Whether you truly use them to haul stuff, or not, the basic premise of a pickup truck is to do work. So along with being sturdy, reliable, good-looking, and smooth-riding, one of the most important aspects of owning a pickup truck is that it needs to come with a long-lasting engine.
Updated November 2021: If you're looking to buy an old truck and want to know which engine to go for, you'll be happy to know that we've updated this article with even more legendary truck engines, as well as more information on the ones that were already on the list.
No matter how much a truck is decked up to look brutish, it’s the engine that powers it to do well, in sales as well as consumer satisfaction. Be it petrol, diesel, or even electric, if a truck’s mill is weak and unable to perform what the pickup is truly meant to do, it’s a colossal waste. There have been bad engines in the history of automobiles but we are not here to talk about that.
For now, let’s just talk about the greatest engines to go into a pickup truck and why they were such game-changers at the time, managing to pick up the pace of R&D in pickups, so to speak.
12 1969-1998 Chevrolet 5.7-Liter Small-Block V8
The 5.7-liter (350ci) small-block V8 is one of the most widely-used, long-lasting engines you can see under the hood of just about every conceivable vehicle out there. Other than pickup trucks and SUVs, it has found a home in muscle cars, buses, and sometimes, even an odd motorcycle.
When it was introduced in 1955, it came in as a 265ci (as in 4.3-liters) avatar, and the 350ci (5.7-liter) V8 came out in 1969, rated at 255 horses back them. It remains a vaunted engine to date though its use in new vehicles ended in the 2000s.
11 1964-1987 3.7-Liter Dodge/Chrysler Slant Six
The Dodge Slant Six wasn’t the most powerful engine and is hardly the most capable one on this list, but it came with a solid, unshakeable reputation of being very, very reliable. The factory-fitted option was a single carburetor one but you could get a dual-carb, aftermarket, and increase performance.
While the slant six bore only four bearings, the dimensions came from the Hemi V8s of the time, so this remained a powerful and strong engine, till it was finally replaced by the 3.9-liter Magnum V6.
10 1991-Present Ford Modular V8
The V8 has been the Ford pickup’s bread and butter since 1991 and even the current generation of F-150s continue carrying this very engine. It is the true descendant of the Ford Windsor V8 and has been powering the F-series pretty good for ages now.
The current F-150s also carry this engine and there’s a reason why they remain America’s best-selling trucks, even though their ratings take a hit now and then. The reason has to be the engine, which remains as strong as ever with few complaints about it.
9 1989-1998 Cummins B 5.9-Liter Inline-Six
The Cummins diesel engine was basically put to use in commercial, heavy vehicles. In 1989, the Dodge Ram trucks were beginning to look a bit outdated to buyers who found the Ford F-Series and even the Chevy trucks more suited to their tastes when it came to design and features.
Dodge countered this by putting in the most powerful engine they could get from Cummins in the Ram, jetting 400 ft-lb of torque, and requiring a drivetrain reengineering. Ram trucks led in payload and towing capacities which is why Cummins engines are still held in high regard.
8 1965-1996 Ford 4.9-Liter Inline-Six
The 4.9-liter Ford inline-six engine debuted in the F-series in 1965 and continued as one of the base model engines for more than 30 years. In fact, it's not as if this engine was only put in the F-150, even the HD Ford F-series made good use of them because they came cheap and fairly torquey.
The fuel-injected version was rated at 145 horses and 265 ft-lb of torque and UPS trucks still use a version of this very engine to power up their deliveries.
7 1972-1978 Dodge 7.2-liter Big-Block V8
When we talk Mopar V8s, it’s the 426 HEMI that remains the talk of all muscle, but in the trucks, the main power came from the 440 V8. This is the engine that went into powering the Midnite Express truck, the lesser-known but cooler sibling of the Lil’ Red Express truck.
Rated at 225 horses, the Midnite Express was more lifestyle performance truck than a pickup, but the 440 V8 did find its way under the hood of normal Rams as well, for more workhorse like performance.
6 1993-2004 Ford 5.4-Liter V8
This engine has become quite the legend over the years, because it, in its supercharged avatar, powered the coolest performance truck of the time, the Ford F-150 Lightning. The 360 horses and 440 ft-lb of torque were cool for 1999, and by 2001, the power had jumped to 380 horses and 450 ft-lb torque.
The Lightning was the performance pickup to go for and retained the crown till the 500-horsepower Dodge Ram SRT-10 dethroned it with its Viper engine. The engine and the Lightning remains a vaunted truck on the used pickup market.
5 2011-2015 Ford 6.7-Liter Power Stroke V8
By 2011, Ford wanted its own diesel engine in place, especially after its partnership with Harvester ran into problems. The 6.7-liter Scorpion Power Stroke V8 came from a clean sheet with new features like reverse-flow heads, a twin-scroll turbocompressor, and made 390 horses along with a whopping 738 ft-lb of torque.
In 2015 another update to this engine was made with better fuel delivery, letting this engine go quieter with more power, and making 440 horses and 860 ft-b of torque. Impressive, right?
4 2002-Present Toyota GR 3.5L V6
We agree, the Toyota Tacoma hasn’t been the most successful truck and sales remain much lower than the other biggies of Detroit. But that said, this has been one of the most reliable engines to come out of the stable of Toyota, and the V6 currently makes 278 horses and 265 ft-lb of torque.
It’s a dependability winner and has been for long, simply because whatever wrong that the truck can do, the engine remains angelically strong. Currently, the engine boasts 60-degree diecast aluminum blocks and cylinder heads for less weight and more durability.
3 1929-1936 Chevrolet Inline-Six
We’re talking more than 90 decades back right now, but even for its time, the 1929 Chevy pickup was pretty advanced. Reason enough why it ruled the roost far before Ford trucks could come and wrest the title away from it.
Most engines at the time were more flathead, but the inline-six came with overhead valves, jetting 50 horses at first. Later years brought the output up to 80. It may not sound like much today but for many in the pre-war era, this was sturdy power that helped lessen manual work.
2 2019 - Current - Ford 2.3-Liter EcoBoost
That's right, we said it. Ford's 2.3-liter EcoBoost engine is a peach! It can be found in the latest Ranger models, including the Raptor version that's not available in North America, and it's also used in the Ford Focus RS and Ford Mustang. In the Ranger, the turbocharged 2.3L 4-cylinder EcoBoost engine pumps out 270 horsepower and 310 lb-ft of torque, so it's a bit down on power compared to the Mustang and Focus RS.
From what we've seen so far, the 2.3 EcoBoost appears to be a reliable engine that should have a long life. Obviously, reliability comes down to many different factors, of which maintenance is one of the most important ones. The best part is that tuners have already proved that this engine can pack a serious punch, as several of them have managed to squeeze out more than double the standard power output.
1 2001-2006 Duramax 6.6L V8
The Cummins B59 was the first modern “performance” diesel engine that found its way under the hood of pickup trucks. However, General Motors also built an engine that has earned a serious following among gearheads who are into diesel performance. The 1st-gen LB7 Duramax engine was highly refined compared to the Ford Power Stroke and Ram Cummins units when it was first introduced as an option for the 2001 Chevrolet and GMC HD trucks.
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The fact that it produced 300 hp and 520 lb-ft was also quite revolutionary for diesel engines back then, so this is the engine that escalated the diesel power and torque race we saw the HD truck market. The current LML Duramax now produces 397 hp and 765 lb-ft of torque. However, perhaps the most sought-after Duramax engines is the LBZ, as it arrived on the market just prior to the strict 2007 federal diesel emissions standards were imposed.
Sources: Autoweek, AutoWise