By 06 they had some of the bugs worked out. All the known issues with the 6.0 are documented and have fixes. Most important get a monitor in it and watch temps, don't let the oil temp run more than 15* over coolant when daily driving, watch trans temp and don't overheat it. Watch fuel vitals and boost/vgt%/egt/bp.
Read the sticky's and you'll find the answers to most questions you may have are already answered.
FWIW: If you want less to worry about (with less HP) get a 7.3, I have one of each and I like em both :thumb:

 

$1000 won't get you very far to make it truly 100% reliable. A lot of factors play into that though, mainly the condition of it now and what has already been done. Look at the sticky's and read what it means to truly bulletproof a 6.0. Head studs and an egr delete doesn't mean it's bulletproofed. There were a lot of known common failures in this motor and there are ways to address everything. Having a monitor on it is CRITICAL! The 6.0 gets a bad rap mainly from the uneducated owners that don't know what to watch for and get mad when things breaks. Read up on monitoring a 6.0 and truly bulletproofing one. Find out what one looks like when it has been bulletproofed. I would say bare minimum for it to be truly reliable are head studs (however it does have to be done the RIGHT way i.e. heads removed, pressure tested, magnafluxed, checked for cracks and flatness, and milled) and not be installed with black onyx gaskets, egr delete or BPD egr cooler, high pressure oil system updates done (stc fitting, standpipes, dummy plugs), ford oem oil cooler that is in good health (deltas less than 15 degrees) or BPD air to oil cooler. Having an oem oil cooler will more than likely clog again but as long as it's healthy now it should last a while but having a BPD air to oil cooler is the be all end all. Healthy FICM, elc coolant, coolant filter, only motorcraft/racor oil and fuel filters with oem caps. Or at least billet caps that are the same size as oem.

 

If you have a tight budget I would look at the 7.3, or a v10. If you out grew your 1500 it won't be long before you out grow a 250. Where I am if I could go back I would get a dually 7.3 and be done for a decade. If you have inspections your tied to the emissions of which the 7.3 did not have the egr. The v10 is a gas hog but they are cheap, reliable, and have good power. I've had 2 7.3s, a 6.0, now a 6.7 and a v10. They all have their place, but if your using it to make a living and not to win a race the 7.3 or a newer v10 is where it's at if you can't or won't drop 30k on a 6.7. The 6.0 will have a high cost of ownership. I know, I've been there done that.

 

Not a tight budget but I'm not spending 50k on a truck either.
I'm in pa where rust runs rampant, and 7.3's are the worst hit. So I can get a rusty 7.3 or one that's beat to hell. Or I can spend 25k on an 17 year old truck with 65-70k on it. I had a 97 7.3 f-350 dump truck a while back and it ran great.

I thought the 6.0 would be a meet in the middle type scenario, cheaper because of the rep it has and made pretty reliable with extra money down the road.

I'm pretty handy and I'm not afraid to dive head first into a motor in my spare time. Even though I have had limited experience with diesel motors.

In a perfect world I'd find a nice low mile one owner 6.0 that's been used to get mulch every year by a 60yr old fella... But those are far and few lol

 

They're pretty bad...





























Badazz!!!!! oke

 

I've put about 75k miles on my truck in the 2-1/2 years I've owned it and spent probably around $3,000 (~$0.04/mile) on things other than normal maintenance. Of that amount, probably less than $1,000 was absolutely necessary and the problem could have been fixed cheaper than the method I chose and still been reliable (ie. new Stage 1.5 turbo when a rebuild would have worked fine) I've probably spent another $2,000 (~0.025/mile) or so on maintenance items like brakes, ball joints, oil, filters, etc.
Maybe I was lucky to get a pretty good truck to start with, IDK. I also do all of my own wrenching though, so there's that.

Almost any used vehicle you buy is going to be a gamble. Buying any 3/4 ton or heavier diesel truck only adds to the potential problems and the 6.0 has it's own special set of problems too. The beauty of it is, they are pretty much all known and solvable without huge money being spent. The exception being headgaskets. To do it right, you're going to have to spend at least a $1,000 even if you do the labor yourself. I love my truck. I also wince everytime I hear a different noise or something doesn't feel quite right. But I blame that more on the fact that I spend so much time on this forum. Maybe ignorance really is bliss. :dunno:

 

If you are willing to travel then look at craigs list for some of these. We just had an 05 2wd down the street it was a regular cab and the guy wanted around $6k for it. There are some fairly good trucks available at a reasonable price that if you have the inclination to do whatever you need for around an additional $5K it would seem. Look out west and find one ask someone to look at it for ya and you might get real lucky and get what you are looking for. My BIL has a 7.3 and an 04 6.0. He uses them hard, said only thing he misses on the 7.3 is the fuel mileage.

