spark plug changes. We had one that blew the plug right out of the head.. physically.. and it seems that the spark plugs when you pull them take the threads with 'em from the head. No fixit .. have to buy the same piece of junk Head from ford again. 460 uses cast iron heads... no problems.
So in the end the figures don't lie... the 460 gas is a winner hands down.... you can buy a lot of gas for the price of the new diesels... used you can even save more but most of the time the owners don't give 'em up till they get some of their money back out of 'em. Besides, if you have to worry about the nickles or dimes you save in fuel by spending dollars for the rig... well...
If you want my dads old truck we inhearited... we would sell it for
1500 obo. The sentimentality has gone now through the years and its a shame to have it just sit around and rot when someone could be out having fun with it enjoying life. (also has a camper cap on it. )
gmas@inreach.com