I've been looking for a new work truck to replace my tired old '98 Chevy K3500 6.5 diesel. It's been a great truck, but 220K is starting to show it's age. Found an '03 F350 4x4 with only 108K on it, truck looks good but I hear good and bad about the 6.0 engine... Opinions? Honest experience please. Most of my use is county roads at 55mph and around 11,000 GVW. Had a '99 f-350 with a V-10 and loved the truck, just no experience with the 6.0 diesel.
No personal experience but my neighbour is a contractor with half a dozen or so of them. Last year he had a few of them sitting in the yard with blown headgaskets. From my understanding, a set of performance headstuds solve a lot of those headgasket problems. Google "bulletproofing 6.0L Powerstroke" and you'll probably find out all the info you'd need to gain some good reliability from them.
On top of headgasket and egr issues, the fuel injection control modules can nuke a 6.0 as well. Friend of mine had a FICM freak out and melt a hole in the #8 piston after having the alternator go bad. Supposedly they are vulnerable to under-voltage conditions.
That was the first year of the 6.0, so I'd be a bit worried about that. Early 6.0s had some issues with the high pressure oil pump for the injection. I have an 06 with 250K on it. Runs great. Never had an issue with head gaskets or EGR. I did put new injectors in it at 240K and I did replace the FICM once. Rebuilt the turbo at 220K. The two biggest things that kill a 6.0 is lack of maintenance and chips and tuners. The HEUI injection really likes nice clean oil. Ask for a service history. Putting in a chip or a tuner raises the exhaust temps and degrades the EGR cooler. When then cooler goes, you can lose the oil cooler and you can loose the head gaskets. There are several upgraded EGR coolers on the market. Those trucks had really good auto and manual trannies. My auto has never given any trouble. They made tons and tons of 6.0s and there are lots of them still on the road, so used parts and aftermarket parts are easy to get. However, they are now almost 12 years old, so don't expect the dealer to have many parts on the shelf.
I’d run
Well, I had a 2007 that I used for personal transportation and I also did commercial RV hauling with it for a couple years. We also have a 2003 that has a 10 foot Boss V-Blade on it and it does lots of plowing all winter. Though they say the 07 is better because it got all kinds of improvements throughout the years, the 2003 has been bulletproof and my 07 blew up 4 times before i finally traded it. And I even had it deleted and studded. But it was programmed for power and that is an absolute no no with these motors. My experience is roll the dice. Some are good some are horrible. But if you do get one do yourself a favor and do not program it, and flush the Motorcraft Gold coolant and put any kind of green or global extended life in it. The Motorcraft Gold coolant is one of the main causes of the problems. The silicates drop out of it, plug the EGR and oil coolers, then you get flash boiling which blows the head gaskets. Also, always keep good batteries in them. Low voltage kills the FICM's. And if you go look at one for sale, if there is any sign of coolant boiling over out the resevoir don't walk away.....RUN. When they run right they are awesome. My 07 had more power than my 07 Ram 3500 Cummins in stock form, WAY better fuel mileage and sounded way nicer.
I get 20 mpg empty in my 4x4 regular cab if I keep it at 65 or under. At 75 it drops to 17 or so.
I did some contract work for a utility company that had a bunch of early 6.0's. The main issues I ran info were related to the HPOP. Mostly blown O-rings etc. As the motors failed or there were EGR issues we'd bulletproof them. I did enough of them I wouldn't be scared to own one. I learned a few tricks to find the leaking O-rings which prevented getting to 500 PSI so the injectors would fire at startup or not kill it when the oil got hot and thin. They bought one used, another mechanic looked at it. Wasn't pushing water out the de-gas bottle and everything else looked ok. Started having issues. As I disassembled to investigate I figured out why there wasn't pressure in the bottle...they had plugged it up with silicon and filled it with antifreeze so it appeared to be working as it should Miles don't seem bad. Short of a major scrap iron fit they're not terribly expensive to get to the point of reliable. All depends on how much you like the occasional surprise
Look up the Youtube videos of Powerstrokehelp.com very carefully before you buy an 03. From what I remember they really needed improvement in that first year model, so that the castings were not even the same 04-on. If I was to buy a 6.0 (I might be forced to one day) I would definitely stud if not o-ring the heads and do some other improvements before long.
