I am going to start work at a Ford dealership later this week as the diesel tech. I have worked for GM and seen my share of Duramax and worked on the side on Cummins but havent had much experience with the Powerstrokes and I thought working there would be a good start. What are the common/major problems with the Powerstrokes? About the only thing I've heard is the variable geometry turbos on the 6Ls are junk. Do the injectors have as much problems as the Duramax does? Like I said, Im new to this so any and all help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance!

 

You would be better off going to each diesel forum and read through the posts. Along with finding out trouble spots, you will also find out tips, tricks, time savers and a whole lot of extra information.

There are some very smart people on FTE and not just on Fords. Many on FTE wear different hats so huge amounts of good information.

 

6.0's are known for head gaskets and egr problems, 7.3's have a lot of CPS issues and the later 2000-03 engines had powdered metal rods that were weaker... to name a few

 

ok thanks for the help

 

With the 6.0 it is generally not the head gaskets that fail, but the headbolts stretching which then allow the gaskets to fail. Good gaskets, bad bolts. I'm still running original gaskets with 160k miles. Also many of the failures can be attributed to sticking turbos causing over boost situations.

 

Welcome to FTE firefighter. I would suggest going to the www.powerstrokehelp.com
website and watch Bill Hewitt's videos on the difference between the 7.3 vs 6.0 engine breakdown. Some members here argue that he doesn't know what he is talking about, and I don't argree with everything he says, but those videos pointing out the differences and the weak spots on the 6.0 is very informative. Actually, there are several videos he has on his site that will be helpful to you in your circumstance. Hope this helps.

Scott

 

Welcome to FTE firefighter ~ From one to another!!

Powerstokes are like any other thing ~

There are good ones and bad ones and everything in between.

Mistaken was spot on in suggesting you visit each Forum individually. That way you'll get a better "Big Picture" of each one.

 

Start with the "Tech folders" they will highlight the different issues with the 6.0L.

 

Not ALL 6.0's are bad,,, but they sure do have a bad reputation!!

 

The early year 6.0's were supposed to have more issues. The '06 and '07 trucks were ok.

 

This is not true, its just the learning curve was met with the later years after all the screwups fixing the early ones. ICP location was changed and I think that and the throttle butterfly are the biggest changes, neither helped in oil cooler failures causing egr cooler failures, but techs learned that usually the oil cooler was the culprit therefore changing both out and not having another problem, when before they would just change out the egr cooler and a couple weeks/months later it was right back in for the same problem because the cause was not fixed.

 

I agree that Ford and the dealership Techs had a steep learning curve w/ the root causes of many 6.0L issues. However, I disagree w/ your "not true" statement above. The 2006 and 2007's do have a number of improvements and are having good reliability records.

You mentioned in an earlier post that many leaking head gaskets were connected to overboost conditions from sticking turbos. Ford did improve the sticking turbo issues in 2006 and 2007. There were strategy changes, sensor and wiring reliability improvements, egr valve modifications, and some slight turbo mods that all reduced the turbo tendency to "coke up". With the turbo overboost situations reduced, the head gasket leakages were improved. Ford has specifically stated that combustion gasses leaking into the coolant will lead to silicate precipitation (drop out of solution). This will lead to plugging the oil cooler (coolant side). There are more engines than you would think w/ small head gasket leaks that slowly contribute to silicate precipitation. The TTY head bolts are fine as long as the heads are flat, torqued properly, and do not see excessive cylinder pressure. There are MANY 6.0L trucks at 200k miles with no head gasket leakage, no loss of coolant, and that have not had their oil coolers plug up.

As I said (IMO anyway), the 2006 and 2007's are improved - they just aren't perfect. I believe that the main issues in the later year models were STC fittings (and even the stand pipe and dummy plug leaks) and FICMS.