6.0 powerstroke

[Matt Shade]

People love to trash them but they can be very good engines if you take care of them. My 6.0 has been the most efficient truck I've owned. It went 200,000 miles before the truck started needing too much work to be my primary horse hauler and it wasn't just the engine that led to this decision. Years of road salt did its work, and I also used it quite a bit to pull a 1600 gallon water wagon around horse arenas. The whole front end needs some help. It is sitting parked with bad batteries at the moment but when I get some spare time and money it will be back in action for local stuff.

I have buddys that drank the cummins kool aid and they love to talk about how v8's don't make torque and have all kinds of reasons its a bad engine, but they don't like to talk about the bad transmissions, and crumbling interiors in their trucks. Ford, chevy and dodge, all 3 build shitty trucks. Pick the problems you can live with. I'd rather do some work on a turbo at 150,000 miles, and do frequent coolant changes than deal with the dashboard falling off going down the road.

I firmly believe the biggest problem with the 6.0 is that it had to follow behind the 7.3 that somehow could survive for ridiculous miles with retards doing no maintenance, and doing stupid shit like dumping used oil in the the fuel tank to lube the injectors. The 7.3 also was a slow gas hog.

There is no need for tuners and other nonsense. A stock 6.0 will easily haul 15-20,000 lbs and will be more reliable at stock power. They also get surprisingly good mileage. If you want to turn it up and blow smoke, you need to spend the money for the associated parts to make it reliable.

Injectors are expensive, they are not fun to change. If you have to do one, buy one from a reputable company that will stand behind it.

Do the maintenance on your anti freeze. Switch to an ELC coolant if possible.

Buy a coolant filter kit and install it if it doesn't have one. Stuff comes out of the castings over time, in addition to settling out of the coolant. The oil cooler has very small honey comb passages and can be plugged up easily. That is annoying, but it is also a very effective cooling system that just requires some maintenance.

Keep good oil in it at all times. The injectors are hydraulic. Think of them like a syringe that uses high pressure oil to push the plunger down. They are guaranteed to go bad when fed a steady diet of dirt going through the oil passages.

Keep good batteries in it as well. The fuel injectors are electronically controlled. The FICM (fuel injeector control module) steps the voltage up to 48 volts. A bad charging system and batteries will kill the FICM.

I work in farming and horse training. I am surrounded by people that use trucks for work. Any of them that claim their truck gets good mileage, hauls ass, and made it 500,000 miles with no work besides the occasional oil change is living in a fucking fairy tale They all break down, they all have stupid faults in engineering, and they all cost too damn much to buy.

[Shade Tree Welder]

Matt, do you feel better now?

LOL

[astronut]

Originally Posted by Matt Shade

People love to trash them but they can be very good engines if you take care of them. My 6.0 has been the most efficient truck I've owned. It went 200,000 miles before the truck started needing too much work to be my primary horse hauler and it wasn't just the engine that led to this decision. Years of road salt did its work, and I also used it quite a bit to pull a 1600 gallon water wagon around horse arenas. The whole front end needs some help. It is sitting parked with bad batteries at the moment but when I get some spare time and money it will be back in action for local stuff.

I have buddys that drank the cummins kool aid and they love to talk about how v8's don't make torque and have all kinds of reasons its a bad engine, but they don't like to talk about the bad transmissions, and crumbling interiors in their trucks. Ford, chevy and dodge, all 3 build shitty trucks. Pick the problems you can live with. I'd rather do some work on a turbo at 150,000 miles, and do frequent coolant changes than deal with the dashboard falling off going down the road.

I firmly believe the biggest problem with the 6.0 is that it had to follow behind the 7.3 that somehow could survive for ridiculous miles with retards doing no maintenance, and doing stupid shit like dumping used oil in the the fuel tank to lube the injectors. The 7.3 also was a slow gas hog.

There is no need for tuners and other nonsense. A stock 6.0 will easily haul 15-20,000 lbs and will be more reliable at stock power. They also get surprisingly good mileage. If you want to turn it up and blow smoke, you need to spend the money for the associated parts to make it reliable.

Injectors are expensive, they are not fun to change. If you have to do one, buy one from a reputable company that will stand behind it.

