Sooooo,

I am getting serious about thinking about buying a used truck with a 6.0. Single owner with a 125,000 miles. History was around 80,000 miles it was having problems with the turbo vanes sticking. The owner had it cleaned and symptom returned. It was taken to a diesel repair garage who when replacing the turbo they screwed up and something was left in the motor causing the motor to blow taking the transmission with it. New crate motor and transmission were installed by the repair garage. During the install the owner had headstuds put in and the egr deleted. No other modifications were made to the motor since. The rest of the truck appears to be in the condition that I want and it's optioned the way that I want.

I will be 100% honest the motor scares the heck out of me. I have had two modified 5.9 cummins, a 6.8 v10, and now the 7.3, but a 6.0. It is legendary for problems. I know people do the following: blue spring, coolant filter, headstuds, and egr delete. I think there is something about the FICM too cant remember.

How reliable would the motor be after the mods? We will use this towing across country. It HAS to be reliable.

I am also looking at a 06' duramax with 133000 miles for slightly more.

Thanks for any insight.

 

I love my 6.0! Yes it can be problematic, but that is all part of the fun

In all seriousness, the 6.0 is really a great engine, once the known weaknesses are taken care of. IF the new motor has had the EGR delete and the studs, then you are already ahead of the potential issues.

A 6.0 can be very reliable once all issues are addressed, just take a look at LivingLarge's Ex, he has put in the work and now enjoys the heck out of it.

There is a tone of info in the 6.0 tech pages and well worth reading. But if the truck is in good shape, and if the engine history is as stated, then I would say that you may have a good potential find there.

 

As a joke I would say "Run away, grab a 6.8 and never look back!!!" but in all seriousness the 6.0 is a great motor and it sounds like the problems that are exaggerated have been addressed.

 

I had a ton of stuff done to mine but I did not do the EGR delete. I run her hard and find myself not able to resist the occasional WOT... After the bullet proofing I have been very happy with both the reliability and the power. It's been over 40k miles since. I will consider the EGR delete when my warranty nears its end.

 

Moved to the 6.0L PSD forum.

Stewart

 

any engine today is complex, 6.0 has a bad reputation but lots of support and supporters, I took a long time to make up my mind buying mine, especially living in EU, but haven't regretted it, despite replacing the HPOP 7k miles ago. 20k miles in 1 year and never let me down on the road.


In the end, do the tire-kicking and road test, look at the pros and cons, make up your mind one way or the other, and then never look back on that decision, life is short enough as it is

 

So just 45K on the 6.0 and trans (weird that they could screw up the trans all in one mistake). You didn't say what year? Or what year motor -- different years have different things you might want to do proactively and then it can be a damn tough platform.

On the LBZ: is its EGR deleted? Full known history on it including maintenance, use (abuse), ever been chipped etc.? '06 is THE best year of all the Duramaxes, but all of 'em can have issues and each generation Dmax had its known ones just like the 6.0 does. I think the Torqshift is stronger and it is better electronically mated to the ECU of the PowerStroke, than the Allison 1000 is to the Dmax. Depending on year of 6.0 you could get the integrated TBC (started in '05) which is very trick. The integrated trailer brake didn't come out 'til MY '07.5 or '08 on the Chevies and they had teething issues at 1st.

I've owned both, but my Dmax was the Infamous LLY, a worse reputation than any year 6.0 IMO. If it were me I'd go lower mileage 6.0 and do the few minor BP things to the Ford that are left and enjoy the trouble free cross country trips

I'm biased towards the Ford for a reason, and that's because I'm done with Chevies: too many problems with several of their trucks, and the LLY should have been a complete recall...

 

Well here you go....
https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...excursion.html

 

I've had my share of issues with my 6.0, including a blown engine. And as I look back to how ill informed I was when I bought it 7 years ago, I can attribute just about every failure to me. Not doing cooling system flush and new batteries as soon as I bought it, running it out of fuel and doing the "drunken weave" five miles home so I wouldn't have to walk, then replacing the injectors I torched by doing that with some el cheapos that leaked and torched 4 pistons. Then, thinking I was being proactive by getting a new hpo o-ring kit off of e-bay, then 6000 miles later have them blow, only to discover the e-bay kit was the old style. To make it even more embarrassing, when I checked back on my OASIS report, the upgrade had already been done on warranty. I took the good ones out and put the bad ones in...
I've had it back together and running since last fall, couldn't be happier with it, I trust it again. If you go for it, get your maintenance done and keep doing it, and cough up some money for gauges. Great engines when upgraded. I'm going to be buying another one this fall when I go looking to upgrade my cow feeding truck.