Opinions Please
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Opinions Please
I have been reading up on the forum for several months now. My wife and I are looking to purchase a Ex for her daily driver and to take over tow duties for our 29' travel trailer. I currently tow with a 2012 F150 with the ecoboost but the back seat is not big enough for my 3 daughters. With that said we live in SE Wisconsin and are currently headed to CA while there I was hoping to pick up a Ex without the Wisconsin winter salt in its history. I am looking at the 05's there are 2 I am really interested in both have about 180K on them one is a Eddie Bauer and one a Limited I believe. The limited is all stock except for air bags for towing and it the tan/gold color and they are asking 14,500 it is a private seller. The other is on a car lot and they are asking 17,900 but it's the dark blue and tan two tone. Any opinions would be helpful. I do have a reputable shop in the area of the tan one that I would have inspect it for me.
Thanks
Thanks
Last edited by Stewart_H; Aug 3, 2016 at 03:34 PM.
FTE Remembers
Joined: Apr 2011
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From: Northern California
Don't buy a 6.0,
Consider yourself officially warned.
Laughing Gas
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From: Outside Boise, Idaho
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Posting Guru
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From: Liberty, NC
I wished that I would've been warned because I'm still waiting for the "I told yous" about the 6 ohhh. Don't be afraid of the 6.0, be afraid of the previous owner.
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I am looking at the 6.0 I have been following all the issues and suggested solutions for it and with the exception of the head removal itself I am confident I can do all the other work myself and was quoted 25 hours labor plus parts to do the head studs and gaskets
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From: South Texas/RGV
Remember it will be a 10+ year old vehicle. Things are going to fail. If she isn't better than you at diagnosing issues you should drive it regularly in order to try and find things going bad before they actually fail so that you can replace them in time. Also think about replacing related items when working on something. For example when the turbo went out I replaced all of the boots and clamps. Replacing an injector? Go ahead and replace the valve cover gasket/wiring pass through if they are still original. By doing this I've got the X through almost 1/4 of a million miles with only one time where it actually had to be towed. The fuel pump fuse fell out. So even that was less of a truck failure and more of an idiot operator error.
Remember, no matter how much she may want this vehicle if anything ever goes wrong it will be your fault for "forcing" her to take it.
Remember, no matter how much she may want this vehicle if anything ever goes wrong it will be your fault for "forcing" her to take it.
FTE Remembers
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From: Northern California
the issues are further exasperated by subsequent owners maintenance or lack of.
FTE Remembers
Joined: Apr 2011
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From: Northern California
Posting Guru
Joined: Nov 2009
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From: Liberty, NC
, it's a guarantee that it's going to fail. Towing heavy with the 6ohh only intensifies the failure process and it has to be driven like you stole something.
FTE Remembers
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From: Northern California
"Bullet Proofing" has certainly helped some of the duribility issues but not eliminated the design flaw. Even after being bullet proofed and adding ARP head studs many of them including mine still Blow head gaskets.
The design flaw is they did not use enough bolts or studs.
This is not just my opinion but a consensus amoung many of the top diesel guys in the industry from gale banks and others I have spoken with.
Here is a simple visual.
6.0 uses 10 bolts.
The design flaw is they did not use enough bolts or studs.
This is not just my opinion but a consensus amoung many of the top diesel guys in the industry from gale banks and others I have spoken with.
Here is a simple visual.
6.0 uses 10 bolts.