Question about piston slapping in Vortec Engines

[MNgopher]

Hoestly, I wouldn't worry about the potential for slapping that much. As has been pretty well pointed out, while it does happen, it isn't even closr to everyone, but the ones who have make a lot of noise.

A far as the "poor" '97-02 Ford owners, I think they are doing fine. Our fleet at work has quite a few slapping '97-99 5.4l V8's at well over 200,000 miles now. It sure isn't affecting reliability! Not one has had an engine cracked open for repairs. None of our newer trucks have had it either.

Any of the current crop of Full size trucks are excellent. Ford is a bit down on power, Toyota lacks in the size department, Nissan has some looks that will take some getting used to, Dodge still has to live down drivetrain issues from the past, and the Chevy has the disadvatage of being the oldest design of the group. They all have pluses and minuses!

 

[Schmoe]

I had the Ford's in mind when I typed that. The Avalanche......one word....YUCK.

 

[JohnBrowning]

Schmoe, Next time one is behind you a couple of car lengths take a good look at it in the rear view mirror. The plastic cladding sticks out so much that it makes the tires seem to be way under neath in inborad from the vechiles. It almost looks like the old "DUCK" or "DUC" amphibious vechiles that the Army used dureing Korea and Vietnam! I laugh everytime I see one comeing or going. I guess that the designers had never heard of "tumble home"? It almost reminds me of the early Ford Rangers.

Today I was looking at a Colorado and the flares are take up 1/2 of the fender! I was thinking that maybe they should have had Rubbermaid make the entire fender for them next time!

 

[Schmoe]

Couldn't agree with you more bro!!! Like I said, I had Ford in mind when I made those comments. At least their trucks STILL look like a truck. Face it, someday all trucks will have so many different parts on it, it will be made by the same company.

 

[Chris B.]

Plastic does seem to be on the rise on every brand! A few good things about plastic cladding is it resists rust and dents better then sheet metal. If you take the viehacl off road or where tree branches can hit it it won't scratch or chip like paint will.

I was at a national Karate toutnament several years ago and Saturn was a sponsor. They had a bran new SC2 that you could kick as hard as you wanted to and if you could break, dent or crack the door Saturn would give you a new car! I tried it with no luck and some guys that were HUGE kicked the little car and NOTHING happened! These are people who know how to kick and that car shook like crazy but even the strongest biggest fighter could not break or crack it!!!! The paint starburst but that was all. Really impressive, modern thermaplastics are super strong!

There is a plastic called G10 that is starting to be used in cars and has a tinsle strength of 55,000 psi which is getting stronger then some steels!

 

[supraturbo]

If your in the market for a new truck do yourself a favor and try the Nissan Titan. I recently purchased at titan and can honestly say there isn't another truck thats even close when comparing 1/2 ton pickups. In all the the truck comparo's the chevy has consistantly finsihed a distant 5th and was by far my least favorite out of the trucks I test drove, I liked the dodge hemi, but it felt slugginsh with a lazy transmision compared to the Titan, the New Ford F 150, geez after driving the titan and the hemi I had to pop the hood to verify there was really a V8 in it and not a V6, nice interior in the ford but after looking at the f 150 forums they have lots of issue's, not that the titan doesn't but i'd take the fm radio issue with the titan over the mechanical issue's ford is having. With me it came down to the tundra and the nissan, Was thinking maybe I could get a tundra cheaper than the nissan but that was not the case and i'm a very happy camper with my titan 4X4.

 

[Chris B.]

The Titan is a strong truck but it is slower then a 6.0 Vortec. I saw these 2 race from a stop and the 6.0 was pulling on the Titan by quiet a bit. Also I own a 5.3 reg cab silverado and have raced my buddys Titan (same truck as above) and we were dead even. His is heavier with the extened cab though. The other Silverado with the 6.0 was faster then both of us and all he has is and intake and full exhaust. There even was a 4.6 Ford in the mix that was not to much behind us at all!

All in all when you get into this class these trucks will do just about the same work as well.

