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00:00 Intro
00:41 Inline-6 design
01:15 Ford’s history of the I-6
02:00 Ford 240 & 300
02:50 Differences
03:26 Lifespan of the 240
04:14 300’s features
05:08 Power rating
06:18 Applications of the 300
06:51 Ford 300 Industrial features
08:23 The latest iterations
09:10 A sum-up
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2:24 say it with me: aluminium
@@My-Opinion-Doesnt-Matter Brits say aluminium, American aluminum. I am neither 🙃
@@VisioRacer if you're not American than you have no excuse to say it incorrectly.
@@My-Opinion-Doesnt-Matter And I am not a Brit, either. With all respect, I can say it whatever way I want
@@VisioRacer you can, but it wouldn't make it right. If you're confused, just ask anyone from your country (or any country in the world except the USA) and they'll tell you how to say aluminium correctly.
I've never met a farmer who didn't absolutely gush about the Ford 300 if you brought it up in conversation. Anyone who has ever owned one has nothing but the highest praise for these engines.
Had my hands on one of my favorite generators at a customer site last week. Old mid 60s Onan with a 240 ford on it. So smooth like a sewing machine,the most problem I've had with it is junk aftermarket points sets.
As a farmer I can confirm. You can't find a tougher engine and they start so easy even in cold weather.
@@Zach-ju5vi the 300-I6 is a testament to ford engineering ,, I own numerous machines with these engines ,,,i'm a farmer myself and rebuild old power equipment ,,the wood chipper is probably the most impressive machine i own with a 300-6 ,,it'll keep up with any 100HP diesel machine and the only chipper i have seen that will beat it is another gas powered machine with a 460 big block ford engine,,it's a monster vermeer 12 inch cutter that originally had a 3126 caterpillar engine ,,and it's go so much power that you can't slow it down
@@Zach-ju5vi Yep, Dad had a 66-240 pick-up, colder it got the easier it started I swear.
@@brentwalters8921 A previous owner put a 240 in my '77 F150, and that engine takes forever to warm up! But I love it and want to stroke it to 300.
The Ford 300 inline 6, the Chevrolet inline 6, the AMC/Chrysler 4.0 inline 6, and Chrysler slant 6 are 3 engines I have seen just run for decades and hundreds of thousands of miles with just the most basic work. Love them all.
only thing I didn't like about the slant 6 was the intake manifold. That was a hell of a lot of cast iron hanging out there in space.
Slant sucks... it shouldn't be mentioned as one on the greats at the table.
Yep. I should've mentioned the Chrysler slant six, too.
@@oscarbear7498 The entire automotive world disagrees, you need counseling.
The AMC 4.0 was amazing!
From Leo: I was a Mechanic at a company that ran 19 and 26 passenger commuter vans to the airport. The only modification we did to the Ford 300 ci engine was a small engine oil cooler. Our projected life was 250,000 miles, and they easily made the 250K mile mark. We kept a few older ones as substitutes when the newer ones were scheduled for maintenance. Those substitutes had well over 300,000 miles. The 300 Ford is a very durable engine.
I have a '91 F150 sitting at 310k. It has a tiny amount of bottom end noise but otherwise runs like a champ. Someday I'll flip the engine and do all the bearings.
Speaking of bottom end noise, my 88 300 has 480,000 on it, and it rattles on a cold start, but in my case it's not the rod bearings, it's the piston wrist pins. They are prone to rattling on high mileage 300's. If i run light weight oil in it and cruise down the highway at 2500 to 2800 rpm, the wrist pins rattle soo bad that it sounds like I have an old 7.3 power stroke diesel under the hood. So at my mileage, I run 15W40 year round and it's quiet as a church mouse. Mine is also eventually getting pulled for a rebuild, but I'm in no hurry, it still runs great, and I have to get a few other projects out of the way first
What people might also fail to understand is these engines were designed during a time when engines and even the cars weren't designed to last anywhere near that long. Odometers only went to 99,999 miles because a vast majority of people would have been done with the vehicle by then and it was going to be junk. 300 to 400K for these engines is probably equivalent to 3 or 4 million miles for today's workhorse engines, which is still incredible for even diesel territory.
Ford definitely did it right back then. Our 7.3 powerstroke has 600k on it and still runs perfect
Add an auxiliary Oil filter and it would probably still be running fine in some place and time.
Although no longer made, the American Motors 232 and 258 straight 6 engines were rock solid as well. Very nice video.
Back in the day, each of the major manufacturers had at least one rock solid inline six. You already mentioned AMC contribution, Chevy had the 250/292, Dodge had the 225, and so on. I wouldn't hesitate to own any of them
@kerryharrell8821 I agree,you could never go wrong with Any inline 6 engine.. they're economical,reliable, ran forever, and always seemed to start on those cold frigid days,when the big v8's- not so much.
In-line six engines in general seem to hold up well. I have GM, Ford and Chrysler examples. My oldest Chrysler example is an early flat head design. Still runs like a clock after over 70 years, never been opened up and doesn't burn oil.
232 was a Ford Engine in 54.
absolutely i own one
My dad had a work truck we called big grey. One of the final years of the big 6, dad drove it to 350k miles snd sold it to a guy that he knew. That guy daily drove it for 2 years until it got t-boned. Only thing it ever needed was spark plugs, oil changed etc. Engine was never opened up. Most we did to it was a clutch and a trans rebuild. This truck had a flatbed, hauled drywall all day.
Made it simple to last, be reliable and cheap, i assume. It would run awesome with all the tech nowadays. Im wonder, what would have happen if someone would have developed something like a variable valve lift for it, definitely possible.
It ran on high octane fuel all the time?
@@RohanSanjith nope. Regular. High octane will actually burn hotter and can cause issues in some engines. I think the low compression ratio of the big 6 would have made it OK tho.
@@RGV2300 look at the ford barra i6 from Australia. It is like the smaller 240 block with an overhead camshaft
@@nothanksguy High octane does not burn hotter. Higher octane fuel has less energy, and therefore produces less heat, which is why higher grade fuels are more resistant to engine knock. Please stop misinforming people.
I've had 4 300 i6s, it's one of my all time favorites. Considering we're still talking about them and they've been out of production for 26 years says something...
