Hello,
I am looking at purchasing a 2003 Ford f250 6.0L V8 Diesel with 110,000 miles on it. I love the truck, it appears to be running great, and I am having a mechanic do a pre-purchase inspection. I am looking to use it to haul a 2 horse trailer. I am by no means an expert on vehicles in general, let alone diesel trucks.... so I was hoping to get some commentary from people who are!

In my research, I have run across lots of people reporting problems with the 6.0L diesels. Can you guys comment on this? Ease my fears or tell me I am making a huge mistake buying one with 100,000 miles on it? It has a clean carfax report and appears to have had regular servicing throughout its life. Nothing shows up on an oasis report.

Any thoughts from someone who has more experience with them than me would be appreciated! Thanks!

Brooke

 

If everything checks out, I would have no issues. And that is still very low miles for these trucks. The quick breakdown to making these trucks last is be religious with the maintenance and use oem filters and caps, and get some gauges to moniter temps. A lot here run a scangauge 2. But I love my 6.0 and wouldn't trade it for the world.

 

Make sure the mechanic knows about the temp spread between ECT vs EOT.

 

Temp spread between ECT vs EOT?

I am sure if I mentioned that to him he would follow.... but for my own sake, can you explain that to someone who knows nothing about anything mechanical?

 

Oil and coolant temp spread. More than 15 deg. F. Shows signs of a clogged oil cooler. Which will cause the EGR system to fail from being starved of coolant.

 

It is a way to check the health of the oil cooler. They tend to plug up causing problems then with the egr cooler. Although you are looking at an 03, which has a great EGR cooler, still need to check it.

ECT (Engine coolant temp) vs. EOT (engine oil temp)

Need to get the truck up to operating temps. 190*f plus. Also, same with oil.

Drive the truck on as level ground as you can find at 60 mph. The temp difference should not exceed 15*f. Ect will be around 190*-192* oil should not be more than 15* hotter. Here is the TSB you can take to Him.

http://ww2.justanswer.com/uploads/bo...SS_TSB_6.0.pdf

then later Ford put out a new "flash" (computer update for 05 and newer trucks concerning the same thing) 03-04 don't have a wrench light, so it isn't in yours.

http://ww2.justanswer.com/uploads/fo..._211519_A1.pdf

 

If you notice in the second one, there is an issue with the FICMs on these trucks, have it checked also.

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/8...procedure.html

This takes 2 people. And should be checked "cold". Over night sit is best. I have found a FICM can hide an issue in 10 seconds. Mine always read great until I got a Scangauge II and checked mine. When cold, it would drop to 40v, then in 10 seconds, was up to 48V. It shouldn't read below 45v.

Your mechanic probably knows these things, so you can just ask what was all checked.

 

Read through this:

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/7...-look-for.html

 

If you have to explain the above items to your mechanic, then take it to a Ford dealer mechanic. There are more 6.0 wannabe mechanics out there than there are real ones.

 

Wow, this stuff is way over my head.

I wrote down "oil and coolant temperature spread causing EGR system fail" and "FICM issues" so hopefully they will follow. However, letting it sit overnight isnt an option (with the owner)... and I know the mechanic wasn't planning on it, because he said it would take around and hour to do the work.

 

That makes me a little leary right there.

 

+1 on that.

 

It would take almost that long to just check the ficm first, the warm it up to check the spread...he better reserved the better part of a morning to check everything.

 

I guess I wasn't expecting to need to do anything that intense... the truck was fully serviced by a Ford Dealership a year ago at 100,000 miles and just passed PA state ispection a few weeks ago.

I was really just expecting (and told mechanic as much) to check Filters/fluids/brakes/rust/strutts&shocks, etc.

 

The 6.0 is much more complicated than that.