Hey everyone. Ill try not to make this too long, but i need to give some back story. I have a 2008 f350 6.4l. Ive had it for just over a year, and before my year was up, the engine is...well gone.

It all started that it would start fine, run fine even while cold at first but if it ran for about 5 mins there would be alot of white smoke coming out the tail pipe. Figured maybe head gasket or at least coolant related. Took it to my local diesel shop, they looked it over and found that i have blow by which required a new block. Well i didnt like that news since i just got it, infact this was only a few months after i got it. When i got it, it ran just fine. Im pretty good with vehicles so i know a bad running vehicle when im in one. It does have a tuner in it, (spartan) and when i looked at what tune it had in it, it was very mild so i didnt think the guy had been abusing it. The reason the guy got the tuner is cause he got the dpf delete so he got the tuner so it wont do a burn. The truck is very nice inside and out. You can tell the guy put alot of money into it and took good care of it.

So i got a quote from my shop to do a re and re of the engine with a new block and upgraded turbos cause i told him im going to be hauling a 5th wheel, it would be around 15 thousand. At first i was kinda shocked on how much it would be but then i figured it is a diesel and i know they cost more money. That block comes with a 5 year or 160,000 km warranty. Since ive gotten it, ive gotten the bed liner sprayed, 5th wheel hitch put in and put air bags in the rear. Also i got a 4 inch lift on my 5th wheel cause the truck has a 6 inch lift on it so i needed the 5th wheel to be taller to haul it. So ive put alot of money into the truck already but my question is, should i put the 15 grand into it for a new engine or sell it and get something else? Im at my wits end with this cause i hate to have to let it go cause it is such a nice truck and we've already invested so much into it. so now if i get something else, i have to make sure its tall enough to line up with the 5th wheel or take the lift out of the 5th wheel which is more money. What are your opinions? Spend the money and basacally have a new engine or sell it and start with something else? Thanks for all your help and sorry for the long read.

 

Pretty vague bad block...Get an opinion from a dealer...Blocks don't usually fail on the 6.4.
The heads do as well as the gaskets. Where are you? The best guy is down in georgia.
power stroke help...look him up on utube..For that price he can bullet proof your truck or tell you what he thinks...6.4 and 6.7's are money pits. Give Bill a call. IMO

Canada never mind about georgia lol...He can give you good parts....Still get a dealer engine with warranty..Don't trust many folks with these diesels.

 

lol ya ive seen his videos and i wish he was closer.
Ive had it to two diesel places and they both gave me the same answer, that because i have blow back one of the cylinders is scraped up on the cylinder wall which is creating blow back hence i would need a new block. I took it to one of them and i didnt belive it cause once warmed up, the truck runs great. No smoke, all kinds of power and you would never know anything is wrong. Its just 5-10mins after a cold start. But then i drive it down the highway for 15 mins and the white smoke goes away, and it only produces white smoke at idle not while driving. They said cause when the engine warms up, the cylinder walls slightly swell and makes a good seal with the piston rings and that's why i don't see any white smoke when its warm. But that never made sense to me why it runs so good for the first 5-10 mins when its cold when you'd think that the piston rings would be making the worst seal cause they're cold. Maybe i will take it to the dealer and see what they say.

 

Talking $15k, there is no way I would put a 6.4 back in there. I always knew if I lost one of my powerstrokes, I would sell the truck, or swap in a 5.9 cummins. I would not put 15 grand into that truck, sorry you are in such a position. I have yet to personally meet anyone that has/had a 6.4 that want's another one. These stories are why I stick to gas motors nowadays.
You may want to post these questions in the 6.4 section too.

 

I would cut.your losses personally. Try to trade it in on a new diesel or gas. Sell the aftermarket parts and sell the lift on your camper.
We're you very familiar with the 6.4 before you purchased it?

 

I'm moving this to the 6.4L forum, you'll get some better replies down there.

How many miles are on the engine?

