FURD... WTF?

I've owned a 2001 Taurus since 2004 & put a lot of miles on it. First off, the Duratec motor is awesome. Only had to do minor maintenance on it for the last 130,000 miles. It has a total of 16x,xxx miles. Struts suck, suspension parts are cheaply made, not too bad overall, but there are some quirks. BTW, if you ever own one & it shifts sporadically or won't go over 10-15 mph, check your 3rd cat. It cost me $2,000 worth of listening to the F techs & their incorrect advice before I corrected the problem myself.

I owned a 2006 Durango. Never again. The front pillars cut my vision horribly around curves. Petty I know, but enough to deter me from owning another one. EGR is fun to change too. Well at least the 4.7 engine had enough power to comfortably pull a loaded car trailer. I will give it that much.

I've owned several S10 vehicles including 2wd, 4wd, lifted, lowered, all sizes of engines, SUV, single cab, ext cab. My current Ranger is more comfortable to drive than any of them & actually feels like a truck. Just dreading the day that I need to change the 8 sparkplugs.

Had a Bronco that was a tank.

I'm not a brand loyalist, but I will say this: If I was to pick a least favorite manufacturer, it would be hard. Mitsubishi is one of my favorites along with the big F word and Oldsmobile. I enjoy Buicks as well. Chevy is down the list, which is strange considering my favorite vehicle is a Chevelle.

Also want to point out the two weaknesses of Chevy trucks made in the 90's. 4l60e & Gov-lock. If you have ever owned one of these trucks & NOT had to replace at least one of these two components then consider yourself lucky or you just haven't drove it enough. My father put 4 transmissions in his Tahoe before buying a Jeep. Granted this was over the span of 300,000 miles which says something in itself about the truck's reliability otherwise. I have had both blow out on me & would venture to say that 80% of the trucks over 125,000 miles have had a trans rebuild. Probably 40% have blown out the Gov-Lock limited slip.

I guess after all of my rambling I would have to conclude by stating some obvious facts to think about the current "domestic" vehicles.

1. Chrysler is owned by Fiat. Was owned by Mercedes, prior to that had half of their cars designed by Mitsubishi in a joint venture. Can we even call them domestic anymore?

2. General Motors is now Government Motors & all of the cool cars are just re-badged Holdens excluding the Camaro.

3. Furd didn't require bailout money. They have a 6 cylinder gas engine that puts out more power than a lot of V8s & gets good gas mileage. Show me a diesel that is as strong as the Powerstroke.

4. Is there truly a domestic car at all anymore? Rebadging happens frequently. GM is in bed with several companies including Isuzu, Toyota, Suzuki, and more. Furd is in with Mazda & VW. Chrysler has already been stated. Read this article & let it soak in. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,529745,00.html

I will be buying a new, or near new, car in about a year or two. I am confused about all the differant 6 cylinder engines in the Furd and GM corperate lines. I would like to know which 6 cylinder engine is the best and worst of these two. I hear the best GM 6 cylinder is the 3.6 engine. Does anyone know? JB

For anybody who kves in snow country there a company who makes a rust prevented/stopper that hooks up to your battery and to take care of rust

Ruststop.net

the Best for Fo R D was there 300 inline 6 cylinder for there trucks

I think one of my dad's trucks had that motor.

He's had 4 Furd trucks:

89 Ranger
91 Ranger
95 F150
98 F150

The only lemon was the 98 F150. He loved his Rangers. The 95 F150 was BAD A$$. It was a freaking tank. I loved that truck.

Limey, the old 300 was unstoppable. Great motor.

Kyle, if your dad had that engine, it would have been the 95 F150. By then they called it a 4.9L though.

JB, Furd only makes one V6 currently & it's the Duratec. I believe they changed the name to Cyclone, but it's the same engine & the only V6 worth really worrying about in the last decade. Very reliable & the new ones are powerful. Vulcan was an underpowered junk engine & Essex hasn't been used in a while (also not so great).

GM has a few different designs on the market:
Buick V6: Old but reliable
GM 60 degree V6: Another oldie, but they got a little better in newer cars. Underpowered though.
Vortec V6: 3/4 of a Gen 1 350. Still made for full size trucks today. Not sure why, but I'd guess it's a cost thing.