I’m with you. I have a 1995 F150 long bed. It has the 300, a 5 speed and absolutely no options, not even carpet. It makes the perfect work truck as you can hose the floors out. In the 80’s and 90’s you just about couldn’t buy a bad truck. Dodge was probably the worst of the big 3 but Ford and GM were both using engines they had been making for decades. The 300/302/351/460 were all good choices, same with GM 4.3/305/350/454. The most miles I personally saw was on my Dads 1995 GMC Sierra. It had the 350 and he put over 400,000 miles on it. The only things it ever needed were a water pump and alternator. He ended up selling it to a landscaper for maybe $500. I wouldn’t be surprised at all if it’s still on the road to this day
I had a 1984 ford 1/2 ton 4x4 shortbed. 4.5x rearend gave me 12-15 mpg. It pulled my trailer fine but the mpg forced me to trade it for a Chevy 350 1/2 ton.
@@donaldindividual-1 Exactly. My experience with an inline 6 was while it may have had the torque, the mileage per gallon sucked.
They kept making them in Australia for a few years after U.S. production stopped.
Yes, it says "they don't make them like they used to", thanks to that stupid EPA, CAFE standards, and DOE
My first truck was a 300 straight 6. You weren't going to accelerate very quick, but it had so much torque and was so dependable.
Haha, I had an 86, 300, 4 in the floor. Do not think I found much anything that was comparable that could accelerate as quickly up to 2nd gear, and I never revved it over 3k. That torque would just kick it up to speed. Out ran a cop in it with a dual jetski trailer.. the speedometer was off after 2nd gear, as in about 15mph faster than shown haha (slipped out of his jurisdiction before he could turn around), never knew it every seal and piece of rubber in the doors were gone, was quieter with the windows down haha. It did have a 3.08 ratio. Still would pull like a damn tractor.
Years ago I had a Ford Falcon with a straight 6, don't know what size it was but it was sure reliable. I remember listening to the car guys, Click and Clack, someone asked them what to look for in a used car. One of them responded, " if you open the hood and can see the ground, buy it". The Falcon was that kind of car.
Ron, in 1968 my father and I drove his 64 falcon from San Francisco to Raleigh North Carolina. The tappets sounded loud but it still ran just fine. A month later a compression test revealed a cracked piston! Oh, well😂
Old Ford parts guy here. The cars had the small block 6 either 200 or 250 ci.... The trucks had a larger block 240 or 300 ci. These were also used as industrial engines in swathers and other equipment.
The Ford falcon had a in line 6 either a 170 with 5 main berings or a 200 with 7 main berings. Had a 1964 falcon sprint with a 260 v8. Could have been a 289 v8 in 1965. The earlier 60s they used the 170. These are different blocks than the 240 and 300. Had a jeep cj5 with a 258 6 and the weakness was the value train but lower was great. Shaped to the Ford 300 with electric fuel injection which upped the game.
We have an old 300 in our silage bagger that was made in the very late 70s-early 80s. Sometimes we forgot about the leaky radiator and ran it for days. Still runs to this day with zero problems, not even a misfire
The majority of airport tugs still use this engine.
Lots of them run pumpjacks in the oil and gas industry as well running off fuel gas directly from the well
Yes, mostly the ford, we used a restriction plate with about a 7/16 passage. Very reliable. I miss them.
And the belt loaders too
@@0004612 yes, the belt loaders were my favorite as the room to work on the motor.
I've seen aircraft luggage conveyor ramps with this engine also.
I have had a 300 in my Bronco for nearly 20 years now. It takes me anywhere and everywhere and is fantastic off-road. In 2018 I rebuilt it and it's putting out well over 200hp now. Such a blast to drive, and endlessly reliable. Great engine!!
The 300 is by far the most reliable engine to ever enter the market. I've seen trucks with these engines beat to hell and still work like they were new. This engine is an absolute unit and an amazing investment.
Not by far...the Chevy 292 is right up there...
@@dyer2cycle Chevy has a good straight 6 as well but the Ford 300 is the most popular, as Chevy's most popular engine is the 350 with the 454 in second and the predecessor of the 350, 327 in 3rd. I remember a guy saying how he was smoking all these 350s with his 327 but I couldn't help but laugh because even though it is still a nice engine it doesn't compare. Just like how the 350 and 5.3 are not even a close comparison.
the underpowered 225 lasted as long or longer. the 225 didnt get broken in till 150,000
Absolutely fact I had many over 300k plus @@maddhatter3564
Only one better than the 300-6 that I know of... the 200-6 (think 65 mustang)
I've owned and daily driven 3 of them. Two were well over 200,000 miles. AC worked great, they cruised at 65-70mph just fine. Pulled everything and were just great engines. I miss having one around honestly!
I've been daily driving mine to work at 75mph. Eats gas, but it's fine!
@@Jimmy_Watt with a 300 it all comes down to gearing and transmission. I pulled trailers with a 5 speed truck with a 31" tire and 3.55 gear and it was great. Conversely I had a 5 speed 4x4 with 33" tires and a 3.08 gear. 5th gear was reserved for tail winds on flat ground and down hills only!
I miss my old 300 2wd 5spd truck. Great daily driver truck. Good on gas too. Usually got 20-22 driving to work.
Thank you for finally giving this great, old reliable engine the credit & respect it is due. I still have the original 1965 F-100, with the 300 cid, (4.9L) "straight six", waiting to be restored. Dad received this factory new truck 2 months before I was born. Fond memories of learning to drive it on the farm & then to hi- school. 😎 Paul from S. Central Tx.
Thanks, Paul, enjoy!
I'm from cen tex too....Woodway. I love the 300, I turned a 93 f150 4.9 5speed into my daily work rig.
Excellent work. Strait six is awesome. I remember my dad telling me he liked the slant six> The gas shortage was a man-made event. There was not and is not an oil shortage.
Did someone tell you that the gas shortages weren't made by the oil producers? That's pretty much common knowledge to anyone who pays attention. The oil companies create product shortages by withholding crude production or refinery production. Whatever it takes for them to increase profits, despite the harm it does to the economy...
and from personal experience ive found that a 225 slant in a small(a body) car can easily make 35 mpg at highway speeds and outlast the car itself.
@@maddhatter3564 Yep, My buddy's old Valiant would go forever on a buck of fuel (back when you could get 4 gallons for a buck!)
