Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Ford 6.0 Roulette

I'll see how it turns out. I just got this 2003 F250 Super Duty 6.0. It's had the EGR delete done the correct way and improved high pressure oil cooler installed. It's a clean truck, but I had a little work to do on it, which I knew going in. I replaced the front drive shaft CV assembly and drained and filled the rear end with the correct oil and posi-lube; it doesn't hop and hump anymore. I added the nerf bars/steps and found a cherry ARE bed shell for $300.00 on craigslist. It has good tires with 3/4 tread left. It hauls my bigger boat great; something my 2005 5.3L 1500 Silverado doesn't.

It'll be hard to drive any distance holding my breath.

Weren't head bolts an issue with those? They're are supposed to be great if the known problems are corrected. Good luck.

They can be a problem, yes. This had new head gaskets done 23,000 miles ago at 154,000, and I assume they used the tougher studs. I do know the studs were done.

I have three friends with the same engine in 2003-2004 trucks. One had a lot of problems with his. It was owned by a lady who hauled a heavy horse trailer all over the country with her foot to the floor.

My other two friends have owned their trucks since new, serviced them regularly, and have had no problems so far.

I don't push my equipment hard, so maybe I'll be fine.

I’ve got 165,000 miles on mine, mostly not scared if it. Did all the traditional 6.0 stuff at 100,000 miles. Bought it with 45,000 miles on it.

A 99 cent O-ring that goes on your water/fuel separator drain plug will make you think you’re losing all your injectors as it starts sucking some air into the fuel system.

A transmission fluid temp sensor will put you in limp mode in Wyoming on an antelope hunt an hour from any town. Luckily after cooling overnight code was cleared long enough to get me into overdrive on the interstate for the 60 mile drive to a Ford dealer without one. Limped over to OReillys who had a $7 Dorman sensor. That and a socket set to drop transmission pan in their parking lot fixed it.

Brother In law has 165,000 on his. It is hooked to his stock trailer more often than not. All stock other than his hpop.

A friend here had one. His only problem was an oil leak. Sold it before it could blow up.
grin

I Like your tent!

WIPE THAT SMILE OFF YOUR FACE!

Nice looking peekup!

I bet ya get your money's worth, and some good times to boot!

We've got an 03 F-350 with the 6.0 that we use for our farm truck. It's got over 200,000 miles on it, and so far, so good. We don't use it much, just pulling trailers and short runs to town every so often.

Mine is in the shop as we speak. It’s been solid for 149500 miles then she decides to throw an injector while I’m towing our 5th wheel.

Monitor the difference between your engine coolant temp (ECT) and engine oil temp (EOT). After the engine is warm, on relatively flat ground at ~65 MPH and ~1900 RPM, the difference should be less than 15 degrees after 15-20 miles. Ideally, it should be between 4 and 9 degrees. The big issue with the 6.0 was Ford's insistence that their Gold coolant be used, which has silicates. After many heat cycles, the silicates drop out and clog the oil cooler. People didn't know it was happening, and this caused the EGR cooler to overheat and crack, which put coolant into the engine and blew the head gaskets. Navistar used TTY bolts (torque to yield) on the 6.0, and only 4 per cylinder, so it didn't take much. Look at the front of the driver's side cylinder head, if there are 6-points it has TTY bolts, if it has 12- points it has head studs. If your EGR is deleted this shouldn't be a problem. The TTY bolts aren't really that bad, and many folks have tons of miles on them, but head studs are preferred. Unless that engine already has ELC coolant (red in color) I recommend flushing your cooling system and converting it over, or you'll probably plug the oil cooler again. A word of caution, most 'improved' or 'high capacity oil coolers' for the 6.0 are a joke, and will cause a higher delta between ECT and EOT. Only the Ford OEM oil cooler should be used.

My understanding was that the Big problem was when the engine was worked hard early, before coming completely to temperature.

I had one and put about 120k on it. I don’t tromp the fuel. Never really wind it out. And I had zero problems. But I can relate to the holding your breath. Every day I wondered, is today the day. Good luck.

mirrors replaced?

Nice truck!

My brother had good luck with his 6.0L F350, he did have to rebuild the rear end once. I don't think he ever deleted anything it was still factory at nearly 250K miles. He lost it in the divorce but he found an 02 7.3L with 120K on it. I looked for a 6.0L when I wanted a crew cab. I found a lot that had been "bulletproofed" or "deleted", but I couldn't find a single one that I could get all the records of the work done. Besides if you're going to do the studs, you need to "fire ring" the heads while you're at it. The problem with "deleted" or "bulletproofed" to a lot of dealers that just means large exhaust, cold air intake, and a tuner on the used 6.0L.

I finally found an 06 Duramax crew cab in my budget with 130K miles, so far I haven't been to disappointed in it. I just had to give up on 6.0 trucks around here as it was a total crap shoot on them, I was afraid they had been running too hot of tunes for too long. I almost stepped up to the 6.7 a couple of times, and avoided the 6.4L like the plague. I looked at several Ram trucks as well, they just wanted too much of a premium for full sized crew cabs or the mega with <150K miles.

Good lookin' rig!

"Weren't head bolts an issue with those? They're are supposed to be great if the known problems are corrected. Good luck."

My son has a friend who is a diesel mechanic in west Texas and he told me that the problem with the 6 liter Ford diesels was that they only had 4 head bolts for each cylinder and the head gaskets kept blowing. The "permanent" fix was to install head studs and better quality head gaskets.

I have a '04 with 129K. I use it mostly for towing. I bullet proofed it about 5 years ago. Changed the injectors recently. But I figure some of that work was preventative in nature.

The way I way I see it, as they say, if it has tits or tires, sooner or later you are gonna have problems with it. I suppose my time is coming but hasn't happened yet. But it will happen as it will to all of us.

Never heard of improved high pressure oil cooler. Ford came out with a newer cooler that had an extra row of passages. There are aftermarket oil coolers like Bullet Proof Diesel. Is it on the engine or remote in front of the radiator? Just never heard any of them described as "high pressure".


Does it have the updated blue fuel pressure regulator spring installed? The original spring can allow the fuel pressure to drop too low under throttle. Other possible contributors can be dirty fuel filters and as Cheesy mentioned earlier, the o-ring on the fuel separator drain plug. If the blue spring hasn't been replaced, might as well have that done while it is in the shop. It's cheap and easy to install.

Another issue that can kill injectors is low battery voltage. This is because of weakened battery voltage that gets too low during startup, the FICM voltage then gets too low (should be 48+), and that will kill injectors. It will also kill the FICM (Fuel Injection Control Module). The ground cabling/current paths aren't balanced. Ideally, the two batteries in parallel will provide equal current, but since the current loop on the drivers side is higher impedance, the passenger battery provides more current, so it typically wears out before the driver's side battery. TooManyToys of Ford Truck Enthusiasts has done an exhaustive amount of study and measurements on it. He's also produced several youtube videos (one posted below). I did the simplest upgrade and added a ground cable from the driver's side frame (where the driver's side battery cable is grounded) to the engine block.

Fuel Pressure Regulator Update Kit Install (Blue Spring) - Ford Truck Enthusiasts

Comparison pic of original vs blue spring




RIP DieselTechRon and srmastertech.