Then you have the newer stuff like the "High Value" engines which your 3.5 falls under. Not too familiar with the newer stuff, but it has VVT. Power output is 210hp. Found in the Malibu, Monte, Impala. I'd still rather have this engine than one of the older ones for the simple fact that they probably get about 10-15 mpg better.

The other newer design is called "High Feature". This is your high performance V6 engine. Found in Cadillac, Malibu, Camaro, SUVs, Impala. Look for power to be around 300hp in anything with this family of engines. I'd bet this is your cream of the crop GM V6 just because of the vehicle list & power output.

Thanks Rago. JB

Ok, since it appears there are some F O R D drivers in the group and we're all adults, how about turning off the little 'furd' misspelling macro?

Thanks ---

I can't fault the 4.3 V6 in my pickup truck. It's just at 260,000 miles. Replaced the water pump about ten years ago, and the distributor along about that time too. Of course the Michigan salt/rust is getting at it nowadays, but overall, it doesn't owe me a dime...

A friend across the street from my house bought a used 2003 Furd van. I see that it has the conventional frame under it. We scrapped his last Chevy van, a '93 one ton. No frame under that Chevy. Inverted hat-sections spot-welded to the floor, was their idea of a frame. The rear springs came up through the floor in the back end when the body got rusty. A real piece of junk....we saved the engine, which ran fine (350) and saved the transmission, which in the one ton is a 4L80, a heavy duty trans.
So, most manufacturer's have built junk occasionally it seems, so it's hard to point the finger at just one.

jerry46765 wrote:Ok, since it appears there are some F O R D drivers in the group and we're all adults, how about turning off the little 'furd' misspelling macro?

Thanks ---

x2...

Want to talk about NOT join a Furd forum

I've owned two Furd products, a 2000 Contour and a 1995 Explorer, out of the 5 cars I've owned in 20 years. (a 76 Chevelle, an 86 Pontiac 6000-STE and the '77 Chevelle)

The Explorer is still my current daily driver and at 290,000 miles is also the highest mileage one, it's also been very good about not dying on the side of the road, uses a 1/2 a quart between 6,000 mile oil changes. I won't say it's been reliable since it hit 230,000 miles it's had some thing or another go wrong with it, but that first 210,000 miles it was rock solid and as reliable as the sun rise. Still looks brand new though.

The Contour was one I bought on a whim because the price was right, $200 bucks non-running. Charged up the battery, and it fired up on ancient gas (been sitting for 2-3 years) It had 80,000 miles on it when I got it. I drove it for a year, put a new set of tires on it, a timing belt (2.0 four) cleaned all the ash from the previous owner (smoker) fixed the broken power window switch, reconnected the door handle, a new window motor, new front speakers, swapped in a tach cluster, washed and waxed it to an inch of its life, drove it for a year, and then sold it. It was an ok commuter, but got miserable mileage for a 4 banger in traffic. I could almost match what it got in traffic with the Explorer (16mpg vs 19) I sold it a year later for 10x what I paid for it. It was not comfortable, and really a low-quality product, it had more brittle plastic than the 35 year old stuff in the Chevelle. Great motor, dumb as a post automatic transmission, fantastic handler, but not comfortable for tall people.

I'm not looking at a new Explorer, since just about every one made after 2001- when they went to IRS, sucks and doesn't feel as well built. I might get a Trailblazer or a GMC Terrain if I can find a good deal to replace the ancient Explorer.

texan01 wrote:I've owned two Furd products, a 2000 Contour and a 1995 Explorer, out of the 5 cars I've owned in 20 years. (a 76 Chevelle, an 86 Pontiac 6000-STE and the '77 Chevelle)

The Explorer is still my current daily driver and at 290,000 miles is also the highest mileage one, it's also been very good about not dying on the side of the road, uses a 1/2 a quart between 6,000 mile oil changes. I won't say it's been reliable since it hit 230,000 miles it's had some thing or another go wrong with it, but that first 210,000 miles it was rock solid and as reliable as the sun rise. Still looks brand new though.

The Contour was one I bought on a whim because the price was right, $200 bucks non-running. Charged up the battery, and it fired up on ancient gas (been sitting for 2-3 years) It had 80,000 miles on it when I got it. I drove it for a year, put a new set of tires on it, a timing belt (2.0 four) cleaned all the ash from the previous owner (smoker) fixed the broken power window switch, reconnected the door handle, a new window motor, new front speakers, swapped in a tach cluster, washed and waxed it to an inch of its life, drove it for a year, and then sold it. It was an ok commuter, but got miserable mileage for a 4 banger in traffic. I could almost match what it got in traffic with the Explorer (16mpg vs 19) I sold it a year later for 10x what I paid for it. It was not comfortable, and really a low-quality product, it had more brittle plastic than the 35 year old stuff in the Chevelle. Great motor, dumb as a post automatic transmission, fantastic handler, but not comfortable for tall people.