@@87mini before my time gas was 81 cents a gallon when i started driving in 86.lowest mileage slant i had was a 66 dodge van with a 170, got 27mpg, out of a flying brick. lol
The OPEC oil embargo of the 70's was done for political reasons. For some reason, people seem to hate profit while it pays their wages. Only a cartel, such as OPEC, can have the power to control prices in the way you suggest. The cartels are the problem, not profit.@@87mini Indeed, in a free market, profit informs capital. It works for our benefit brining resources to the production and provision of the goods and services we, as consumers, want. That need to be taught and understood.
I read an article years ago in Car Craft about a guy who took a stock high mileage 300 i6, put a hi volume oil pump and SBC double valve springs in it, stuck a big single turbo on it, and went 10s in a Maverick with a c6 trans and 9 inch rear
Great video as always. My grandfather always bought trucks with 300 6's in them. When the news broke that 96 would be the last year, he bought another one. We still use it on the farm. Good old truck.
1996 model is extra nice, since it has OBD2 and mass air flow fuel injection. Starts easy, runs even smoother and more usable power, than the previous obd1 speed density fuel injection, that I also had. EFI models was noticably more powerful than previous carb models, from the smog era.
@@jhoncho4x4 But, as time takes it's toll, more crap to fail and as I can attest, once a '90's EFI ECM, sensor controlled system ages, racks up miles, and starts to give problems, only more problems follow, and are d@mn near impossible to fully straighten out..In the long run, I'd much rather have a 1970's-mid 1980's carb equipped 300, much easier to repair, diagnose, and bolt on new parts when needed...
I've been watching your videos for a long time. I genuinely want to congratulate you on your ever-improving English pronunciation skills. I recall you once apologized for your difficulties with it. I hear nothing but improvements. Well done, sir! Great videos, too!
Thank you, Eric!
Yessss, now that i pay attention to it it really did get alot better
absolutely amazing you ended up making a video about this. inline 6 is an absolute masterpiece of engineering..just enough of everything
As a gen tech ,I've got alotta love for the 300 Ford. That's because never have to fix them, the most issues I've had is water pumps going bad from lack of coolant changes. Kind of a good idea to replace your coolant more than once every 25yrs.
I've seen some major issues stem from coolant being left too long or left non existent (only water in a system, talk about eating it up from the inside out!) That thing eventually died of internal cancer. It still ran but the block, head would have needed complete machining to get the mating surfaces trued up and to be able to get it to seal again, that was after 350k miles. It still ran and drove but wouldn't hold coolant. Lol
This was also not a 300 i6. I've seen plenty but never had to work on any 300s.
Had to replace the head gasket at 140,000 miles on the 300 in a 1996 F150. Worked fine after that but then the rear main seal blew out @ 180,000.
Nah just whizz in the radiator now and then, clean her right out 😂
Woah woah woah let’s not get crazy now…
I had one of these engines in my F-150 and it had over 300,000 miles on it with perfect compression and it didn't burn a drop of oil. It also outlasted the truck because the frame on the truck rusted so badly that it was unsafe to drive and so I sold it for parts. The engine is now in another Ford F-150 and is still on the road. With that being said, having worked on many fleet trucks early on in my career I think that the Ford 300 is matched by the Chevy 292. The 292 is also an extremely tough inline 6. I think maybe the only advantage that the 300 has over the 292 is that it has a gear-driven cam shaft instead of a chain driven one. Regardless, you can't go wrong with either of them as they are both nearly indestructible and they make gobs of low-rpm torque which makes them perfect for trucks. I used to refer to my 300 cubic inch straight 6 as a poor man's diesel because it has the operating characteristics of a diesel truck engine. It only has low RPM Power with no mid-range to high RPM Power to speak of. As a matter of fact, at least in stock configuration, the only thing you do about 3,000 RPM is create needless noise. I know everyone is convinced that they need 450 horsepower to tow their bass boat, but I would take this engine or a Chevy 292 over any new light truck engine on the market today, gas or diesel. Because these engines were only made for one thing, and that was to get work done economically and reliably. It wasn't made to race, or to be fast, it was made to get work done. It was a tractor engine installed in a pickup truck. But that was back in the days when pickup trucks were tools to get work done, not luxury cars with a vestigal 4 ft bed that is almost useless.
I know the Chevy 250 is gear driven. Was the 292 chain driven? I don’t think that sounds right.
@VinnyMartello you are correct. I don't know why, but for some reason, while thinking about it, I was getting the timing parts mixed up in my head with the small Ford inline sixes and Chrysler slant sixes. The Chevy inline 6 is also used gears just like the Ford 240 and 300. To be fair, I worked at a fleet garage for many years, and we had tons of Ford 300 inline sixes. I like the Chevy inline 6 is too, but I don't have as much experience with them. I had a friend in high school with a 1977 Chevy Nova that had a 250 in it, and we replaced it with a 292. We did rebuild that engine, but that was back in the early 1990s. I must have mis-remembered it. It's funny, back in my high school days, we played around with a lot of inline sixes. I had a friend with a 1980 Ford Mustang that had the 200 cubic inch straight 6, which does have a timing chain. Also, I had a friend with a 1978 Plymouth Volare with a 225 slant 6, and that had a timing chain.
I’ve considered swapping out the 300 in my 1986 f150 flare side several times, but always talk myself out of it. The amount of low end torque it produces is insane. Coupled with the np435 4 speed, it’s unstoppable. I wouldn’t give it up for anything.
Just rebuild and boost it if you want more power. They can certainly take it, even more than 302's can.
My first vehicle purchase was a 1967 Ford pickup truck with a 240 Six Cylinder. I bought it in 1974 for $700 and I still own it today almost 49 years later, and it still runs as good as the day I bought it. They don't make them like this anymore for sure!
Mopar had the slant 6 and was an epic engine along with GM 292.
I agree, had them all. The small V8 of the era, Chevy 350, Chrysler 318-340-360 the fort 302 and 351 were all epic till they got smogged to death
@@scotthanson7888 - The 292 was strong but the slant 6 was noisy and gutless. It was the engine in the old blue hairs 78 pos dodge aspen LOL Scary thoughts from the 80's. Reliable but my little sisters big wheel was faster.
