Ford parts guy said current are Denso. TooManyToys would know better than most about who made/makes them.

I handled the less expensive made in China Motorcraft starter. Motorcraft box/labeling/etc. Made in China labeled. Easy to mistake one for another naturally. VW started seliing two price pointed factory parts a handful of years ago. Here is a screen shot from Rock Auto showing two Motorcraft branded starters for a 6.0, it is interesting

 

So then there really is no obvious difference between the Chinese and the Denso versions? If that's the case it's another black mark on the salvage parts, at least in my mind.

 

There is definitely a quality difference between the two according to the Ford parts guy I spoke with.

Ford simply offers the cheaper China made one if people don't want to shell out $400+ for the non China Denso unit.

 

I get the difference in quality. I am asking about the ability to identify one from the other.

 

Editing - lost the first part ....

Chris, you have to go with what you are comfortable with.

Let me condense some data. I'll need to repost some of what I lost in the header later.

Edit 2 ..

Back in 2000, Ford started up a program in the Motorcraft part of the business to make the parts over the counter to be more competitive to the commercial marketplace, and it also morphed towards the retail customer. The success of that seems to hampered by the fact that every dealer's parts manager has free rein to price the parts, they can sell list, under list, or over list.

But from the supply chain, while you used to have "Blue Box" parts that were exact to what was installed on the assembly line, or you had remanufactured example of the OE part, now there is a spread to accommodate different price structures. To me, that waters down what I would go to Ford to buy. My reasoning would be I can get OE, or its rebuilt done well. Now we have your dilemma. OE, OE rebuilt, OE Design, and Service Design. Really, WTF is Service Design?

I've condensed the Motorcraft offerings from RockAuto that HP noted, and showing the images that they provide.






Edit 3 Lost pictures














Here is the salvaged 6.7 starter that Caleb got for his truck. It shows the change in labeling where Ford is now using the QR label to track parts.




Here is the label from the salvage 6.4 starter I got for my truck. It the typical OE assembly line label, which is what clued me in.




A salvage 6.4 starter I showed from eBay.



Chris, again you have to go with what you are comfortable with, and that maybe $300+. I've got no issue with that.

I was comfortable doing a less than $75 purchase, primarily for a test and then possibly selling the starter back on eBay. I still have not decided on doing that. Others like Caleb, Randy, etc have been fine, but that's their mindset, not necessarily yours. Sean went a step above us and on his one did a mini-rebuild. I've been to a local shop (now closed) that used to do fantastic rebuilds. I also had been in a local shop where a past employee worked that rebuilt starters and alternators, not replacing parts if they were not failed, not using new bush or voltage regulators. A crap rebuild, more like what the "retail" auto parts stores are selling in my opinion.

It's a tough world out there.......

 

The person who would have a better understanding of who supplied the OE starter for me would be Y2K.

My focus across all the manufacturers that we supplied, Ford, Chrysler, Jeep, Honda, Toyota, VW, BMW, Volvo, International, Volvo Truck, Freightliner, Mack, Peterbilt, plus was BRAKES. Outside of brakes was not of great interest, I had my hands full. Day by day more hours were spent on Ford products, and even there it was on all platforms, Superdutys were only one aspect, I just happened to own one. If I had owned a F-150, you guys would have never seen me.

 

Thanks for the pictorial jack, that was very helpful. And I'm glad that you have no issue with how much money I spend on parts.

I've been down the "crap rebuild" road paved by the local retail stores and I'm not having any more of that if I can help it. Same goes for the half-price Chinese crap.

Fyi, my last two trucks prior to the super duty were F150's so ... I'm sure I would have appreciated your insights there too, sir!

 

I called Mean Green yesterday morning and talked to a salesman who didn't seem to know much of the technical side of their offering. He couldn't tell me the difference between their 6.0 and 6.4 starters. He also wasn't sure if the solenoid on the 6.0 was integral like all the descriptions I've read and all the pics I've seen on distributor's websites. Then he said he was going to email a bunch of literature that I haven't received yet. Salesmen...

