Looking to upgrade to a heavier duty truck as my business has grown and my 1/2 ton is no longer going to cut it for me anymore. I have an OBS 7.3 already as my project truck that I have been doing a frame off restoration to that so I am very familiar with the 7.3 so I have mainly been looking at 7.3's as my replacement work truck. Reason being is I know they're a very reliable and stout motor and I am very familiar with working on them now...but I can't help but notice that a fairly stock 6.0 will fetch about the same price as a 7.3 of equal mileage. Was just wondering if I could get some opinions on whether to just stick to the 7.3 or venture into 6.0 territory.

For starters I should say that I own a landscaping business and tow a 20' enclosed trailer 4/5 days a week that's fully loaded with 2 big 60" and 72" zero turns mowers and a hand full of other sized mowers. The other 3 days out of the week consist of a dump trailer filled with more then likely mulch but occasionally dirt or stone. In those 3 days it could also, but very seldom, tow a deck over with a bigger sized kubuta. Absolute max it would ever tow would probably be 14-15k in the event the other truck goes down and we have to tow it home on the deck over. It wouldn't see a whole lot of highway towing, almost all will be around town towing.

I baby all my stuff and take very good care maintenance wise. My current work truck I have hopped up a little bit but that's because I never intended my business to take off like it has but I won't be hopping this new truck, whether it be 7.3 or 6.0. Most I'd do to it is intake, exhaust, and some custom tuning, maybe a small injector upgrade if I wind up needing injectors at some point. EGR delete if I choose a 6.0 along with a bullet proof but that wouldn't happen till next winter when my season is over. All of which would be tuned mostly geared toward fuel economy, towing, and daily driving. Not looking to make psycho tuning 150+ HP gains.

Now that you know what I'd do with the truck and where I would plan to take it performance wise what are your guys opinion? I know the 7.3 is almost bullet proof up until 400-500 hp but I'd never get at that level with this truck. I do know however the weak link in the 7.3 is the E4OD but given I'm not going for crazy power or launches I doubt I'd have any issues with the E4OD. Especially if I can get my tuner to play with the shift strategy and make it shift hard like a truck should and not soft like a car. My main concern with the 6.0 is...

1. I've never owned one nor have I worked on one so don't know how much different it would be compared the the 7.3.

2. The weak link of the 6.0....HEAD-GASKETS. Now to everything I've read on them and seen in videos it seams to me that the 6.0 really only has issues with the head gaskets when the owner really turns up the tuning. It seams that big boost and big fuel is often the cause of the head-gaskets going. Would I be right to assume this or..? I'm sure there has been plenty of cases where the gaskets just went under normal driving for no particular reason but it would seam to me based on what I've read that i'd be willing to bet that 7/10 head-gasket failures are due to psycho maniac tuning.

When it comes down to it I'm not opposed to learning about a 6.0 and I feel like I can definitely figure it out just like I bought a 7.3 blind except knowing that it was a very reliable motor and then figured it out as I went but the notorious head-gasket failure of the 6.0 is what is scaring me the most.

Any thoughts of opinions on the topic would be appreciated! Should I stick to a tried and true 7.3? Or will I be more then ok to go the 6.0 route and bullet proof it in time so long as I baby it and don't go psycho tuning with it? Thanks!

 

Between the 7.3 and 6.0, my opinion is split. I've had both and currently have a 7.3.

I prefer the 6.0 over the 7.3 IF THE ENGINE HEALTH IS SPOT ON. The 6.0 makes better power, has an excellent automatic transmission and rides better with better turning radius. While searching for my current truck, I checked out some 6.0s as well and none of them were 100%. Whether it be degas puking, oil/coolant delta issues (oil cooler), or a knock that shouldn't be there, all the trucks seemed to be for sale because the owner was trying to dodge an expensive problem. The 2 6.0s I looked at that passed all my tests were just too expensive. I wasn't looking to spend over 20k on a 170k+ mile truck.

if you go the 6.0 route, I'd recommend doing A LOT OF RESEARCH and learn exactly what to look for. They can be great trucks, but they can also bleed you dry. You NEED to get a device that will let you check the important parameters. If you do your research, you will find out which device(s) you want and how to check and look for nearly any 6.0 issue.

my 6.0 was good to me the 22k miles I owned it, but it also had head studs and a fresh oil cooler when I bought it. The main reason I parted ways with it was the 2wd part. I thought I could get away without 4wd, but that proved to bite me in the *** multiple times before I moved on.

with my 7.3, the only failing point in my tests was the torque converter. It was making noise and is a common issue. Unfortunately, the transmission failed shortly after I bought it. I wasn't upset as I had planned to put in a built tranny eventually. The truck had 121k miles and I picked it up for 13k. Now that it has a very capable trans, I'm in it 18k and plan on keeping it for a long time. I couldn't find a good 6.0 for that price point.

edit: if going the 6.0 route, stick with 2005-2007 trucks. There were a lot of updates/upgrades done to the 6.0 engine and ford upgraded the suspension and interior.

 

The 6.0 can be a great engine if you are willing to put 5-7K into it to make it reliable, even stock 6.0s have head gasket and egr failures. The 7.3 is already a reliable engine from the factory but they don't have as much power, however that can be fixed with a few easy mods. The 4r100 auto isn't the best transmission when stock but when built right it is an excellent transmission. If you want to avoid the issues and cost of the auto get a 7.3 with a 6 speed.