@@KlodFather I think it depends on gearing, I had a 65' Dodge D100 with the 225 slant six and manual transmission. It did great and had adequate power and torque.
Then Chrysler Australia put out the 245 and 265 Hemi 6 to replace the slant down under. 265 with triple webers is a beautiful engine
@@KlodFather The later ones may have been smogged to death, but in the early 60s when Chevy IIs got 283s and Falcons got 260s they couldn't keep up with Darts and Valiants running 225s. That was largely due to the two speed automatics in the Chevy and Ford, but also due to the fact that the 225 torque peak was at 1200 rpm and they launched form a stop as hard as a 318 up to about 15mph. I was raised in a Ford family and always thought that Ford could beat everything until I got some direct experience with Chrysler engines and transmissions. When I was n the army on the late 60s we had two staff 62 Plymouth staff cars in the motor pool. They were supposed to be turned in for replacement at 100K. The replacement would have been Chevys or Fords and the motor pool sargeant kept rolling back the speedometers until 1967 (over 300K on them) when we had Biscayne 283s forced on us. The Plymouths never required anything but plug and oil changes. I've still got a 73 Valiant I bought new that had 408,000 on it when we parked it because we had switched from sedans to minivans. Our highest mileage minivans at the moment have over 190,000 miles each on two of them, 3.8 and 4.0 Chryslers. Ford's Falcon 6s were notably weak things all around. No power and poor durabi8lity. But they certainly were cheap to produce and sold in huge numbers so Ford made tons of money with them.
One of the most charming aspects of the 300 was that it would start at -40 with no trouble. Absolutely reliable and Ford made 60 million of them so parts were cheap. The fiber timing gear was a complete pain to replace and may have been the weak link in the engine. The Carter YF carb was a good unit but way to small for the engine. It would stall the power output because you just couldn't get enough fuel/mixture through it to develop any high speed power. I love this engine! I have owned several.
My 96 starts the second I turn the key no matter how cold. Never uses any oil.
I always assumed that the fiberglass reinforced plastic gear was designed to shear teeth if something went wrong. With gear to gear timing and all the gears being steel the engine would destroy itself if something went wrong. 🤔🤓🍻
@@alsaunders7805 They get old, they get brittle, they break. It's just a matter of time. If something extreme enough to break a steel timing gear occurred timing gear would not be your biggest problem.
so it needs a carb and some timing eh? good time for some springs and cams while you're in there and she's good for the next 30 years.
The dinky carburetor helps insure that you will not overrev the engine or blow it up. Put high flow head,header exhaust,high capacity intake runners and big carbs,maybe a performance camshaft and the engines would probably blow up just like other performance engines in hot rods.
Very informative video. You do through research on most every topic that I've seen. Keep up the great work.
I put almost 700K on my Ford 300 (4.9L) In-line 6cyl. It was an 82 F150. It was an AMAZING pickup.
The 4.0 L Barra is well known to be 400,000 km lifespan and add a turbo and its got great torque and power. An Aussie favourite
can't forget an intech
ya i watch some Aussie channels and they really rave about the Barra
@@danhard8440 it's super reliable and super strong. A great engine. Aussie taxi for a good reason
Was that a ford designed motor?
@@easycomeeasygo8901 Yes, probably one of the best Ford designed/built engines. Ford built ,Geelong cast Cleveland were superior to the US made ones too.
For a while I had a '66 Ford F100 pickup. It had a 240, and when I changed the oil, I used to climb into the engine bay and stand next to the engine....
I have loved this channel for years and it has brought me much happiness and knowledge. Thank you! Please keep up the good work!
Thank you, Tim!
Thank you for doing a video on the Ford 300 straight 6. One of my favorite engines and tough as hell.
I had a 91 Ford truck and I could not kill that thing. I ripped the bed off the body with overloading it with steal pallets. Engine and manual transmission held up perfectly. I replaced clutch at 180k.
I just bought a f150 with the 300! It's a impressive engine, the torque under 2k rpm is crazy!
Also in those days, BMW was building their indestructible 3.5 liter straight six engines (213 CI) putting out 256 HP and 243 foot pounds of torque, stock. 158 MPH was pretty fast back then.
BMW made great motors back in the day. Seems like at some point in the last 20 years they hired a slew of subpar engineers to design their motors. They make decent power when running but it's not easy to keep those cars on the road without constant repairs
@@dilldowschwagginz2674bean counters at work is all..
I already know which one that is by the thumbnail! I have that engine in my truck and a rebuilt one on the shelf for another truck. So smooth you can't even tell it's running. Great topic!
Let's not forget the Chrysler Australia 6cyl hemi. A strong engine with its 7 bearing crankshaft.
The 265 was a gem, especially in the lighter Charger.
So happy to have a 1990 4.9L (300) steel gear drive, factory fuel injected. 130000 miles so far. It always starts. Very tough.
Yeah, they're tough. My 1994 E-250 has this engine. 378,000 on the odometer now and going for 500,000. If I treat it well, it'll make it.
if its like its forefathers its still got about 200k left in it
Great article. Couple of other pretty good straight 6's were the AMC 232 which was (I think) the first 6 to have 7 main bearings. Another was the Chrysler slant 6, just dead reliable. Another was the GM 292 6. I had one of those in my 1959 GMC 4x4. Just a great engine.
There was also a 265 Cubic Inch Hemi Australia Chrysler in the early 70’s. Top version had triple Webber Carburetors and was good for 300hp out of the box. Pity the car had average breaks and couldn’t go around corners that well but in a straight line you better come with some serious muscle.
The Jeep 4.0 straight six was an update of the 232 / 258 sixes from the earlier years. 4x4 fans rebuilding Jeeps combine the long stroke of the 258 with the larger bore of the 4.0 to create a 4.6 liter rebuild. The aftermarket now makes aftermarket heads for this combo.
@@billyjoejimbob56 we had a Rambler American (1964). When I was a kid. It said in big letters on the valve cover “7 Main Bearings “ I didn’t quite know what that meant at the time. But I remember telling my friends that our car had 7 main bearings. They didn’t know what that meant either so they pretended to be suitably impressed.
