looking at an 04 6.0 - Diesel Forum

nasty50 · 11-01-2009, 08:37 PM

I have heard all of the horror stories about these engines, but not much of the good stories. I am looking at an 04 crew cab shortbed 4x4 automatic. it has just over 60,000 miles on it. I drove the truck and it runs awsome. It has a mbrp exhaust. The truck is immaculant. The truck would be for my wife. It will never pull anything that has any weight to it, if it ever pulled anything. It will not get a tuner or chip or any other power adder. Asking price is $22,000. Tell me what I need to hear about this truck and engine-not just what I want to hear. I need good and bad to make my decision. Thanks

thephoneguy · 11-01-2009, 09:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nasty50

I have heard all of the horror stories about these engines, but not much of the good stories. I am looking at an 04 crew cab shortbed 4x4 automatic. it has just over 60,000 miles on it. I drove the truck and it runs awsome. It has a mbrp exhaust. The truck is immaculant. The truck would be for my wife. It will never pull anything that has any weight to it, if it ever pulled anything. It will not get a tuner or chip or any other power adder. Asking price is $22,000. Tell me what I need to hear about this truck and engine-not just what I want to hear. I need good and bad to make my decision. Thanks

The problem with this engine is that when users add the famous "CHIP" the engine blows the head gasket and it consumes coolant and or compression goes into the cooling system blowing out the coolant through the cap. You need to keep the truck for a week or so, drive the engine hard and check if the coolant level drops or spits it out through the filling cap. Ford already replaced under warranty the heads of my engine once. It has a solution, repair the head gaskets and upgrade the screws of the heads, the kit sells for around $ 800 but the labor is expensive as hell. In order to work the engine you need to remove the cab, what a project!

nasty50 · 11-01-2009, 09:31 PM

if i need to do head studs, i would do it my self i have removed plenty of cabs to replace frames(i workin a body shop). if i do not put a tuner or chip on it is the chance to pop a gasket still a big.

fxdwgi · 11-01-2009, 10:20 PM

You DON'T have to remove the cab for studs or headgaskets.

If you going to buy it, plan on studs and an EGR delete and then they will run fine for a good long while.

The guys who melt down a 6.0 would melt down any other motor also, they did not build around the program or chip. These are the guys who slap a program into a truck without so much as a set of gauges and then complain the tops of the piston looks like a king's crown.

Only thing beside the basics about running a program in a 6.0 is the FICM will get tired after a while and get below 45v output and FICM's are around $800.00.

If all the updates were done to the truck, and you are willing to spend the $$$ down the road, the 6.0 can be a great motor.

Note: City driving around a 6.0 without a load also will coke up the vanes on the turbo.....trust me I seen enough of them that way in the shop.

nasty50 · 11-01-2009, 10:53 PM

ive heard about the vanes in the turbo. i heard that if you "blow" it out every so often you will be fine. is that true? just keep in mind this truck will never see any type of power adder or pull any heavy loads. it will just be driven as an everyday driver for my wife.

bismic · 11-01-2009, 10:58 PM

Nice post fxdwgi!

IMO $22k seems high even though the mileage is low. The 2004 model year means it is out of warranty (or almost).

I would think that you could knock off a few thousand OR get a 2005 or even a 2006 for close to that asking price. A year or so left in warranty is a very attractive benefit.

The only thing I would add to fxdwgi's post is to save up money for an SCT programmer that would custom tune your truck for the EGR delete. It really does add reliability to do both - it is not just a hp adder (assuming you have installed head studs). Also I would suggest that everyone needs gauges - the most important are fuel pressure, exhaust gas temperature, boost, coolant temperature, and oil temperature. These gauges help you avoid problems and are VERY helpful when troubleshooting.

Two very important things to watch are 1) fuel pressure and 2) the temperature difference between EOT and ECT

bismic · 11-01-2009, 11:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nasty50

ive heard about the vanes in the turbo. i heard that if you "blow" it out every so often you will be fine. is that true? just keep in mind this truck will never see any type of power adder or pull any heavy loads. it will just be driven as an everyday driver for my wife.

Blowing out the turbo occasionally is very advisable. Probably more important though is making sure you have good combustion (minimizing soot). This means you need to keep fuel filters changed regularly (using OEM style Racor filters only), buy fuel from high volume stations, keep an eye on your air filter "filter minder" for determining the time to change it, get the fuel pressure gauge (low fuel pressure can QUICKLY trash a bunch of injectors) and get the oil and water temperature gauges. Fuel filters - change every 10k-15k miles. Oil and filter - change every 5k miles IMO. A 5W40 CI4+ or CJ4 oil is great to run year round.

If your oil temperature excedes the coolant temperature by more than 15 degrees F, then your oil filter is clogged on the coolant side. This will quickly kill your EGR cooler and you will send coolant into the combustion process. This can damage a lot of things.

Make sure you keep fresh coolant in your truck and only use the Motorcraft Gold OR Zerex G05 coolant. Do not add additives to the coolant but an add-on coolant filter is very wise.

Also - keep the batteries and alternator in good working order. Low voltages can overwork the Fuel Injector Control Module and it can fail. It is over $800 to replace.

The torqshift tranny is VERY strong. However - it will ONLY take Mercon SP fluid. Using ther fluids will damage solenoids. Flushing it or dropping the pan and changing fluid is adviseable every 30k miles.

Hope none of this scares you off. Do the maintenance and it will be great.

dikkstarr · 11-01-2009, 11:31 PM

To make this engine not break down on a regular basis you need to do as these guys stated, but its illegal and costly. Any tampering with the egr will be illegal, do you want to have a truck with an emission violation?