Do the maintenance on your anti freeze. Switch to an ELC coolant if possible.

Buy a coolant filter kit and install it if it doesn't have one. Stuff comes out of the castings over time, in addition to settling out of the coolant. The oil cooler has very small honey comb passages and can be plugged up easily. That is annoying, but it is also a very effective cooling system that just requires some maintenance.

Keep good oil in it at all times. The injectors are hydraulic. Think of them like a syringe that uses high pressure oil to push the plunger down. They are guaranteed to go bad when fed a steady diet of dirt going through the oil passages.

Keep good batteries in it as well. The fuel injectors are electronically controlled. The FICM (fuel injeector control module) steps the voltage up to 48 volts. A bad charging system and batteries will kill the FICM.

I work in farming and horse training. I am surrounded by people that use trucks for work. Any of them that claim their truck gets good mileage, hauls ass, and made it 500,000 miles with no work besides the occasional oil change is living in a fucking fairy tale They all break down, they all have stupid faults in engineering, and they all cost too damn much to buy.

I have had chevy, ford, and dodge trucks. Some were good, some were bad, some were total nightmares, but, none of any of them were great.

[Matt Shade]

Nope.

I'm about to move in to a month long horse show where I'll be surrounded by "truck guys" that don't change their own oil and don't know what a turbo does.

Guarantee there will be some guy driving a 20 year old ford that makes 240 horse power and gets 7mpg with a 4 speed transmission that won't be happy just bragging that his truck has lasted this long, he will have to claim that it pulls a 9 horse trailer 90mph in the mountains, and then ask me how I can live with my "de tuned" cab and chassis that only makes 330 horsepower and has a 6 speed behind it because the 7.3 was the only good engine ford ever had.

I've had guys that hate powerstrokes tell me that they think international is the best truck on the road because its the only company that makes their own truck and engine...

Chevy guys have the highest payload around until you show them the sticker on their door frame. Load one of them right and you can tear the DEF tank off going across a set of railroad tracks.

Dodge guys won't call their truck a dodge because the only thing they like is the engine.

I've driven and worked on just about all of them and I have to say that they all suck. Pick any truck and any given model year and search for it on google and the most common thing that comes up will be how to fix it.

There was a time I really liked trucks and learning everything about them, but now it just pisses me off.

[OldRedFord]

I like the oil filter on top of the engine. Never seen that before.

Went on a 80 mile joyride after getting my tag this afternoon. Up and down plenty of hills. 55-65 most of the way. Didn't miss a beat.

The Ram has 370 horsepower and 800 ft lbs torque
The F350 has 325 and 560 ft lbs torque.

Interesting to note the two are about 3000 lbs apart in towing. 14k for the F350 and 17k for the Ram.


Im looking at coolant filter kits. Would be nice to check the glow plugs and injectors. Don't have a scanner though. Cold start is a little rough but after it gets warm runs great.

[Shade Tree Welder]

Originally Posted by OldRedFord

Cold start is a little rough but after it gets warm runs great.

Timmy,

You don't know what a cold start is... tell how it starts at -40°.

[Matt Shade]

Originally Posted by OldRedFord

I like the oil filter on top of the engine. Never seen that before.

Went on a 80 mile joyride after getting my tag this afternoon. Up and down plenty of hills. 55-65 most of the way. Didn't miss a beat.

The Ram has 370 horsepower and 800 ft lbs torque
The F350 has 325 and 560 ft lbs torque.

Interesting to note the two are about 3000 lbs apart in towing. 14k for the F350 and 17k for the Ram.


Im looking at coolant filter kits. Would be nice to check the glow plugs and injectors. Don't have a scanner though. Cold start is a little rough but after it gets warm runs great.

Biggest difference on towing is probably the brakes. IIRC your dodge is a 2018, it probably has 17 inch or bigger wheels and has bigger rotors and pads than the ford. My 2017 F350 has massively bigger brakes than my 2006. the brakes are much bigger than my girlfriends 2010 ford which is also a dually too.

As for the rough start...
What program does your truck have on it? When you shut it off does it make a rattling noise for about 30 seconds? Or does it make a rattling noise when you turn the key on and the glow plug icon lights up?

