Thoughts and input on Ford 6.0 Powerstroke

[cool arrow]

So my Avalanche has finally pissed me off enough to sell her.

I am thinking of buying a used F-250 with a 6.0l Powerstroke. I have heard equal good and bad so far on these, so I am on the fence. I want to buy something that will be reliable enough for my kids to drive to Pinetop and for me to run around in, go lightly off roading, shooting, etc.

 

[Steve_In_29]

Get the truck cheap and then have it Bulletproofed. Will be good to go after that.

https://www.bulletproofdiesel.com/

No DPF, Regen, DEF to worry about.

You should look for an 05, 06 or 07. With the 07 being preferable.

I have had an 04 that was bought back by Ford (harness chaffing issue). Replaced it with an 06 that we only traded for an 07 due to needing a long bed for a new camper.

The 07 went 108K before anything went wrong and it wasn't for the normal 6.0 weakness. Despite my never doing a coolant flush the temps for coolant and oil showed the oil cooler was still functioning and my EGR cooler never leaked. What broke was one of the injectors came unglued and took out three more and the FICM.

 

[Suck My Glock]

The 03 and 04 models were the problematic ones. The 05 to 07 were fine,...but youngins who got hold of em would futz with the factory settings and give them tunes that caused stresses they weren't meant to take. As long as the truck you are considering was adult-owned and driven and maintained,...and there is no sign of head gasket or injector failures,...you'll likely be ok. If the truck has had Exhaust Gas Temprature (EGT) gauge added at some point to the instrumentation, this is a sign of an owner aware of how to avoid damaging the motor and a positive indication.

 

[Gatsby]

I had one for 12 years and after the bulletproof kit was installed I had very few problems with it. It had a little over 200k and plenty of life left. I did not like the engine compared to the 7.3 I had before it (I drove two of them into the ground), and it's replacement (the 6.7 in the current models) is fantastic. So of the three, it's the one I had the least luck with and liked the least from a towing and problems perspective. But once the bullet proof kit was in there was only normal, minor issues like ALL vehicles have. For your intended use, I wouldn't hesitate

 

[Vinnie B]

I have 2 friends that had them and they were nothing but problems. 1 was bulletproofed and 1 was not. Not sure if the one was done correctly or not but he ended up putting alot of money in it after it supposedly had the work done to it.

 

[Ballistic Therapy]

My personal opinion is that if you aren't pulling a heavy load or on the highway a lot , a gas engine is a better choice.
I also like to buy the biggest gas engine available.
All my trucks ( all Ford ) have gas engines and will pull anything I want them too and I pull some pretty heavy trailers.
I have over 250,000 miles on one of them and it still runs just fine.

 

[XJThrottle]

Avoid like the plague.

 

[Steve_In_29]

Avoid like the plague.

Based on personal experience or just what you heard from some guy?

 

[azrik]

Had an '05 Excursion for 4 years. All repairs were done in Warranty but if I had to pay for them, they would have cost over 40K. (2 turbos, head gaskets, HPOP, FICM, bedplate, EGR, on a flatbed twice)
Had the (refined) fixes been available then as are today, I would have kept it. Bulletproofing works.

 

[cool arrow]

If I could find what I wanted in a V-10 at a decent price I would think about it, since I know a bit about gas engines and NOTHING about diesel.

I have just about had enough of my Avalanche and am ready to light the damn thing on fire. I can drive it, but I wouldn't trust my kids to take it on a trip without me.

I don't plan on towing anything per se, but the hills going to and from Show Low are brutal and diesels seem to be made for that.

 

[XJThrottle]

Avoid like the plague.

Based on personal experience or just what you heard from some guy?

A friend of mine has one. Once he spend the money on the Bulletproof kit the typical ERG/oil cooler/etc issues with that seemed to go away. But, he doesn't really tell me when it breaks because I give him so much crap when it does. It's also not his daily driver, just tows a few times a year to the dunes and back.

I spent a good bit of time in the performance diesel scene, and the 6.0 was nothing but problems if you did ANYTHING to them aftermarket. My DMAX by comparison, made nearly 600HP to the ground with just a bigger turbo, built trans, and tuning. ZERO internal engine mods. For well over 100k miles, quite a bit of it towing a 37' GN enclosed trailer. It's the early one known for injector issues, and now that it is nearing 170k, it's showing signs that they need to be replaced. Never in a millions years will a guy with a 6.0 be able to honestly claim that.

FWIW OP, if I were in your shoes, I wouldn't spend the extra on a diesel just because of hills if you aren't towing.

 

[Ballistic Therapy]

If I could find what I wanted in a V-10 at a decent price I would think about it, since I know a bit about gas engines and NOTHING about diesel.

