First and foremost, forgive me if this is a dead horse.

I see alot of threads from prospective buyers running thru the hood asking about the very thread title.

I'm interested in either confirming or identifying whether or not a perspective Diesel owner should entertain buying a truck with a 6.4.

Not interested in common maintenance items, just hard failures. (And why it happened if known).

Anything mechanical will fail at one point, my questions are:

#1 How many miles have you logged on your truck,

#2 how do you use the truck?

#3 If you had to buy another, would you and why?

3 questions.

Alot of people want to know from those of us in the drivers seat. The older diesels are timing out and there is alot of interest in what we're driving.

Appreciate your patience and input.

Denny

 

 

#1, 65,000 miles, 136,000 on the clock currently
#2, Mostly regular driving, some light towing once in a while
#3, My thoughts are that once deleted it's a pretty dependable truck, does it have faults, you bet. BUT there are many trucks out on the road that aren't deleted that are getting a fair amount of miles on them before they fail. You must remember that most of the post's on this forum are because people are having issues. Are they a 7.3, no, but they are what we have, take care of it and I bet if you stay on top of it you'll be able to get some years out of it. I've had mine for 6 years and I think if someone stole it or it got smashed>>god forbid, if I found another one that I liked, I'd buy it. I know a lot of the 6.4 secrets now so it's not so daunting a vehicle as it was. That along with the fact that the new trucks are butt ugly and small (interior) would also persuade me to try my luck at another if I could find one that I felt comfortable purchasing.

Just my .02C

 

#1 Had several, not sure on the total logged, at least 40,000

#2 Daily driver, pulling flat deck equipment trailer.

#3 I would, the body style is my personal favorite, and they can be bought reasonably cheap due to their reputation. I know all the issues and I am not afraid to work on them myself.

There is a lot of negative response whenever someone comes on and asks 'should I buy one' and rightly so. Just as many times posters come and say 'I just bought one and now engine light is on'

There is a reason that Ford only used the Maxxforce 7 powerplant for 3 years.

 

#1 How many miles have you logged on your truck, - 14k since September

#2 how do you use the truck? - Daily driver, and weekend hauler

#3 If you had to buy another, would you and why? - So far with my experience, yes

This truck replaced my 13 Ford Fusion that I lost in Harvey, I picked it up with 111k on the clock, and what I thought was an excellent service record history.

I deleted one month into ownership, other than that I installed the No Limit CAI & CCV reroute. I have had to replace the radiator hoses, and replace the rear pinion seal. Voluntarily switched to the Derale transmission pan, and the better internal transmission filter.

I don't dog the crap out of it so I'm not terribly concerned

 

#1- less than a 1,000 (just bought it)
#2- i bought it for pleasure driving and towing. I have a 5th wheel camper and a mini excavator that I work on the side
#3- my experience so far has been good. Mine's an 08 and has 45k miles on it. I knew the person I bought it from and he knew the original owner when he bought it. Fully deleted, tuner, CAI, straight pipe exhaust, this truck runs wonderful. Time will tell if I like it, but I came from an 05 6.0 that was giving me constant headaches. I feel this truck will treat me well.

 

I promised to behave this week....so stay tuned next week for my reply

 

I knew you would be along!

I started this thread for a few reasons. I am asked on the street quite often, being from the upper North where every other driver seems to have a duty from the old 94's to the luxury of today.

We see many posts asking about durability, longevity and what they are capable of.

Kind of wanted a landmark that would inform new users or our guys that are tried and true what the expectations are of all of the above, or should they shop elsewhere.

Our collective knowledge, (being keyholders), is priceless to those who are going to mortgage a house to pay for a maybe.

I call upon everyone that has input, good or bad to reply to the post to educate not just our members, current/past/living/dead/etc.... What the expectations are if you go big into a vehicle that has a sorted reputation.

Guys/members (you are a guy right)? That have had a consequence with your build that cost you many hours of wrenching and research as well as a worn out wallet pocket are exactly the players in this thread.

I have 124k miles on the truck at this point, 12k are from us, (the new owners) , I have a radiator, new updated hoses, full gear fluids changed and a log book with those three entrys.

Love it so far coming from my 7.3 for buttload years. But I know, from what I read to expect doom and gloom with the 6.4. However, I say nay. It's the most capable and comfortable thing I've ever driven. But as I learned from this forum, maintenance is a key component.

Please be fair and honest on your inclusion. This is a thread that many potential older diesel users will review in hopes to match they're current 7.3 or older, many!

Not asking anyone to put frosting on the cake, but just don't lick the knife before your done.

 

 

Josh. How do you get away with running a fully deleted truck? Where do you live? No emission tests?

 

I live in West Virginia. No emissions testing here....thankfully.

 

Here in Jersey any truck over 10,000lbs and diesel that is not commercial is exempt or self inspection. But they can get ya at a roadside DMV inspection.

 

so its friday afternoon, almost the end of the week....


#1 truck has 94K miles. bought it 2 years ago with 84K miles. the truck was parked for 10 months after 4K miles because ford was too busy selling profitable oil changes, to work on my truck. it sat at for for 20 days and they did not even pull codes. 250 to tow home, 90 to tow to ford from home, 90 to tow back to home after ford said they dont know when or if they could ever get to it. Over the 10 months of it being parked, I learned everything needed to do the work myself and did the work in my driveway...during the winter. all rocker arms, all push rods, all saddles. found metal dust in fuel so I installed and airdog. coolant leaks at the pump which went away after installing a coolant filter (provably particles interfering with seals), found metal dust on my magnetic oil drain plugs so I installed amsoil external oil filter with by pass. I installed an internal metal screen filter to boost oil pressure at idle. installed an oil pre-luber so oil gets pumped into the motor at half key and at full key the motor is fully oil pressurized before the first crank spin. replaced my shocks 3 times barbecued it bounced ;like a basketball oemt to rancho, rancho to blisteins, fianlly fox 2.;5's with resivior did the trick. bought a nitrogen tank, gauge, valve regulator kit to service the fox shocks. added a ram air hood so the pipes to the turbo would stop glowing during regen (seems to have worked). change the coolant to waterless to prevent pump cavitation, egr rust out, seal problems, etc. Added a methonal injection system to clean all the carbon out of everything, keep DPF clean, boost power, lower exhuast temps, clean up emmissions (the best mod I did so far). I added a dianmond back truck bed cover (you can ride an ATV on to it) so I can lock my truck bed which has all the stuff I need when I get stranded on the side of the road. This motor is getting either a rebuild kit or a crate engine in the next year or two.

#2 pull a large boat. large dual cruiser motorcycle trailer. A 8.5X20 enclosed trailer full of construction tools and supplies. mainly bought to pull a 5th wheel RV when I retire in the next year or two.

have to keep my DPF since they do emissions test every year. but I did see an aftermarket DPF that is larger in capacity and improves exhaust flow....so that might get put on the list.

just ordered some traction bars just for the heck of it.

Im trying to recover from the initial shock of owning this truck. getting there but not there yet. keep having night mares of grenading lifters.

#3 heck no. should of bought something brand new with an extended warranty and trade it in before the warranty expires..

 

Thanx for your honesty and input Fritz!!

I thought for sure the zip ties and stun gun would have to come out.

After your top end redo, you are still thinking your going to have to re-engine this soon??

Denny