When the injectors go bad it usually isn't the same as you get on most vehicles where the spray pattern is messed up. They call it stiction, and the oil side of the injector gets stuck and keeps it from firing correctly. The original attempt to fix this was to have the computer cycle the oil valves on the injectors after you shut the truck off to shake the oil out of them so that they wouldn't be full of thick cold oil at start up.

That didn't work so hot, so the next strategy was to have the computer cycle the injectors before start up as a means of "warming them up".

I don't remember which years the updates took place. My 2006 came with neither strategy. I took it to the dealer cause it got struck by lightning and they updated the computer with the first strategy while they had it. Later on I took it in for a new clutch and they put the 2nd program on it instead.

Anyhow, if you have the 2nd program where it cycles the injectors first, try turning the key on and waiting about 30 seconds, then turning the key off. Then turn the key back on and wait about 30 seconds again before cranking. If you listen carefully you can tell if the injectors are cycling smoothly, and you can also tell if the sound changes as they run. If they start off erratic and smooth out, you probably have injectors going bad.

If double cycling the key fixes the rough start then just keep doing that

As for the glow plugs, it usually will throw a code when they are bad and tell you which cylinder. I would only replace the ones that are bad as you can cause more serious problems when things go wrong working on them. There is a tool for popping the wire harness loose from them and it is worth buying if you have to do them.

There are some oil additives you can buy that are supposed to help the injectors. I don't have any experience with them but I would give that a try before I bought another set of injectors. Since you don't get extreme cold down there you can probably run a long time with things just like they are.

[SmokinDodge]

Originally Posted by Matt Shade

Nope.

I'm about to move in to a month long horse show where I'll be surrounded by "truck guys" that don't change their own oil and don't know what a turbo does.

Guarantee there will be some guy driving a 20 year old ford that makes 240 horse power and gets 7mpg with a 4 speed transmission that won't be happy just bragging that his truck has lasted this long, he will have to claim that it pulls a 9 horse trailer 90mph in the mountains, and then ask me how I can live with my "de tuned" cab and chassis that only makes 330 horsepower and has a 6 speed behind it because the 7.3 was the only good engine ford ever had.

I've had guys that hate powerstrokes tell me that they think international is the best truck on the road because its the only company that makes their own truck and engine...

Chevy guys have the highest payload around until you show them the sticker on their door frame. Load one of them right and you can tear the DEF tank off going across a set of railroad tracks.

Dodge guys won't call their truck a dodge because the only thing they like is the engine.

I've driven and worked on just about all of them and I have to say that they all suck. Pick any truck and any given model year and search for it on google and the most common thing that comes up will be how to fix it.

There was a time I really liked trucks and learning everything about them, but now it just pisses me off.

10-4 on that and then some.

The only thing I can say is it’s technically not been a dodge truck since 2008.

They all suck. That’s why I bought a Frieghtliner.

[JH35]

Originally Posted by Matt Shade

People love to trash them but they can be very good engines if you take care of them. My 6.0 has been the most efficient truck I've owned. It went 200,000 miles before the truck started needing too much work to be my primary horse hauler and it wasn't just the engine that led to this decision. Years of road salt did its work, and I also used it quite a bit to pull a 1600 gallon water wagon around horse arenas. The whole front end needs some help. It is sitting parked with bad batteries at the moment but when I get some spare time and money it will be back in action for local stuff.

I have buddys that drank the cummins kool aid and they love to talk about how v8's don't make torque and have all kinds of reasons its a bad engine, but they don't like to talk about the bad transmissions, and crumbling interiors in their trucks. Ford, chevy and dodge, all 3 build shitty trucks. Pick the problems you can live with. I'd rather do some work on a turbo at 150,000 miles, and do frequent coolant changes than deal with the dashboard falling off going down the road.

I firmly believe the biggest problem with the 6.0 is that it had to follow behind the 7.3 that somehow could survive for ridiculous miles with retards doing no maintenance, and doing stupid shit like dumping used oil in the the fuel tank to lube the injectors. The 7.3 also was a slow gas hog.

