Hello all, new member here (long time lurker).

Im at a cross roads in my relationship with my 6.4.

Its a stock 2008 with 171,000 on it. Its the ONLY Ford ive ever owned that has given me a case of buyers remorse.

Its been a nickel and dimer for just about as long as ive owned it (bought used). Four wheel drive issues, cruise control issues, electrical issues, im on the second set of plugs in a couple cylinders and on the third in another I think. And now the turbo's apparently going to pot on it.

About a week ago I climbed in, and when I pulled onto the blacktop I had no juice, she accelerated, but slowly, hit about 35 mph and 3500 rpm and just stayed there. Thought it was my tranny. Look down and the turbo gauge is registering zero. Once it gets up to operating temp, it works fine. Done this a couple times now. If you let it idle a good 5-10 minutes, its fine. But cold you got nothing.

Took it in and put it on the computer, she threw a three glow plug codes(probably why my mileage has gotten worse), and the turbo popped up under two or three different codes. The shops telling me to replace the turbo to the tune of a few grand.

Ive never been in love with this rig. It gets horse dung mileage (11-13 empty on a GOOD day, 8-10 towing, and I mostly only pull a small horse trailer and two or three horses, couple times a year I pull a big load of cows). And honestly, the amount of pulling I do has gone way down in the last six months since switching jobs.

Ive thought about chipping and tuning and all that jazz, but just dont know if I even want to sink the money into it, especially at this point.

Did some snooping and found a '99 7.3 with 112K on it for what seems like a good deal, and a '04 V10 with 185K for a song. I had a 7.3 once upon a time, dumbest thing I ever did was sell it. Drove a v10 for work for a few years, got crappy mileage, but no worse than this 6.4 is getting! Drove a 2014 6.7 for work that didnt impress me either (other than power). Its just a shame what the government and EPA have done to the diesel engine.

Wondering if I should repair, or move on? (Something newer/more expensive isnt in the cards). Or is the shop jacking me, is it possible its something cheaper/simpler than replacing the turbo?

Thanks all

 

Also,

Whats a typical regen period on these? I thought mine was going through regen cycles a lot. Payed closer attention on my last trip pulling a small three horse trailer and two horses, regen'd about every 100 miles.

 

I'd say if you're tired of the truck, get rid of it. My 2008 6.4 just turned 190,000 miles yesterday. It had 116,000 on it when I bought it. I had mine deleted and tuned when I bought it, so I don't know about the regen cycles. Just changed the oil and filters regularly.

You said this is the only Ford you ever owned in the beginning of your 1st post. Then later, you said you had a 7.3. What kind of truck was the 7.3 in?

 

Just the first Ford ive ever owned that ive regretted buying.

Owned lots, been happy with all of them except this one.

 

The only part i can comment on honestly is the mpg and the regen cycles, mine with 175k bone stock gets aprox 15-17 empty 9-12 towing a 7000lb 30ft camper with a 1000golf cart in the bed. It did regen about every 150 miles and about every 100 miles under a load UNTIL i changed out my fuel filters, I got some bad fuel awhile back which may have contributed to the regens being so frequent but since changing them my regens so far have been like every 300 miles or so. As for the rest you state I am sorry I can't help you.

 

OK, that makes sense.

Do you have a monitoring device plugged into your truck? If so, check on the Exhaust Back Pressure Sensor. If it isn't working properly, it will tell the motor to defuel cutting your power.

 

The turbo doesn't kick in if the DPF is clogged. I think you should consider deleting it.

 

Update. Tried it out this morning (was 40 some agrees).

Didn't let it warm up, everything worked fine.

Dealership says they can't help me if they can't replicate it to diagnose. Problem is I'm two hours from any good shops.

 

I love the hell outa my 6.4 but its broken down more than my last 10 trucks put together. I got my last two hunting trips in with no breakdowns so maybe I have finally fixed the hell outa it?! I put it up for sale the other day but secretly hope I don't sell it.

 

I would move on.

sounds like you have not had any fuel system related issues yet and when those occur...serious money.

the lifters are a failure point
so are the rocker arms
fuel in oil is a problem...got to watch the oil level
so is the waterpump housing
so is the egr
so is the oil cooler
so is the DPF
so are the sensor (EBP) and (1,2,3 exhaust temp), any of which will wrench your truck and leave you stranded.
you need to drain the water drain on the under chasis fuel pump often and use fuel lube
etc,
etc,

the person that keeps his 6.4 likes his truck and figures its cheaper to fix and stay in the marriage than to buy a new truck with warranty.

the 7.3's are great simple trucks...but some have a wiring harness failure that no one has a solution for.

the 3V V-10 is a good choice if you can get a low miles one and keep it on a good maint program. 100K is not low miles in my mind and 5K - 10K service intervals is not a good maint program in my mind either.

quality of american trucks have tanked and the cost of warranty repairs that are making the dealerships a lot of money is being passed on to the new buyer in the form of enormous price increases in the new trucks.

Im qualified to make these statements as a prior owner of f-150's, f-250's, f-350's and my current f-450 6.4 which has been parked for a few months now and Im only confident driving it local on roads that are 25mph or less. may fix it, may sell it, but certainly not drivng it on the high ways and certainly not driving it out of my zip code.

 

I don't agree that quality has gone down. I think it's gone up. At the same time, I'm a firm believer that some people are just hard on vehicles. One of my brother's was like that. It didn't really matter what kind it was ... he was hard on it. At the same time, I know people who can only drive Toyotas. I'm the opposite except I would never own a Toyota.

NOTE: I'm not saying that there is something inherently wrong with some people, but the way they drive is not what the engineers designed for.

 

Sorry to the OP about all your issues. My only big issue was the DPF crap on it. Ford said that clouds of blue smoke behind me at regen for 20-30 miles were normal. Others said to sell it, but I won't dump my problems on someone else. Too the chance and deleted. Been running great since. Had I not been able to solve those issues, I would have put a match to it and filed an insurance claim.

 

Update.

Shop says the EGR is sticking and gumming up sensors.

Theyre quoting $2000+ for new EGR, or $3000-3500 to delete it.

How hard a job is doing a delete? I'm no diesel mechanic but have done some wrenching. I see kits for sale (for a LOT less than $3000).

 

make sure you are not subject to emissions testing as we are in nyc...so no deletes for us.

also, if your egr is gummed up....your oil cooler wont be too far behind it. oil cooler has oil tunnels on one sire and coolant tunnels on the other.

if you decide to keep your truck...invest a buck and a quarter on a coolant filter.