You haven't been paying attention. While you weren't looking Ford has been
building engines for many years that COMMONLY go 200,000 miles or better
before the first overhaul.
Don't believe it?
Next time you see an older model F450 with the 7.6L gas V8, ask the guy
driving it how many miles it's got.
How long's this been going on? Oh, I don't know...at least a couple of
decades I guess.
The 7.5L V8 has been out of production for several years now. It's been
replaced by a slightly smaller 6.8L V10. That engine is expected to have at
least similar life-to-overhaul potential.
Sorry to burst your strongly held conviction that everything made in the US
is junk.
Pat
PS - By the way, where do YOU work? Do you personally make any kind of
consumer product? Remind me not to buy anything made by somebody like
yourself.
I make quite a few things myself, all of excellent quality, but then with my
own projects cost is no object, at least relative to mass produced items.
I'm not sure why you'd want to not buy something made by somebody who's an
extremely anal retentive perfectionist but that's their problem. If everyone
was like myself, everything would be very well made, easy to service and
consequently relatively expensive.
Not everything made here is junk, but sometimes I do wish we could return to
a time when Made in the USA was something to be proud of, these days most
things made here are competing with cheaply made overseas stuff so quality
drops to keep the prices down.
I've owned a number of domestic vehicles, a couple of them were Fords, I've
always done all my own mechanical work and I end up doing it for friends
too. Yes a few engines made here have been pretty good, I've seen a few V6's
and V8's with over 200k on them, domestic Diesel engines are also often very
good, but I've had poor experience with domestic gasoline engines, helped
replace a couple big block V8's that were very tired at around 145k, helped
out with two different Taurus transmission swaps, they'd died at around 130k
and I've heard of many more, my '88 Ranger pickup was falling apart at 95k
miles, burned and leaked oil, transmission was notchy, clutch was starting
to slip, the Escort I had for a while before that had around 170k and was
burning oil and smoking badly, power seatbelts were broken, interior panels
falling apart, not exactly confidence inspiring.
Then I got my Volvo, '87 740 Turbo, it drives almost like a new car, the
interior has held up very well, paint still looks good, at 260k miles it
runs excellent, doesn't burn any oil, all the accessories work, I was sold.
When 200k becomes the norm and 300k not unheard of, then perhaps I'll look
again at domestic cars, but I had my own experience with them and it was
negative, I've driven a number of fairly new ones and have not been
impressed with the overall fit and finish, there's just no comparison to the
better European and Japanese stuff, maybe some day that'll change, I don't
yet see it coming.
.