Home Forums Gear Hunting Trucks and Four-Wheel Drives 'tis ain't no chevy vs ford, which is best...it is ...

There it is, a glimpse of the truth.

or at least what matches up best with my experience.

The original question was about a high mileage truck, 1/2 ton in a fairly late model year.

Why, why, why are you only asking about the engines? If I could just drive the chevy engine & the damn engine alone down the road like a motorcycle I'd buy the chevy.

The problem is that awesome chavy engine comes with all this other crap, tie rod ends, ball joints, wheel bearings transfer cases, transmissions, front diff, rear diff etc.

Then the body that'll rust out over the rear wheels from the inside of the bed side panel, good luck keeping front tires on a high mile chev, rotate with every oil change if you want a chance.

The chev is gonna get 2 mpg better in most cases. So, drive both for 100,000 miles & the ford will cost you about $2500 more to do the 100,000 miles.


Now lets say we start both these used trucks at, 75,000 miles on the odometer. Now we add a 100,000 miles. The ford just cost you $2500 more in fuel to put on those 100,000 miles.

But in that 100,000 miles you won't be rebuilding the front end on the ford or replaceing the front diff, or the transmission or the wheel bearings or the rear diff & you aren't going to see rust over the rear wheels.

If it's engine & engine only that you are worried about, hell I'll take a chevy engine in my ford truck, that'd be just fine with me just so I don't have to have any of that other stuff that normally comes with the chev engine

Course the mpg of the chevy when placed in the ford is probably going to drop a bit cause the ford is just built heavier all the way around.

The chevy engine inside the chevy truck is the best part about the chevy truck.

That being said, stick a 5.4 ford in that chevy truck & the 5.4 becomes the best thing about the chevy truck.



As far as ride & handling, I'm at a total loss for words. I truly believe it is a matter of perspective based on what we have become used to.

chevy guy hops into a ford & it don't feel right, feels stiff, tight or what ever.

ford guy hops into a chevy & it don't feel right, he might actually stop the truck, get out & check to make sure everything is ok up front, all the steering linkage looks as if it's attached, lug nuts are tight, he gets back in & carefully drives it to where he has to go with it taking the shortest white knuckled route possible praying it doesn't break while he's driving it cause he dang sure don't want to pay for what ever it is that makes it feel like an old spring mattress riding on shopping cart wheels...



oh, I might have gone too far.



So, totally neutral here.

Both great trucks, in there own ways...


(flame suit on)

I can't say I really ever noticed any appreciable difference in fuel economy between the Fords and chevys I have owned. All have been 4x4 but some have been geared a lot different than others. The worst offender on that list is my wifes 1500 Ram with the Hemi. Stick yer foot in it and you can watch the fuel gauge drop. 14 mpg. OUCH! OTOH it sure is fun.

"Chevy owners become bitter and cling to there engines....."

oh I crack me up!!

I'll turn Democrat before I ever purchase another Chevy truck!

Wow! Not a single Chevy fan to defend the brand?!?!?!?

I guess you wer right NDave.

I just got back from the stealer. The bill I just paid would put a knot in any ones stuffing. I never had issues like this with Ford but then I've never seen leather seats with holes in them by 60k before and hear that it's "normal". Then there's the instrument clusters. I've been through three of them.

The elders have a word for that around here.

"oofda"

How are the power windows & locks holding up? I like the manual assist method I see with the chevy windows, it's neat. Push the button with left hand, lift upwards swiftly with right hand, hold on the button & withdraw hand quickly just before it's completely closed & hope it makes it that last 2 inches without help.

fuel pump?

gas engine chevy sho-nuff like them some fuel pump....

Do you ever get any anoying messages about servicing engine, check engine or that sort of thing? So often that you don't pay any attention anymore?

OK, I'll stop now, not nice... not nice dave, behave yo seff!!

Chevys typically run more fuel pressure, they won't start with less than 45 PSI or so in general. Fords don't run that much. It will mean a little fuel mileage. Chevy's also run taller gearing in general, not a lot, but some 3.49 v. 3.55 for example K1500 to F150, again a little bit of fuel mileage. The gear ratios in the trannys to are set up different. Ford always leans twords doing work as oposed to acceleration or fuel mileage. Chevys also tend to be a smidge lighter again a bit more mileage.

Chevy's tend to have lower payloads-softer springs thus the ride difference and that's across the board S10 to K3500.

I am getting more and more down on my 2004 chevy suburban. Leather cracking in places and wearing thin in others, instrument knob paint worn through, and I have a box of plastic parts that have fallen off or busted off the interior. Now my toyota tundra on the other hand is 2 years older and the interior is the same as the day I bought it, harder use on that truck too. Chevy Suburban is a pavment queen for the most part, although with the wife hauling the kids around in it there has been some torture testing! The 5.3 engine and drive train seems reliable, not more so than the tundra, but acceptable.

ok here is a man of both trucks. I had a 2000 F150/5.4l auto for 6 years. I've been a ford man all my life. had brief toyota moment for about 6 mths but then bought the 2000 f150.

