getting rid of pos6.0

Diesel_brad

Dunce
Joined
Nov 8, 2008
Posts
6,099
Reaction score
2
Location
gilbert pa
not all 6.0's are bad but there is alot of bad ones. My brother had a03 4 door long bed w a stick that was the fastest truck i have ever been in. it ran a 14.24 in the quarter. now mind you it had a fiberglass cap, ranch hand bumpers, and a winch.Tipped the scales at 8500lbs. One small problem. detachable heads:rotflmao. Told him to leave the fastest truck ever alone, but no..... he put Edge chip in it. It lasted 30k till he was pullin a 12* grade grossing 15k. then wooooooosh went all the coolant.Traded it in on a 05. This is the slowest truck ever:dunno go figure

now my buddy is a car hauler w a 03 6.0 auto supercab dually w over 300k
Went to 150(4 injectors)
went to 185(all the injectors)
went to 250(cat)
and nothing else. that is pretty good
 

TorqueDiesel60

Registered User
Joined
Jun 15, 2009
Posts
42
Reaction score
0
Location
Michigan
6.0L's and you

The 6.0L did have a few minor issues yes, but the biggest problems was cheap and unknowledgable owners who ran their truck into the ground! The crap diesel fuel we had in the early and mid 2000's didnt help either.

If you take care of your truck, it will take care of you.
 

urraco

Registered User
Joined
May 10, 2009
Posts
1
Reaction score
0
Location
Phoenix,Az.
leave the mods off the 6.0 and they will be just fine. Start screwing around with them and you will have trouble.
 

TorqueDiesel60

Registered User
Joined
Jun 15, 2009
Posts
42
Reaction score
0
Location
Michigan
leave the mods off the 6.0 and they will be just fine. Start screwing around with them and you will have trouble.
You can mod 6.0L's, but you have to be very careful about how you do it. Their are a handful of 6.0L trucks featured in Diesel Power mag that have 600+ horsepower and 1000+ lb-ft of torque that run great! Elite Diesel Engineering has a build a bunch of high power 6.0Ls that work great. You just have to address its weakness's, like crap torque-to-yield bolts, EGR system, a few other small things. Then their strong engines.
 

ameristar1

The One Blue Thing
Joined
May 7, 2009
Posts
997
Reaction score
1
Location
Steger, Illinois
The 6.0L did have a few minor issues yes, but the biggest problems was cheap and unknowledgable owners who ran their truck into the ground! The crap diesel fuel we had in the early and mid 2000's didnt help either.

If you take care of your truck, it will take care of you.

The issues were never minor, they were, and are still, expensive and time consuming to fix. At $100/hr or more plus parts, you can't say with a clear conscience that the 6.0 was the best thing to come out of IH. No one should have to foot the bill to upgrade head bolts, no one should have to back fit EGR cooling tubes and other parts to make these engines reliable. Dealerships and aftermarket specialists are making money to correct defects that should have been taken care on the front end from the engineering department. Why should the end user suffer needlessly when all that had to happen was design it right from the getgo. IH has been around long enough to know what works and what doesn't work, Ford likewise. But when the accountants take over anything, it's doomed to fail. Some blame the EPA, but the OEMs have the technology to make any internal combustion engine run clean and efficient and do it without all the add on bullcrap.
Take away one headbolt here, go cheap on this and that there, and we'll save on the front end.
The amount of losses that Ford had to pay for because of this motor are well documented, the new 6.4 continuing the trend of trouble. Is it any surprise that Ford and IH have severed thier relationship after almost 30 years? I hope that the new Scorpion 6.7 diesel will help salvage sales for Ford, but when you go in knowing that the product is not the best it can be, it's a gamble, and in the case of this engine Ford lost big time.
 
Last edited:

TorqueDiesel60

Registered User
Joined
Jun 15, 2009
Posts
42
Reaction score
0
Location
Michigan
Ya your right they could have done a lot better job with the engine. They (IH/Ford) rushed the 6.0L into production to compete with the new Cummins and Duramax, which didnt work out great.

I dont know about you, but my 03 F-250 6.0L truck has 101K on it and I NEVER had a big problem with it. Some minor stuff (door lock stuck, weird smell from burnt plastic) that had nothing to do with the engine. I do take emaculate care of it and use the correct high quality products in/on it.
 

TorqueDiesel60

Registered User
Joined
Jun 15, 2009
Posts
42
Reaction score
0
Location
Michigan
I love my 6.0L, but I have heard more than a few horror stories about them. I think all those stories helped me, because I monitor my engine like a hawk now.
 

Agnem

Using the Force!
Supporting Member
Joined
Jan 10, 2005
Posts
17,067
Reaction score
373
Location
Delta, PA
Bob, my Ford diesel tech mechanic friend at my local Ford dealer, says the biggest mistake most guys made with them was chipping them. He said that engine is so maxed out from the factory, that chipping kills them early and often. I wonder what percentage of owners did that right off the bat? They probably had a 7.3, and figured if it was good for that one, it should be better for this one.
 
Last edited:

snicklas

6.0 and Loving It!!
Staff member
Joined
Aug 7, 2006
Posts
6,164
Reaction score
2,342
Location
Greenfield, Indiana
Mel,

You are correct. 100% stock 6.0 (Like mine) is very reliable and powerful enought to do anything I want. I can't "roll coal" but.... If it really want to, Ill take the goat truck to town and play for a couple minutes. I am not sure if you have driven a 6.0, but to give you an idea, Travis drove my Ex all day over our 4th of July campout and was very happy with the performance. He said at the end of the day he didn't see any reason to turn it up, and if it were his, he would leave it alone, just like it is. Mine is 100% stock and I am on top of the maintenance 5k oil / 10k fuel filters. The only mod I have made is a FUMOTO drain valve..... I tow an RV and it works just fine for me. I would rather leave it alone and drive it forever, like you and the Moose, (I know the Moose Truck is not stock) that chip/tuner it and it be in the shop/my garage being torn down in 6 months.

How does the Moosewagon compair? It is still stock correct? The only 7.3PSD I have driven is a 96 OBS Grass Truck that has 500 Gallons of water in the bed all the time......
 

TorqueDiesel60

Registered User
Joined
Jun 15, 2009
Posts
42
Reaction score
0
Location
Michigan
Mel,

You are correct. 100% stock 6.0 (Like mine) is very reliable and powerful enought to do anything I want. I can't "roll coal" but.... If it really want to, Ill take the goat truck to town and play for a couple minutes. I am not sure if you have driven a 6.0, but to give you an idea, Travis drove my Ex all day over our 4th of July campout and was very happy with the performance. He said at the end of the day he didn't see any reason to turn it up, and if it were his, he would leave it alone, just like it is. Mine is 100% stock and I am on top of the maintenance 5k oil / 10k fuel filters. The only mod I have made is a FUMOTO drain valve..... I tow an RV and it works just fine for me. I would rather leave it alone and drive it forever, like you and the Moose, (I know the Moose Truck is not stock) that chip/tuner it and it be in the shop/my garage being torn down in 6 months.

How does the Moosewagon compair? It is still stock correct? The only 7.3PSD I have driven is a 96 OBS Grass Truck that has 500 Gallons of water in the bed all the time......
What do you think off the tuners that specialize with the PSD? Like the SCT from Elite Diesel Engineering? I would only add a tuner once I added an intake, exhaust, 1 micron oil bypass filter (I run full synthetic diesel specific oil), Coolant filter, H-11 head studs, FULL-ON EGR delete kit, full set of gauges, and woulndt run it on the higher up tunes all the time. Only once in a while, Id probably run it on the economy tune or tow tune most off the time. The 5R110 auto. seems to hold up to more power stock really well, in the last issue of diesel power they feature "the most powerful 6.0L in Arizona" with 500hp and 900-1000 lb-ft of torque and it had a stock 5R110 that held up to the power.

Under those circumstances what do you think about a tuner (SCT by EDE)????
 

halfasscattlec

Registered User
Joined
Nov 12, 2009
Posts
1
Reaction score
0
Location
Garden City, Ks
i havent had a problem yet with my 6.0 bought it at 18K miles and its now has 186K miles on it..... its an early production 04 with an dec of 03 motor in it..... treat like its ur only kid and you will never have a problem with one... i drag trailers all over the country weighing close to 40K pounds with no problems.... straight piped and homemade custom intake
 

Ford428CJ

FE Freak!
Joined
Nov 17, 2007
Posts
205
Reaction score
6
Location
Klamath Falls, Oregon
I have the Edge Juice with Attitude, Cold Air with no problems. I have almost 70,000 miles on my 03 Crew Cab, Long Bed F-250. But I do treat it right!

I think some of the mistakes are made by people themselves. Using wrong coolant, Non Factory filters (oil/Fuel), not changing oil when they should. I think that kills some of them right off the bat! Besides chips.... Setting them to high when pulling a load! What a no no.... LOL
 

Hybrid455

Full Access Member
Joined
Feb 15, 2009
Posts
158
Reaction score
0
Location
Sandia Park/ New Mexico
Later 6.0's were better then the earlier ones but not great. Lots of EGR, injector and software issues. Ford rushed them out to meet EPA standards and compete with the quieter Cummins and DuraMax. We can't get enough diesel techs where I work to get less then a week backlog. That said I am in the southwest, extreme duty hot and dusty. You guys up north might be having different results. Personally I wouldn't own a 6.0 liter or a 6.4 for that matter without a really good warranty.
 
Top