I have just about had enough of my Avalanche and am ready to light the damn thing on fire. I can drive it, but I wouldn't trust my kids to take it on a trip without me.

I don't plan on towing anything per se, but the hills going to and from Show Low are brutal and diesels seem to be made for that.

All my trucks have the 5.4 and will tow anything I put behind them. I have pulled a tractor up to Show Low more than once and they pull it just fine.
If you don't mind getting 8 miles a gallon on a good day then a V10 is fine. Not to mention the extra cost for maintenance.

 

[Steve_In_29]

A friend of mine has one. Once he spend the money on the Bulletproof kit the typical ERG/oil cooler/etc issues with that seemed to go away. But, he doesn't really tell me when it breaks because I give him so much crap when it does. It's also not his daily driver, just tows a few times a year to the dunes and back.

I spent a good bit of time in the performance diesel scene, and the 6.0 was nothing but problems if you did ANYTHING to them aftermarket. My DMAX by comparison, made nearly 600HP to the ground with just a bigger turbo, built trans, and tuning. ZERO internal engine mods. For well over 100k miles, quite a bit of it towing a 37' GN enclosed trailer. It's the early one known for injector issues, and now that it is nearing 170k, it's showing signs that they need to be replaced. Never in a millions years will a guy with a 6.0 be able to honestly claim that.

FWIW OP, if I were in your shoes, I wouldn't spend the extra on a diesel just because of hills if you aren't towing.

So a sample size of one...and yes you are correct that the 6.0 needs head studs to handle that type of HP. However with studs the 6.0 is capable of handling some crazy HP numbers.

Yes there are issues with the 6.0 but those are well known now and Ford sorted most out by 05, with the aftermarket providing the rest. Though the quality of the fix is obviously dependent on the skill of the shop and their attention to detail. So a crappy shop (or poor home mechanic) can install a Bulletproof setup and not fix anything. Also putting a poorly written tune on the truck can quickly hurt things and even the canned tunes from places like SCT are known to not be the best.

All that being said there are hundreds of thousands of 6.0 engines still on the road that have never had any problems despite being bone stock.

Since we plan on keeping this truck forever, after I lost the injector I took the preventative measure of getting studs and the shop said my engine showed no signs of any head gasket, oil cooler or EGR issues at all when they tore it down.

What a properly modded 5/6/7 6.0 gets you is a good looking, tough, no smog, solid axle truck that can carry more then its contemporaries of the same model years. My 07 SRW has the same GVWR as an 07 GM dually. We like ours so much we bought it back after it was totaled.

I do agree with you that a gas engine would be just as good for non-towing use, albeit at the cost of less mpg and lower performance at altitude.

 

[XJThrottle]

A friend of mine has one. Once he spend the money on the Bulletproof kit the typical ERG/oil cooler/etc issues with that seemed to go away. But, he doesn't really tell me when it breaks because I give him so much crap when it does. It's also not his daily driver, just tows a few times a year to the dunes and back.

I spent a good bit of time in the performance diesel scene, and the 6.0 was nothing but problems if you did ANYTHING to them aftermarket. My DMAX by comparison, made nearly 600HP to the ground with just a bigger turbo, built trans, and tuning. ZERO internal engine mods. For well over 100k miles, quite a bit of it towing a 37' GN enclosed trailer. It's the early one known for injector issues, and now that it is nearing 170k, it's showing signs that they need to be replaced. Never in a millions years will a guy with a 6.0 be able to honestly claim that.

FWIW OP, if I were in your shoes, I wouldn't spend the extra on a diesel just because of hills if you aren't towing.

So a sample size of one...and yes you are correct that the 6.0 needs head studs to handle that type of HP. However with studs the 6.0 is capable of handling some crazy HP numbers.

Not a sample of one, I only gave you one example.

As stated, I've been around tons of mod'd diesels of all brands. A 6.0 needs head studs to survive at almost anything above stock. The 6.0 simply can't make big power reliably. Unless 400hp is "crazy hp numbers". I've watched a 6.0 truck with studs and fresh head gaskets (because it blew the last set) literally pour coolant on the ground from pressurizing the cooling system with cylinder gasses when doing a mild dyno pull. I think this guy did a touch over 400.

 

[Vinnie B]

I have owned 3 diesels, still have one for towing but I drive a half ton gasser most of the time. The ride overall is just so much better if you arent towing. A friend drove my 1/2 ton for a week while his diesel was getting a tranny and said now I know why you drive this all the time it's like driving a car.