 

In a perfect world I'd find a nice low mile one owner 6.0 that's been used to get mulch every year by a 60yr old fella... But those are far and few lol[/QUOTE]


I'm the low mileage one owner 51 yr old fella that would be happy to sell you an 05 stock 6.0 with edge monitor and coolant pressure gauge in the cab, EGR welded shut, new oil cooler 10k ago, ipr coolant filter with muff and cat deleted. Just let me know and we can talk price.

 

I live near you and recently bought a 6.0 so I can help here. For one, the prices of the 6.0 have gone up big time since all the problems have been sorted out. Buy one already bulletproofed CORRECTLY! I searched for month for a CCSB 06-07 and thought id never find one. Well I went to baltimore and got a beautiful fully bulletproofed from a reputable shop for $16,000. Just look hard and dont be afraid to travel.

 

The best advise I can give you is go with a 2005-2007 model and bring it to a reputable diesel shop for a health inspection.

As far as how bad are they really: they are not bad engines.....they really aren't. The 6.0 was designed to be a computer controlled engine to manipulate every aspect of running so it would burn as efficiently possible at the time of its production. The downfall of that was the tuner companies jumped on it and wrote all kinds of tunes to instantly create another 100-150 horsepower. It created a disaster and they were responsible for countless head gasket failures especially in the early years.
To compound that the engine had its fair share of problems from design and production flaws. The cooling systems often were left with casting sand inside the engine blocks that over time was plugging up the oil coolers and thus over heating the EGR coolers. This often caused head gasket failures. Compounding that was the coolant that Ford went with for the engine ' Ford Gold Coolant ' Internaional had always used a ELC coolant but Ford insisted on using their new environmentally friendly coolant. It was another disaster it over time will cottage cheese itself and also plug up oil cooler causing........yup EGR cooler failure and head gasket failure.
The other problem was the HPO oil system for the injectors. The o-ring design was flawed and they all leaked causing no start issues.

Bottom line the 6.0 has updated parts to replace all of the improperly designed parts. Once that has been done a 6.0 is a solid engine and will go 2-300,000 miles with no problem. As long as it's not running a big hot rod tune in it.
They are the best engine out there behind the 6.7 in my view.

Good luck on the truck shopping.

 

The best advise I can give you is go with a 2005-2007 model and bring it to a reputable diesel shop for a health inspection.

Agree with the inspection part, disagree and can't stand the "better" year desigination.


I like lamp...

 

I flew down to Texas to get a garage-kept, low mile creampuff. I've put 60,000 miles on in three years and haven't done any of the bullet proofing yet. I have been meticulous with maintenance (fluids, filters).

 

You can fix the 6.0

Bought my truck in late 2003.
Since then it's been driven over 400,000 kilometers - about 250K miles.
It's been a useful toy/tool since then, all kinds of mods, Airbagged, Fabfours bumpers, Linexed rockers, bed and wheel wells, Double front shocks, lights are leds and hid's, retracting running boards.
Things I remember doing to the engine over the years.
Bypass filter installed and changed religiously.
Synthetic Mobil 1 since new.
Blue Heat preheater (Webasto) installed and used in cold weather. No cold starts in the winter.
New ARP studs, EGR delete, oil spring update, oil cooler upgrade with OEM head gaskets.
New HPOP and injectors
5" stainless cat back exhaust.
New Injectors again.
Banks IQ2, Economind,
Banks High Ram intake and intercooler
Banks Water Methanol Injection
FICM
Injectors again and HPOP.
I'm sure there's more I don't remember offhand but after the latest HPOP / injector (1 bank) repair it started misfiring on the way home - #4 injector blew.
So I finally fixed the 6.0 problem.
I now have a 5.9 12V Cummins powered '03 F-250 SuperDuty.
Diesel Conversion sells a sweet kit.

 

I have a 2005 F350 Super Duty 6.0 diesel. I have now exceeded the purchase price of the truck in repairs and engine rebuilds. This is the most fragile, continuously broken vehicle I have ever owned. I had a gas E-350 V-10 that was an awesome durable vehicle that would tow anything. My F350 has made certain that I will never buy another Ford product as long as I live. For what it is worth... good luck!

 

I wonder how the other brands 12 year trucks are doing. I wonder if the dodges and chevies are trouble free.

 

I'm sure someone with a little 6.0 knowledge will take that heap of crap off your hands. What do you consider an engine rebuild?

