That’s interesting. What engines were in those? I always thought the 300, 302 and 351’s were stout workhorses. But I’m was Mopar guy, so I don’t really know Fords.
I had a 1985 Dodge W150 with a 360, and that thing just wouldn’t die. And I abused the hell out of it off roading. Used to get all sorts of battle damage and keep running.
-Ran a half an hour without coolant (radiator was penetrated).
-Ran it 75 miles without oil pressure (snapped front driveshaft yoke took out the oil filter)
-one time the automatic choke linkage that I disconnected at one end came off at the other end and was ingested into the engine... turned into a shot peen and only managed to close the spark plug gaps in four cylinders. Compression test was good on all cylinders. Found the ball with a telescoping magnet through one spark plug hole, regapped the plugs and it just kept on running and running and running.
Had 135k on it when I gave it to a dude on the base when I left the service.
The 302. The unworn part of the cylinder, which is at the very bottom where the shape of the piston skirt has little to no contact with the wall, was mic’ed. The cross hatch pattern was still visible, meaning zero wear.
Not all cylinders were sized the same. A couple up to .020 larger than they should have been.
The rod & main bearings had little to no wear, but the journals on one main was .010 too small.
It was poor quality workmanship.
Ford corrected the problem and had commercials with Roddy McDowall pitching “Quality Is Job One”.
That Bronco I mentioned was garbage from bumper to bumper with quality and design issues.