Is the 6.0L Powerstroke really THAT bad????

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I just bought a 2005 F250, 6.0L. It has 90k miles.. I bought an extended warranty for 3yr, 36k miles.

Seems like not many people have much good to say about this motor. Who here actually had problems with this motor themselves? I'm needing my truck to last for several years...
 
depends on the year. things that i sell fairly often to our diesel tech fuel injectors, EGR coolers, branch tube kits, EGR valves, exhaust pressure sensors, turbo unison rings, turbo vane assemblies, front and rear crank seals, front and rear cover seals, bedplate seals, fuel injector control modules. heads and head gaskets arent as common as they used to be.

the key is to use OEM filters, the aftermarket oil filters are junk, and require you to throw away the superior OEM filter cap. the majority of engine related problems that i and our diesel tech have seen can be directly attributed to the use of non OEM oil and air filters.
 
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so, stick with a motorcraft oil filter? Or just make sure it's the filter that fits in the canister?
 
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for a start ya, OEM oil, fuel and air filters or their Donaldson counterpart. see if you have any open recalls at a ford dealer.

also its fun when independent shops call and ask for parts, for the most part they are clueless. we actually dont even keep paper copies of the service manuals since ford updates them so often.

and for every truck that has had the head off and cab off numerous times, there are 3 or 4 that have had no problems whatsoever. a lot of times excessive idling causes issues with the EGR system. also the tuners dont help much either.
 
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PM slammds15 on here. He has an '05 and also works for an International dealer. He's had his hands on LOTS of VT365's......
 
I'll baby the truck with maintenance, I just need it to take care of me for several years. I'm going all synthetic in the diffs, tranny and motor.

Whats the definition of excessive idling? For 5 minutes? 30?
 
Originally Posted By: Doug
Whats the definition of excessive idling? For 5 minutes? 30?


not sure on the exact definition, but we have a few contractors in town who will leave their truck idling on the sites all day. ford also has maintainence intervals for engine on time and gallons of fuel used depending on your driving conditions.

and not to start a amsoil hating match, but your trans, assuming its an automatic, specs Mercon SP.
 
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Originally Posted By: bdcardinal

The key is to use OEM filters, the aftermarket oil filters are junk, and require you to throw away the superior OEM filter cap. the majority of engine related problems that i and our diesel tech have seen can be directly attributed to the use of non OEM oil and air filters.


I have used aftermarket oil and fuel filters for years without any issues and did not have to throw the cap away, either. It works fine. Can you give an example of an aftermarket oil filter that will cause problems? I would like to know so I can be aware and stay clear of them.
 
I'll never forget the look on the guy's face back in 1995 when a young good-ol'-boy came up to the parts counter at the Ford dealer I was working at. He wanted price on injectors for his Powerstroke engine. If I remember right, they were like $216 each at the time.

I told him that a set of injectors would run "$1600+", he thought I was joking. He was FUMING mad and thought I was ripping him off. I said "no sir, I'll even extend you a 10% discount just to get your business, but that IS the price the book says...the same price as the other dealers except for the discount I'll extend to you..."

He left. He said on the way out that he would look for a junkyard engine that might have 'em. I wonder what ever became of his search....
 
the aftermarket oil filters for the 6.0 and 6.4L powerstrokes do not reuse the factory filter cap, they have an integral cap that does not have proper oil flow. the design of the cap is patented and the only other aftermarket filter i have seen that allows reuse of the OEM cap is Donaldson.

o and toyotansaturn, gotta love the guys that cant diagnose and just start throwing parts., especially when they are expensive. i bet he didnt like the idea that he had to give the old injectors back or else have a $150 core charge on each injector.
 
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the fire department I work for has a E-450 Ambo ( 2005 w/ 6.0L). It has been one of the worst ambulances in terms of reliability. The engine just suffered a cracked head. It has had several transmissions and it still sticks in first gear for what seems like forever in the mornings until it warms up. The A/C ( front cab) has been a fricking nightmare!

We have since changed to a GM product. Dont get me wrong, if taken care of and not used in the way we tend to use apparatus it will most likely be ok. But at the end of the day the 6.0 is a poor design along with the [censored] transmission that backs it up. Our old 7.4's have 200K of emergency driving conditions and are great.

You might think this was a isolated problem and that we recieved a "lemon", but other surrounding departments with this platform are having the same issues.
 
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No,they are not good engines,blown up.My Uncle steve had one with the 6.0 and it puked.I did hear one place did a test on the 6.0 from my local Snap On dealer and went through 3 engine blocks.A repo lot,M&W has one and it has been A POS since day one.I do not know they got rid of it.They have Chevy with the Duramax which has been holding up.Another mistake peple do with a power stroke is letting it sit idling in park and there is one thing to do: shut it off when not driving it.The powerstrokes are not ment to let it idling in park
 
5 years/100,000. Our rescue was at around 99,500 when we took it in. Had diesel in the coolant. One dealer even accused our guys of topping off the surge tank with fuel!
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Finally took it to a reputable dealer here in the valley that repaired it under warranty. Had it back in service within a few days. From what the tech said, 6.0's with cracked heads are fairly common.
 
I have yet to see an oil filter that comes with the cap as you say. Are you talking about the cap that takes the 36mm socket to loosen, and comes off to take out the filter? I've used Wix, STP, Autolite, and Amsoil oil filters that do not come with the integral cap you speak of. Has anyone else seen these? The Amsoil filters stayed on the engine for one year or about 25k miles, with no ill effects. The oil was changed at 6 months but not the filter, which was still in good shape after one year.
 
My friend is a Real out-doors guy. Hunts, fishes, boating, camping, flying, you name it he does it. He had the Ford F250 with the 6.0L. It was out of warranty and he constantly had it in the shop. He told me he got sick of all the repair costs so he sold it and bought a GMC Sierra 2500. No problems whatsoever with the new truck. He has had the GMC for about 2 years now. So still somewhat new.
 
Originally Posted By: bmwtechguy
I have yet to see an oil filter that comes with the cap as you say. Are you talking about the cap that takes the 36mm socket to loosen, and comes off to take out the filter? I've used Wix, STP, Autolite, and Amsoil oil filters that do not come with the integral cap you speak of. Has anyone else seen these? The Amsoil filters stayed on the engine for one year or about 25k miles, with no ill effects. The oil was changed at 6 months but not the filter, which was still in good shape after one year.


The new Wix filters for the 6.0 PSD are a one-piece cap and filter assembly.
 
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