2007 Ford 250 6.0 Diesel

[bamafeaver]

Looking to purchase a 2007 Ford 250 6.0 diesel that has been bullet proofed. Would this be a good dependable Ford 250 to pull a Jayco 7900 pound dry weight Fifth Wheel as well as a daily driver.

[mudfuel07]

Bottom line, you are better off buying a V10 or 7.3 if you're going with Ford. I was a champion for the 6.0 until I did all the updates except for studs and my truck started drinking coolant. It was completely stock. For all the money you would spend repairing it, that buys a lot of gas.

[Rangerman40]

transamz9 wrote:

Rangerman40 wrote:
Just a little info on the FICM. The job of the FICM is to take the 12v from the battery and quadruple it to 48v to fire the injectors. International used to mount the FICM in a different location but Ford chose to mount it nearly on the drivers side valve cover where it is subjected to tons of heat/cool cycles and vibration. Consequently the soldering on the boards in the FICM begins to crack and your 48v starts to slowly drop. Undiagnosed at startup when the FICM is only putting out <45v you start destroying your injectors. If you own a 6.0 the one thing you do need is an Edge Insight so you can watch your FICM voltage constantly...... Care to take a guess why I know all of this info?


Full synthetic oil changes every 5k, fuel filters every 10k, and keep and eye on the difference in temp between oil and coolant. Once it creeps up to 15 degrees or so it's time for a new oil cooler.

You batteries can also strain the FICM. After start up the electrical system is programmed to run off the batteries for a programmed time depending on temp. It can take up to two minutes in cold weather. Your batteries can have enough juice to start the truck fine but not hold enough to keep the voltage up while running until the Alt kicks in. If your battery voltage drops below 11.8 after start up then the batteries need to be replaced.

This is true!! I failed to go into the battery aspect of it.

[transamz9]

Rangerman40 wrote:
Just a little info on the FICM. The job of the FICM is to take the 12v from the battery and quadruple it to 48v to fire the injectors. International used to mount the FICM in a different location but Ford chose to mount it nearly on the drivers side valve cover where it is subjected to tons of heat/cool cycles and vibration. Consequently the soldering on the boards in the FICM begins to crack and your 48v starts to slowly drop. Undiagnosed at startup when the FICM is only putting out <45v you start destroying your injectors. If you own a 6.0 the one thing you do need is an Edge Insight so you can watch your FICM voltage constantly...... Care to take a guess why I know all of this info?


Full synthetic oil changes every 5k, fuel filters every 10k, and keep and eye on the difference in temp between oil and coolant. Once it creeps up to 15 degrees or so it's time for a new oil cooler.

You batteries can also strain the FICM. After start up the electrical system is programmed to run off the batteries for a programmed time depending on temp. It can take up to two minutes in cold weather. Your batteries can have enough juice to start the truck fine but not hold enough to keep the voltage up while running until the Alt kicks in. If your battery voltage drops below 11.8 after start up then the batteries need to be replaced.

[Rangerman40]

mabynack wrote:

thomasgunnar wrote:

Rangerman40 wrote:
Just a little info on the FICM. The job of the FICM is to take the 12v from the battery and quadruple it to 48v to fire the injectors. International used to mount the FICM in a different location but Ford chose to mount it nearly on the drivers side valve cover where it is subjected to tons of heat/cool cycles and vibration. Consequently the soldering on the boards in the FICM begins to crack and your 48v starts to slowly drop. Undiagnosed at startup when the FICM is only putting out <45v you start destroying your injectors. If you own a 6.0 the one thing you do need is an Edge Insight so you can watch your FICM voltage constantly...... Care to take a guess why I know all of this info?


Full synthetic oil changes every 5k, fuel filters every 10k, and keep and eye on the difference in temp between oil and coolant. Once it creeps up to 15 degrees or so it's time for a new oil cooler.

Scangauge will work as well. Just not the same nice colors. Other than the triple gauge pod on the pillar I monitor things with a scangauge. Of the 4 available things I can monitor at once one is battery voltage and FICM voltage.

