Fuel mileage 2009 F-450 6.4L

The 6.4 responds to deleting better than any other diesel I know of. If I had a 6.4 I’d delete it and expect 20 mpg afterwards.

Trying to sell us on buying gas trucks?

I realize it's an F250 with a 4.10 rear end...but get just shy of 15mpg empty and 9-10mpg towing a 7500lb trailer with the gas V10.

Lumpty wrote:

The truck also had $20k+ in warranty work in 18 months.

I can't even fathom how much has been spent on this truck.

I've never had a need or any interest in owning a diesel PU.

I had a 2010 F350 King Ranch 4x4 with a 6.4. 3.55 gears. Ugh. Not towing, around town 11-12, highway maybe 14-15. Not much different than the GMT800 6.0 gas LQ4 truck it replaced. It regened every 50-100 miles, and got that "Drive to Clean Exhaust Filter" all the time too, despite a fair amount of hour+ highway trips.

The truck also had $20k+ in warranty work in 18 months. It had some kind of drivetrain issue (I suspected torque converter clutch) where it would have a loss of drive on a 5-4 downshift under load after getting good and warm. Lift and force the upshift back to 5th and it would go, but not after almost getting run over a few times and having to dive back into the slow lane. Then there was the overfuel/overboost it would do while in regen. 35psi and all the extra fuel. No wonder it melted two pistons at 24k miles, necessitating a new short block. Since it spent 3 months of that 18 months in the shop, it qualified for Lemon Law status in my state and Ford bought it back.

The replacement '11 6.7 was way more stout and perfectly reliable, but it got traded at 5 years and 60k miles with the powertrain warranty was up, after that 6.4 experience. Also, not really interested in owning another diesel truck either with what that 6.4 put me through, even with the decent 6.7.

I never knew mine to drop speed during regen. Wonder if that’s a cab and chassis thing? MPG dropped a lot during regen though. Noticeably so.

The erratic regen behavior on mine was what made me decide to get rid of it. I loved everything else about the truck. Before I sold it, it had started displaying the message “Drive To Clean Exhaust Filter” instead of “Cleaning Exhaust Filter”, even though I’d be driving all day at highway speeds. Normally, you shouldn’t see the “Drive To Clean....” message unless you were doing a lot of idling, or stationary PTO operation.

:):)

Sounds about right. Actually 9.5 MPG empty is on the better side. The low solo MPGs is from always being in regen. The low loaded weight is because it runs at a relatively low combustion temp, in order to meet NOx emissions limits without SCR, but that ruins efficiency.

Also, if the snow cat is a typical load, that's part of too. Having the frontal area of the cat so far back, adds way more drag than if the same frontal area were closer to the cab.

Here's what I use the truck for.
It has 164,000 miles on it and the Ford dealer has installed two new 6.4L engines since the truck was new.
Its been used hard since day one.

NRALIFR wrote:
My 2010 F450 with 4.30 rear axle never got better then 9.5 mpg hauling my camper. I didn’t do enough driving empty or towing with it to know what that mileage was.

4.88 and the relatively frequent DPF regens the 6.4’s did are mileage killers. Mine never went more than 200 miles and as low as 75 miles between regens. Yours is also a cab and chassis with a GVW of 16.5K, so the ECM will have a different tune than my F450 pickup did.

I learned to hate that engine.

:):)

I went and picked it up today, its a "seasonal" truck. They use it up north to tow a trailcat (small 8000 lb dozer) and bring snowcats in for service.

I went 200 miles on the freeway today without one regen. :B

It used to do it in the middle of climbing steep grades towing the snowcat and drop all the way down to 28 mph. I hated that.

It would drop down to 45 mph on the freeway when it went thru the regen. Is that normal? I hope they fixed that, what a pain.

The did several thousands of dollars in repair in the spring, new regen pump, catalytic converter, 3 sensors and intake gaskets.

The people up north said it ran great all summer. I'm hoping the same thru the winter.

#1Flyboy wrote:
What kind of mileage between repairs?

3000 miles this time.

My 2010 F450 with 4.30 rear axle never got better then 9.5 mpg hauling my camper. I didn’t do enough driving empty or towing with it to know what that mileage was.

4.88 and the relatively frequent DPF regens the 6.4’s did are mileage killers. Mine never went more than 200 miles and as low as 75 miles between regens. Yours is also a cab and chassis with a GVW of 16.5K, so the ECM will have a different tune than my F450 pickup did.

I learned to hate that engine.

:):)