6.6 duramax vs 6.0 powertroke

Let's just say that my mechanic choose a gasser over a 6.0 Ford. And he LOVES the Ford 6.0 – so long as its not in his truck.

outnabout wrote:
looking to buy a '06.5 Chevy 6.6 duramax or '06 Ford 6.0 powerstroke. Seems I get a little more pazzaz with the Ford. Which one has better reputation for reliability?

If you can get the Ford for AT LEAST $5K less than the Chevy, spend the $5K getting the ford engine bullet proofed. (Head studs, EGR and oil cooler for starters)
Then you'll have a good truck!
By way of explanation, the failure rate of the Ford 6.0 is horrible. There are good ones out there, but there are an awful lot of bad ones.
In fairness, there were fewer issues with '06s than previous years.
But get the D'max and don't look back.
06.5 and '07 LBZs were the best engines prior to the introduction of a whole bunch of emission junk.

powderman426 wrote:
I would get the 5.9.

The Cummins won't let you down.

:B

5.9 let my dad down and it required a tow. Hard to run the Cummins when the lift pump fails. He still has it and is well over 200k miles now.

Not throwing stones at the Cummins, just pointing out that ALL diesel options can and do have failure points.

Some Duramax trucks have head gasket and injector issues, some Rams have Lift pump issues,... Then there is the 6.0.

This is not a motor that you treat like every other motor. You need to carefully monitor engine oil and engine coolant temps, watch for tell tell signs of failure and get it repaired. Change the coolant often and keep a close eye on things. Many 6.0's live happy lives without failure.

IMHO before I bought a 6.0 diesel I would invest in a scan guage II and plug it into the truck on the test drive. Let the truck tell you the story.

- does the motor feel like it has a slight miss from cold start? Did it smooth out after it got warm? That's probably one or more injectors failing.
- are the oil tems and the coolant temps within 15 degrees? If not, then there is probably a bad EGR cooler and or a bad OIl cooler. That will lead to a head gasket failure.
- is there white smoke on start up? If so, the EGR cooler is probably toast, at the least. At the most the head gaskets are done
-do the heads have bolts or studs? If studs the The motor has at least had the head gaskets done and head studs installed. This can be a good sign that the EGR cooler and the Oil cooler have also been replaced.
- check the coolant, is it still gold coolant? Does it have green coolant (bad)? Can you see a coolant filter (this will be very obvious).
-get the records that the coolant, fuel, and oil has been changed per spec. Also look for the typical stuff like axle fluid changes and transmission fluid changes.
- no records? The. Get a competent diesel mechanic to take a look.

While most of the above applies to the 6.0 I would not buy any used diesel without researching the issues with that particular platform until I'm red eyed and confident about what I am looking for.

IMHO... While the 6.0 has it's issues, the rest of the truck is fantastic with arguably one of the stoutest transmissions of the era. Plus there is hardly a smoother driving diesel than a 6.0 running properly.

Thanks and good luck!

Jeremiah

I would get the 5.9.

The Cummins won't let you down.

:B

See my sig. I had the 6.0 and spent over $5000 on it in a year and still had problems. Love my new Duramax.

It's a total no brainer.....6.6 Duramax.

Happy camping!!! See y'all down the road!!!:)

T-10 Parabolic wrote:

352 wrote:
6.0 is a NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

All BS. I had a 6.0 and put 140k on it and no problems what so ever.

Your taking it personally T10. There's no need to, many people bought them and there was nothing to make them believe they were problematic. I considered one in 03.
I'm sure the majority never had a problem but the percentage of failures is/was horrendous. Far, far higher than that of all the competition combined several times over.
Just because some were ok doesn't negate the terribly high failure rate and make this engine a good choice.
And 140K is nothing really.

THere is really only one answer here the Ford 6.0 engine has a notoriously bad reputation.
Get the Duramax Allison. If you are a gambler get the Ford. I agree I like the overall Ford truck better, but the 6.0 PSD is not to be trusted.

If the Duramax is an LBZ generation motor (which I am certain it is) you should jump on it before it's gone.

I won't comment on the 6.0. Their overall reputation speaks for itself.

352 wrote:
6.0 is a NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

All BS. I had a 6.0 and put 140k on it and no problems what so ever.