Man, I can't stand that power stroke help guy. Maybe he knows a lot, but he rubs me the wrong way.
I've got a customer that will sell you some-cheap. Even a total dyed-in-the-wool Ford fan like him couldn't stand spending all that money over and over on the high pressure oil pump and related parts. '03 6.0s
I thought the same thing when I first noticed him and many of his videos have no interest to me but when he gets into the nuts and bolts he seems miles ahead of anybody else that I have seen. So get over his brash exterior and listen to what he has to say. He is one of those type of take-it-or-leave-it salesmen, I have dealt with in different industries, they know they have a good product and business comes to their door.
A string of ******** never sold me anything. Diesel Tech Ron is a good source of info on Ford diesels.
This is what I mean about "roll the dice." Our 03 plow truck is abused and not even maintained and it won't die. I changed the oil and filters on my 07 every two weeks, maintained it religiously, deleted the EGR, studded it and it still wouldn't stay together.
I really like the ford trucks, makes a great truck to swap a 5.9 12 valve cummins into when the 6.0 goes tits up.
Seems like a big step backward. All that work and you lose 150 horses.
I would love to have a 5.9 as well but I don't think it would ever pencil out economically what with all the hours. And I am sure there would be ongoing issues with hoses and wires and the like. I don't care about the horsepower, I just want something that starts whenever I turn the key. I don't know what I am going to do after my $850 1989 truck croaks.
All you have to do is look an almost any auction listing. There will be a hand full of dead ford f250/350 diesels on them. Makes a guy wonder.
I am a die hard ford guy but man I hated that truck. It went back on the hook the day after I took it home and I didn’t get back for a month, dealer finally had a specialist from Detroit come up they changed the wire harness. In nine years it was never eight months without being in the shop for something. Egr valves, complete set of injectors, fuel pump, you name it. I kept track and between ford and myself there was over 40 k spent on it. Just to spite ford the next truck I bought was a Dodge, but don’t worry I’m back to ford
I own a 5.9 (01 in a dodge 3500) and a 7.3 (00-450), and ford gassers (460,351,302). The 5.9 is a better engine, ford builds a better truck. I know many guys who have spent a lot of money on 6.0's and still don't trust them. I know 2 guys that will buy late 6.0's and bulletproof egr delete etc., and then say they have a good reliable truck (but they are the exception). They did the work themselves and know those trucks inside and out. One of them says he really likes 6.0's because no one else wants them- so he buys them cheap. But they both just figure on doing the "bulletproofing" right off the bat. What farmerlund says is right on auctions. Also on craigslist with people selling trucks. 7.3's are all bringing more $ than 6.0's. Asking price, selling price, brother in law price, whatever. Old body style 7.3's are popular by me also. They will bring twice what a 6.4 ford will. They can't give the 6.4's away by me. From what I read and people I talk to, if you want ford, 7.3 or skip all the way to 6.7. The only way to 6.0 is to delete/bullet proof, and most of the guys that do that buy the truck dirt cheap broken, and know how to fix it themselves, or they own the truck already, and owe too much against it, so have to fix them. If you're looking at buying it, just figure in the cost of the "bulletproofing", because everyone says its just a matter of time.
I dunno. Around here, 6.0s are still pretty popular. Resale value is as good or better than a 7.3. All of these trucks are 12+ years old, so you're buying a drivetrain and a body that will soon have holes in it if it doesn't already. If there's a 12 valve Dodge or a 7.3 Ford around here without substantial rust, it's being driven by Bigfoot. Some 2005, and all 6 and 7 models with a 6.0 and 4WD had coil springs in the front. They ride a lot better than the leaf springs on the older trucks. 2WD had coils the whole way. I don't know much of the Duramax. They are not popular here. I rarely see an older one.