Worried that I bought a bad truck

[ZachMyers]

I bought my ford last july and I've had all sorts if problems already. Since owning it I've rebuilt the entire front end, had icp go bad twice, done the egr delete, put new glow plugs in it, now its blowing white smoke like crazy... I took it to my mechanic and he says that I have a partially blocked oil cooler now...he has also found a holes in my turbo (which he is saying may need replacing). He also said my head gaskets may be shot... Ive changed my fluids and done maintenance religiously but he said the previous owner obviously did not... Im to the point now where i need to decide whether or not to keep going and keep throwing money at it or cut my losses and buy another truck...

[Blue Goose]

There have been alot of people where you stand today. My dad and my neighbor are the 2 closest to me. If you knew my dad you would know that he has never gave a rip about any vehicle he has ever had and this includes several very nice restored 66 and 67 SS Chevelles, if a vehicle had a oil drip, a skip, etc... he would send it down the road but when he got his 03 6.0 he fell in love with it and has spent about 15k on it since purchasing it but he wont sell it for nothing. He deleted the egr, reworked the heads and valves, new oil coolerS ( Ford took the first 9k from him), hpop x2, heater core, radiator, front end rebuild, studs....and finally he used an independent shop on the last go around and he hasnt had any problems in the last 18 months or so. My neighbor put 21x,xxx trouble free miles on his 04 before deleting the egr, headwork, oil cooler..... and has had no trouble since. I also did the same "repairs" to my 06 and I love the way it tows and runs. I believe if you have the same done to yours, plus your turbo issue, you will love it and then maintain it in a timely manner and it will love you back! (Especially if you use an sct to tune it, it is a totally different truck when tuned!)

[Term3]

I think it's just bad luck that you can get with any vehicle. On my '05 the only thing I had to replace is one injector due to me running low on fuel, FICM (warranty) and the turbo when my EGR valve stuck open (also warranty). Not bad for 6+ years and if I had knewn the stuff I know mow about the 6.0 I wouldn't have had those failures.

[strokedoutlaw]

dont feel to pissed i bought mine last june and in october i had to put studs and a delete in it, i have put on a straight pipe and cts and hopen to get tunes end of next week but either way i would never take any other truck over this

[DoubleDpsd]

I think you gotta cut your losses if those repairs get you thinking about moving on. Others been through a lot more but once you get it squared away you'll think its a good truck. Good luck.

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[still runs]

fix the truck and have some one that knows these trucks go thru it and you will be ok not sure where your located at but look on here for some good shops that have a good rep!! at the most your looking at 4k to make this right as long as your heads are ok? if not then maybe 5k-6k beats buying a new one or another one with new issues to figure out

[foozlemonster]

I just bought mine two months ago and I'm already ready to put a 'for sale' sign on it. When you step back and look at your investment though, sometimes it makes sense. I bought my truck for just under $16k. I figure if I spend $5k-$6k on it I'll have alot nicer, and better running, truck than the trucks in the low $20k's they were asking for the cummins or duramax with the same options that I would have had to add onto with repairs in the end anyways. Just my thought process that I present everytime my wife starts complaining about it.

[justinmix]

If you buy a 6.0 knowing nothing about it, and think it's just going to run forever without any effort on your part you are going to be sorely disappointed. Now, if you take the time to research a 6.0, and are willing to spend the money necessary to make it into a good trunk, and you don't ignore the warning signs, then it can be a great truck. Also if you don't find/have a mechanic that you trust that is good with these engines then it will nickle and dime you to death. One of the biggest issues with these engines is mis-diagnosis. You start throwing parts at these trucks and they will eat you alive. Another issue with a 6.0 is that most of the failures are from a chain reaction of problems. For example, most head gasket issues can be traced back to EGR cooler issues, which is caused by oil cooler plugging from coolant issues like never having the coolant flushed/changed. Most places will replace the blown EGR cooler without addressing the root issue, and then in 20,000 miles you'll be back for another blown EGR cooler. Well if you just replace the parts that fail and don't fix the root of the problem then you'll start dropping tons of money in these things.

[Chad29860]

I bought mine last year and a month later dumped $8000 in heads and studs along with some other upgrades. Then around two months later a radiator and waterpump. Two months after that front brakes. Then a few months after that front bearings and brakes again cause the bearing failed and messed up the brakes. Needless to say I still am not going to sell my truck because I love it. Fix your truck and take care of it and you will like it. Alot of my problems have been because of lack of care from previous owners and the truck being beat on and worked hard.