In those 6 years I replaced:
3 ball joints
an azz load of heating/cooling/radiator parts
at 70,000 mi the engine developed lifter noise at start up
a vaccume leak nobody could find (and a lot tried)

and last but not least 2 rear ends... yes two of probably the best rear ends ever made.

I now have an 04 tahoe with a 5.3/auto

that being said, this will probably be my last chevy.

There are more rattles in this thing than there are parts, the steering feels like something is always going to fall off, I could rebuild the motor by the time the windows rolled up,the gas milage is no different than a Ford, the torque is lacking, and if I get one more "service tire moniter" or "buckle passanger" warning when they have their seat belt on, I'm goig to drive into a birde inbankmen and let the sob burn.

I'll take a '79 F-150 any day over todays crap.

whew...now I feel better

atta boy, let it all out.

wow, your 2000 ford was rittled with problems. A buddy of mine has a 99 f-150 that he bought used. previous owner had cranked up the torion bars up front to gain front end ground clearance. It's cranked too high, he's the only other person I know of other than you that's replaced front end parts on there f150.


I've got a... 2001 currently with about 165k & so far so good. put new spark plugs in at about 150k, which has been my most costly repair/service so far.

I had a 97 f-150 that had the famous Windsor 5.4 knock on cold starts. But it never bothered the life of the engine & the piston slap knock would go away when the engine warmed up.

I've got a 77 F-150 4x4 at home too though, and if I could get modern gas mileage out of it, I'd drive it all the time. but 12 mpg is the best I can do with it & it's 3.50 gears, 3 speed AT with no overdrive

Put a modern 5.4/AOD in that old bugger & I'd be smiling like heck!!

ya know, I'll buy another Ford, but I was so pizzed. I won't buy a new one again though. I had new truck payment with all the problems of a used one. The new ones are sharp looking.

neighbor kid wreked the posi on his 01 but no other problems.

the tahoe runs good, but damn those rattles drive me nuts. it had 78,000 when I bought it, it'll turn 100,000 on my way to work tomorrow.

Dave I'm just waitin for the front end on my 99 ranger to start loosing parts. Previous owners had installed a 3" body lift and cranked the Torsion bars way up. Looks and runs pretty good with 33x12.50's though

When I got it, it was a certified mall rat. Its whole outlook on life changed when I drove it off the lot

I'll run it until I have the cash for a suspension lift. Of course looking at the price of lift kits for that lil ranger has me wondering about Slapping a Dana 44 under the front an callin it good.

Oh yea, manual locks an windows baby!!!!!!! No more issues with mud clogging up the window track.

The steering and wheels bearings are weak points on the Dmaxes. Unfortunately Dodge and Ford have decided to emulate GM's front wheel bearings, and the Fords have at least as many problems. I don't know about Dodges becasue they didn't give in to the lunacy of this wheel bearing design until recently.

I wish I had known you were having issues sooner because I could have steered (pun intended ) you in a better direction.

I replaced my Pittman and idler at around 60K (in my garage) and installed Cognito Pittman and idler braces. That ends the issue with worn out Pittmans and idlers. BTW, GM will tell you your Pittman and idler are okay even when there is excessive play in them.

I also installed tie rod sleeves and poly bushings in the a-arms. My truck steers like a sports car and actually holds a toe setting.

The wheel bearings are the only weak point left. I am hoping the aftermarket will offer a fix, but at least I can get them for under $150 each nowadays and they only take about an hour per side to replace. When I ran 295s and 315s on 16x8s, the WBs would last 30K. I am hoping with my 285s they will last longer.

I haven't had any issues with u-joints.

I got 2 surprises the other day Blaine. The first was when I was replacing the brake pads on the ranger. I got to lookin and couldnt see any grease zerks. Looked like a whole lotta non greasable areas that should be greased. Goona have to look into that.

Also managed to find a doe and a yearling at about 60mph. Managed to miss the doe but hit the yearling square on with the drivers side tire. One hell of a bumpity bump and the side of the truk was covered in hair blood and chewed up grass. But other n that no damage was done ( +1 for lifted trucks). I was pretty concerned about the aligntment but so far it all feels fine.

I looked at replacing the wheel bearing myself but it was only about $200 less and it would have taken me a lot more than an hour. The upside is that by doing it at the stealer they now have a life time warranty.
Only getting 30k on a wheel bearing is ridiculous. I see others that only get 50k. I guess by that standard I'm doing pretty good. At 175k I'm letting the D'max go.
I had Dmaxalli tech from the diesel place inspect my pitman and idler arm at around 80k and he said the same thing.

The tend is to go greaseless, and while that is probably less MX for the warranty period, I think it's limits the true longevitiy of a vehicle.

I think 50K is a common WB life for stock size tires.

Eric is one of my go to guys for DMax stuff. The other is John Kenendy.

Think it would be worth trying to install some zerks?

I'm starting to think that a SAS would fix a whole lotta lil issues like this one.

I don't know how successful that would be unless there is alreay a spot drilled and tapped for one. I would just be sure that when I did have to replace ball joints to sue ones with zerks........