 

[Schmoe]

You guys that "test" drove the trucks. Did you at least compare rear-end ratios to see if they were evenly matched for a "true" comparison????
The rear ends is what determines if the truck will take off like a scolded dog or if it will pull your house at 80 mph down the interstate. There are also different transmissions to choose from. You get me a F150 and Titan that are evenly matched in all aspects and I'll smoke any Titan. You can't tell me that there is no comparison on the quality between a F150 and a Titan? I think Nissan should stick with their light trucks and get out of the large truck market.

 

[DEWFPO]

I test drove the new Titan, the 04 F-150 and the 04 Chevy 1500 and 2500 HD all within 2 weeks.

The Titan had the most well balanced and good sounding powertrain. A well balanced vehicle for it's size. Felt nimble and predictable. The low 1st gear in the 5 spd auto helps a lot off the line. It had a 3.73 locker. The interior felt and looked cheap IMHO.

The Ford had the best interior and creature comforts. Had a 3.73 locker, 4 spd auto; but the engine didn't feel as powerful as the Titan or the Chevy 6.0. Of course both the Titan and the Ford had a 5.4 so the 6.0 'should' feel stronger.

The Chevy 5.3 didn't feel any more or less powerful than the Ford 5.4. The rides felt about the same between the two. The Chevy felt and looked like old technology by comparison. But that probably won't last long. The bar has been raised.

The Chevy 2500HD with the 6.0 and 4.11 gears felt the most powerful at ANY and ALL speeds. but lacked in refinement and interior appointments.

It all depends on what you want to use the truck for.

The perfect rig for me would be the Ford interior, either the Chevy or Ford exterior, the Titan drivetrain with the Chevy 6.0.

Oh well.

DEWFPO

 

[supraturbo]

quote:

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Originally posted by Schmoe:
You guys that "test" drove the trucks. Did you at least compare rear-end ratios to see if they were evenly matched for a "true" comparison????
The rear ends is what determines if the truck will take off like a scolded dog or if it will pull your house at 80 mph down the interstate. There are also different transmissions to choose from. You get me a F150 and Titan that are evenly matched in all aspects and I'll smoke any Titan. You can't tell me that there is no comparison on the quality between a F150 and a Titan? I think Nissan should stick with their light trucks and get out of the large truck market.

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That pretty funny, there is absolutely no comparison between the nissan 5.6 and the ford 5.4 when it comes to power output. BTW the only gear options the titan has are 2.96(similer to a 4 spd. auto with 3.73's) and 3.36(same as a 4spd w/ 4.11) Sorry but the ford is a pig, i've got a bunch of contractor friends that recently bought the new ford and none of them are happy campers, some have had reliabilty issue's, all say it has no power and get horrible gas milage. I've also driven the ford and your not fooling me with your "my f-150 will smoke your titan" Just drive the titan before you start spouting off, thats all i ask. Whats funny is the toyota tundra with its 240h.p. engine runs almost exact 0-60 and 1/4 et's and traps. When your f-150 can pull a 7.6 0-60 time and a 15.6 1/4 mile, than we can start debating which one is more powerful. It gets even uglier when towing when boating magazine awarded the Titan "tow vehicle of the year" 0-60 towing a 8000lb trailer, titan = 20.8 sec. f-150=26.8 sec. somebody is not telling the truth on power output and considering the silverado with a 5.3 did the same run in 23 sec. you tell me what truck was a tad optimistic on the output #'s.l The F-150 is a good looking truck with a good looking interior, but the good all ends there sorry.

 

[Schmoe]

Gee, that's pretty funny too!!! Maybe you New Hampshire boys get different kinds of Ford than those down here. I have test driven the Titan, which is pretty dang close to the word Triton, and they suck. They look like an apartment on wheels. I can see your biased as you more than likely own a Toyota based on your screen name. The Titan does not have as much interior space as the F150. If they'd put a 2.96 rear end on the Ford, they would be eating Titan's for breakfast. Towing, a few seconds difference, but what rpm is that motor turning? I don't know, but if it has the tow package, then I'm almost willing to bet that it does not have that 2.96 rearend, especially towing 4 tons. If the Ford is such a pig, then why is it still the number one selling truck? Lot's of pig owners out there?

