Ok guys I spent alot of time reading old fourms here and all over the place but sometimes its easier to just ask. I want a diesel, a ford diesel. I love the sound, power ect. I love how the 08-10 models looks but boy that MPG is a turn off. I know a little bit about diesels from reading the past couple days but still a noob. But I do know how to turn the wrenches.

I just need a truck for fun. I don't tow anything heavy, my boat only is about 5k. So basicly this truck will be empty most of the time. I would like to get one around 100k because it will be a little bit cheaper and when I rip the dpf I don't have to worry about a warranty. Here's my questions

1. Is there really and difference in a F-250 and F-350 when it comes to wieght and MPG?
2. When I rip out this dpf and put a tuner on, what kind of MPG and HP am I looking at? I keep reading about 16 -17.
3. What other things am I going to need to do to keep this truck running to 200k.
4. Best gear ratio for MPG?
5. Any thoughts on if the 6.4 as a whole is better and more reliable than the 6.0? Or should I look at a 6.0? (7.3 is to old for me)
6. How good does it feel to pull up to a small truck with the sound of the diesel loud as hell?


Any suggestings to model types would be great, but I gotta have the crew cab...bigger is better

 

No difference between the 250/350 except the rear blocks give it a little more height and a higher door sticker.

Best to get 3.55 or 3.31 gears for mpgs since that is about all you use it for.

16/17 is probably in the ball park.

Following the severe maintance schedule..even deleted should net you the 200K you are after.

6.4, imho is a better motor.

 

Yea I agree with senix the 6.4l is a better motor, you would have to do much more with the 6.0L to make it bullet proof I.E. the head studs in the 6.0L are weaker than the 6.4L so when you tune the 6.0L truck to higher performance there is a greater chance of blowing the head gaskets. The 6.4L is a very tunable motor and can be turned in to a hot rod fairly easy, most problems with the 6.4L are due to the EPA mandated equipment such as the EGR cooler and the DPF filter. So if you delete all the EPA stuff the 6.4L is pretty much bullet proof.

 

I agree with everyone about the 6.4L being a better engine. BUT it's also worth mentioning that if the high pressure fuel pump self-destructs the resulting damage can be as high as $10,000. The 6.0L has no such catastrophically expensive Achilles heel.

 

what about the warped heads, melted blocks, and engine grenade failures in the 6.0L?

 

Or the oil coolers, luckily ours went out under warranty but I wouldn't want to have to pay for that mess out of warranty. Honestly if you "want a truck for fun" I wouldn't be looking at a diesel or at least not one made after the EPA ruined them in '03. My contention is you can't afford to own a diesel made after '03 that is out of warranty.

 

WOW, how often are these failures reported? As frequent as say perhaps radiator replacement? Just when I am soon to sign on the dotted line for my 08 F350 dually, I now start to read about HPFP failures. Looks like I might as well set aside $20,000 for potential 6.4 diesel repairs or put a Ford Diesel tech on retainer.

 

No doubt the 6.0 has it's issues, but with the exception of warped heads I've heard of 6.4Ls experiencing catastrophic failures in the same manners that you describe.

I have had at least two Ford diesel techs tell me that they would rather own a 6.0L than a 6.4L. The 6.4L may break down less, but the cost of repair is almost always much higher.

I think it's impossible to get an accurate picture of the failure rate of any particular part by reading things on an online forum. I've seen more than a few common posters here report HPFP failures, but many more have never had such a thing happen. The thing to remember is that these things can break in pretty spectacular ways, and owning one out of warranty requires the capability to pay for such a repair.

I've owned both a 6.4L and a 6.7L PSD truck. I couldn't afford to own either out of warranty. NOT that I would consider either one unreliable, but that when they fail they fail BIG.

 

If you have a strict vehicle maintenance ideology these problems happen far less, people usually come on the forum to help find solutions to problems. That is the reason for all the negative press, but as crazy001 said outside of warranty when the 6.4L does experience problems it can get expensive. The most common problems are with the EPA mandated equipment that has not yet been perfected on the newer diesels of all manufacturers

 

not seen a melted block in a 6.0, very few grenaded engines, for that matter the 6.0 short block has been better then that of the 6.4. I can count the number of "warped heads" that I have had to replace on one hand. I have yet to even send a head to a machine shop.
6k for a head gasket job, 10k for a fuel system. 6.0 is still cheeper to fix. for that matter a good used 6.0 engine can be had for even less. go find a used 6.4 for cheep.

 

I found 41 used 6.4 engines just in the state of Texas ranging from $4,500=$8500 one with 25,000 miles for $5,000. They should be expensive as their not that old yet, but if you do a search on warped heads, stretched head bolts you should come up with several pages of posts on this forum under the 6.0 section. Somebody must be seeing these warped heads judging by all the posts. Ford set a record a few years ago with a 2008 F450 6.4 hauling a 18,000 lb. load 100,500 miles in just 88 days driving in 46 states. That averages out to 1,140 miles a day.

 

Are you implying that a 6.0 couldn't do the same?

 

Don't know what ever gave you that notion, Ford didn't do it with the 6.9-7.3 idi, 7.3, 6.0, 6.7 I am stating a fact because this thread is about someone looking into possibly acquiring a 2008-10 6.4 actually Ford did a 150,000 mile record setting run on the same truck.