Vigo wrote:
A friend of mine bought 3 new ford o2s before he finally believed me about the intake leak i had suggested since day one... so dont be like him.
Anyway i like that motor with a 5spd. With auto, boring as hell, but functional. And i like 4r70s too.. i just like more driving involvement. But thats not a knock, it's a good combo in a lot of ways.
my 98 had a vac tube that ran from somewhere on the back of the motor to just under and behind the TB with two rubber 90 elbows on it that rotted out, causing a vacuum leak and CEL, crappy idle, etc.
the 4.2 is based on the 3.8, which like the GM 3.8 and 4.3 are based on the smallblock v8s, with two cylinders lopped off. the 3.8 has the same bore and stroke as the 302 v8, and valvetrain parts interchange between the two.
the big things that took them out was the intake manifold gaskets failing and dumping coolant into the intake causing hydrolock, and something else that failed dumping coolant into the oil, can't remember exactly, that was long ago. i asked the dealer once about changing the timing chain, and they said there's no need, you just wait till the motor blows up around 150k and replace it.... no, i'm not kidding. mine lasted past 150k and was still going strong when sold with 170k or so on it.
2.5" true duals with turbo mufflers dumped in front of the axle sound similar to a stock 302 at low rpms, and not too raspy in the higher revs, made a huge difference over the glasspacks that were on it when i got it.
as for the EGR, most of the codes were caused by the dpfe sensor crapping out, $13 part and all was well.