 

Oh don't forget the egr cooler they are known to go bad...white smoke for sure. I'd have that checked first.

 

Not to knock Bill at powerstrokehelp but he's about a 50-50 in my book. He has little info on the 6.4 as i believe he's still in the learning process of what works and what does not building these engines. The bullet proof deal sounds appealing if you live in Georgia, but who gonna travel that far if your in west of up north.

All 6.4's have excessive blow-by in comparison to previous international diesel engines or typical diesel engines for that matter. I have yet to see one that at idle warmed up would not scare an in experience tech when you removed the oil fill cap with the engine running. There is a procedure to properly check the blow-by and unless they work on 6.4's a lot i doubt they had the right tool or procedure. White smoke at idle can also be a injector going bad. I can't tell you how many times i have seen these engine misdiagnosed simply because the shop was unfamiliar with the proper testing and diagnostic procedures.

Now with that being said the blow-by can come from other areas beside the rings. The cam profile on these engines is horrible, i have seen a engine basically fail the blow-by test and the root cause was not the rings. The valve guides where severely worn causing the issue. Once the blow-by is determined to be out of spec now you need to find out where its coming from thru a compression test and a cylinder leak down test.

Now if the end result is the engine has failed i would not purchase a factory engine. The Factory cylinder block is very soft and there simply not going the distance. If you plan on keeping the truck for awhile there are several people out there that offer a great warranty, but fix the problems with the 6.4. Im not talking about high output engines that guys are building, I'm talking about the people that have figured out how to make the 6.4 go 250,000 or 300,000 miles. They use all new ford parts but add components to improve the longevity of the engine. Like ductile iron sleeves in the block(improves blow-by issues and premature cylinder wall failure), de-lipped coated pistons(eliminates the cracked piston issue), a stage one cam to fix the horrible valve train harmonics. (which eliminates the worn rocker issues)O-ring the heads with ARP head bolts for a better seal(Eliminates head gasket issues). High quality steel valve guides instead of using the head casting design. High Quality EGR coolers vs the poor quality factory erg coolers, just to name a few less then the 15,000 you have quoted.

As far as swapping a 5.9 or 6.7 cummins in for the 6.4 its a great swap to consider if your a mechanic,very mechanically inclined and could afford to make a project out of the truck while completing the swap. On the other hand this would be a daunting task for the average truck owner. Unless you plan to keep the truck and are capable of doing the swap 95% yourself the cost would probably end up higher then the 15,000 replacement engine pay a shop, shop wages.

 

Thanks for your replies guys. the engine has about 173,000 miles on it. Im almost thinking on getting a different truck and cutting my losses. I might get a dealership to check it out, just incase they over looked something. I had a 2002 7.3 before this truck and liked it, but rolled it due to a deer jumping in front of me and lossing control, but i did like that truck. Almost thinking on going back to one like that. looking to tow a 5th wheel and a trailer behind the 5th wheel so i dont know if that would be enough power for what i need.

 

Im gonna piggy back off of this because its a very well written post...

The point about doing a cummins swap... Okkkkk, expect to be in excess of 20 grand for everything to work properly. And there will be never ending little annoying problems, not to mention that many shops won't touch them because they always end up more work than they are worth. Just my 2 cents on that. Ohh yah and they ALWAYS go over budget or go unfinished...

