jennito

BUT... I owned a '95 Mustang V6 LX... and as we all know the engine was complete crap. I think I ended up with 116,000 miles on it, which was 16,000 miles out of warranty once they did the recall on it. Anyway, I think I am in the market for a V8 this time and I was wondering about how many miles a V8 engine should last? We own a Mercury Mountaineer that has 185,000 miles on it (knock on wood) and we have been very happy with it. However, I know sports cars tend to be a much different breed enginewise. Anyone have any guesses? Thanks.

USAMuscle

Hard to say, because the life of an engine depends partly on how well it was put together, whether or not it's free from defects, and most importantly how it was treated and how well it was maintained. Engines that are well taken care of can last over 200,000 miles without a hitch. The reason engines in performance cars usually don't last as long as your family cruiser is because people buy performance cars to enjoy them and push the envelope, which causes greater stress and wear on the engine. I'd say if you're looking for a car to last awhile, try to find one with no more than 60k miles on it, or you could buy an older car with more mileage and just plan on an engine rebuild right away.

horseshoeing

Thats it. Its all about how you treat your motor. Do you hotrod all the time, or change your oil at 3,000 miles. There are motors that are just crap or motors that are hard to kill. My guess is that the ford V8's are about a 150,000 motor for most people.
I am going to get heck for that[]

roundman

In my experience with the small block Ford V-8 engines, I have found them to be tough little SOB's even when they aren't treated all that nicely by the owners with lack of routine maintenance and hard driving.
The '88 5.0 in my Stang has been heavily raced at the strip (over 400 1/4 mile runs) and has over 108,000 miles on it and it still has great oil pressure and gets the Stang down the 1/4 mile in the mid 13 second range and this is after racing it for 10 years starting when it had 78,000 miles on it. I would not hesitate to get a small block Ford V-8 engine no matter what the vehicle based on my good experience with them over the last 40+ years of owning them in various cars since 1969.