I use a scan gauge, too. I monitor oil temp, coolant temp, FICM voltage and main injector pressure. I have 120,000 on my 06 Power stroke and have had 2 FICMS. I'm still on the original injectors.

I read the court case documents that were filed when Ford sued Navistar. One of the statements that I remember is that Ford said the 6.0 had the highest recall costs of any engine they've ever used. They had a large number of recalls and the average cost was over $1000 per unit.

Navistar claims that Ford modified the engines to produce torque and HP that were beyond the design limits. It was originally designed as a 300 hp engine and Ford tuned it to 340 hp.

I had an 06 F250 with almost 80k on it when I got rid of it in February. It too had gone through two FICMs. One replaced under warranty and the other on my dime, which I elected to have repaired with a lifetime warranty instead of replaced. Both were caught early so my injectors were fine as well. It went out on me on the coldest day of the year, and let me tell you those little connectors on the bottom side are a real pain in the ass when you can't feel your finger tips! My oil temps and coolant temps were starting to spread so I traded it in instead of replacing the oil cooler. I'm quite happy with my new Ram 3500. With hat being said the engine was pretty solid for me and didn't really give me any other issues. I had a couple rear wheel seals go out, and the desiccant can exploded in my AC system requiring a complete rebuild of the system. Oh yes, and one of my rear brake calipers exploded while I was backing down a hill to hook up my camper that was sitting at the bottom. I've never stood on an ebrake so hard in my life. It stopped 3ft short of the camper. The pucker factor was large on that one.

[mabynack]

thomasgunnar wrote:

Rangerman40 wrote:
Just a little info on the FICM. The job of the FICM is to take the 12v from the battery and quadruple it to 48v to fire the injectors. International used to mount the FICM in a different location but Ford chose to mount it nearly on the drivers side valve cover where it is subjected to tons of heat/cool cycles and vibration. Consequently the soldering on the boards in the FICM begins to crack and your 48v starts to slowly drop. Undiagnosed at startup when the FICM is only putting out <45v you start destroying your injectors. If you own a 6.0 the one thing you do need is an Edge Insight so you can watch your FICM voltage constantly...... Care to take a guess why I know all of this info?


Full synthetic oil changes every 5k, fuel filters every 10k, and keep and eye on the difference in temp between oil and coolant. Once it creeps up to 15 degrees or so it's time for a new oil cooler.

Scangauge will work as well. Just not the same nice colors. Other than the triple gauge pod on the pillar I monitor things with a scangauge. Of the 4 available things I can monitor at once one is battery voltage and FICM voltage.

I use a scan gauge, too. I monitor oil temp, coolant temp, FICM voltage and main injector pressure. I have 120,000 on my 06 Power stroke and have had 2 FICMS. I'm still on the original injectors.

I read the court case documents that were filed when Ford sued Navistar. One of the statements that I remember is that Ford said the 6.0 had the highest recall costs of any engine they've ever used. They had a large number of recalls and the average cost was over $1000 per unit.

Navistar claims that Ford modified the engines to produce torque and HP that were beyond the design limits. It was originally designed as a 300 hp engine and Ford tuned it to 340 hp.

[thomasgunnar]

Rangerman40 wrote:
Just a little info on the FICM. The job of the FICM is to take the 12v from the battery and quadruple it to 48v to fire the injectors. International used to mount the FICM in a different location but Ford chose to mount it nearly on the drivers side valve cover where it is subjected to tons of heat/cool cycles and vibration. Consequently the soldering on the boards in the FICM begins to crack and your 48v starts to slowly drop. Undiagnosed at startup when the FICM is only putting out <45v you start destroying your injectors. If you own a 6.0 the one thing you do need is an Edge Insight so you can watch your FICM voltage constantly...... Care to take a guess why I know all of this info?


Full synthetic oil changes every 5k, fuel filters every 10k, and keep and eye on the difference in temp between oil and coolant. Once it creeps up to 15 degrees or so it's time for a new oil cooler.

Scangauge will work as well. Just not the same nice colors. Other than the triple gauge pod on the pillar I monitor things with a scangauge. Of the 4 available things I can monitor at once one is battery voltage and FICM voltage.