 

That seems to be the norm with the 6.0. Some run great some don't. I took the leap after YEARS of great service from my 7.3. I will say this, so far with my 6.0 I don't miss my 7.3 at all. But even if you have several problems with the motor why would you ever blame that on Ford they didn't build the motor. I only drive fords as will my family. I've always had over 200,000 miles on all my fords without ANY big issues whatsoever. Can't say the same for all my Chevy and dodge friends.

 

No ford didn't build the motor but they installed it in their truck and didn't stand behind it.....

 

About $6000.00 bad.>

 

Excellent question. I can only speak from my own experience though. I have a 2001 Dodge Ram 1500 4x4 that is my daily driver. It has the same amount of mileage as the Ford and other than one transmission rebuild and one water pump, it runs like a top and has never left me stranded anywhere.

 

you have a unicorn :thumb: treat that thing with respect :nod:
ALL my friends with dodges that age the only thing that still works in the motor. I had a guy show up to work with his door in the bed of his truck on top of the tools because the hinge broke when he opened it :doh: didn't have time to fix it so he had to take it off
this was january or february in the mountains mind you...at least his heater was fixed before that happened

Quite right. I have learned that this is an International motor and outside the 6.0, performs quite well. It is the cramped configuration and the heat that is produced by that configuration that is causing much trouble.

it not the heat. its a series of very bad decisions by the ford engineering team complying with the epa that made things go from bad to worse.

every year of the 6.0 has its problems the 03 early 04 the hpop was crap later models the stc fitting stand pipes and dummy plugs and egr cooler sucked.
they all share the oil coolers, incorrect coolant from ford, sand left in the castings and a number of other little issues along with tty bolts on the heads. the link i left above steered me in the right direction when i first bought my truck. :thumb:

I consider a engine rebuild just that a rebuild. Which includes the entire engine, crankshaft, pistons etc. I have owned two of these 2006 trucks now and my first one was stock with just exhaust and it was awesome. No issues whatsoever, bought this one with 41,000 miles on it but needed head gaskets. So I took it to a PowerStroke shop and had it fixed right. Was a 7 hour drive to get it there but it was worth it.

This truck I have a 65HP tune along with FICM tune and it scoots pretty good. No powerhouse but truck is very light on its feet. Like I said once these engines are updated they are very solid engines. You must maintain them by keeping oil fresh along with clean fuel coming in.
I have no regrets they are great trucks, a better choice then a 7.3 or 6.4 and they are DPF free.

^^^ this who ever paid 13k for work described above got taken...period. :sad: don't feel bad it happens, best thing to do moving forward is read the link i provided in previous post and the monitoring and bulletproofing a 6.0 :thumb:
educate yhour self so that doesn't happen again :nod:
there is much to learn about these trucks they need maintenance on time not when you have time, and there are a number of things that should be addressed because ford failed to but once done they are a solid platform with far more power than i should ever need and a blast to drive >
i hope I am never forced to buy a newer dpf epa nightmare for my brewery by carb or the epa or any other alphabet org run by otherwise unemployable nitwits :doh:

 

Thanks for the followup! I am a beginner so I am still learning about how to fix this truck which is why I joined the forum. This most recent repair set me back $13,000 and here is the entry from my maintenance log: 2015-03-06 167,000 miles - replace heads, gaskets, studs, rebuild turbo, delete catalytic converter, add 4" exhaust - turbo back, add Bullet Proof Diesel oil cooler, clean & inspect Bullet Proof EGR cooler tube, LOF, replace both fuel filters, replace coolant, replace air filter, replace water pump & thermostat, replace serpentine belt. They had to take the cab off the truck to do all of this and stripped the motor down to the heads.

*Note - the first time the egr cooling tube failed, the dealer replaced it with an OEM part and replaced the oil cooler. The second time the EGR cooler tube failed, I replaced it with a bullet proof diesel part and an OEM oil cooler. When the head gaskets blew and warped the heads, I added the bullet proof oil cooler.

Does that count as an engine rebuild?

 

I consider a engine rebuild just that a rebuild. Which includes the entire engine, crankshaft, pistons etc. I have owned two of these 2006 trucks now and my first one was stock with just exhaust and it was awesome. No issues whatsoever, bought this one with 41,000 miles on it but needed head gaskets. So I took it to a PowerStroke shop and had it fixed right. Was a 7 hour drive to get it there but it was worth it.

This truck I have a 65HP tune along with FICM tune and it scoots pretty good. No powerhouse but truck is very light on its feet. Like I said once these engines are updated they are very solid engines. You must maintain them by keeping oil fresh along with clean fuel coming in.
I have no regrets they are great trucks, a better choice then a 7.3 or 6.4 and they are DPF free.

