So I bought a 2003 F250 diesel 6.0 with 127,000 miles that had been on a ranch. Thought I was getting a great deal at the time for $11,000 which I still feel good about after all my experiences but I didn't understand the learning ramp I was getting into at the time. I post this in the hope that others may find my experience useful and please understand every conclusion herein is my own opinion and I do not express that I am an expert.

Issue bad ride (the shakes):
Resolution: Found out I just had to get rid of the steel rims as they were out of round. As I looked around it seems that a lot of people have aftermarket rims maybe for this same reason. The new alloy rims helped with braking distance and I think about 0.5 mpg improvement. Also got the Falken Rocky Mountain tires for mixed driving. I had to play around with the tire pressure and put a little wear on the Falkens before I was happy with them because initially the truck felt real loose. Replaced shocks and sway bar bushings. All is good now.

Falken Tires about $150 each:
Tire Products By Vehicle - Discount Tire

Black Alloy Rims $110 each: (Edit the center caps didn't fit on the back wheels but I liked the look better without them)
Wheel Details - Discount Tire

Issue rough start at cold and hard to start if warm then set for 30 minutes or so:
Resolution: After a lot of post reads I decided to try out the outrageously expensive REV-X oil additive and it was like a light switch improvement. I now have no issues with cold driving or fear of not being able to start the truck after I have driven somewhere. Seems like the standard oil properties just will not keep this injector design going well. I just plan on having more expensive oil changes from here on out. I also experimented with synthetic oil but that seemed to have little improvement compared to the REV-X additive.
About | REV-X Products, Inc.

Issue after a period of driving truck got rough at idle and poorer acceleration and smoothness:
Resolution: If I drove it like I stole it which is recommended in several posts it would help clean it up for a while but eventually got bad again. So I plunged myself into the pics and oddities of this engine design and I feel that this is due to the EGR design that takes that crappy sooty diesel exhaust and mixes it into the intake and right across your intake valves and craps up the exhaust valves as well. After learning about the EGR cooler high fail rate of leaking coolant and sucking this into the intake via the EGR valve which kills your expensive engine, I experimented with eliminating this by the most simplest fashion of disconnecting the EGR valve connector with the engine off. This is a violation of law to tamper with unless it is offroad only. Make your own decisions. But now with the EGR valve always closed the sooty diesel exhaust no longer goes through your valves, if the EGR cooler starts leaking engine coolant it won't go in your engine, the turbo is more responsive as it gets more pressure from the exhaust, I believe I get better mileage, and there is a tremendous amount of avoided heat being injected into the engine.

Issue of starting to work and truck died and could not restart:
Resolution: Had to take it to a mechanic who replaced my high pressure oil pump for $2400 thank you very much. Prior to taking it to the mechanic I tried to see what I could do first and found that my AutoParts oil filter top had separated from the media. I don't know enough about the potential of the oil filter failing that will cause the HPOP to fail but it can't be good. I now use only dealer oil filters and likely any other filter I may replace.

An area of concern that I have not had a failure but want to keep an eye on is the engine coolant. So apparently the passageways that the engine coolant runs through can get clogged up if the coolant chemistry gets out of whack and will result in engine failure. When I had my HPOP replaced the mechanic put in a pint of Ford "Diesel Cooling System Additive" and suggested I do this every 30,000 miles. I don't fully understand this but it seems this additive is highly acidic and helps to prevent scaling in the coolant passages. There seems to be a great deal of conflict around the best type of coolant to use and how to manage this aspect of the engine maintenance. I do not have this figured out to my satisfaction yet but I have marked my coolant tank level and monitor the quality and level of the coolant. I suspect I will get PH strips and test the coolant periodically and try to keep that within the recommended range.

Another area of concern is engine harness chafing which I improved by wrapping the wiring harness on top of the engine to help protect it.

My truck seems to be dependable now and runs well. I hope to get 300,000 miles on it. I get about 15-16 mpg on average no towing.

 

You mentioned you disconnected your egr valve. There is lots of discussion on here how that messes with your engine fan causing lots of issues. Do some searches on here about it. Your best option is to do an EGR delete and leave the valve plugged in so you dont have the fan issue.

 

With my 03 90k I tested EGR plugged in and unplugged. Realized plugged in did keep fan operation normal! So I just pulled EGR got can of carb cleaner $3 and cleaned it... works like a champ! Engine is quieter too! Took about 20 minutes! I have same rough ride going down road but will tackle that at a later date....

 

Thanks, I'll check into the threads.

 

dang I would love 15-16mpg I only get 13 and I drive like a granny LOL

 

ONLY 300,000? C'mon atleast make a goal that isent so easy to reach. I would shoot for 500,000k there is a post on here of a guy that is driving his truck around with 650,000 miles. and allot of others with high miles.

 

Well not sure about my gear ratio but at 2000 rpm the speedo says 70mph. The tires are LT265/75R16E1. I've got the link to them in the original post. 4x4, short bed, crew cab

 

Thank you for sharing, you are correct things are allot easier to deal with when you know a little more about how things work and whats going on.

 

heres a thread on unpludded EGR Valve

Unplugged EGR VALVE & the problems that follow
https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/9...egr-valve.html

And get some gauges if you dont already
Its easier and cheaper to spot a problem with a gauge B4 it totaly goes out and takes other parts with

Many Folks on here use a scagauge II can watch a bunch of stuff

And I would also recomend a coolant filter

 

Thanks for the feedback!

 

Bobby tell me how you like your rims.

 

I really like them. I may have fooled myself but the salesman told me I would be able to brake faster and get better mileage and I think I did. The center caps were really crappy plastic and did not fit on the rear wheels at all and looked bad on the front so I didn't use them. I spray painted the hubs black to match the rims and got black lug nuts so it looks good I think. Being able to buy 16 inch tires saves money too. Smooth ride now.