1986 f150 with a efi 302 Windsor is this a good reliable work truck
Asked by Helton1990 Aug 14, 2018 at 12:22 AM about the 1986 Ford F-150
Question type: Maintenance & Repair
So I'm picking up a 1986 F150 with a 302 Windsor
in it and I was wondering if this is a strong engine
and a good truck for work I'm a new business
owner and will be using this thing to hail tools and
take it on dump runs and stuff it's a single cab XLT
5 Answers
As long as its mechanically sound, has a good cooling system and has good compression then yes the Windsor will take almost anything you can throw at it. It's a decent workhorse and there's ALOT of upgrades available for it
It can be reliable if it is in good shape. It may take a good bit of driving to sort it out before it is truly reliable.
Helton1990 answered 6 years ago
Oh also I was wondering I read something that the 86 F150 wasn't all wheel drive vehicle is there any truth to this
I couldn't think of a single Ford in 86 that was awd but im sure there was a 4wd model available
The engine is over thirty years old and the level of maintenance/mileage is unknown. As someone else stated you will have to drive it for a while to see if any bugs are present. You can look at the condition of the coolant to give you an idea. Does it look brown and like mud? Does it smoke when running? Does it miss? How does it accelerate? You really don't know. As a point of reference I sold my 1951 Ford a few years ago I owned for 46 years. Ran like a clock without any major engine work since new.