@@donparker1823 Interesting that the legendary mopar slant sixes had 4 main bearings, worked just fine and were very durable. Either approach works fine on an inline six if engineered appropriately! 😎
@@billyjoejimbob56 Dad bought a 1951 Packard Clipper straight 8 one time and drove the begueses out of it going hunting in So Utah from LA at every opportunity. The Clipper could make 110 MPH across Nevada (no speed limit then) but he wore it out. The straight 8 only had 4 main bearings so I think he was a bit gah gah about how over built the Rambler was.
As an American, i'm pissed at a few Aussie things from ford and gm there not making it here. The barra is one, the other is the holden ute (which is even same chassis as a pontiac). They even showed the damn holden ute as a possible upcoming chevy at the detroit auto show one year, but nope... and they even killed the model in Oz now. Bastards. 😂
Its always sad when the Australians sometimes get better stuff than the Americans. Its a shame all of the unique AU car models have been killed off.. (RIP to the Ford Falcon and Holden as a brand)
We love the Barra here in Australia and understand why you're pissed. kzhead.info/sun/dreme5SZaGJsgqM/bejne.html This is a barra put in an Australian built XW Ford Falcon that was built in about 1970kzhead.info/sun/Y5ehlqWDn2qujYk/bejne.html
One cool thing about the Ford 300 is that it has the same bore spacing as the small block. Drag racers have cut up Cleveland 4V heads and furnace brazed them together to make 6-cylinder heads. Those really made the 300 run. I respect that kind of "enginuity". GMC used to make a 302 I-6, 4.00" bore x 4.00" stroke. Too bad those didn't survive in production long enough to get EFI. Ford gets points for putting EFI on the 300 and keeping it in production until 1996. My Cummins 5.9 has 577,000 miles on it...
What year is your dodge? I’ve got a 91.5 and a 2004. Both with Cummins.
@@Sackmatters 2001 2wd 2500 5-speed manual
bro had to flex his truck rq
@@andyharman3022 right on. My 04 is a 4 door dually 6 speed manual. Love it to death. Head turner with the aluminum diamond plate flatbed. I’ve always liked the 2nd Gen rams.
@@lilporno6583 flex his truck? No one is flexing anything. Your name is embarrassing.
I had a 300 in the 70’s. It was truly indestructible and so reliable. Always started. Pulled what ever I wanted to tow.
Yes, good engine indeed. Survived for a while longer by the Jeep 4.0 / 4.2 six, also a reliable powerplant.
Yep, I don't want a Wrangler after the last TJ wityh the 4.0...after that, they got too refined and sissy-fied..especially when they brought out the 4 door ones...
I've had 3 of the Jeep 4.0 engines. One of them in particular had no reason to continue running, but it did. I was young and loved beating the crap out of my wrangler. I ended up rolling it, getting it back on 4 wheels and driving it home. The only body component that was salvageable was the tailgate. Good times!
@@dyer2cycle same answer when someone asks me about updating my 2006 TJ. I’ll be rebuilding my 77 4.0 hemi next 👍🏻
I had a 99 xj that I installed a brand new rebuilt engine in for a few grand back in 2018. The 4x4 worked well and all around was a reliable car that just needed some restoration and upgraded suspension. I let it go for $900 in 2019. If only I could go back in time and make better decisions.
That’s what I got in mine. Got a 2000 xj with that amc 4.0
Yup, always heard good things about in line 6s. They used to say they would last forever, easy and cheap to work on. A wonderful piece of engineering 👍👌
Back during "Cash for Clunkers," someone traded in a truck with a 300 at a local dealership. As part of the processing, oil was drained, and a fiberglass liquid was run through the engine to destroy them. The 300 had to have this done 4 times before it would lock-up.
Yep. That's why we called 'em "cockroach motors". Can't kill 'em!
Same thing here. I am a retired dealership tech. The 300 six just wouldn’t die. It broke my heart to see this done. So wasteful.
Yep we did the same thing. I remember looking at the row of cars to get destroyed and telling the guys the f150 would beat them all if it had a 300. Needless to say it outlasted all the others time 10
Cash for clunkers thank you Obama los3r p1g
@@derrickwoods2803 actually cash for clunkers got its start in the late 80's early 90's out in states like California, as a voluntary program. The large oil corporations would buy them up and crush them, stating that they were gross polluters. By doing so they would get a credit from the state and the EPA, for every car they crushed, and it didn't matter if they ran or not. By doing this the large oil corporations, would get a credit which in turn could be traded like stocks on the stock exchange. All of this was done so they didn't have too or could delay, cleaning up the pollution from their own refineries. And no Obama's program didn't help either, because a lot of good clean running used vehicles were destroyed. So people could collect a credit towards the purchase of a new only, and not a late model used car that still met their emissions standards. The problem with this was, they only had to destroy the motor to get the credit. And not the whole vehicle in which they did. And was the reason why you couldn't find used parts back then and when you did they were expensive. Over the years many states have tried passing these clunker bills into law. But thanks to S.E.M.A., and old car enthusiasts everywhere, the vast majority of these bills, never made it into law. Any voluntary government funded program such as these. Can automatically be turned into a law at their discretion any time they want to with no explanation necessary. And the same thing also applies to those state / government funded buy back programs for weapons as well.
You and your viewers may find it interesting to know that a few people have started chopping up and welding Chevy LS heads together and bolting them to this engine. There's a few videos on KZhead of it. I'm sure it'll become more and more popular over the years. It gives you a fantstic flowing cross-flow aluminum head on a bulletproof block.
Years ago back in the 70's There were a drag racer or two who cut up Boss 351 Cleveland heads and installed it on a 300 Ford..Think it had set some records which may still stand today..I think the one guy who did it was Tom Sizemore...
Yes to both of them things. I have heard of people saying that they use Chevy v8 distributors on them. I had the 87 with the first year of efi so I never got to try.
Sounds like a lot of work on the Ford block. Wouldn't it make more sense on a GM 292 six? It has the same bore spacing as an LS V8. 😁
@billyjoejimbob56 GM's 292 is just as good an engine as Fords 300. It just wasn't as popular in light duty trucks and therefore is easily forgotten about
That sounds like a project those drunk Russian guys from "Garage 54" would do.
I had an Econoline van with a 240. I added headers and dual exhaust. I also bastardized the intake manifold to use two one-barrel carbs. It performed great. I was towing a race car with it, and I eventually swapped in a 300 short block and kept the old 240 head. Finally, I replaced the three speed stick with a four speed, and made it work with the column shift. It would tow my race car almost anywhere in 4th gear, it passed smog, and it got better mileage than the original 240.
where did you put the reverse, lol. ive seen a few 4 speed column shifters (all homebrew of course) makes it harder to steal even if you know the 3 on the tree layout.