 

Quite right. I have learned that this is an International motor and outside the 6.0, performs quite well. It is the cramped configuration and the heat that is produced by that configuration that is causing much trouble.

 

I hope you left something out of that list because i don't think what you listed should have cost more than maybe 8 or 9k and I think that would be high. You could have put in a brand new Asheville reman long block with all the updates as well as some performance goodies for less than that, including your BPD cooler and other accessories.

 

here is a link that kind of outlines the fail points of the 6.0.
truth be told anything built with epa interference has problems.
the 6.0 has some the 6.4 has some the 6.7 has some. of course the 7.3 even has some but is probably the most dependable diesel ever built.
that said IF you can fix the idiocy of the bureaurats at the epa and repair that damage you should have a fine sturdy truck.
bear in mind the 6.0 was run in europe in buses and run for 300k with very few issues without the epa putting what ever they are paid the most to do to vehicles pretending they are somehow qualified to mandate engineering they cant possibly understand :doh:
that said....
I FREAKIN LOVE MY 6.0 :thumb:
anyway Mitch nailed it when he wrote this so have a good read and enjoy
oh also I haven't made it past about page 1, but my internet may not make it beyond that tonight so I thought i would just drop this with you as was said bulletproofing a 6.0 and monitoring a 6.0 are the other two stickie posts you should read :nod:

http://www.powerstroke.org/forum/6-.../forum/6-0-tech-files/173767-things-consider-about-owning-6-0l.html#post2147484

 

Before you buy, have someone with the knowledge and equipment to give you a pre-buy inspection. The truck may run great on a 15 minute test drive but still have some serious issues that are hidden. Best 100-200 you can spend.

 

Hahaha!!!

I love the "got taken" comments people love to put up without even doing the math in their heads....

to gen5020, you didn't "get taken". For the amount of work done and the amount of parts its right in that range. I came up with around 12k if we were to do it, and my labor rates are LOW compared to the surrounding shops/dealers that do diesel repairs. We also warranty our 6.0 HG jobs for 2yr/24k now.

To the Ashville comment....NO!!! I wouldn't install one of those motors if it was free, and the ADDED labor to do a motor swap and all the other parts he had installed would put him over the 13k mark. Assuming we are all smart enough to know that we are talking about paying a reputable shop (hopefully what he used) to do the work, and not back-yarding this job.

 

I actually did do the math in my head. Maybe that was the problem.

I figured $3k for heads.
$200 for gaskets.
$500 for studs.
$100 for turbo rebuild.
$500 for cat delete and exhaust.
$2000 for BPD cooler.
$150 to inspect the BPD EGR cooler.
$500 for the other misc items mentioned.

That's $6,950 in parts. I did not look up any of those prices, nor did I throw in any shop charges for the parts. If you add 10% for shop rate pricing you'd still only be at $7645. That leaves $5,355 in labor. Maybe that's the going rate, IDK. but I figured maybe $2,000-$3,000 was more in line. Not trying to argue, just stating that I didn't throw it out there without thinking about it.

 

Labor for the HG is 24hrs of labor. Lets assume 100/hr shop rate. So yes 2400 in labor for the HG, but you are forgetting the labor to rebuild the snail, install the exhaust, labor for the water pump (most of us don't take the fan off or stator when doing these HG jobs) and the big area your are also forgetting is all the other misc. gaskets and update parts.

Now I am going off how WE do these. I don't reuse standpipes or d-plugs, GP harnesses (every time I have they leak and we have to replace them AFTER the HG job....embarrassing) and we use a complete gasket kit for the top end rebuild. Looks like this:

1800 labor
1200 HG kit w/studs
125.00 EC1 coolant
50.00 Filters
500 Machine shop costs
125.00 D-plugs, S-pipe kit
300 Oil Cooler
300 EGR cooler or Delete
75.00 GP harnesses X2
80.00 pushrods
60.00 FPR kit
90.00 Freon for AC
60.00 STC Fitting (assuming 04.5+)
64.00 Oil

Brings it to 4800+tax
is right at 5300 here in WA.

Now add the extras

400 Exhaust
100 Labor
BPD OC kit 1200 (subtracted the cost of the OE cooler above)
200 Labor to install with cab up
110 Waterpump
100 to install cab up
65.00 belt
150 Turbo Rebuild kit
200 Rebuild turbo labor
2500 Heads

Brings the total cost of parts and labor to 9800 plus tax is right at 11k.

