all years as long as its not the POS 6.0.

 

sorry you had a bad time with yours . mine is great.

 

The one I had couldn't hold up to constantly pullin 5+ tons. I blew the turbo the second week I had it and took it and traded it for a used 7.3 they had and I sold it about 5 months ago with right around 500,000 miles and 99% of them it was hooked to something. The 6.0 was a waste of time and money.

 

The later model 6.0's were a lot better. My work truck was a 2005 350 DRW and I dealer traded cars - around 23-24,000 lbs combined. In the year I spent on the road doing that I never had a problem. It was tough to start on really cold mornings but other than that the truck ran great.

Early years of the 6.0 - stay away. I don't know what to make of my 6.4 yet. It doesn't have 3000 miles yet.

 

I'd say that the 2002 (or 2003, just really hard to find) 7.3 is the best *proven* year. I think that the new 6.7 will prove to be as good as or better than the 7.3, though. It certainly has more power to pull. The local Ford dealer (where I bought my truck) uses a DRW 2011 350 to pull a big gooseneck car hauler. I witnessed that rig pull that trailer with a 250 chained to the trailer. It didn't seem to be breaking a sweat.

 

I'd say either the 2003 7.3L or a 2006-2007 6.0L. Just picked up my 2010 F350 with the 6.4! I love it thus far and hopefully it will be with me for a couple hundred thousand miles!

 

I've had 2 7.3's traded my first one (a 95 F250) in after it got to 240k miles and got a 97 F350 crew cab with 130k miles. I wouldn't hesitate to take my 3500lb truck camper and trailer with my 4500lb Jeep anywhere.

My friend's a Ford tech for 10+ years has says the 6.0L from '03-early 05 are terrible and he spends the most time fixing them. An EGR delete and ARP head studs can make it a good reliable truck.

As for the 6.4L, their mileage sucks 8 mpg towing from what I've seen. I get 12 with my 7.3 stock.

That and I just don't like a system which requires blasting about a thousand degrees worth of heat and flame through a turbo down to the DPF filter to clean it using more fuel. That's the regen cycle. That can't be good for a turbo.

The 6.7's while requiring urea to be put into the system are knocking on the door to 20mpg, but my 7.3 is getting 18 empty.

I think an early 2000's 7.3L would be best until the 6.7's come down from their 50k price range.

 

I vote 2000 model year.
1999 could be early or late.
2001 had the mechanical diode in the trans
2002 started using PMR
2003 are all PMR engines

The 6.0 engines won't make any "best" list for quite some time.

6.4 engines use way too much fuel.

6.7 engines (jury still out)

My $0.02....

 

6.7 all the way. duh.

 

Wow. Very informative. I would absolutely base a diesel truck purchase on this infomation.

Now, if you want to base a decision on what year to go with spend LOTS of time searching all the thread posts through out these forums. Then when you narrow it down to a truck your looking to seriously purchase, come back to the right forum for the truck and and engine and ask the questions specific to the truck. This thread could go on foreve thats why i will not give my opinion of the nest year(s). Also all depends on te environment and use of the truck and what is the MOST important to you. Also, anybody who says the 6.0L diesel is a crap engine, whether they have owned on or not, is not a well informed individual and has no idea about the engine, enough to make a vaild comment.