Question for diesel owners

languiduck wrote:
Agreed. I only see regurgitated information on here that is 95% false. I will take my 6.0 over anything else right now. Granted, I did make an investment with head studs other things but I now have 188,000 trouble free miles. And tuned up it is incredibly powerful, and I don't have to deal with regen, urea, or emissions. Also, you do not need to add an additive with every fill up like mentioned...that is also untrue. There is plenty of lubricity added in ULSD fuel.
Check out http://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/forum107/ if you truly want to find out facts about the truck you mentioned.

Another happy 6.0 owner. 2004 F250 . Great mileage lots of power .No issues here all I do is proper maintenance. Its been a great truck since new.

Our experience with an 03 Ford F350 with the 6.0 diesel engine was Less than good. It had had everything done to it that the factory didn't except the FICA module that was working. New injectors before we bought it, new tires, alternator, turbo, everything and after 6 weeks of driving for work blew an injector just driving along. $1,000 later, the day we got it back from the shop we traded it back to the dealer we bought it from for full purchase price on a new Chevy. It's just for work and we're not doing alot but it has to haul heavy trailers, tools and supplies often and does fine. It's an HD gasser and to haul our fairly light camper it would still need upgrades to suspension and such tho that's not in the radar as the Duramax 3500 is still doing fine at 12 years old. Like many have said, get what you can afford and are comfortable with as no one else is going to be paying your bills or driving it. A good truck of any brand that is good, runs well, and does the job you bought it for is the best truck.

To each his on. A lot of good info on here. I had a 2001 GMC CC Dually with a 8.1 gas and Allison automatic. Pulled a 40 foot tri axle toy hauler over the place Over 20,000 miles to AK and back to TX. with no problem plenty of power just 7 MPG. 3 years ago we switched to a TC bought a rig from a friend set up and ready to go. 2003 Ford F450 flatbed with a custom made aluminum bed with a 6.0 and a Arctic Fox 990 camper. I had a couple of problems right of the bat, alt, belt batteries, ecim, 2 injectors, tires, sway bars. But it was a used truck with 120,000 miles on it. I have put 30,000bmiles on it in 3 years with out a problem at all. Hope to put a lot more miles on it but if it breaks we will fix it and keep going. I am not going to spend $70,000.00 to replace it I can do a lot of repairs for that kind of money. Maybe not as fast as a 6.7. but if I was in that big a hurry I would drive a corvette and stay in a motel. Do your research buy what you want and be happy with it, don't worry about what every body else says.

Personally I wouldn't (and didn't when I bought my used diesel truck) even consider a Ford 6.0 (unless you want to spend a lot of money to "bullet-proof" it). Yes, of course, some have had good luck with the 6.0, but there are many many who did not and spent a lot of money to make it as it should have been when it left the factory, but was not. Google Ford 6.0 problems and read about it to your heart's content.

In the older diesel trucks, the most desirable (read reliable) ones are the Ram 5.9, the Ford 7.3, and the 2006 Chev / GMC Duramax LBZ. Good luck!

ol' grouch wrote:
I'm probably going to repeat what others have said but I'll just mention what I've had experience with. I've got two 3/4 ton trucks. A 2001 Ram 2500 4X4 with the 5.9 gas engine and a'97 F-250HD with the 7.3 turbo diesel.

On fuel, newer trucks are designed for the ultra low sulfur fuel. They have all sorts of emissions controls that extra sulfur will destroy. If you get an older truck, just put 4 ounces of 2 stroke motor oil in when you fill up.

Both trucks have 3.55 gearing. The gas engine is more responsive but the oil burner will pull more steady. The gas engine you can just start and go. Diesels like to be warmed up a bit. You MUST keep your fuel fresh with the diesel. Water will collect and also paraffins. Basically, the fuel will gel in really cold weather. Winter blends on diesels are designed to not gel. I found that out the hard way when I drove a truck years ago. We filled up in southern Arizona. We would change drivers each time the one tank was almost empty and would switch drivers then. A few miles out of a truck stop in Minnesota, in December, we switched the tank to find the one tank was jelly. Guess who got to hang off the back with a can of starting fluid to get the last three miles.

The gas truck sits a lot but always fires up and if it sits for several weeks, it doesn't mind. Like others have said, a diesel needs to be driven. Mine sits for a week and it isn't happy until it's good and warmed up.

If the truck is ONLY going to be used for hauling your camper, I'd go with a gasser. If you plan to drive it for other reasons, go with an oil burner. My Dodge gets 11-12 miles per gallon. The diesel gets 16-18mpg. Diesels are more expensive to own and maintain but hold their resale better. Mine also rides better but the gas truck was a commercial farm truck before I got it so it has really heavy springs underneath.

ol grouch...this may have been true in older diesels. The new common rail systems do not require warm up, and most use grids now rather than glo-plugs. 2-3 seconds when you turn the key and you're good to go. We use our diesel truck all winter in New England, have been in temps -35*F. No problems at all. In fact driving a diesel nowadays is no different than gas.
Winter blend fuels are are what you find at the pump in all cold regions...whether it is gas or diesel.
The days of finicky diesels are over...and have been for at least a decade.
I bike to work and sometimes don't start the truck for 2 weeks or so. No problem. No additives. Just start it and go.