Now for the motor... $15000 from a reputable 3rd party diesel shop should get you a pretty solid build. I am not talking a 700hp build... Provided the block itself is savable. Many shops will just drop a new motor in because they don't want the truck to sit on a lift for long.... But, any shop that knows what they are doing with a 6.4 (again providing the block is actually savable) will at least pull the heads and check to see if the block can be bored .20 or .30 over.
If they can save the block this is where you really have to make a decision. You can just throw a stock reman back in and then sell the truck... Or you can make the decision to keep the truck. If you choose the latter, you have them go back in with International HD pistons (not ford slugs) that do not have the lip. This solves the piston issues... You then have them put in a stg 2 cam to get rid of the lifter hop on the cam lobes that carries over from the 6.0 (they share the same valve train....). After this you have your heads checked (if hgs aren't blown there is a decent chance they can be machined and o-ringed) and machined. Have everything put back together and studded. I say leave the stock turbos if you really don't want more power... Go with BD HD up pipes and 6.0 exhaust manis. All this with new main and rod bearings, rocker arms, push rods, valve springs, will give you a motor that would put a 12v cummins or 7.3 reliability to shame.
I would spend a little extra and put a BPD oil cooler it in as well so you never need to be concerned with spending $2400 for an oil cooler job again...



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And above all, read read read read... There is a lot of misinformation out there (A LOT OF THAT IS BECAUSE OF BILL DERPIT AT PSHELP.DERP...) Here, powerstroke.org, powerstrokearmy all have good resources. Ps.org and PSA both have a lot more 6.4 activity and powerstroke tech involvement with regards to the 6.4 platform itself though.

 

They say the block isnt salvagable. Im just worried that if i get into it i might be getting myself into a rats nest of problems once they open the engine up and its gonna cost me more then i want to put into it.

 

Why can't they save it? Just blow by? How often does your shop work on 6.4s? What is the damage? Did they run a mechanical compression test or are they just going off of a relative compression test (the latter being wildly inaccurate 90% of the time on a 6.4).

Why is the motor trashed... Many shops will just throw motors at 6.4s because they don't want to deal with them. They need to give you something other than "The blow by is bad" before they condemn the motor. All 6.4s have blow by, if the oil fill cap doesn't stay put in the hole when the motor is idling then you have a problem. Then you jump the starter and find out if there is a skip or fast spot. If there is then chances are you have a cracked piston. Unless you had an injector hang open the block can be saved in many cases.

I am not saying they are wrong, but from your posts it doesn't sound like they have told you much (besides that you need to spend $15000 because we say so). And unfortunately if you have compression issues that aren't related to a cracked piston then that means rings... And yes, in that case the motor is probably trashed. But we need more to go off of, just saying blow by is excessive is enough to make anyone who knows 6.4s to throw up a red flag. They ALL have excessive blow by...

 

Ya my number 2 piston has low compression. And ya the oil filler cap jumps quite a bit when loosened. im not sure which compression test they did. They said its not the worse they've seen, but its borderline. It will miss once and a while, but once warmed up it runs perfect.

 

Is the cab up yet? If it is ask them to pull the valve cover, injector, and have them run a scope down to check. If its just low compression then I might be inclined to agree with them... Its very possible that its ring wear or a leaky injector caused fuel to wreak havoc on the cylinder walls.

My problem now is if the motor is trash you are looking several thousand more to properly "bulletproof" a 6.4. Unfortunately its not just a mater of getting rid of the egr/dpf and studding on these trucks... A true bulletproof job means pistons, cam, oringed heads, studs, and more. To take a new motor from ford that is already costing you $12000-$15000 and throw another $800-$1000 for pistons, $500-$700 for a cam, machine work for the heads, and new gaskets to put things back together.... Ohhhh yah then the labor... You are upwards of $19000-$21000. Granted you would have one hell of a solid motor that, like I said, would bring a tear to a cummins owners eye. But that's still a huge chunk of change for anyone to swallow less than a year after buying a "clean" truck.

Personally if I were in your shoes and planed to keep the truck I would drop the coin... That's my plan actually... But if you just want out, find a running used motor and then sell the truck. Your mechanic should have a lot more options available to you than just to throw a reman in. Hell... Any powerstroke shop will generally jump at the chance to build a 6.4 and have their name on it. And anyone who knows anything about a 6.4/works on them frequently should be able to advise you.

 

If the engine isn't in the shop all torn apart there is no way you know exactly what is wrong and how much to fix it. Just sayin. you have to start somewhere..Problem is who do you trust..