@@maddhatter3564 I modified the column to shift just like a normal 4-speed, with reverse where you would expect it.
Thanks again for your great reporting. I agree with you on the reliability. The gear driven cam and the 7 main bearings made the engine seem bullet proof.
Thank you again for touring us through worldwide engines. Your videos are as always full of great details and very well presented. As car enthusiast, this channel is one of the best
really like these in-depth documentaries. The amount of work to gather all the historical and technical details is impressive.
My pleasure, Damien, thanks!
@@VisioRacer - Left you a note about fords endeavor to upgrade the 300 that failed. You should do a part 2 on that engine. I am going to ask some old timers and see what they know about it.
I love how at 0:00 the auto-generated closed captioning thinks he’s saying “When discussing sex on the engines…” Great video! Very informative.
When I was a kid. About 55 years ago, there was a dirt track car in the northeast. Ran as a limited sportsman. 300 ford 6. Crazy manifold., and carb setup. Was a screamer.
My first vehicle was a 1984 Ford F150 with the 4.9/300 I6 engine. It wasn't the most powerful, nor did it get great fuel mileage. It had over 300,000 miles on it when I sold it to a local farmer. He is still using it as a farm truck to this day.
My old farmer neighbor still has his 69 ford in service as a farm truck it's whole life. I think it's got like 30k on it ,but that's miles from tooling around a 175 acre dairy farm.
I had two of them on in 1982 in a 1966 Ford van (first vehicle i was 16) and in an early 90's 4x4 Ford pickup...great engine
I still run a 69 ford with a 300 in it. Original engine. Just passed 450 thousand miles. Still rocking. 👍
Fun fact: Ford had an experimental program with these engines. There were engines built with crossflow heads, aswell as a turbocharger. The models that got turbos could keep up with a 460. The crossflow head is extremely rare today, and no turbocharged variants remain.
The crossflow head development work would end up getting used on the 200/250 in Australia, a cast iron version (which suffered from cracking issues) would be used from '76-'80 followed by 2 different alloy version from '80-'92 (Alloy Head I pre EFI, Alloy Head II post September '82 with either a 2 barrel DCNF Weber carb or EEC IV EFI).
i dont doubt that if the turbo was properly matched. all inlines have massive torque advantage over the v engines
Have you ever done a video on the all aluminum Buick 215 V8? It's a fascinating little motor that sounds incredible. GM sold the design to Rover and they developed it into the early 2000's. It is also the basic design used in the 3.8 V6 that GM used forever. I've got one (215) in a 63 skylark convertible. I think the motor is worth a video of it's own. I believe Oldsmobile also used a turbo version of this motor as early as 62. Thanks as always for your work.
The British got the rights to the design, it became the Rover V8. Used in pretty much anything that was British and had a v8 (Land Rovers, Rover cars, MGB V8, etc) up to the mid 1990s. In fact, they are so common, that whereas people in the US do 350 SBC swaps for EVERYTHING including making a v8 out of a Miata, the British use the old Buick engine for the same purpose.
In 1965 Jack Brabham and Australian engineering company Repco took the slightly stronger Oldsmobile version, with an extra head stud per cylinder, and developed it with overhead camshafts and new heads etc into a three litre Formula One engine that won Jack Brabham the Formula One Championship in 1966. Then in 1967 it gave Brabham cars a one two in the formula one championship with Denny Hulme of New Zealand taking the honours. So beating Ferrari and all the other exotic make engines and cars behind the Brabhams. No driver since or in the future look like developing their own car to win a Formula One championship. Brabham also won the Formula Two championship in 1966 but with a little known Honda one litre engine. Jack often winning both the F1 and F2 race on the same day. Not bad for a discarded GM block.
The development of the Repco Brabham engine : kzhead.info/sun/pMymg76DinWGnac/bejne.html
Yeah, the old Buick V8 from the late 50's is a great engine. I'm sitting in a 1997 LR Discovery with a 4 liter in it now. Problems do occur, though... Leaky head gaskets, especially if it's ever overheated. The press-fit steel cylinder liners also can slip... Solution is a top hat style liner, but that means a full rebuild with a lot of machining. By the way, the all aluminum V8 weighs about the same as a 2.1 liter 4 cylinder in my other car, a Triumph TR4. Years ago I had a Ford van with the 300 in it. That was a great engine too. Wish I still had it! Someone else mentioned another great one I had even earlier, the Dodge slant 6, in another van. I took those engines for granted at the time, didn't appreciate how good they were. Not planning to ever sell the Disco with the V8. (P.S. you can buy an all aluminum 5.0 V8 crate motor from Ford Racing... But last time I looked they were over $15,000.)
They dropped this into a Morgan. Just imagine!
When I worked for Asplundh, the chipper we used had the Ford 300 as the power plant.
How do you pronounce that exactly?
@@pantherplatform Ass-plund.
There were two in my family. Mine was in a 65 Econoline 3/4 ton extended van, I had bought off the original owner, who was a carpenter. He had swapped in a 300 straight six at 138,000 miles after the original 240 was done. Plus it had a three speed automatic, plus being an E-300 it had a 4:11 posi, that helped it be almost unstoppable in snow, especially with the huge Firestone Town&Country M/S tires, along with a set of tire chains just in case. The second was in a 1995 F150 reg cab short bed 4x4, with a 5 speed with low hole 1st and OD 5th. That was a nice black with red interior truck, that had fantastic low end power.
I owned a 96' F150 with the 300 motor. It was a work horse that actually felt better pulling a heavy load. The only thing I ever had to do was a simple tune up.
I love your videos! I had 3 trucks with the 300ci six, it was truly a great engine with lots of torque and excellent economy!
It’s a stump puller! Power nation built the one in the video with a turbocharger and it really liked it.
Searching 300 ford turbo on here is interesting. They usually put out around 220-240hp and like 450 foot pounds at like 2000rpm. Little gas engine thinks it's a diesel with that kinda torque.
@@MrTheHillfolkThis was LONG before Diesels was put in Pickup trucks in the USA. And in the 1980s(USA) , diesels and Pickup Trucks(and sedans like Buicks, Cadillacs, Chevrolet, etc) were not meant for power.....they were mainly meant for better fuel mileage
Haha I love that power nation series of videos. You could tell the guys were having a blast trying new parts in stages.
@@charlesbakston7414 and torque
A lot of people say driving a slow car fast is better than a fast car slow. I feel the same about engines, the most fun I’ve ever had driving, has been in a 1992 Geo Prism (Corolla with cheaper parts) a 1995 Ford Ranger with a 3.0 Vulcan v6 and 5 speed. And the gem, a 1967 F-100 4 speed 240 with 4 wheel non-boosted drum brakes, manual steering, and zero options. The F-100 maxed out at 65 or so and you didn’t want to go any faster. 60-0 took a football field 😂
One of the 4 toughest….you should also do a story on the gm 250 cid,Chrysler 225 cid,and the amc 4.0 liter (which started out as the 258 cid)
AMC was 232 1st then 258
@@jameshardin4326yep!
The Chevy 292 i6 was quite the mill too..
ahh, the 232 Torque Command 6 by AMC. SO DAMN BULLETPROOF.
I had a '64 Barracuda with the 225 Slant Six when attending college. It would be sitting outside in freeizng weather for a couple of weeks at a time and would start right up after three of four cranks. Also had lots of low-end torque for its displacement.
I've wanted to learn more about this engine for ages. Outstanding video.
1996 models (last year) got OBD2 diagnostics and Mass Air Flow fuel injection. Engine always ran very smooth and started easily.
I have only had exposure to the 4.0 straight six in a Jeep. But if this is as tough, then I'm sure it's a great power plant.
I have a ton of experience w the 4.0 and I will promise u the 300 is way tougher. Nothing compares in a light duty truck.
Jeep NEVER MADE an Engine as Tough or reliable as FO4DS 300 6 CYL ! I KNOW I HAD SEVERAL OF Them ! .
These seem to be a relative of the Australian Barra for comparison they do 1 mill KMs pretty regularly.
Excellent video. Very informative.
as of 1992 we were still using the 225 chrysler and bulletproof 727 auto trans in our aircraft tugs in the air guard. it was wild to see one pulling a loaded c-5
Great video! Very informative. My dad had a couple of F100s with the 240 and I had an 89 150 with an EFI 300. Brother bought a used 150 with a 300. All were good trucks, strong reliable motors.
Mechanic’s anecdote: that fiber gear is incredibly durable if it’s prepared correctly. Take it out of the packaging, pit it in a gallon size ziplock bag, and smother it in whatever motor oil you’re going to use. Put it on the shelf for 48-72 hours, or forget about it for 3 months as you’re waiting on parts, and then take it out and install it.
What does this oil soak do for the gear?
If you already have the engine apart, wouldn’t it be better to replace the timing gear with steel?
@@cavemanjoe79 part of the reason Ford went with the fiber gear for non industrial use engines is the steel on steel gearing made a particularly annoying whining noise that would get people who don't know much about engines complaining about a non-issue. The fiber gear didn't make a noise that would concern the layman. Those in the know would run the fiber gear till it started falling apart, then swap in the steel gear and usually never look back.
@@thomasschulz2167 that doesn’t make sense. None of Ford’s other engines made noise. Why this one need such a thing?
@@AlphanumericCharacters No other Ford engine just solely used gear to gear. Everything had a timing chain which doesn’t make noise. Gear on gear is what makes noise.
You did a Great Job presenting the details, that make this engine all that it is!
Thank you!
I still own a 1993 Ford F 150 inline 6 truck, and still runs great. I've had a few of the inline ,otors, and simple to change parts inder the hood. Extremely durable.
These engines can take a beating. My brother had one in his old F100 and he ran it on less the 3 quarts of oil. Didn't phase it. The engine itself outlived two other trucks that it was in. The engine itself had around 300,000 miles between the three trucks it was in.
Imo one of the most reliable engines ever. Lots of torque and pulling power. They used to dominate the 6cyl. Classes of local dirt tracks where I was from. Some of them had 6 straight pipes for exhaust, sounded like a swarm of bees. Good Ole days.
Amc 6 next please definitely as good as the 300
In the mid 70's I bought a 1970 Ford Econoline that was a former General Electric service van. The van must have had over 80000 miles on it when I got. The Econoline had a 240 in it and it ran great for the few years that I had it. The 240 never failed me. Great engine!
Great video! Really takes me back a few decades. Good information, good presentation. Thanks much P.S. How about making avideo about the Jeep Cherokee 4.0 inline 6?
Yes, definitely sooner or later
Another excelent video, Visio.
The Ford 300 is one of the greatest engines ever built. My step dad bought an f150 30 years ago. He drove it every day for 20 years and put over 400,000 miles on the odometer. When he sold it as a parts truck, it wasn't because the engine was bad, In fact, the engine was perfect, but the rest of the truck rusted away. But no matter what, the weather that truck always started. You just can kill a 300.
Its true! I have a 1993 F150 with the 4.9l 300 straight six. It has 344k miles and goes up everyday as its my daily driver. Also worth mentioning is I loaded up the truck bed with my junk and drove it across the US in 2022. It was so heavy I questioned what I was thinking and whether I was going to make it. The odometer read 336k miles when I started driving. Well, I drove and drove (at 65mph - hogging up the right lane of course). I stopped every few hours to let it cool down and stretch my legs. A few days later, I made it X country. The ol Ford really was built tough. The engine itself is a beast. The seals, bushings, and parts that attach to the engine like the water pump, spark plugs etc. .. Those are the things I've had to replace every now and then.
Great info, thank you! You Should do a video on the Chrysler 225 slant 6 engine.The original design called for an aluminum block so the specifications for thickness and dimensions were larger to accommodate for the weaker than cast iron aluminum. They decided to go cast iron with the same dimensions/design as a production cost savings measure, and as a result they produce an extremely durable engine block. Unlike the Ford and Chevy counterparts, the cylinder head on the Chrysler slant 6 rarely had any problems with major warping due to the robustness of the engine design. Thank you for your video it was most interesting!
