I will be picking up my new '03 F350 Lariat, 6.0 diesel, crew cab, 4X4 short bed very shortly. After sweating thru several messages posted by unhappy owners over at the diesel stop site, I spoke with several of my friends (NOT Ford diesel owners), who recommended that I ask about a recommended break in period before towing my new 5th wheel camper.
Can anyone fill me in on this? Any input/advice here will be greatly appreciated as this will be my FIRST diesel setup as well as my first 5th wheel RV...
As long as I'm posting one of my first messages here I might as well also asked for input on customer satisfaction (hopefully some good stuff here will make me feel a little more comfortable - those horror stories I read earlier had me SWEATING)...

 

In my opinion I would drive the truck light to moderate for about 1000 miles, then change the oil. Drive another 1000 with moderate to heavy conditions ( no towing), change the oil again. Then I would treat it like a truck and tow haul anything I wanted to, and go to the Ford recommended maintenance schedule.

Keep in mind one thing about these boards, they are for problems. So by saying that 99% of the things you read are problems for a very very small percentage of the total trucks on the road. If you sat down and read thru several of these forums for 2 hours you would never buy another Ford truck. I have owned 11 F-150's over the years and only had one bad one. If I were you I would drive my new truck and enjoy it . But....if something goes wrong you know where to find the answer.

Oh....got to go ! Think I hear a spark plug blowing out of my cylinder head ! ( V-10 joke )

Congrats on the new truck.

Mark

 

Viking47 Welcome and don't worry, most of the horror storys go with the neighborhood, not near as many postings about good news.

Nature of the beast, most guys posting are looking for advice or help with a problem so you can easily think that here is a LOT of problems with these trucks. Not really the case, as the happy owners are just lurking and reading everybody elses problems.

Follow the Ford reccommended break in procedures is the best advice.

I will say that I think cycling the powertrain through many, many heat, cooling cycles is more important than any specific length of time or milage. In other words many short trips are better than a long all day 500-800 mile break in trip.

You never want to run the motor at a constant rpm or load for a long period of time.

Most owners relate the increased fuel effeciency as where they FEEL the enging is finally "Broke in". This usually is down the road many thousands of miles and differes for each owner, but seems to be greater than about 18,000 miles.

I have always felt that common sense driving and several engine and tranny fluid changes are good insurance. There are others that feel the factory oils are good until the first service. My feeling is that American manufacturing is so sloppy that I want any and all machine or wear metalic particles flused out of the insides of the engine and tranny as soon as practical.

Lots of discussion hear and the other site on tranny service and use, relating to heat and other problems. If you take care to not scorch the fluid, then you won't have any serious problems towing the 5er but watch the temp, and if she gets much over 230F then seriously consider changing the fluid as it oxidises rather rapidly above 230F and stops lubricating.

I have 4X4 version that I tow pretty heavy loads with, and I think the drive train took a lot longer to "break in" than the engine.

Again welcome and have fun , a lot of info here and you own one of the best trucks ever made. She should be a source on many enjoyable, worry free trips up and down the maountains!