[Rangerman40]

Just a little info on the FICM. The job of the FICM is to take the 12v from the battery and quadruple it to 48v to fire the injectors. International used to mount the FICM in a different location but Ford chose to mount it nearly on the drivers side valve cover where it is subjected to tons of heat/cool cycles and vibration. Consequently the soldering on the boards in the FICM begins to crack and your 48v starts to slowly drop. Undiagnosed at startup when the FICM is only putting out <45v you start destroying your injectors. If you own a 6.0 the one thing you do need is an Edge Insight so you can watch your FICM voltage constantly...... Care to take a guess why I know all of this info?


Full synthetic oil changes every 5k, fuel filters every 10k, and keep and eye on the difference in temp between oil and coolant. Once it creeps up to 15 degrees or so it's time for a new oil cooler.

[Grit_dog]

FishOnOne wrote:

Grit dog wrote:
Imo as important as its condition and how it runs today is the maint records. 6.0s rely much more on impeccable maint than their competition. Both sides of the hpop, coolant issues to name a few.

Wrong.... another misconception..... The 6.0's rely on that you use a Ford Motorcraft fuel filter or a Racor brand fuel filter (There made by Racor) that is designed with a aquablock material to prevent water getting to the injectors. All aftermarket fuel filters don't have this feature and will kill the injectors.

Oil filters again you must use Ford Motorcraft filters or Racor brand oil filters (Again they're made by Racor). All aftermarket oil filters have problems by either not fitting correctly into the filter housing and allowing the majority of the oil to bypass the filter or the filter media imploding clogging the HPOP side of the system.

Change the coolant at the first 100k miles and 50k miles thereafter using the correct Ford Gold coolant and distilled water.

The only really maintenance intensive item is making sure your batteries stay healthy to protect the FICM in which a damaged FICM will cause all kinds of issues short term and long term.

I did the above items with OCI of 7500 miles, replaced/cleaned the EGR valve a couple of times (another maintenance item) and inspect that the soot build up is dry. During the course of 7 years/170k miles and my truck ran like a top the day I sold it with no engine work, all original injectors still making the same fuel economy since it was new.

And I drove a healthy, tuned 6.0 with 180kmi on it and claimed it was orig head gaskets. Truck ran like a scalded ape. But of the 10 or so 6.0 owners I've known over the years, this guy and one other had good things to say. The rest, not so much.
Took a x country road trip in a pretty new 05? 6.0 rental truck pulling a boat. Pulled like a dream compared to my half ton and 12-13mpg to boot. I had never owned a newer diesel prior to this and loved it. It's why I bought my Dmax.
Had another newish rental 6.0 diesel that I drove daily for a few months. Until it overheated on dead cow hiway in December in AZ with around 30kmi on it. Dunno what was wrong with it because I phoned for a ride and called the rental outfit to come get their truck before it got stripped since it was sitting on the res. At least they couldn't steal it by driving it away, lol. I can say there was no coolant leaking out of it, so 3 guesses as to what went wrong.....
I've had to put injectors in my Dodge. Yes it was a $2300 parts bill plus $200 more for an aftermarket 2 mic fuel filter I opted to install, but it didn't leave me on the side of the road, gave me months of warning I needed new ones and I did it by myself with hand tools in less than a day in my garage.
If you think they aren't more sensitive to coolant filtering and oil changes, egr, turbo cleaning, timely proper fuel filters etc than the other 2 brands, your blue kool aid is spiked!

[FishOnOne]

Hank85713 wrote:
Again go to the truck specific forums, the ford gold is the main suspect for clogged egr/oil coolers. Get catapiller ELC but dont use the ford gold. The ELC is a pink/purplish in color, nothing green and I dont think the orange color is any good either.

The forums will also recommend a coolant filter just like the big trucks have (and school buses) I also run a amsoil bypass oil filter setup on mine. Do you have access to a scan gauge of any sort? again try to find someone familiar with this setup and have them take a look. Not all gm or dodge products are purfect either so you can also find a dog in them. Just read thru their forums for their issues. Buying anything used is buying a pig in a poke, be it ford, gm or dodge. No matter what you buy, be sure to have some extra funds available to fix whatever you find. old dodges have block and dowel pin issues, gms had wiring issues and fuel pumps. So there is no gauranties that any of them will be problem free, but ya need to go to the right forums and research the engine of choice you are interested in.

