I (believe) that I’ve heard that the 6.0 Powerstroke Diesel is much preferrable to the 7.3 Powerstroke of older Ford’s. Can anyone give me specifics?
As far as the 6.0, any known problems or issues with the F250’s made in 2003-2004?
Thanks
From what Cheeks has told me, stay away from the 6.0, apparently they have head gasket issues and require extensive labor to correct. The 7.3L is what I would look for.
look to pay the same for both, even though the 7.3 is going to be older and likely have higher miles. I’d take a 6.0 any day of the week (infact i’m gonna look for one here shortly) but i’m biased because i work on the damn things.
6.0 has it’s share of problems, i could sit here and name a dozen and it’s likely the truck will experience a few but not all. if you’re gonna put a chip in it and tow at the same time be prepared to buy headstuds, plain and simple you’re gonna blow the gaskets out. best thing you can get is an EGT sensor and a gauge installed, you’ll save yourself some money in the long run
03 or 1st quarter 04 and your gonna skip the EGR cooler problem but you’re gonna get a shittier high pressure oil pump. the ICP is on the back of the engine(they leak and contaminate the connector = no start). there’s a lot of actual differences inside the early 6.0 but none of them cause any issues. just remember, with any 6.0 the lower the mileage the better.
Im now looking at an 05 6.0 heard late 04 and on are more reliable. I won’t be doing any towing or pulling with this as it will be my strictly work truck. It will see 25-30k miles a year mostly highway and will at times have a pretty heavy load in the back (expect it to carry at least 500lbs once a week and 9-1100lbs about once or twice a month when im picking up sheet metal). Not planning on any mods, but was thinking that an EGT sensor, boost sensor, and anything else to try and make sure the truck is as reliable as possible.
My buddy runs a concrete pumping business and has had a ton of powerstrokes. The pumps weigh about 6-8k lbs so they are not a heavy load, but the trucks are pretty much always towing them. Both of their 7.3s ('99 and ‘01) are still running and working. They sold one of their 6.0s and Lemon-Law’ed the other. They have a 6.4 now too which is so far, so good. He also has a 29’ toy-hauler that’s ~13k lbs loaded. Over the years we’ve used pretty much every one of the trucks to tow it to Pismo. There’s a huge grade leaving Pismo, with the toy hauler that’s the test of a tow rig to me. The 7.3Ls (despite lower power ratings) seemed to do better than the 6.0Ls cuz you could just run them harder. I don’t know if there’s something in the 6.0L that causes it to scale back the power on a long grade, but it just doesn’t seem to make the same power for the whole pull. The 6.4 is bad ass on the grade though, no doubt. One of the other 7.3s that he had (which he then sold) he modded and it seemed “only” as fast as the 6.4 on the grade (had to watch the EGTs and scale the power based on that) but unloaded was MUCH faster… but what’s the point of that, it’s a tow rig!?! He sold that one because w/ the mods it went through transmissions like water.
Other than the headgaskets and other stuff 01GPGT mentioned the 6.0s are also known for blowing the boost tube off the turbo. Once they do it’s a bitch to get it back on, and it really never stays on well again 'til you replace the coupler (and clean the oil and stuff off that seems to coat everything when it happens). Now, this seems like a petty problem but when you’re coming back up from Glamis (~12hrs w/ a good working truck for us) and have to stop every time there’s a little grade (and therefore you build full-boost) and struggle with the shit (at the back of the engine bay, next to a red-hot turbo) it really, really pisses you off. He actually built a bracket that fixes the problem (as long as you install it with a fresh coupler that hasn’t been all messed up by blowing off a bunch). I forget the website he sells them through, but if ya’ll are interested I’ll track it down.
-TJ
try some trim stick on the cac tube. i’ve blown a few of them off…you need to have it seated just right, it comes with practice i guess
i like the 6.4 more than the 6.0 but there’s some downsides. they’re tougher to work on and they’re still pretty pricey. i could only hope that the 6.7 that just came out will drive the prices of 6.4s way down otherwise they’re still way out of my price range. 6.4 pretty much every major repair is cab-off if possible. the rear turbo bolts are nearly inaccessable from the engine bay, you can pull the trans and get to them however.
i agree also that the 7.3 trannys (4R100) aren’t any good with more power infront. they’re a bitch to rebuilt too, a lot of times the center support wears out and gets cocked in the case, when that happens you need a milled center support and a snap ring groove cut into the case…hehehe, I really don’t want a 7.3 because of the 4r100
I’d take a 7.3 over a 6.0 anyday of the week. I have 2 buddies with 6.0’s that have had nothing but problems with them. After one of them put 4k+ into fire ringing and studding the block the truck runs great, but I don’t want to spend 25k on a truck and have to put 4k more into it so I can drive it. Yes, my 7.3 may not be the fastest or most powerful thing out there but its a fantastic motor that runs forever, I’m at 214k miles and haven’t had many MAJOR issues with it and I tow with it fairly often ie 25 weekends a year
only 26K more miles till the tranny goes again…
honestly though, the transmission in the 7.3 is the only downfall to that truck. although didn’t fat mark have to spend like 7 grand rebuilding his tranny too?
yep, on top of the 4k he had to spend on fire rings and head studs etc
wow, after reading that, it sounds like they should be paying you to take the truck off their lot. what dealer is actually going to pull an EGR valve off and let you inspect it before you buy the truck?
Trust me, tech or not, anyone that TELLS you to buy a 6.0 is not your friend.
Unfortunately you need to either wait and find a clean 7.3 or buck up and buy a 6.4/6.7, the 6.4’s that aren’t 08’s are very good, dpf deletes net a good power increase/mpg increase and don’t have much along the way of problems
Plus, you can get the spartan 315hp tune for the 6.4’s :drool:
anyone that tells you to run a 315hp spartan tune in your 6.4 isn’t any friend either 
fast it may be but throw reliability out the window. a torqueshift isn’t gonna take that for long
any dealer that deals with me better not have a problem with me running over the truck with a fine tooth comb. EGRs on a 6.0 are cake to pull out. an 8mm socket and a rolling head prybar will get it out so you can take a peak into the intake manifold. wetness is bad, a lot of carbon can mean poor quality fuel
I’m not telling anyone to buy a 6.0, I’m saying that because i work on them and have access to discounted parts, i would buy one
Listen guys, We’re getting into a discussion of performance and all that shit. I DONT CARE. You want to talk about the performance aspects of the 6.0 versus everything else, thats fine. I’m concerned with reliability and longevity of the Powertrain. That’s it. I will not be modding the truck, lifting it, tuning it, or upgrading it in any way other than guages to keep track of every measurable that I can so that I can ensure a long life for the truck. That’s it.
as long as you maintain the truck you’ll have a lot less problems that most people out there. there are very few that upkeep these trucks as per ford. it definitely causes problems too, especially in the 6.0 and 6.4. these guys that spend $50,000 on a new truck but don’t maintain them shock me. read up on some powerstroke forums, see what others are doing to help maintain longevity
all i can recommend is, change your fuel filters every other oil change, drain your water seperator often(esp in the winter), run only motorcraft filters, use cetane booster every fill up and use antigel in the winter.
The 6.0 power stroke engine was initially paired with wide variety of ford vehicles but with time they started having numerous problems like, trouble with solenoid controls and it caused a loss through out the power band. They also seem to suffer from excessive carbon deposits, and defects in exhausts back pressure, and the most dangerous defect is with or might be caused by damaged fuel injector which seems to be a lot common with this engines.