Re: Which engine will pull my boat and trailer?
BTW: one thing to consider if you are looking at used vehicles. In the F-150's (and likely the expy's), the 4.6 and 5.4 come with different trannys and rears. The 4.6 comes with the 4R70W tranny (also used with the V6) and an 8.8 rear end. The 5.4 comes with the slightly beefier 4R100 (or something like that) and a 9.? rear. The axle ranges for the 4.6 and 5.4 as I observed were: 4.6- 3.31, 3.55(most common), 3.73 (4wd and rare in 2wd), and I think they could be ordered with 4.10. The 5.4's I saw had 3.08(horrible for towing large loads), 3:55(saw a few), 3.73, and the rare 4.10. <br /><br />If you check the door tag, you can find out the ratio code. I can't remember the off the top of my head (a quick search of f150online.com would get them quickly). I do know that if the code ends in H, the rear is limited slip. If you don't need 4wd, I would get LS for towing a boat. I have never spun a tire dragging my larger boat up ramps.<br /><br />This info is what I remember from mty F-150 research 2 years ago. May be slightly different for Expys though.<br /><br />Gust to give an example of the MPG numbers, my 4.6 w/3.55 gears gets 18-20mpg on average. My father-in-law has trhe same truck with the 5.4 and 3.08 gears and gets about 1mpg better than I do. My tow rating is about 6800lbs. His is 3000. Big difference. Be careful of the axle ratios.<br /><br />Be sure you get one with the factory towing package which in my '99 included a tranny cooler, larger alternator-I think, and a good frame hitch. A power steering coler was standard I think.<br /><br />The 4.6 and 5.4 are both workhorses, esp. the newer ones. Mine is a '99 rated at 220hp. The 4.6 now has improvedheads and is rated at 231. The 5.4, depending on year, is between 260 and 300. You won't be dissappointed with either. Mine already has 65k trouble free miles.