Something new I learn about diesel.
I know that water condensation in some weather might occur, although in 30 years driving diesels in California I yet have to see a drop of water in fuel, but paraffin?
I drove on 7 years old diesel just fine.
Funny part about winter blend. Couple years ago I ended up on bussines in No Dakota with -30F temperatures. Just getting from warm cabin to the cashier at gas station was a problem, yet no station would have winter diesel blend.
Suppose summer blend is good down to -10 overnight, or -20 on driven vehicle.

I'm probably going to repeat what others have said but I'll just mention what I've had experience with. I've got two 3/4 ton trucks. A 2001 Ram 2500 4X4 with the 5.9 gas engine and a'97 F-250HD with the 7.3 turbo diesel.

On fuel, newer trucks are designed for the ultra low sulfur fuel. They have all sorts of emissions controls that extra sulfur will destroy. If you get an older truck, just put 4 ounces of 2 stroke motor oil in when you fill up.

Both trucks have 3.55 gearing. The gas engine is more responsive but the oil burner will pull more steady. The gas engine you can just start and go. Diesels like to be warmed up a bit. You MUST keep your fuel fresh with the diesel. Water will collect and also paraffins. Basically, the fuel will gel in really cold weather. Winter blends on diesels are designed to not gel. I found that out the hard way when I drove a truck years ago. We filled up in southern Arizona. We would change drivers each time the one tank was almost empty and would switch drivers then. A few miles out of a truck stop in Minnesota, in December, we switched the tank to find the one tank was jelly. Guess who got to hang off the back with a can of starting fluid to get the last three miles.

The gas truck sits a lot but always fires up and if it sits for several weeks, it doesn't mind. Like others have said, a diesel needs to be driven. Mine sits for a week and it isn't happy until it's good and warmed up.

If the truck is ONLY going to be used for hauling your camper, I'd go with a gasser. If you plan to drive it for other reasons, go with an oil burner. My Dodge gets 11-12 miles per gallon. The diesel gets 16-18mpg. Diesels are more expensive to own and maintain but hold their resale better. Mine also rides better but the gas truck was a commercial farm truck before I got it so it has really heavy springs underneath.

1handyhubby wrote:
I need your help folks. My Ford F250 just doesn't have enough power to haul our camper long distances so we're looking at a 2005 F350 duelly with a 6.0. I know zip about diesels so here are a couple of questions for y'all. I only put about 3,000 miles a year on our truck now, so how often would I have to change oil, filters etc? I've been told there are diesel fuels for 2005 and earlier and diesel fuel for 2006 and up and I should get a 2005 beacause that fuel is easier to find. Any truth to this? We will be driving to Alaska in 2017 so I don't want any issues on finding fuel. Lastly, most diesel folks say they will never go back to gas, anyone want to weigh in on this? I originally was trying to find a F350 duelly with a V10 but because we eventually want to get a camper with a slide out we've been told we should get a diesel. Thanks in advance.

I have 2007 6.0PSd and have had very few problems with it. Had to replace the turbo and the "dummy plugs" in the heads as the only mechanical failures in 125,000 miles. I also did replace the EGR cooler, oil cooler and water pump as a just in case measure for our all 2015 summer trip which included 34 days in Alaska.

There was never a problem in getting fuel in Alaska, just having to pay for did leave a painful hole in my wallet ($5.50/gal in Dead Horse,AK.). Our summer trip was approx 17000- 18000 miles long and during that time the 6.0 performed flawlessly.

As far as oil changes, I carried my own oil and fuel filters bought from NAPA Auto Stores and you can watch whom ever is changing the oil to make sure their doing it correctly. I did go on the long side between oil changes during this trip because of not knowing who to trust to do the job right.
Will I ever go back to gas, probably not but I won't say never either.

If you want to know about our Alaskan trip I'll be posting the TCTR soon otherwise you can PM me.

Main problem with 6l is weak head bolts.
Took me like 8hr to replace oil cooler as it takes 1/2 engine apart to get there.
Hardly DIY.
Sure it is nice engine when it doesn't have problems.
So let's talk about good diesel engines past 2008?
How much 2008 F350 dually runs in different part of the country?
I've been buying vehicles long distance as cars usually are cheaper on east cost.
For some reason heavy pickups are cheaper in California.
I guess not that many farmers here.

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I have a 2007 F-350 with a 6.0 PSD.
With the help of Dieseltech Ron on Youtube, most anybody can do a Bulletproofing of their own.
If you do the BP EGR and remote oil cooler, you gotta good truck.
Just my .02.

Tom