Hi, I am new to this sight, and so far have gotten a lot of good information from it. My Quick question is, I have an opportunity to buy a 2006 350 4 door long box 4X4 with a 6.0 engine and 200,000 miles. He is a friend of mine and wants to move on from this truck. Currently it has an injector problem, (diesel getting into the oil) I haven't gotten all the specifics on the other maintenance he has done to this truck yet but I do believe he has had the head gaskets replaced by the Ford dealer. The body is nice and has new tires. He is offering it to me for $5000 and I know that I could put another 4K - $6000 into it. He is letting me bring it to a shop to check it out. Should I walk away or do you guys think I should take the chance.

 

I'd say you're paying a bit too much for the simple fact that you're being asked to assume all risks with what could be wrong with it. Even if it ran bad, that's still a standard upon which you can estimate a value. Trying to assign a value when it does nothing is tough. A car that doesn't start loses a lot of its value.

You also don't say what trim package it is. An XL is worth considerably less than a Lariat or King Ranch.


Being a 10-year old truck, it doesn't take too much being wrong to make it not worth fixing.Well, you don't say what trim package it has. If it's an XL,

Potentially, it could

Best case scenario, you have one or two bad injectors with blown seals, possibly caused by a bad fuel pump. Buy parts and change all fluids - $1000 in parts, $400-$500 labor. Most techs want to replace all injectors one that side while they have it opened up, but, IMHO, it's not that bigga deal to come back later.

 

That's a lot of truck for 5 grand,
the way to keep future costs down is to know how to wrench on it. If it's got issues they're going to have to be addressed. A small $ problem now can become a major $$$ problem left alone.
If you have to take it to a shop, there's a significant labor rate to factor in the original cost, thousands can be spent easily in one visit. However, I think $5k is a low risk investment for this caliber of truck especially if you need it.

 

An almost 10 year old truck, but it is the crew cab 4x4, that year the 6.0 got better, head gaskets were fixed, EGR cooler and OIL cooler were upgraded, 200,000 miles depending on how it was maintained, a set of injectors, more than likely injector o-rings. Does it start? at all? Just enough to hear it and make sure there are no noises. That would be my worry.

 

Moved to the 6.0 forum

 

Thanks for moving this.

To the OP (Original Poster)
Welcome to FTE.

Have a look at the top of the forum for the Tech Folder. You
will find a lot of very good info there.

There are a few things that can cause the truck to "make oil"
Anything from a bad injector to a crack in the head. BTW that
crack can now be fixed a lot of the time with a new kit from
BPD.

You want to look at bubble test. Also look on Youtube for
Ford 6.0 bubble test. Anything by SrMasterTech or DieselTechRon
will be good stuff, Ron even has a video up now of the BPD kit for
cracks in the head. But before you take that jump test first. $ 5K
not so bad and with the help you can get here the repair should be less
if you are willing to get dirty and do the work yourself.
We can and will talk you through the process.



Sean

 

I'd ****** it up for $5000, especially since I know how to work on these trucks.

I'd pull the injectors, re ring all of them, and that should fix the problem unless the injector cups are bad or the head is cracked.

 

Thanks for responding so quick. My friend didn't want to drive it to me, ( 50 miles ), with the oil filling up with fuel, so that I can have a mechanic that has done a few of these look at it. Instead he is going to have a mechanic near him try to fix the injectors first and then get it to me to have it further checked out. I am not sure if it is a Lariat or King Ranch. But it has heated seats and I think leather. I am more interested in a good running truck. If I seem vague on the details it is because my friend just asked me if I was interested in it a few days ago and I haven't had a chance to dig into it. I hope to, with the help of FTE members, to do some of the work that is needed my self. Once I get it here, I will have a better idea of what questions to ask.

Thank you again for all your friendly replies!

 

I did buy it, he gave me a deal I couldn't refuse. His mechanic replaced the O rings and changed the oil and filter. My friend drove it down to me and he said it still didn't feel like the engine had enough power and it had a shake or miss to it when accelerating.


When he originally had this problem he had the injectors looked at, and after his mechanic replaced the injectors that were acting up then he had the fuel in the oil problem. Now after 60 miles I took it to a mechanic near me and we didn't notice any fuel or fuel smell in the oil but maybe it needs more miles on it. He also put it on a monitor and we took it for a drive. He noticed that # 2 cylinder was showing a problem almost all the time.


At idle it runs great. I just notice a little vibration or shake when I accelerate up hills. It doesn't blow black or white smoke when I step on it. It also starts fine. Sorry for the long message. If you have any ideas where to start I would appreciate it.

 

sounds like your #2 injector is bad. It'll idle fine on 7 cylinders, and the PCM will compensate for it when driving -- until you put it under a load, then it will start missing out. Mine would do it when I got to around 50mph.

On the positive side, if you had a bad fuel pump making the injector burn up, it'd usually show up on the passenger-side injectors first.

 

Would it hurt the engine if I ran it this way as long as I didn't put a load on it?

 

Running with a dead hole is not the best for the engine or your MPG.
The one way to show for sure that is a problem injector is to use a
scan tool that allows you to 1 turn of the PCM compensation and 2 turn
off one injector at a time. Then you do some testing to see how it does
at idle and then with a higher RPM. The injector that when turned off and
does not make a change in the feel the way the engine is running is most
likely the bad one. You can also unplug the injectors one at a time. But that
way is a real PITA and can set codes.

As soon as you can I would look at finding what injector is the problem and
look into replacing it. You don't want it to fail in a bad way and flood with
fuel or break a tip off. The sooner you can deal with the better.

As far as loading goes the truck comes in at about 8,000Lb. So just driving
can put a lot of load when you pull away from a stop.


Sean

 

Thank you for that info., I will look into it.

 

I think Sean is leading you the right way. I'm not one of the experts here, I'm one of the guys who screwed up his truck and got their help. But, from my experience, you can baby around with one bad injector for a while. I drove a couple of hundred miles pulling a trailer that way on the highway - once it accelerated up to 55, it drove fine, but getting there was a pain.

On the flip side, I didn't torque down the replacement injector enough (fuel got into the oil) and only made it a half mile before it "ran away" on me, and you don't want that craziness.

The bubble test is simple simple and only takes 5 minutes. If you do get bubbles, there's also a way, I believe, to restrict the test to one side of the engine or the other so you can narrow it down.

If the tech said his test showed a consistent failure on #2, I'd pull the wire on that injector (front one on driver's side) at a warm idle to see if the rpm changes. Like Sean said, that might throw some codes and make your Check Engine light come on, but any auto parts store will erase those for you.

Sean or one of the other pros might also know whether the PCM compensation has to be overridden to make that test work.

Worst case scenario: that cylinder isn't contributing because it has no compression (bad rings, hole in the piston, not good). A professional quality scan tool can perform a suitable compression check to rule that out, and it sounds like your seller's tech had such a tool.

Personally, I'd pay a reputable diesel shop to scan it for cylinder contribution and compression balance (am I using the right terms?). IIRC, it cost me about $80. Knew exactly which injectors were bad, and that my cylinders all had good compression. After that, these guys here can walk you through replacing injectors, no problem. If it fails compression, I'd call your old buddy and ask for your money back.

 

Well today I brought my truck to the Ford shop near us and they will look at some of the suggestions all of you have given me. I hope to know more on Thursday. I will let you know what they say. Thanks