Ok looking at a 03 f350 king ranch 4x4 dually with only 97k. The truck is nice and clean but i have heard the 6.0 is a troubled motor. How dependable are they since i am the kind who works his trucks hard. I killed one ctd and 7 standard trannies... The vin is 1FTWW33P63EC46397 they are only asking like 17 for it..******** type=text/javascript nodeIndex="4"> jQuery("#mpg-vin a").remove(); jQuery("#mpg-vin").text(jQuery("#vin-disp").text()); *********>

 

The Pinto was a horrible car...driving down the road they might explode into a ball of flames. That's the same line of BS the 6.0L has been tagged with it. If the Oasis comes back clean and you do the PM's on time...it will live a long time. You can get a copy of the Oasis from your local dealership...if it isn't on a dealer's lot you can take the VIN there. You might have to buy a set of fuel filters from them to grease the wheels.

 

I dont know the more i read on here the more i dont want to give up the 96 7.3..

 

i have an 03 with 180K on it.No major repairs as of now.iam the original owner

original headgaskets
egr cooler
injectors

 

Price is a little steep but I wouldn't shy away from an 03 6.0 In the 6.0 section there is a "what to look for" thread that is very helpful when looking at a used 6.0

 

I have an 03 and love it. No major issues to speak of. I have 93K on it.

 

Do plan to buy an ODBII gauge (scangaugeII or similar) if you buy.
It'll let you monitor Oil and Coolant temps so you can detect a
clogged oil cooler and replace it before it causes bigger problems.

It's also great to monitor tons of engine sensors and view/clear
many trouble codes that might occur.

The dash gauges are pretty useless, the "oil pressure" is sort of
a YES or NO gauge (it reads either "normal" or "none")

 

I own an 03 with 216k on it. No problems to speak of until around 210k. Since then I have replaced the HPOP, some sensors and this weekend will be doing injectors. EVERYTHING else is just fine. Stock head gaskets, EGR cooler, etc..... At 216k I feel I owe it to the truck to fix it. I love my truck!

 

My advice is proceed with caution. I had a '04 F250 which I bought new and loved it for the first 6 years and 38,000. The next 14 months and 7,000 miles were a nightmare. The main issue was the FICM. I had one replaced at a private shop and the first one out of the box was defective. The next one lasted almost 6 months and Ford warranteed it - after replacing the alternator due to low voltage to the FICM but they never bench tested the alternator after removing it. The waranteed FICM failed again at the end of May at just under 46,000 miles. Ford would not warrantee it saying the 12 month warantee started with the first install. I had the FICM repaired and ended up selling the truck. If you do go with the 6.0 make sure the batteries are always up. I didn't drive my truck everyday and there was a draw on the batteries somewhere in the system. I really liked the truck but after getting stuck on vacation towing my 5th wheel I lost all confidence in the truck and Ford's refusal to offer any assistance other than the dealer offering to take $400.00 off the $1250.00 bill to replace the FICM sealed the decision. I know several other owners who have had no trouble with their 6.0 but I also know many more who have had major problems. Good luck.

 

The key reason for not buying one is the entire 6.0 food chain is loaded with techs, suppliers, and what nots who think that the solution to the problems is to stuff the thing with $30,000 or more of "upgrades".

Many of the "upgrades", either through the process of installation, or itself, become sources of problems.

Then there is the huge temptation (often done by previous owners) to run tuners, that make it basically "your problem".

Incompetently tuned / tweaked 6.0s are a better sink for money than owning horses.

Nearly everyone you talk to will push you toward expensive repairs --- rather than trying simple fixes that for me, by and large, work.

In the time I owned the 6.0 (2yrs), I have read and concluded people on forums post about issues and fixes that IMHO, replaced injectors, FICMs, head bolts, HPOPs, Alternators, EGR Cooler / Valves, etc.

Many of the cases, I quickly concluded... were unnecessary repairs.


Not surprisingly, when I check with reman shops, their experience pretty much tally with mine, with many reman parts coming back that required nothing more than a cleaning and testing... and recertification... and ship it right back out.

That goes for Injectors, FICMs, etc.



I am still running an original FICM, 280,000 miles, original injectors, OEM nearly everything, and it works fine.

Watching the forums where most of my inexpensive and effective fixes get a hostile reception vs. the high priced and dubious fixes, I more or less concluded that the 6.0 is really not for most people.

To me, the only real way to buy one is at close to scrap value --- and then, you can afford to rebuild it at your leisure and come up to a fair price.



I can post a list of unnecessary and flat out not-so-smart "repairs" and upgrades... to solve problems that I solved for virtually nil out of pocket.

 

I think there is alot of misconception about the 6.0

true there were probably alot of unessasary fixes out there alot of upgrading to avoid problems [that may or maynot happen]

sometimes it is better to upgrade/fix than deal with the failure
those of you that have delt with a blown oil cooler know what I mean

as far as an 03 6.0 Its probably one of the better years IMO
Iv only had vgt sensor and water seperator problems 1 alternator that was probably my fault due to stereo, needs ball joints probably my fault lift kit 35stire and 1 oil cooler out of spec


05 and up just seam to have egr cooler, and hpo problems on top of everthing eles

 

I apreciatte the responses, just gonna have to do a lot more research..

 

i bought my 03 with 90k on it, guy kept all service records and took excellent care of the truck. it just had egr and oil coolers replaced weeks before i bought it and otherwise had a clean bill of health. it ran perfectly smooth, power everywhere, started fine hot or cold.

while owning the truck i have serviced it before 5k every time, using the 5w40 synthetic that everybody loves in this section. also i had flushed the cooling system and refilled with ELC.

with that being said: I WISH I BOUGHT A V10, or even better spent the money to restore the rotted and worn body/chassis that held a beautifully running trouble free 250k mile 7.3

now, at 105k:
i have random fits where it will crank for 10 full seconds before starting.
it has an intermittant ICP code in the winter temps.
it has developed a misfire that comes and goes.
the head gaskets went bad the first time i towed with it. (i did the chemical test prior to buying it, so i knew they were good).
up pipes are starting to leak.
oil is leaking.
and most recent, i think the egr valve is clogged/failed or turbo stuck. i need to look into it, but the truck wont get out of its own way until it reaches 2000rpms then pukes black smoke out and takes off like a rocket.

i can't keep up with it. in a month i will be doing headstuds, egr delete, replacing icp related parts and connectors, hopefully by then i will be able to get the misfire to occur while doing a contribution test so i can put an injector in it. and when all of that is done and on the credit card bill, i will miss the 97 even more. thank god i do all my own work, or i would have to sell the truck as is.

i acknowledge that there are many success stories on here, and many failure stories are related to poor maintenance, i know thats not my case. i have 3 in my family who are not good on maintenance at all and have had no issues with more clocked miles than i. it leads me to believe that its a total gamble.

 

Sounds like a great topic for a new thread.

 

My experience is people don't want to hear about it....


Example: people who pulled heads and checked flatness longitudinally, used Ford spec for head warpage sideways decided heads are warped, and planed them flat.


Problem: Ford revised instruction says only check it across the narrow side, not sideways. Noted that heads normally distort properly when tightened down, so it is not a big deal unless it is really bad.


Outcome: People who planed their "warped" heads ended up with really warped heads once it is tightened down --- especially with the stronger ARPs.


New Head Gaskets / ARPs and still, it doesn't seal properly with the "flat" heads that are now quite warped when stressed.


Too many sacred cows.....