They claim their starters are designed to last 300k miles so I asked about their testing. He said their starters test upwards of 450k starts whereas the OEM starters test upwards of 300k starts. This on a test mule in their shop of course.

I may call back and ask to speak to someone in tech support. Or maybe I'll just call Ed.

 

If your interested, there's this bridge about 30 miles from my house. .....


Hey, I've got a few stories about how I handle salespeople that knock on my door, especially when they have been to the school of keeping the potential customer talking.

Something is really screwed up with posting here at FTE. Not only when first logging on and waiting to get through the gate, but I've had several messages dropping out some of narrative or posts. I just added in some lost pics above for the "aftermarket" design that I believe is out of China.

In my prior life, with the truck running everyday , I average one start every 30 miles and the starter lasted until around 150k, so about 5,000 starting events. That failure was a few thousand after getting the remanufactured motor installed, so god only knows the work it went thought at the dealership, bleeding out the HPOP system of air, plus another time went I replaced an injector. Those type of events I would see having the biggest impact on starter life. I could see the dealership being worse then DIY as I know they hook up a supplemental battery or charger so they can crank a good amount, where I would question if every tech waits for the starter to cool.

After that rant, there is an SAE testing procedure for starters. I don't have it, and even as a member, it costs to get a copy of it. But I would question them if they test to the procedure.

 

All I know is my Mean Green 6.4 starter takes about a millisecond to start my 6.0 where before it took a few seconds. Sure seems like that’s a lot less wear on the batteries and starter. It was a no-brainer for me because I wanted the best of everything when I went through my engine last and replaced and upgraded a bunch of parts.

 

I'm not afraid of spending $400 on a starter. I'm afraid of spending that money on a dud. And my experience with aftermarket car parts is that there's a lot of hype that doesn't usually live up to expectations. Hell, you don't even know if you're getting quality, reliable parts with the auto maker's name on it anymore.

What is it that makes you think you bought the best when you purchased your Mean Green? Until it's been tested on actual vehicles in the field for at least as long as my factory starter has been going, and has a proven track record, that statement is just more hype. Yes, the Mean Green has desirable features, and I'm glad to hear it works as advertised, but will it keep going as advertised many years after the two-year warranty expires? Only you, the buyer (aka unpaid product tester), will know the answer when it finally goes south.

Admittedly, I'm playing devil's advocate, as I am leaning towards the Mean Green. I need more details though, and I'm clearly not going to get them from the corporate sales guy. At least before I wasted a bunch of money on IPR crap, I got to talk to the owner who had intimate knowledge of the product, and got answers that seemed intelligent and thorough at the time.

 

Yay, storytime! You offered, Jack, don't be a Bogart.

I've been noticing it since this morning. I was afraid I had lost my last post when I hit the "Submit Reply" button and the page went blank.


Maybe if I can find someone over there who knows something about their product.

 

One thing about Ford starters is you can replace the motor bearings.
So if you look and see that the brush set is good then $75 + about 10 for bearings with funds left over for McDs.
If I was in need now for a starter I would have the local yard bring it in and run it on the bench. If it passes that then
I would have then take the end bell off to see how much life is left in the brush set. If they show a lot of life left I
would take it home with me. Like I said bearings are easy.

 

What does a good set of starter brushes look like, Sean?

 

I talked to Ed@ficmrepair today. He said he hasn't had a single Mean Green starter failure in the eight years he's been selling them. Seems to me, if it's that far out of warranty he probably won't hear about the failure unless the original buyer calls to purchase another starter.

He also said the Mean Green takes one second to start the truck, whereas the ford 6.4 takes up to 3 seconds, and the 6.0 up to 5 seconds. So yeah, it draws twice as much current as the 6.0 but takes 20% less time, and therefore puts less drain on the batteries.