Casting sand is the primary detractor for clogging the oil cooler. I don't remember the details but the amount of solids in the Gold coolant is very little and the flashing of the coolant in the EGR cooler which produces some solids to form out of suspension the actual root cause is the cooler is already becoming clogged reducing coolant volume to effectively cool the EGR cooler which in return cooks the coolant as it travels thru the EGR cooler causing the solids to come out of suspension. All trucks were produced with Gold coolant, but not all trucks oil coolers got clogged. Having said that I'm not aware of any issues with running a ELC coolant in these trucks either and although the 6.7 runs a form of ELC coolant it's still not downward compatible for use in a 6.0 truck. I suspect there's probably a materials compatibility issue some where in the coolant circuit outside the motor.

Navistar actually put coolant filters on some of their trucks for a certain period of time due to the casting sand while running a ELC coolant.

[Hank85713]

Again go to the truck specific forums, the ford gold is the main suspect for clogged egr/oil coolers. Get catapiller ELC but dont use the ford gold. The ELC is a pink/purplish in color, nothing green and I dont think the orange color is any good either.

The forums will also recommend a coolant filter just like the big trucks have (and school buses) I also run a amsoil bypass oil filter setup on mine. Do you have access to a scan gauge of any sort? again try to find someone familiar with this setup and have them take a look. Not all gm or dodge products are purfect either so you can also find a dog in them. Just read thru their forums for their issues. Buying anything used is buying a pig in a poke, be it ford, gm or dodge. No matter what you buy, be sure to have some extra funds available to fix whatever you find. old dodges have block and dowel pin issues, gms had wiring issues and fuel pumps. So there is no gauranties that any of them will be problem free, but ya need to go to the right forums and research the engine of choice you are interested in.

[FishOnOne]

Grit dog wrote:
Imo as important as its condition and how it runs today is the maint records. 6.0s rely much more on impeccable maint than their competition. Both sides of the hpop, coolant issues to name a few.

Wrong.... another misconception..... The 6.0's rely on that you use a Ford Motorcraft fuel filter or a Racor brand fuel filter (There made by Racor) that is designed with a aquablock material to prevent water getting to the injectors. All aftermarket fuel filters don't have this feature and will kill the injectors.

Oil filters again you must use Ford Motorcraft filters or Racor brand oil filters (Again they're made by Racor). All aftermarket oil filters have problems by either not fitting correctly into the filter housing and allowing the majority of the oil to bypass the filter or the filter media imploding clogging the HPOP side of the system.

Change the coolant at the first 100k miles and 50k miles thereafter using the correct Ford Gold coolant and distilled water.

The only really maintenance intensive item is making sure your batteries stay healthy to protect the FICM in which a damaged FICM will cause all kinds of issues short term and long term.

I did the above items with OCI of 7500 miles, replaced/cleaned the EGR valve a couple of times (another maintenance item) and inspect that the soot build up is dry. During the course of 7 years/170k miles and my truck ran like a top the day I sold it with no engine work, all original injectors still making the same fuel economy since it was new.

[krobbe]

bamafeaver wrote:
Looking to purchase a 2007 Ford 250 6.0 diesel that has been bullet proofed. Would this be a good dependable Ford 250 to pull a Jayco 7900 pound dry weight Fifth Wheel as well as a daily driver.

[thomasgunnar]

I have an 03 non bullet proofed. I do my regular maint. Sythenic oil, Racor filters, monitor everything I can. Got a great price on it in 08. I had to replace a couple injectors weeks after I bought it. I replaced a FICM a few years ago. Other than that nada. I pull 10,000 or so lbs.

I know I love my 6.0. Lots of power, rides ok and still looks pretty good.

[Cummins12V98]

If someone is willing to give you a 3/36K warranty on that so called "bulletproofed" engine go for it!