Now the prices above are a rough and generous "in-between" price for full retail and cost. My guess is the shop is like most around here and making 40% profit margin on these parts which would bump the total to a little above 13k. We do not make that much of off parts, and I am very generous when it comes to combined labor. My point is its NOT that he got taken at all when its all totaled up. These simply cost money to repair if you are paying someone to do it.

Edit:

I will add that a Cummins or D-max AINT any cheaper if the needed work above is required!! And believe me we are seeing 6.7 cummins HG like you wouldn't believe, and now that tuned D-maxs have some miles on them we are seeing lots of those too. Not to mention they also most likely have had at least one trans in their lives, the 6.0 is still a better bang for the buck truck.....but nobody really wants to look at facts, just brand loyalty.

 

1800 labor
1200 HG kit w/studs
125.00 EC1 coolant
50.00 Filters
500 Machine shop costs
125.00 D-plugs, S-pipe kit
300 Oil Cooler
300 EGR cooler or Delete
75.00 GP harnesses X2
80.00 pushrods
60.00 FPR kit
90.00 Freon for AC
60.00 STC Fitting (assuming 04.5+)
64.00 Oil

Brings it to 4800+tax
is right at 5300 here in WA.

Now add the extras

400 Exhaust
100 Labor
BPD OC kit 1200 (subtracted the cost of the OE cooler above)
200 Labor to install with cab up
110 Waterpump
100 to install cab up
65.00 belt
150 Turbo Rebuild kit
200 Rebuild turbo labor
2500 Heads

Brings the total cost of parts and labor to 9800 plus tax is right at 11k.

Now the prices above are a rough and generous "in-between" price for full retail and cost. My guess is the shop is like most around here and making 40% profit margin on these parts which would bump the total to a little above 13k. We do not make that much of off parts, and I am very generous when it comes to combined labor. My point is its NOT that he got taken at all when its all totaled up. These simply cost money to repair if you are paying someone to do it.

Edit:

I will add that a Cummins or D-max AINT any cheaper if the needed work above is required!! And believe me we are seeing 6.7 cummins HG like you wouldn't believe, and now that tuned D-maxs have some miles on them we are seeing lots of those too. Not to mention they also most likely have had at least one trans in their lives, the 6.0 is still a better bang for the buck truck.....but nobody really wants to look at facts, just brand loyalty.

I gotta say you would know better than I but my math looked more like gators :nod:

Gotcha. Granted, I was kinda glossing over a few things (like the turbo; kinda had cleaning on the brain, not rebuild) and I didn't really figure in taxes, but I was figuring on what the poster said, not what shoulda/coulda been done. That's why I prefaced it with "I hope you left something out of that list".

D*MN, a ~10% sales tax rate!

yea thats kinda how i was looking at it as well...
DAMN I hope my truck stays running for a very long time :doh:

I know right!!

I will add that My shop wants these truck to leave and NEVER come back.....at least for a HG or other issue. Now the HEUI system on these makes that hard, but with the gen2 injectors out now its getting easier to have a 6.0 leave and be truly reliable. I know this is a weird mentality for someone who owns a repair facility, but with the amount spent I don't want to see your truck again. Until you have recovered from the repairs and are ready to bump the power level up. We are seeing more and more that shops and dealers are NOT educating people on the updated parts of these trucks or doing combined repairs. This is great for the shop as they get "repeat" business, but it SUCKS for the owners of the vehicles. What I mean by this is take the STC fitting for instance. We just had a truck in here that a shop replaced the OC in and it got towed to us for stalled while driving and wont restart.....STC fitting blew apart.....Now all the labor to do the STC fitting is in the removal of the intake mani, which was out to do the OC job. WHY THE F&*K would you not take the extra 20mins (have timed myself when doing this repair with an OC job) to replace the part that caused this issue!?!? Simple you want the 9hrs of labor needed to replace it when it does go. "Repeat" customer......WRONG!!!! Just wrong IMO!! And what happens....the same thing that customer said....."Are these trucks just this bad??" No your previous shop is just greedy. They could have replaced it with the OC job and saved you 800bucks in labor, but decided not to. If they had you would still be on the road and most likely not even have that thought.......Just something to think about in regards to threads like these. Not all of it is the truck or motor. In fact most is the Owner (or previous most of the time) and the repair shops.

^^^this is why I would love to make the long arse drive and have you go over my truck someday :nod: sadly excellence and honesty are hard things to find these days in ANY area of endeavor :doh:
question last I heard years ago ashville made a good cheap motor for a fairly easy way to swap / fix things if need be. did that change? when seems there were a few guys around running those motors that were real happy with them ... of course that was like 3 years ago and i dont hear much about them now so :dunno:
wondering if i should take them off my radar so to speak i NEED my truck to last me a while to say the least hnoes: