Hi. My F150 recently passed away at the hands of a ram 1500. She was asleep in my driveway. I bought a 2013 F150 Lariat. The actual vehicle has 128k miles on it. It has a 3.5L V6 Ecoboost 3 in it. The seller had the engine completely rebuilt from a company in Atlanta, Georgia. Are you familiar with Jasper Engines & Transmissions? If so, did I make the right move. From what I understand Jasper is pretty good. Well under 50k miles on the engine. For the price in this market, I feel like I got away with robbery. The truck is in immaculate condition.
Thanks for any info/opinion,
Gilbert
Savannah, GA
By most accounts Jasper is OK. However the fact that the engine in that thing had to be replaced after only about 78K miles tells you a lot about the durability of the design (or lack thereof).
Thanks for the reply,
LOL I knew that was going to come up. Its clean, vin check is great. The seller is the son in law of the only reputable mechanic in the southeast. Prewitt wouldn't let him sell out of his shop if he was misleading. If you were to buy a used vehicle, these are the people you want to buy from. It had 1 owner, repoed then sold from dealership to dealership. Nobody could sell it so he bought it at auction. The original owner had plans for the truck. Instead of paying his car note, he payed to have the factory engine overhauled. And almost immediately got repoed. That sucks. That makes my gut hurt just thinking about that situation.
In the long run, Jasper is good but but they're not top-tier? Will a factory engine be better off after Jaspers rebuild?
Thanks again.
A Ford factory crate engine would likely be better, but given how short a life the original led it's hard to say.
Yeah Jasper has a good reputation. It has a transferable warranty of 3 years/100k miles as well, or it should anyway. If the engine fails soon, it is likely not the fault of Jasper, but the engine design itself.
I am with @chucktobias though, it going out at such low mileage is scary. If you take it easy, and make sure to maintain it religiously, it could be okay for a while.
Thanks for the info. From what I understand it was the original engine. They just tore it down and rebuilt it with slightly better parts. Maybe put better barings in the turbo. I've heard of problems with the original turbos. But definitely take it easy. I'm not going to rag it out. Thats what rentals are for. And your brothers truck. Not going to tow anything heavy for a while either. Are break in periods still necessary or do they do that at the factory? I hear conflicting things. Use a specific oil? Royal Purple or VP?
Thanks again for the info.