What were you doing to blow the engine on a V10? We have a 2002 Ford F250 4x4 V10 crew cab Super Duty great truck never a problem with it and we pull way over the GVRW alot. 126000 miles on our truck with no problems but something we did to the truck which was our fault not the trucks. Every truck has its limit. Have you thought maybe thier is something wrong with the truck if it is getting 6 MPG. These truck show signs thier are something wrong so that you know that thier is something wrong. I am not saying it is impossible that you do have a dud of the V10s but I don't think this is the case.
Trav

 

More info on what blew?

 

Hoser 45. Have you bought a truck yet? If so what did you get?

 

No, not yet, still looking. But probably going to look for a F250 or F350 with 7.3.

 

Just wondering. I'm selling my 2005 lariet 250 crew cab.6.0 Head bolts have been changed out egr been deleted new ford injectors 6 months ago.4 inch lift nito tires.I have used the 4 wheel drive last January when I went up to Pa. to look for property.Alot of good truck wasted for me.Thought I would use it more than for what it's good for. No heavy hauling done with it.164000 miles on it. Super clean truck.

 

I was weighing the cost difference between 7.3s with 250K miles vs a 2000 F250 SD CC 4X4. It only had 57,900 miles on it and I was excited to find one with such low mileage so I bought it. Turns out someone installed a Banks Power Pack system on it and the plug in OttoMind was bad. Probably why the previous owner sold the truck. I removed the OttoMind and the TransCommand but left the rest of the kit installed (headers with new studs, exhaust Y pipe, performance muffler and ram air with filter). Ordered a SCT X3 tuner with 3 87 octane tunes from Mike at 5Star Tuning and the truck runs like a beast. Checked my in town mileage today and I'm getting 9.25 MPG and that is with the performance tune and I really drive the truck. From a rolling start it will spin both back tires. As far as maintenance, when I saw that I could reach all the way back to the firewall in this vehicle, I was astounded. I can actually reach things in this truck, unlike some other vehicles. I pull a trailer that weighs between 6000 and 6500 pounds loaded with 5 of us in the truck. Pulls in overdrive at 65 MPH and gets around 7.5 MPG without the tow tune. That is on mostly flat ground but with the tune I'm expecting a little better.

 

The only concern you should have is the tranny. Get a Transgo Tugger shift kit and change the fluid every 20k.

 

Cons:
Fuel Consumption
Needing Higher RPMS (not sure if this is true "con" but some don't like to rev a motor)

Other than that I think they are a fine motor. Mine is the 3V so it has more juice from the factory but I've never driven a 2V before. The way I look at it is that Ford still uses the V10 in the 450,550,650 so it's a good motor for a heavy duty application. I remember driving a friends stock 7.3 in a similar model year. I know for a fact my V10 out accelerates that truck. And yes mine is a newer truck and should do that. If your main concern is towing power either powerplant will give you what you need. And in a costs evaluation I bet you'd come close to breaking even with a higher priced diesel and a lower priced V10. Although if you plan on putting 30-50,000+ miles per year diesel may be the way to go as you'll make up higher initial cost with fuel savings. Sorry V10 friends, but it is what it is.

Just test drive them both and form your own opinion. Me, I was looking at diesels but found my current rig. It was newer, super low miles, and ridiculously low priced. Closest diesel rig, in terms of price, would've been 2 years older, 75,000+ miles, and not a crew cab. And in my neck of the woods and older truck is just a rust problem waiting to explode.