Hello All, Never owned or worked on a 6.0 so i need some advice

looking at an 04 6.0 with 330,000, judgiung by the looks of the truck overall it has been well cared for.

owner is no mechanic and had all work done at a local diesel expert shop. He had injector failure so had all the injectors replaced and lower half of the turbo replaced. His words.

About 5 weeks later it started getting hot(ONE TIME). He had to add 1/3 of a gallon of coolant, and drove it home 90 miles and dropped it back off at the same mechanic. Mechanic told him it could be a headgasket and gave him a qoute. guy could afford the bill so he wants to sell as is.

I didnt have time to drive it as i was just pasiing through and its a ways from me. But it started up great, idlled good. about 5 minutes in it did do a change in rpms, went up and came back down, but only once.

I let it run 15 minutes, saw no bubbles in overflow, though it does have a few drops of oil floating around, nothing that would concern me had i not known the story.

supposed to be bullet proofed and egr deleted, with rebuit front suspension also has airbags in the rear new shock brakes has 11,000 in recipes.

How likely is this a head gasket?

Any tell tale signs i can look for during limited test drive?

how costly should it be if I had the headgasket done by another shop? before driving it home?

thanks everyone. looking at a 7.3 model @ 200k but it has rust issues and crack on top of tail housing

 

Not meant to sound like a downer, but run​​​​​, don't walk, run away. Even if he is giving the truck away and you do all the work yourself, you are looking at a minimun of a several thousand dollar repair. On top of that it is a 17 year old truck with a lot on miles with at least one know issue.

FYI bulletproofed really can mean anything, and usually means nothing.

 

To confirm headgasket failure a pressure gauge should be "T'd" in to the coolant reservoir. 15 psi is too much for sure but some say up to 10 is ok.

I would look for coolant residue around the reservoir cap. That was my sign and is an extremely common sign of failed gaskets. I ran ford gold coolant for a few years before my gasket job. That coolant left a white residue around the cap.

Personally I do not trust anyone to work on my truck due to the fact I can't afford the real 6.0 mechanics. The work on these trucks aren't that hard. The attention to details is what is needed to work on these babies. Cleanliness, every nut/bolt torqued to spec, and quality parts.

Get a good code reader, torque pro or Forscan for your phone and a obd 2 bluetooth adapter and check the coolant temp and oil temp. Take it for a run, get them up to 190 to 200 degrees, and see what how far apart the coolant and oil temps are. 15 degree between the two is a no no. It can take up to 15 to 25 minutes to get these trucks up to temp.

I would not buy a 6.0 without a code reader monitoring the driving temps. Find a long steep hill while the truck is up to driving temps, then floor it without letting off. That should cause a puke or 2 if there's problem.

I'm with motohead, I really wouldn't recommend a 6.0 unless you need a hobby.

 

What do you suppose the diagnosis is? You said several thousand dollars, so I assume that you think that is a sign of something seriously wrong. I realize its age, but Im not going to buy something brand new, one this is just for vactions, and two its an excursion, so unless i switch over to GM and get a suburban, I have to get something older.

 

thanks. I will look into the T method, have always just used the system that screws on in place of the cap.

Code reader sounds like good info as well, that may be the easiest to do given the distance i Have to go to get to it.

 

No one give you a good estimate as you have to inspect the heads to see how bad any cracks are, valves, and valve seats. If you need new heads, at that point it’s worth o-ringed heads which by themselves is going to run around $2300. If they can be machined, that may cost $400-500.

 

How much is he asking for the pickup?

Blown head gaskets 99% of the time will not leave you stranded and it can be driven with leaky head gaskets for quite a while.

 

I drove around for probably a year saving money for the job. Truck never left me stranded. It did over heat due to the fan not working. But once I unhooked the camper I could still drive it home.

 

7000. Which is really good compared to all I’ve looked at.

ive been reading on the head gasket for these. Makes sense now because they are steel so they don’t burn away like traditional head gasket.

 

At that price, you could probably afford to do head gaskets & still be able to get your money back on it if you had to. As long as the rest of the vehicle is in good shape - how's the transmission? 330K is a lot of miles for any trans.

 

A diesel Ex in good shape is worth putting a few bucks into, especially if the price is right. The pressure tester you mentioned will work fine, there’s no magic to a T’d in gauge, it’s just what the folks around here like. It’s hard to guess what may be needed based on what you know now, some diag and tear down will tell the story. If I was in the market for one, it wouldn’t scare me too much.

 

Some good info about testing HG's here:

https://www.powerstroke.org/threads/...-gauge.242157/

As for the coolant loss, did you look for leaks? Also, any idea if the owner had any work done to the coolant system? Hoses, flush, etc? If so it's possible the coolant wasn't topped off.

 

Any coolant pressure tester will do as long as it can be hooked up while its running. Hook it up and drive it. pretty hard The pressure should build in the system. Mine builds to about 16 psi. Get the truck completely up to operating temperature. Open the coolant system while its hot to relieve the pressure, then close it again and drive the truck. Get on it pretty hard like you previously did.. If you have a blown head gasket, it will build pressure in the coolant system. IF your HG are good, the coolant pressure will not build over 2psi after you relieve the pressure in a truck at full operating temperature. BUT, you have to get on it pretty good to give the heads a chance to lift when its up to operating temps.

 

IDK, but I expect diesel Exs do retain value better than Fseries, because they're rare. Ditto for Eseries 4x4s. So, if it's in good shape otherwise, and the price is right, it'd be worth repairing HGs. Of course, you always take the seller's story with a grain of salt; but it does sound like what a reasonably honest seller would tell someone if their tech had said that it was almost surely HGs. He couldn't just tell you that - he wants to sell the truck - but he's too honest to not say anything. Either test it to confirm for yourself, or buy factoring in the cost for HGs.

At the same time, he could be a noob whose tech was trying to hose him with the HG story. He just figured that with that many miles, it was time for a new truck. That's how noobs think.