Diesel owners , do we have any on board ?

[Aukai]

There was a tow truck here that had the cab lifted off, and under repair more than it was on the road....

 

[Bi11Hudson]

I may be out of line here but I had a Chev 6.6 diesel, a "DuraMax" and Allison automatic. I had wanted a Ford, but the Chev was almost handed to me at about 100K miles. I was using it as a company truck, high mileage. And almost doubled the mileage in a year or so. I was told, at the time, that "older" Fords had an International engine and newer ones had a Ford engine that had problems. In the ensuing 12-15 years since that time, Ford seems to have ironed out the problems. This relates to older trucks (ca.2006) and probably isn't really useful for someone shopping today. Just thought I'd throw it in if it would help.
.

 

[mmcmdl]

I have the older 2003 6.0 Bill . But I'm soaking up any information on diesels .

 

[Aukai]

Oh, similar to electricity "don't let the smoke out" on a diesel "don't let the air in" to the fuel system. I never had to prime a truck, but I had plenty of practice on my twin Cummins 6.9s on the boat. The trucks have an electric lift pump....

 

[ErichKeane]

Oh, similar to electricity "don't let the smoke out" on a diesel "don't let the air in" to the fuel system. I never had to prime a truck, but I had plenty of practice on my twin Cummins 6.9s on the boat. The trucks have an electric lift pump....

Heh, my first F250 had a broken fuel gauge at one point (it would randomly read 'high' on one of the tanks), so I ran it dry once or twice. It suUUCKED. Fortunately, it had a schraider valve to bleed it and a motor-driven fuel pump, so you would just crank it for a bit, then bleed out air with the valve. It would usually take about 20 minutes of going back and forth (plus waiting for the batteries on the charger!), but definitely not something I'd like to have to do again.

 

[Jim F]

Diesel truck long time owner no power strokes. I switched over to Cummings when Ford stopped using the International engine. Ford is a nicer truck than Dodge but the Cummings engine has fewer problems than the power stroke engine. Wish Ford made a truck with a Cummings engine and an Allison transmission. The fire department has a power stroke that goes through turbo chargers I think it's on its fourth one. If you want to change the injector pump on a newer power stroke the body has to be partly removed. I am sure someone will have more experience with the power stroke engine and can contribute .

Ford used Navstar up through the 6.4L.
The 6.7L is Fords design.

 

[matthewsx]

I've owned my OBS 2WD 1997 F250 Heavy Duty since new in 1998. I had the tranny gone through in 2008 because the guys at the shop next to my buddies place were desperate for work and gave me a smokin' deal. Did the oil cooler myself in 2009, that was fun.... Had some injectors replaced in 2015 or so, my fault for not keeping up on oil changes. It currently has about 315k on it and runs as good as the day I bought it.

Back then I subscribed to the Powerstroke Magazine (remember those)? I figured I'd get it to 100k and start doing mods once it was out of warranty. Well, it never once failed to do what I asked of it, towing with a Lance Camper on the back, hauling my fully loaded race trailer, moving to Arizona, then Michigan, then back to California, etc, etc, etc. I figure the engineers probably knew what they were doing so no need to change anything that isn't broken, maybe some day I'll get around to switching over to an electric fuel pump but I'm in no hurry since the original is still working.

Maybe I'm funny but I don't need my pickup to do anything except haul whatever I need to move and it does that great. Before this one I had a 1967 F 250 that I let go because it blew a head gasket and I already had a race car and several project cars. I didn't need my pickup to be a project too at the time or I would have kept it. I figure the '67 lasted 30 years (mostly not with me) so if I can get 30 years out of this one I'll never need to buy another truck. So far so good



John

 

[Janderso]

Dave,

I have the older 2003 6.0 Bill . But I'm soaking up any information on diesels .

We have a local farm equipment rep. That had nothing but problems with his 2003 6.0. The first hundred thousand miles were torture and under warranty. He had us install all the bullet proof gear, he was able to enjoy a fairly problem free engine for another 300,000 miles. No programmer!

 

[cjtoombs]

I have a 2003 F550 with the 6.0 Powerstroke. After I bought it about 5 years ago I figured out it had blown head gaskets. Turns out after I tore it down it was blown head gaskets, cracked heads, worn out tubocharger among a few other things. I did the work myself and the bill was about $4500. Works great now. A lot of folks poo-poo the 6.0, but from what I've seen and heard from knowlegable peaople, if you take care of the maintenance and don't hot rod it it is a good engine. Since the price of diesel fuel is now consistenly higher than gasoline, any economic incentive to own a diesel is gone. I had to buy a replacement, since I can no longer use it as a truck (CA commercial emissions rules) and this time I bought a gasoline truck. The only reason that I would buy a medium duty truck with a diesel is if I planned on running it heavily loaded for most of it's life. Otherwise it makes no sense. Don't get me wrong, I do love that F550, but higher purchase, maintenance and fuel costs are way more than the savings from any improved fuel mileage. It gets 6.5 mpg with my Lance 1161 camper on it, so I don't know how much worse a gasoline truck would be but it couldnt be much..

 

[Dhal22]

I've owned my 2003 6.0 almost 18 years. Probably will have it another 18 years since it's semi retired. My Expedition gets replaced every 5 years.