Hi folks.
I hang with the 7.3 crowd normally, but our small volunteer fire dept (in Colorado) is looking at an ambulance, 06, F450, a little under 100k miles.
Any major things to watch for?
I will be looking over some of the threads today, but a couple of members are going to look at it today, I just found out last night, and it is really close to our needs, so we might have to act fast if we like it.

Thanks a bunch.
Tom.

 

If you haven't already you should check out the Tech Folder, there is alot of good info there. Follows is a good thread on things to look for in a used truck.

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/9...used-6-0l.html

 

It should be fine.... look for obvious signs of puking at the degas bottle cap. Listen to the turbo spool up and again when shutting down (put your ear to the grille snorkel inlet). Drop the HFCM 8mm plug and drain it into a clean container (look for excessive grit and water)...better yet, pull that filter and look it over.

 

The maintenance reacords are most important. Make sure all fluids have been changed at proper intervals without fail. Coolant being one of the most important if it still has the ford gold coolant in there. And I recommend getting that coolant out once you buy it. (if you buy it).
Flush the coolant and change to Red ELC and install a coolant filter. These measures will save your oil cooler and prevent major damage.
If you have AE scantool, I would take it to test drive it and measure coolant and oil temps to make sure the oil cooler isnt already clogged.

 

Buying a Used 6.0...

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/9...used-6-0l.html

 

Thanks so far. I quickly tuned into the great tips on the opening page. I was feeling a little panicky.
Let me tweak this a bit, any tips on shops around Golden, Co.? With AE? I haven't talked to the people who went today to look, but my hope is they like it enough to look into it further.
I would also consider a dealer with a good rep. Yeah, I know, but there are better ones out there.

 

I totally disagree if the cooling system has been properly maintained. Many here have 100,000 miles + on the Ford Gold. Proper maint. and not believing in myths is key. A coolant filter,IMHO, is also very helpful.

 

I agree Mike.

There are numerous threads of Navistar engines with oil cooler and EGR cooler problems. Even ones discussing gelled "Red" coolant .... and we know that the Navistar engines came with coolant filters and ELC coolant.

People seem to not be aware that DexCool is a red ELC coolant and it is NEVER to be used in our engines. Not saying that all the Navistar engines with gelled Red coolant is because of Dexcool, but it is hard to get the complete picture over the Internet - lots of stories that just might not be the complete story.

 

Yes, thats the key but use the RED ELC Cat coolant and forget about change intervals so soon.

 

Here is some interesting reading

IC VT-365 EGR Cooler Failures - School Bus Fleet Magazine Forums


Here was a thread on red ELC coolant that gelled - too bad they removed the pics, they were terrible!

http://www.powerstroke.org/forum/gen...t-i-think.html

 

Great discussion. On my 7.3 (01) ELC is the recommended upgrade. Done, very happy so far, well over one year.
I will dig further, but is changing to ELC on this 6.0 (06) a good thing? We already have a couple of big CAT diesels in our fleet, that use ELC/OAT type coolant. We won't put a lot of miles on this, but trips will be short and lots of idling. Plus northern Colorado, 8200ft.

Thanks.

 

Here is a video of mine after performing a water flush, and after 3 full drain and refills (drove 200 mile trips between draining again) along with starting the truck and opening the block drains and putting a hose in the degas bottle and hitting the gas to really push the crud out of the cooling system.

The video is the bottom of the bucket I used while draining. I was pouring the contents into 1 Gallon jugs to take to recycling. The gel at the bottom, I am fairly sure is from RESTORE cleaner that I used to clean the system. 2 hours idling at 1200 rpms and this is the junk it pulled out.

<---- CLICK FOR VIDEO

 

Next question. The computer tracks hours run on these correct? How can this be accessed?

 

You read it in the Instrument panel. Press Select if you have the mini message center in the dash or INFO if you have the full message center. Either way, you'll see Engine hours. High hours and low miles is definitely rough on the Motor.

 

Trek, if the coolant you see in the degas is nasty, pass on the truck.

Don't leave the ford gold coolant in for more than 50k miles before a flush and refill.

If you go to ELC, only use Cat EC-1 rated coolant. If it didn't say Cat EC-1, keep looking. If you do change make sure to get all the old coolant out.

Crank it stone cold. These injectors act up when cold before they have to be replaced. However, imm not sure that would be a deal breaker.