Best motor built slant 6
There was a guy at Flat Rock Speedway in Flat Rock Michigan by the name of Royce Coronet that raced a late model with one of these engines. His engine builder, Gary Dryes (sp?) built a cross flow head for this engine. I doubt it was still 300 cu. in. (probably 358 which was the max allowable) but it ran respectably well against the small block Chevy and Ford V-8 engines.
I'm a GM guy. But I would definitely own a Ford 300 straight 6
GM guy, have you ever owned a 292? I'd rather have one than a 300, but a 300 would be my first choice if I were to buy a vintage Ford truck...
Nice piece of kit. Thank you.
Always wanted one, bought one last week and I am not disappointed!
As an Australian I appreciate you bringing up the Australian ford straight 6. While ford used the straight 6 for longer, a better example of an incredible straight 6 would be the 246, 265 hemi that valiant (Aussie Chrysler) ran. It the 265 hemi used to race (& win) against Holden and Ford v8's. Also really like your videos, hope you keep making them and continue growing.
yeh with a 3 speed manual box in some models while the ford and gm v8s had 4 spds, imagine if they used a 340 or 360 back then. today we see chargers with 360's racing around the tracks in the vintage class they do well. my centura 4spd hemi 6 was a rocket, easily beat v8's.
In Australia we had the 250cui / 4.1L and the 221cui / 3.6L versions and we would put extractors combined with twin exhausts and they would sound awesome!!👍
Which became the Barra eventually.
In Brazil we have the 4.1L straight six from GM, an OHV gas engine. A truckload of torque and potential for tuning, slap a turbo on it and you’re about 250-300hp with no forged internals. It makes about 160 stock. Known to be very reliable and durable, tho the gas mileage isn’t the best since it powers very heavy cars, averaging at about 6km/l city, and 12km/l highway. We love our 6 pots around here, they’re very respected sound great.
And the 200 /3.3l
Yours are based on the Falcon six, the one that kicked off at 144ci in the 1960 Falcon/Comet
When I was a youngster, I worked part time at a small town Michigan Ford dealership, and they had a F-150 pickup with a 300 six for parts pickup/delivery, and various other duties. The truck was a stout runner 🙂
Many look back with rose coloured glasses to the past, however, as a kid on the farm with inline engines in most of our trucks I remember well how many times they needed to be rebuilt. A hundred thousand miles was about as far as a working engine would go before it needed a rebuild. And my dad was very particular with maintenance. I still love them. Built with modern materials they would rule.
Absolutely! The Ford 300 without a doubt is one of the most durable engines ever built.
Yes, it says "they don't make them like they used to", thanks to that stupid EPA, CAFE standards, and DOE
Most durable for it's time***
Does Chevrolet 292 is very underrated that was the workhorse engine Ford's Ford is just getting more publicity publicity
The 292 Chevrolet is the one that was the workhorse I don't care what anybody says add more stroke more torque more horsepower than that Ford
@@steveblottenberger1097 Sorry but.... the 300 inline 6 has WAY more torque, the point was to be a tractor engine, not a drag engine.
I would love to see the 300 come back, possibly turbo charged
Horse Power TV did one in the last year or two. Around 500hp if I remember correctly.
Maybe Mazda will influence Ford to do so.
to that turbo add a sleeved aluminum block and port + direct injection = my dream motor. have a 1994 4.9L F150 w/ 276,0000 mi.
I had a 81 bronco with the 300 inline 6 and it had around 3-400k miles on it, manual transmission it was a beater but it always started and ran well no matter how cold or hot it was. Even went off road a couple times, one of the best engines ever made.
My brother had that same vehicle. There was literally no stopping it. Serious body rust issues however.
Back in the day we hauled hay on old 2 ton trucks. Most I ever hauled on were 6 cylinders. They were strong, slow, dependable and durable. They handled the heat and rough use well.
My #1 favorite engine on this planet. A very close 2nd is the Ford 289. I'm a chevy guy btw
I was overhauling and hot rodding small block Chevys since age 14 back in the 1960's and never liked Fords. My son's 1986 Bronco with 302 was the biggest piece of garbage that I ever worked on. Go in to buy belts and they insisted it was serpentine. I had the old belts in my hand right there but they still insisted it was serpentine. Getting the correct air filter was always a problem. Finally, I ordered parts for a 1985 Bronco and it solved the problems except for getting the right oxygen sensor, one wire or 3 wire. I found a low mile 352 from an F-250 and we installed it. The engine was wider than a 302 and a lot of parts were not interchangeable like on Chevy small blocks. The distributor and oil pump drive shafts were different sizes, too. I cussed that Bronco out a billion times. I even had to make a front driveshaft out of a 3/4 ton Chevy axle because the stock Ford unit hit the 352 block. It ran fine but went through 4 AOD transmissions. Today, I am trying to move it out of my yard to stash it at my son's house. It has not run in 13 years here. I opened the hood and a giant fat rat was startled out of it's nest and dove down by the steering column. It chewed the fuel injection wires on the driver's side of the engine and ate all of the vacuum lines and hood insulation before building that gigantic nest. BUT..... at age 70 I would still like to build a roadster powered by a Ford 300 inline 6 and use my brand new Eaton Lightning blower on it.
I operated a ford 240 for just shy of 400,000 miles before the body of the old thing gave out. Now its a Ford 300 but I'm an old man and I doubt if I will ever see it go into retirement. I think a lot to myself about figuring out some way to shove a 300 into a sports car, that would be so awesome in something like a TR4, not only would it run forever I think that old torquer would just grind the back tires to dust.
I had a 1980 F100 with the 300 cid inline 6 and a manual overdrive transmission. Highway fuel economy was 29 to 30 mpg! Wish I still had that truck.
The 300 in my 88 f150 has 480,000 miles on it with the only significant work in it was replacing the fiber cam gear with a metal gear at around 300,000 miles. It still runs great, doesn't smoke and only uses 1/2 quart between oil changes. The Borg-Warner 4-speed that's behind it is equally reliable. I'm 50, and this is my 3rd 300 powered pickup. It will probably be my last because I'm not parting with this one, I'll eventually pull the motor for an overhaul and upgrade to a 5-speed and keep driving it.
easier to service and maintain, reliable and robust indeed! 🐱👍🏿
It’s amazing to see how similar the Ford 300 is to the Chevy 292. Both have very similar histories and use cases, and both are considered indestructible.