hey gang, im new to the site, but certainly not new to ford trucks.
I have a 06 F350 6.0 6 speed, I LOVE the truck it does everything i can ask of it BUT my warranty runs out in a little less than a year and I am really not looking foward to forking out thousands in repair bills when my 6.0 decides it doesnt wanna run anymore.
I consider myself lucky my truck has just shy of 68000 on it and this week was the first time its been in the shop for anything and that was just to replace the FICM.
So anyway back to the point. has anybody swapped anything other than a cummins into one of these trucks yet?
I have even thought about one of the new aluminum gas motors or an older 7.3 or? who knows?
OR is the best option just to suck it up and fix the 6.0 when it breaks?
I dont want to trade the truck and get a newer one thus going deeper in debt...my long term goal is to pay it off and drive it for many many years to come. thanks in advance for the info.

 

I think your only practical options are to repair the 6.0 when it needs it, or buy another truck. It is not fiscally wise to swap engines, not even with the Cummins.

 

One of the keys to longetivity is on time maintenance, critical, and OEM filters, extremely critical.

 

yea i had studied putting a cummins in it and quickly realized i was looking at 10 to 15 grand to do that.
Is there anybody that HAS NOT had problems out of a 6.0 with ohhh say 200,000 on it? or am i dreaming?

 

and 69 cj my truck has had the oil changed religously ever 5000 to 5500 miles since new and had the fuel filters every 20,000. and I get fuel at the same station every week. last time i changed my fuel filter at 20,000 they werent even dirty.

 

I always let the truck warm up on cold days and cool down before cutting it off when i have been towing or on a long haul.

 

Fuel filters are every 15,000 miles. You've already missed that one. Tranny filters and flush is every 30,000, have you missed that too?

 

Have you been servicing your coolant?

 

good used motors for these truck are very available and some shoping you may be surprised to find them on the cheep.

 

all engines and mechanical parts ware out and need replacing and fixing sometimes.

if you are worried about paying for repairs and haven't checked out fords ESP extended warranty i would give it some considerations.
it adds 2 more years and up to 200,000 miles.

 

it still has the original coolant in it, when are you supposed to change it? and its a 6 speed to im pretty sure it doesnt need a trans filter lol.

 

Oh man, me thinks your repair bills are going to be high in the future.

 

It is not too late to have all the proper maintenance done now... if you haven't been using it for max power towing...tuners, etc.

To me, your truck is barely broken in.

Bad FICM almost instantly gets me to think, time to flash, and time to check batteries and alternator.

 

I have a 2003 6.0L 4x4 ... currently it has 210,000 miles on it.
At 189,000 I did the egr delete, arp studs, new oil cooler, along the way some other stuff like alternator, icp. It doesn't have a coolant filter yet, but I have a kit in the garage waiting for me to get off my ***.

No injector or FICM issues ( I probably shouldn't have written that ).

I didn't know anything about the maintenance of this truck when I got it, which was at 100,000 miles. So at 60,000 miles on yours you've got a great head start on learning and adopting a program that'll have the engine last a long time.

I plow with the truck and drive it with ladder racks, ladder, toolbox most of the time. It hauls wood and pulls stumps.

If I had known more about the maintenance ... and done it .. I may not have needed the studs. I think knowing about coolant flushes about 2 yrs ago would have saved me alot of $$.

But anyway .. our other truck is a 2001 Dodge 2500 with a Cummins 5.9. It has 150,000 miles on it and it doesn't need to be cared for like the Ford. However, that engine is pre the emissions rules that killed the 7.3 and gave birth to the 6.0. From what I've heard the newer generation Cummins can have their issues too. Folks keep doing the reliabilty comparison between the Ford 6.0L from after 2003 with the Dodge 5.9 from pre 2002.
But besides that ... here's the bottom line for me when I look at the 2 trucks we have in the drive way .... the Cummins is a reliable engine, but the truck is junk. The ride is brutal. Everything squeaks, rattles and shakes. The plastic in the cab is cheap and a lot of the little bits and pieces are broken. It has electrical issues. It's uncomfortable. Steering sucks, we've already gone aftermarket on that issue.

I got this truck (Lariat with all leather, 4x4, Crewcab, Line-X, 6-cd, tow package) with a near-new plow second hand for $21,000. I sunk about $5k into it so far. If I now get with the maintenance program I should get it to 500,000+ miles. That is my goal.
At my current pace of 35,000+ miles per year that'll be 8 more years!! I'm sure there'll be body work and replacement of rusted parts during that time.

I might have been pissed if I paid for this truck new ($55k+?? and plow) and had to do the engine work .. but second hand, $26k for 11yrs of driving in a kickass truck with no payments for most of that ... I'll be happy.

 

Geeze, a low mileage truck!

271,000 miles here.

With STOCK EGR cooler (replaced), original injectors, etc.