Unfortunately, that IS the ONLY way to save these engines from absolute failure and not cost you thousands of dollars to fix. Among other things that are prone to regular failure.

Yeah its a cool truck.

If I could do it again I would never have bought this truck with a 6.0l in it, I would have been better off with a V10. Diesel isnt cheap anymore like it was in '04 and never will be again.

Get your wife an F150, trust me you will be better off in the long run.

The 6.0l is just too expensive to keep running.
Buy a truck you can just drive and not one you have to spend money on to make it drivable.

Just remember one thing, every 6.0l is a ticking time bomb that costs way too much money to fix anytime anything, no matter how small, breaks on it.

Thank you.

Strokin' 6.0 · 11-01-2009, 11:54 PM

Well said, dikkstarr.

Also, it's not IF the 6.0 will fail, but WHEN.

If I could do it all over again, I'd still have my '01 3500 Dodge CTD and put up with my kids whining about the lack of rear seat space; at least it wouldn't be broken in my driveway, like my beautiful King Ranch is now, with a dead FICM.

bismic · 11-02-2009, 12:01 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dikkstarr

Get your wife an F150, trust me you will be better off in the long run.

The 6.0l is just too expensive to keep running.
Buy a truck you can just drive and not one you have to spend money on to make it drivable.

My son's F150 that you should just drive ........

Changing spark plugs - several broke off - $800 - can't do them yourself

Cam phasors - $800

and it is an 05.

So far my 2006 6.0L has been a MUCH better truck AND I still have the EGR system and stock head bolts. Probably always will.

It is not all doom and gloom!

Practically anything that might break has been written up w/ detailed procedures - you can fix yourself for reasonable $$'s.

Sushibar · 11-02-2009, 12:31 AM

Before you do anything I would take a coolant sample into a lab to see what kind of combustion byproducts are there. This can give you some idea as to whether it has bad headgaskets for a cheap price. Cost you about $40.00.

I'd guess to say that a lot of these new diesels have been programmed at some point. It's a cheap go fast item that you'll never get on a gasser.

nasty50 · 11-02-2009, 12:43 AM

i am used to spending money on upkeep on a diesel. that part dont bother me as much as the problems that some people have. I have a 7.3 truck and i love it. If you read the 7.3 section on here, you hear alot of bad just like the 6.0. I was just wondering if it is because noone posts anything but problems, you dont hear much about the good. just wondering if good and bad even out. I would buy an f150 but just cant see spending that much money for a smaller under powered truck. around hear the f150 cost just as much if not more than the 250. gotta have crew cab - got kids. and for a nice low milage 150 you would have to pay 20-25 grand. I just cant justify that price. If i have to i will wait till i find another 7.3 truck. I dont have to have this truck or anything at all. my wife saw it and likes it so I thought I would do some research. first place I came to was here. I knew I would get some honest thoughts and I thank you. keep the comments coming

dikkstarr · 11-02-2009, 10:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bismic

My son's F150 that you should just drive ........

Changing spark plugs - several broke off - $800 - can't do them yourself

Cam phasors - $800

and it is an 05.

So far my 2006 6.0L has been a MUCH better truck AND I still have the EGR system and stock head bolts. Probably always will.

It is not all doom and gloom!

Practically anything that might break has been written up w/ detailed procedures - you can fix yourself for reasonable $$'s.

......and your is two years newer than mine my friend.
I feel for you, I said the same thing in '07.
Its comin' your way....wait for it.
Yeah and everything breaks, but no matter what I did, I couldnt break my '99 F150.....wish I still had it.

nasty50 · 11-02-2009, 10:53 PM

well I didnt buy the truck. They wouldnt come to my terms. I will just keep lookin until I happen to find what I want to get her - a 7.3 truck like mine. Nothing against the 6.0 but just not convinced yet. Ive had plenty of luck with my 7.3. What about the v-10 anyone say yay or nay about one of those and how many miles can you expect out of one of those before its time to build it.

JAKE8842 · 11-02-2009, 10:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dikkstarr

To make this engine not break down on a regular basis you need to do as these guys stated, but its illegal and costly. Any tampering with the egr will be illegal, do you want to have a truck with an emission violation?

Unfortunately, that IS the ONLY way to save these engines from absolute failure and not cost you thousands of dollars to fix. Among other things that are prone to regular failure.

Yeah its a cool truck.

If I could do it again I would never have bought this truck with a 6.0l in it, I would have been better off with a V10. Diesel isnt cheap anymore like it was in '04 and never will be again.

Get your wife an F150, trust me you will be better off in the long run.

The 6.0l is just too expensive to keep running.
Buy a truck you can just drive and not one you have to spend money on to make it drivable.

Just remember one thing, every 6.0l is a ticking time bomb that costs way too much money to fix anytime anything, no matter how small, breaks on it.

Thank you.

Ticking time bomb? I dont think so. Ive seen plenty of 6.0's over the years that have been nothing but reliable. People like you are what gives this engine a bad name. Ive seen much more that have been good than i have bad. Usually the ones with problems are the people that dont give a crap and just run the wheels off of them with tuners. Even some of those still run like a top. Ive seen plenty of 6.0's with over 200k and no major problems. My buddy has a 06 with 130k and has had a bullydog on it since 30k. This truck has had the daylights kicked out of it, always on extreme mode, no maintanace done and maybe 6 oil changes done and the only problem he every had was stc fitting went bad at 50k. Sorry about your luck.