I'm not looking at a new Explorer, since just about every one made after 2001- when they went to IRS, sucks and doesn't feel as well built. I might get a Trailblazer or a GMC Terrain if I can find a good deal to replace the ancient Explorer.

i wouldnt get a newer trailblazer if i were you, out of all the current GM vehicles, they are probably the most difficult to work on, same goes for its GMC and buick counterparts, when you have to remove the front end to change a head light, you know you probably dont want it as a do it yourselfer

I love my HHR. For the money, it can't be beat. JB

trail blazers are decent, only ones we get in the shop are for misfires which are always bad coils, and the typical GM vent door actuators.

The HHRs are decent but the ones Ive driven just had no balls what so ever.

When I was looking at new pickups in '92, my guys at work gave me a hard time about always buying GM stuff, & said I should look at a Furd pickup. I did. Went to the Furd dealer, which was 1/4 mile from the Chevy dealer, and asked a salesman about a V-6 powered pickup. "yeah" he said, "we have some". We went out to the new trucks lot and got into a pickup. I drove it a bit, and noticed it sure wasn't very responsive. When I parked it, I asked to see the engine, which turned out to be an inline 6. That salesman was sure a dumbass, who didn't know a inline from a V6. Then I tried a V-6 Chevy truck, which had much more throttle response, and bought it. The Furd 300 inline 6 likely had more torque, but I didn't like the way it ran. Just a matter of opinion maybe....

Pila, the forums that cater to Furd pickups are full of both admiration and frustration of the 300 I6. The general consensus is that it will never win you a race, but you aren't going to stop it from doing it's job either.

There are one or two that I've heard of that put a turbo on one and immediately rectified the slow acceleration.

I put a turbo on a geo and it outran mustangs if that says anything...

pila wrote:When I was looking at new pickups in '92, my guys at work gave me a hard time about always buying GM stuff, & said I should look at a Furd pickup. I did. Went to the Furd dealer, which was 1/4 mile from the Chevy dealer, and asked a salesman about a V-6 powered pickup. "yeah" he said, "we have some". We went out to the new trucks lot and got into a pickup. I drove it a bit, and noticed it sure wasn't very responsive. When I parked it, I asked to see the engine, which turned out to be an inline 6. That salesman was sure a dumbass, who didn't know a inline from a V6. Then I tried a V-6 Chevy truck, which had much more throttle response, and bought it. The Furd 300 inline 6 likely had more torque, but I didn't like the way it ran. Just a matter of opinion maybe....

ill agree with you there, the 80's 90s Furd stuff was sure lacking in the throttle response, we got a 92 f250 and that thing is a turd in the power department, but its lasted forever, no leaks, no nothing, its the 7.3 idi though, i plan on putting a banks sidewinder kit on it with a bigger exhaust, according to my research, that should put it about on the same level (slightly better power numbers) than the new 7.3's, but with 2-3 mpgs better

JB2wheeler wrote:I love my HHR. For the money, it can't be beat. JB

the hhr seems like a pretty solid vehicle, their pretty easy to work on and i LOVE that ecotec motor, for a 4 banger, its got some get up and go.

A co-worker of mine had an HHR and it was nothing but trouble for him, the spindle cracked in half twice with 30K and 60K on it and GM would not replace it under warranty, said that is had occurred through driver negligence, he took it too a metallurgist and it was proven to be a bad casting so finally GM did the right thing, but 20K later it snapped again. He dumped it shortly thereafter.

Biomedtech wrote:A co-worker of mine had an HHR and it was nothing but trouble for him, the spindle cracked in half twice with 30K and 60K on it and GM would not replace it under warranty, said that is had occurred through driver negligence, he took it too a metallurgist and it was proven to be a bad casting so finally GM did the right thing, but 20K later it snapped again. He dumped it shortly thereafter.

Hmmmm.... I knew a guy here who bought a new Furd Ranger when they first came out back in the '80s and his spindle did that and caused a wreak. He sued Furd and won. JB