 

[storage_man]

Lots of good truth here. I bought new a 2006 F250 6.0. Drove it for 12 years and 85k (It was mostly used only for towing). Only had 1 major issue, Fuel Injection control module went out around 60k. One could still drive the truck, but it wouldn't tow anything. There are 2 big issues, 1 - Finding and adult owned, non-commerical, low mileage truck that has been maintained and not programmed. 2 - is the 6.0 is really maintenance dependent. My neighbor had a 03 6.0. Never programmed it, but had many problems because he never maintained it ie: Oil changes, Coolant changes, etc. He drove it every day, only towed a small amount with it and blew it up at 90k. There is also a cost to maintenance Diesel vs Gas. Normal maintenance is 2x that of a Gas engine.

If your not going to pull much at all, skip the Diesel, that's why today I have a 1/2 ton with a gas engine I'm not pulling anything much anymore.

 

[TheAccountant]

I bought an 03 about 4 years ago. It was my daily driver for about 3 years and never had an issue with it. I only drive it a couple times a month now, but it always fires up and gets me from point A to point B without issue.

I think they were kind of hit or miss rolling off the factory floor, but since they're all 10-15 years old now, I think your odds of avoiding a miss are pretty good.

Routine maintenance and not trying to make them into a drag car will help avoid 90% of the issues people complain about. Any vehicle with over 100k miles and a decade of wear under its belt is going to have a little issue here and there.

 

[Rock Hardson]

I have a 2004 F350 CC longbed SRW 6.0 that I bought 11 years ago with 48,000 miles on the clock. It now has 94,000. The only thing that I have had go wrong with it is the logic board on the FICM. I bought a new Dorman brand board from Amazon and replaced it myself. I also replaced the high pressure line on my power steering pump. Also, my degas bottle cracked where a hose goes to it. I bought a Dorman bottle at Autozone with a lifetime warranty and that cracked a year later, so they gave me a new one.

I run a custom tune loaded on with a SCT handheld tuner and will spank Mustangs, Camaro, and keep up with Corvettes. Not bad for a 21 foot, 8,000 lbs truck. The tune also tunes the trans which is extremely critical. I installed a MBRB turbo back exhaust on it with a muffler delete pipe and cat delete pipe, so it is straight piped from the turbo back and sounds awesome. So does the turbo at the tail pipe.

The inherent problems of the 6 liter are the TTY(torque to yield) head bolts which allow the heads to lift, blowing the head gaskets caused by a failed EGR cooler or oil cooler. Those failures are usually the result of casting sand left behind in the block. There is tons of information on Powerstroke.org

The 6.0 liter is a great motor and will be even greater if you take care of the known isssues such as putting ARP head studs, replacing the egr cooler with a Bulletproof egr cooler or a egr delete kit.

Don't be gun shy about buying a 6.0 liter. I wouldn't hesitate about taking my truck across country tonight. They are solid trucks. I wish I had a coil spring front end, but alas, it is leaf sprung.
I also have the ambulance package which comes with dual alternators. When my starter goes out, I will be replacing it with a 6.4 high torque gear reduced starter.

I would definitely stay away from the 6.4 Powerstroke and the new 6.7 Powerstroke up to 2015. Any 6.7 after 2015 is good to go. If you have any more questions, ask away.

One thing I would highly suggest is to run a OASIS report on the truck you plan on buying. Any dealer should pull it up for you or ask for someone on Powerstroke.org to run it for you. It is the vehicle service record for the trucks life

My truck has never hauled a 5th wheel trailer, but it does have the attachment points and electrical plug in in the bed for a over the cab camper.

It rides great, I run a Full Traction 4.5 inch lift, dual Bilstien shocks up front, single in the rears, dual Bilstien steering stabilizers, and BF Goodrich Velvet Ride shackles in the rear. My oldest son drove it door to door from his moms house in Prescott to my dads house in Vegas and back when he was 14 years old. Not by himself, I was in the passenger seat.

I get about 17 mpg on the freeway, and about 15 in the city.

ETA: I did have a right rear caliper stick causing the pad to wear down to the metal and causing me to buy a new rear rotor and some Hawks brake pads.

 

[Gatsby]

...
I would definitely stay away from the 6.4 Powerstroke and the new 6.7 Powerstroke up to 2015. Any 6.7 after 2015 is good to go. If you have any more questions, ask away.
...

uh oh....I have the 6.7 in a 350 SRW long bed crew cab. I bought it a couple years ago and it was a couple years old (but I should find out what year it actually is). What was going wrong prior to '15? This is also my first truck with an automatic and I hate that.

 

[redj]

So basically what I get out of this thread is that , you have to dump a ton of money into your diesel if you want a good engine.
It doesn't make sense to me , especially when most people that have them , really don't need them.