Engines to avoid on F-250?

Avoid the 5.4L and 6.8L 3V engines built before 2008.

As for breaking the 2 piece plugs, that was resolved in the same time frame. The "new" (possibly not factory approved) method of changing those plugs is to do it hot and use an impact gun ! Mechanics doing it this way routinely report 100% success !

Thanks for all the replies. I am not looking for any specific year just looking at ones in my price range of 20k and want to avoid the troubled engines where possible. I am stuck between finding a 250 or getting a 2500 suburban or yukon XL.

If you are in the market for an F250, it would be interesting to know what year.

Seems like I recall they were all 6.2 starting with 2011. :h maybe i am wrong, since i have not looked since i saddled up in my 2012.

The 6.0 is a fine engine if its been fixed. Mine had the turbo cooler leaking problem and $3000. later is still running strong at 110,000 miles. Towed the 38 ft 5th back from Brownsville last month with no problems.

The only "problem" that I know of with the 5.4l is changing the spark plugs. The way the engine is designed, the plugs can get "carbonized" in place and can be very difficult to remove. I think Ford even has a special tool just to remove those spark plugs. I had a local garage do the spark plug change for me. The mechanic is very experienced, and very experienced with Fords. He still had one of the plugs break when he was getting it out - he warned me that might happen. The dealership warned of that also when I had them give me a quote for the work (which was double what the local garage charged me).

Otherwise, my 2008 5.4l runs great and tows fine. Granted, I am not towing at the max rating of the truck - TT is 4600lbs dry weight, truck is rated for 10,000lbs.

If you're thinking a 6.7 diesel I think you should be aware that from 2011 through 2014 the 6.7 was a great engine. In 2015 it had some significant upgrades that made it even better. The most significant of which was a larger more reliable turbo that offers a huge improvement in exhaust braking. Also when buying a f250 I think you should know that the main difference between a f250 and a f350 srw is that the f250 lacks an overload spring in the rear suspension that the f350 has. This cuts the truck's rated payload in half. The price of the two trucks is very similar.

Avoid any diesel from 2003 to 2010 (6.0L and 6.4L).

Outfit I used to work for had a fleet of E350 vans with the 5.4 and had no problems to speak of. Some were well over 300k.
That said, if you are looking to tow with a F250, you probably won't be happy with a 5.4 power wise.

Early year V10 had plug issues 2000. I own a 2004 F250 CC pickup with 6.8 V10 and no issues with it. Just replaced plugs 117k at dealer for 350.00 and I would only let the dealer do it due to the aluminium heads. My regular mechanic refused to change the plugs and he said when it's time for his motor home with V10 he will take it to the dealer. Replacing heads isn't cheap. Fyi the V10 will scream high revs going up hills but nothing wrong with it it loves the power band. 6.0 and 6.4 diesels are not the best and have plenty of known issues.

Just 6.0 and 6.4 diesels.
Few of the V10s were known as spark plug spitters too, the early ones? FWIW, though I've driven exclusively or been responsible for hundreds of ford gasser trucks since the mid nineties, every engine model and can't remember any of my trucks or others losing a spark plug.
The other annoyances are coil packs that c rap out, but that's minor and easy to fix.
Have had a random lemon in the trucks I've personally been assigned. An 08, F150 5.4L. But it was random when the other 10 or 20 trucks that were exactly the same had none of those issues. And it was a special truck. Trans shelled out, literally at low miles, truck tried to burn itself to the ground with a defective cat converter, and several other less catastrophic things.