 

[MNgopher]

The real reason the Ford feels slow is the fact the new truck is awfully heavy - nearly 500 lbs more than the design that preceeded it. So even though the 5.4 recieved an upgrade, that was all lost in additional weight.

Anyone think the nice interior and better ride came without any weight penalties?

And I didn't buy a pickup truck to own something that goes fast

That partially explains why I have a 4.6 under the hood of my F150 - not the 5.4.

Truly every truck offered in the 1/2 ton class has something to offer.

 

[Schmoe]

Forgot, for the speedier version, jump in a Lightning, 5.4l, supercharged, 0-60 in about 6 secs.

 

[supraturbo]

quote:

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Originally posted by Schmoe:
. You get me a F150 and Titan that are evenly matched in all aspects and I'll smoke any Titan. You can't tell me that there is no comparison on the quality between a F150 and a Titan? I think Nissan should stick with their light trucks and get out of the large truck market.

---

Thats the point there is no such thing as an evenly matched F-150 vs. titan. There is large amount of ignorance in your comments towards the titan, first off why would nissan want to just stick to light duty trucks when with there first attempt they are at the top of the full size truck food chain. Titan has won more industry awards and been awarded more "truck of the year" awards from major publications then the new F-150, but maybe your right they should just make small trucks. Now to address the comment that your F-150 can smoke a titan, first off in the popular mecahnics truck shoot out the Tundra beat the ford in 2 of the 3 measured accelleration runs, the tundra was faster in 40-70 mph passing and 0-60. The Ford was last in all accelleration runs exept 1/4 mile where it came in 2nd to last. The Titan is nearly 2 sec. faster 0-60 than the ford and a full second and 5 mph faster in the 1/4. Also with 1000lbs of ballast in the back the titan was still faster than an empty ford in all 3 measured runs so I don't want to hear the weight excuse again. Check it out here: http://popularmechanics.mondosearch.com/cgi-bin/MsmGo.exe?grab_id=23&EXTRA_ARG=&CFGNAME=MssFind%2Ecfg&host_id=42&page_id=1383424&query=nissan+titan&hiword=titan+TITANIC+TITANS+niss an+NISSANS+

The Titan plain and simply wipes up the tar mac with the F-150, it gets even worse when towing. I don't mean to dog your truck but you needed to be put in your place when you started dogging mine with zero facts. You might like your truck, but don't like it for its power output compared to the competiton, cause if thats the case maybe you should be driving one of those light duty nissan pickups you were talking about.

[ April 04, 2004, 01:54 PM: Message edited by: supraturbo ]

 

[Schmoe]

Here are some other observations that have made me stick with domestic trucks:
1. The Titan is tuned for premium fuel only.
2. The Titan is Nissan's top of the line pulling machine. Lets compare that to Ford, Chevy, and Dodge's top of the line diesel pulling trucks. The Nissan does not hold a candle to those for pulling power.
3. Just saw a commercial for the new Titan PU and it's comparable Nissan SUV. The commercial shows the hoods closing in some sort of rythem. Every time the hoods close the grill wobbles and headlights shake.
Of course, all comments made by this user are strictly his own. I've always said to each his own and if you like what you got, cool. Enough said.

 

[Chris B.]

I saw the same commerical and you are right, the Nissan had several parts wiggling quiet a bit. I wonder how Nissan could have missed that before it went to TV, it really is noticable and made the front end and rear end look like it was flimsy junk. I just checked my hood and slammed it down and everything is solid as cab be on my truck(Chevy) and on my Camaro just 1 plastic insert above the bumber vibrates a bit when you shut the hood.

 

[ryansride2017]

SupraTurbo:

I don't know how someone can slam the Titan when in it's first model year it has already gained such recognition. I'm surprised Schmoe didn't do a little research before making those comments. Nissan's 5.6L engine is impressive and one heck of a first attempt into the full-size truck market. Comparing stock, mass produced half-ton trucks, it's at the front of the class for pulling power!!