I just had an idea, a lot of times someone would ask "how long will a 6.0 last with studs etc" or how long will a 6.4 last if taken care of... that kind of thing.
So leaving failure out of the equation... how fast does each engine last? Why can we not consult blackstone labs for averages for each engine?

If one engine consistantly shows "10 ppm" iron, and another shows "50 ppm", that means 5x more iron is getting into one engine.
Could this data not be useful for constructing a rough idea of how long each engine will last if it outlives catastrophic failure?

 

With engines after the 7.3 I'd be a whole lot less concerned about wear metals and more about soot and coolant contamination. EGR puts a massive amount of garbage through you engine and if a cooler fails it makes a mess that even carb cleaner cannot cut. High soot levels plug oil filters and coolant eats bearings. The 6.4 adds potential for fuel dilution as it injects raw fuel during the exhaust stroke when doing a DPF regen. Id be surprised to see any newer engines last like the 7.3's have.

 

I think you have the longest to shortest life expectancy in order with the title of the thead. As newer emissions requirements come along, the life expectancy will decrease due to the info in the post above and heat.

 

I too agree with all that is stated so far...but as emissions mature I expect it to reverse course. Maybe the next generation emissions and motor though before that starts to occur.

 

Actually I would expect trucks using SCR(urea) to be much better than the EGR/DPF-only generation.
When tuning for emissions your faced with a choice of high NOx levels or high particulate matter. A motor tuned to make low NOx levels will have more pm and vice-versa. EGR was the first attempt at lowering NOx. Later the DPF was added to trap pm. Urea is used to treat NOx in the exhaust instead of in cylinder like EGR. So by treating the NOx with urea we can tune for less particulate matter thereby reducing the number of times the DPF must be cleaned improving fuel economy. Urea also means that less EGR is needed to combat high NOx levels which means less soot going through your engine. So overall I think SCR is a better answer than EGR/DPF alone were.

 

We don't send out just plain averages (our database isn't set up that way), but even if we could, I'm not sure it would be helpful in what you want to know. The problem with trying to predict life expectancy from averages is that 1) we don't get, or track, the end point for most vehicles we test, so we can't study the averages and how they're related to engine longevity, and 2) it's kind of like dying from "old age." Not a lot of people, or engines, die of old age--there's usually something else that kills them. And, I just thought of another problem: 3) we have more than 11,000 samples from the 7.3L, about 7,500 from the 6.0, about 1,000 from the 6.4L, and only about 200 from the 6.7, so the numbers for the older engines are a lot more solid, just because we've done so many more of them. All the averages evolve over time, but the newer engines will change more rapidly as we do more samples from them. Right now the 7.3L shows the least metal in the oil (on average), followed by the 6.0L (it's pretty close in wear). Then the 6.4L and 6.7L are about the same, but again -- they might get better as the averages get stronger. Just some things to think about.

 

I just realized the OP was talking about life expectancy assuming no catastrophic failure, so maybe that negates my second point. I do still think, though, that not a lot of engines die of old age any more (I'm talking about gradual loss of power from parts wearing out).

 

Good info Kristin!

 

I think the answer to your question (OP) is: the IDI engines top 'em all.

 

Very interesting stuff.

Part of that is probably to do with the power outputs.
I'm a little surprised that the 6.7 doesn't wear considerably less than the 6.4 considering the much less EGR.

So we can say that catastrophic failures aside, the 7.3 and even 6.0 would outlive the newer engines.

I also expected with all the fancy injectors and cylinder pressure control that the wear would have gone down, but I guess not.

 

I don't know, do you?

I know mine got the oil black real quick, and my 7.3 powerstroke oil would look like honey when I changed it every 5000 km.

Remember the IDI's had higher compression too, so thats going against you.

 

I believe that the 7.3 is the strongest and longest lasting engine in stock form of those four. In my opinion, the 6.0, 6.4, and 6.7 have no chance at defeating or matching the lifespan of the 7.3 in their stock forms with all the emissions equipment that they are equipped with.

 

the 7.3 is also 75 hp less than the 6.0, 100 hp less than the 6.4, and 150 hp less than the 6.7.

 

When you factor in the early IH versions that jumps to over 220 HP difference.

 

...And I wouldn't be surprised if the IH versions outlast the average ford versions.

I know the 6.0 had a lot more problems in the fords.