Have a few questions on the 94-95 5.0 motors. I have been looking lately for one and all of them have high miles somewhere around 100k to 150k. At what mileage are you guys having to rebuild these engines at? What things mechanical should you be on the look out for to fail at that mileage? Just wanting to know what I'm getting into if I would buy one. The particular one I'm looking at has 147,000 on it 5sp and appears mostly stock.

 

The biggest contributiong factor to how long any engine lasts is proper mait, IE ,was the oil changed regularly at the specified intervals and was it taken care of. Or was it beat on and ran hard with little to no preventative mait, at all. I think most 5.0 engines are good canidents to be rebuilt at the 200,000 mark but that is just to regain some lost Hp due to rings and worn components . Now that dosnt mean that it needs rebuilt, but depending on how the engine was treated is a detemining factor on how much wear and tear there is. Some engines are built better than other from the factory and may see 250,000 miles with no kind of noticable loss of power.

 

Of course all that being said ,,, You need to judge a rebuild canident by any kind of noticable problems such as alot of clatter or noise coming from the lower end especially. Most times one can reliably just go for the upper rebuild such as cam timing chain and such. On a stock 5.0 the lower end is fairly bullit proof on these engines , more so on the fox bodys 93 back as they use forged internals instead of the cast internals of the sn95 engines.
Of course the guy who ignores a bad harmonic balancer is gonna need to replace crank bearings alot sooner than the guy who takes care of the issue asap. If your like me ( and i think most of us on this site are) you cant sleep nights knowing something is not right with an engine. At 147,xxx miles listen to the engine , dont just hear it run but really listen to it. Also ask alot of questions about the car , ask if they have a log of any mait, that was performed , have they kept up on oil , does it leak and do they keep it topped off if it does.

 

I had an 88 F-150 with 250K when I sold it and it ran strong. As long as it's not using alot of oil I dont really think they need a rebuild. I'd be looking for rust and worn out suspension pieces if I was buying a high milage car. Also with a 5 speed car pay attention to the clutch!

 

^ no oil consumption you can see good power around 300k my moms old 95gt had that before I bought it back in 05 and first thing i did was hooked up a dry kit lol! it ran a good 6 months before it began to smoke!

5.0s can live a long life if taken care of! once you bore stroker boost spray etc... who the #uck knows then!

 

Yes, they can live a long time IF taken care of..... but, since I have rebuilt many of them and at differing milage, I've noticed on most of them, the main bearings are pretty worn through at about 160k miles. IMO, even if an engine is still running good, if the main bearings are shot, it's time for a rebuild.

 

i think my 91 5.0 has somewhere around 180k its doesnt burn any oil but it does leak on the timing cover and the rear left side of the oil pan

 

I got a 5.0 engine from where I used to work at. Came out of a wrecked company truck and had 205,000 miles on it. Oil had been changed regulary but it had been run hard every day.
Bores had less than.003 of wear on them and pistons barely had wear marks.......

 

when i sold my 91 it hat 170 or so on the clock, still started first crank, oil changed every 3k, once it broke 160 it ate a quart every 3k and she still had some oomph left in her

 

My 95 has 132k on the clock, I bought it at 97k. I would suggest listening to the valve train, as that is something I didn't do. Mine has lifter tick like crazy, and also blows smoke when you really get on her. My pcv valve is practically toast, the previous owner didn't pay a bit of attention to anything. It burns about 2 quarts of oil in a 3-4k mile oil change interval (probably because of a sh*t pcv valve = no crankcase ventilation). I also had to replace both the water pump and radiator within the first two months of owning it.

Just my opinion though. LISTEN to the car