There is no need for tuners and other nonsense. A stock 6.0 will easily haul 15-20,000 lbs and will be more reliable at stock power. They also get surprisingly good mileage. If you want to turn it up and blow smoke, you need to spend the money for the associated parts to make it reliable.

Injectors are expensive, they are not fun to change. If you have to do one, buy one from a reputable company that will stand behind it.

Do the maintenance on your anti freeze. Switch to an ELC coolant if possible.

Buy a coolant filter kit and install it if it doesn't have one. Stuff comes out of the castings over time, in addition to settling out of the coolant. The oil cooler has very small honey comb passages and can be plugged up easily. That is annoying, but it is also a very effective cooling system that just requires some maintenance.

Keep good oil in it at all times. The injectors are hydraulic. Think of them like a syringe that uses high pressure oil to push the plunger down. They are guaranteed to go bad when fed a steady diet of dirt going through the oil passages.

Keep good batteries in it as well. The fuel injectors are electronically controlled. The FICM (fuel injeector control module) steps the voltage up to 48 volts. A bad charging system and batteries will kill the FICM.

I work in farming and horse training. I am surrounded by people that use trucks for work. Any of them that claim their truck gets good mileage, hauls ass, and made it 500,000 miles with no work besides the occasional oil change is living in a fucking fairy tale They all break down, they all have stupid faults in engineering, and they all cost too damn much to buy.

Matt, I know exactly what you are talking about with the maintenance. My buddy that did the Fummins swap is horrible at maintenance. He is very hard on equipment also. He grew up on a farm and still helps his brother. The EGR cooler was the first thing to go. He took that somewhere to get fixed, then since it was a 6 speed and the guy was used to dealing with autos, he forgot to put trans fluid back in so the trans was bad very quickly. Long story short, the Cummins is blown up and back out of the F350 awaiting a rebuild.

I have a late '99 7.3 that runs like a top. I do the maintenance. I just put a set of reman injectors in from Thoroughbred Diesel in Kentucky. I don't know anything about them but they did say what parts were new and that the remans occur in their shop. Napa couldn't tell me any of that even with their higher prices.

[OldRedFord]

Originally Posted by Matt Shade

Biggest difference on towing is probably the brakes. IIRC your dodge is a 2018, it probably has 17 inch or bigger wheels and has bigger rotors and pads than the ford. My 2017 F350 has massively bigger brakes than my 2006. the brakes are much bigger than my girlfriends 2010 ford which is also a dually too.

As for the rough start...
What program does your truck have on it? When you shut it off does it make a rattling noise for about 30 seconds? Or does it make a rattling noise when you turn the key on and the glow plug icon lights up?

When the injectors go bad it usually isn't the same as you get on most vehicles where the spray pattern is messed up. They call it stiction, and the oil side of the injector gets stuck and keeps it from firing correctly. The original attempt to fix this was to have the computer cycle the oil valves on the injectors after you shut the truck off to shake the oil out of them so that they wouldn't be full of thick cold oil at start up.

That didn't work so hot, so the next strategy was to have the computer cycle the injectors before start up as a means of "warming them up".

I don't remember which years the updates took place. My 2006 came with neither strategy. I took it to the dealer cause it got struck by lightning and they updated the computer with the first strategy while they had it. Later on I took it in for a new clutch and they put the 2nd program on it instead.

Anyhow, if you have the 2nd program where it cycles the injectors first, try turning the key on and waiting about 30 seconds, then turning the key off. Then turn the key back on and wait about 30 seconds again before cranking. If you listen carefully you can tell if the injectors are cycling smoothly, and you can also tell if the sound changes as they run. If they start off erratic and smooth out, you probably have injectors going bad.

If double cycling the key fixes the rough start then just keep doing that

As for the glow plugs, it usually will throw a code when they are bad and tell you which cylinder. I would only replace the ones that are bad as you can cause more serious problems when things go wrong working on them. There is a tool for popping the wire harness loose from them and it is worth buying if you have to do them.

There are some oil additives you can buy that are supposed to help the injectors. I don't have any experience with them but I would give that a try before I bought another set of injectors. Since you don't get extreme cold down there you can probably run a long time with things just like they are.

The injectors cycle before startup. They sound sticky. After you drive truck a little they sound better.