What do yo know about an 09 6.4 Ford Diesel?

While I would agree paramedics are hard on vehicles. I would suggest this is from hours or idiling cool (an ambulance should never be cold) full throttle starts and undercooling. Our suspicion is that the vehicles were resting at a higher temp than was speced resulting in the oil being too thin for proper lube and retention by the rings resulting in severe cylinder wash and excessive oil use. All 3 were 25k km in or more and the rest some still in service were driven to 200k or more with constant attention to oil levels etc. that's deff a towing motor

For those of you who keep having 6.4 radiator issues click here. Print this out and show it to your dealer.

Ford covered our last radiator on their dime. That was many moons ago and we haven't had a single issue for way longer than I can remember. :)

I had a '10 6.4 F350 King Ranch that Ford bought back after 18 months and 24,000 miles, the last three months it basically sat because it was either in the shop or we would not trust it when it was out. From 5,000 miles on, it had a total loss of drive problem on 5-4 downshifts, melted pistons, had leaky injectors, and the primary turbo was a problem of some sort too. Over $20,000 in warranty work on a totally stock truck that was used well under capacity, only towing about 7500 lbs.

The '11 6.7 Lariat that Ford put me in as a replacement has been 100% trouble free for 2+ years and 25,000 miles. Much better drivability with the 6.7. the 6.4 was a laggy, doggy POS until it spooled up its 33psi (!) of boost.

I also have a 2v 2011 V10 in an E450 chassis Class C. It has been used super hard (20,000lb GCW frequently) since new, and was using a fair amount of 5w-20 Motorcraft Synthetic blend at first, around a quart per 1,000 miles. Now that it is up to 17,000 miles, for whatever reason the oil consumption has dropped off dramatically, to about a quart every 2,500.

While we like the 6.7 alot, it is likely my last diesel truck.

bmanning wrote:

MX-RV wrote:
35-v10's
All three from my understanding were due to dry oil sumps. As they all ate oil it was only a matter of time before more went. The trend was there and predictable from what I know the ones that blew were taking 3-4q a day up until their early demise.

But yes the fuel economy was poor to say the least. With the psd's we refueled every 2-3 days @~ $150 with the v10's it was daily at about the same. The new bowties are equipped to shut down when batteries are fully chaged and an aux heater installed to heat the cabin's so winter we are refueling every other day @~ $150-170 summer with ac is daily at same.

As for the 6.4 psd if your bent on a diesel (I'd sure love one) there's got to be aftermarket replacement parts designed to fix the faults in the oem parts. But I do year great things about the 6.7

Thanks for clarifying; surprising and somewhat disappointing that 3 of 35 (9%!) blew and many others drank oil as they did. I've read other reports of fleets having terrific success with V10s (MPG aside LOL) but I suppose ambulance duty is the most extreme usage possible so maybe it shouldn't be that surprising to me.

Were the V10's run on 5W20 oil?

To sum up this topic I wouldn't own a 07.5 - 12 RAM or 08-10 Ford diesel due to the first generation emissions on these trucks. I'm leaving out the Chevy because I'm not familiar with how they are doing with the first gen emissions, but I can say their sheet metal is tin can thin and leave ripples in the sheet metal.

MX-RV wrote:
35-v10's
All three from my understanding were due to dry oil sumps. As they all ate oil it was only a matter of time before more went. The trend was there and predictable from what I know the ones that blew were taking 3-4q a day up until their early demise.

But yes the fuel economy was poor to say the least. With the psd's we refueled every 2-3 days @~ $150 with the v10's it was daily at about the same. The new bowties are equipped to shut down when batteries are fully chaged and an aux heater installed to heat the cabin's so winter we are refueling every other day @~ $150-170 summer with ac is daily at same.

As for the 6.4 psd if your bent on a diesel (I'd sure love one) there's got to be aftermarket replacement parts designed to fix the faults in the oem parts. But I do year great things about the 6.7

Thanks for clarifying; surprising and somewhat disappointing that 3 of 35 (9%!) blew and many others drank oil as they did. I've read other reports of fleets having terrific success with V10s (MPG aside LOL) but I suppose ambulance duty is the most extreme usage possible so maybe it shouldn't be that surprising to me.

Me Again wrote:
"What is the general view of this engine?"

With or without the cab removed for engine repair???? With the cab removed the view is great.

Chris

Oh, you are mean!:)

Me Again wrote:
"What is the general view of this engine?"

With or without the cab removed for engine repair???? With the cab removed the view is great.

Chris

Oh, you are mean!

35-v10's
All three from my understanding were due to dry oil sumps. As they all ate oil it was only a matter of time before more went. The trend was there and predictable from what I know the ones that blew were taking 3-4q a day up until their early demise.

But yes the fuel economy was poor to say the least. With the psd's we refueled every 2-3 days @~ $150 with the v10's it was daily at about the same. The new bowties are equipped to shut down when batteries are fully chaged and an aux heater installed to heat the cabin's so winter we are refueling every other day @~ $150-170 summer with ac is daily at same.

As for the 6.4 psd if your bent on a diesel (I'd sure love one) there's got to be aftermarket replacement parts designed to fix the faults in the oem parts. But I do year great things about the 6.7

MX-RV wrote:
If your happy with your v-10 I'd stick with it. We had a fleet of 35 10's at work and blew up 3 of them, the rest were eating quarts of oil daily. It wasn't uncommon for us to add a quart at the beginning of a shift and another at the end. However these were ambulances and spent a lot of time idiling. We left the 6&7 psd's when the clean idle came out due to projected reliability issues with the new tech and jumped righ into a hornets nest...

By 35 10s did you mean 35 V10s, or 35 2010 model year 6.4Ls?

If your happy with your v-10 I'd stick with it. We had a fleet of 35 10's at work and blew up 3 of them, the rest were eating quarts of oil daily. It wasn't uncommon for us to add a quart at the beginning of a shift and another at the end. However these were ambulances and spent a lot of time idiling. We left the 6&7 psd's when the clean idle came out due to projected reliability issues with the new tech and jumped righ into a hornets nest...