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How sad is it that " a good one" is defined by a diesel with over 200k miles. I mean really, gassers are doing that all the freaking time. A "good" diesel should be over double that and still going.
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There are 6.4's that ARE double that...but they're either 100% stock or fully bulletproofed. Many of these 6.4's failed right out of the gate when people started putting 'just a tune' on them and tried to run them harder than they were built for.
Don't get me wrong - I think all automakers on all engines are doing everything they can to make them cheaper and less capable without intensive modification, and I think that's wrong...but in this case it is the reality of the engine. It's just not built from the factory to run anything but stock.
When I went truck shopping I excluded everything from 2003 through 2011 due to both of the crapih engines. If you really are thinking diesel, then start with the 6.7 or find a really clean 7.3 1999-2003(early)
Frankly I wouldn't be worried about a 6.0 either...because at this point most of the bad ones have been weeded out, and most of what's left are either 100% stock and have been cared for (as my first one was) or have been bulletproofed to prevent failures (as I did to my second one). The newest 6.0 is 15 years old at this point.
There are 6.4's that ARE double that...but they're either 100% stock or fully bulletproofed. Many of these 6.4's failed right out of the gate when people started putting 'just a tune' on them and tried to run them harder than they were built for.
Don't get me wrong - I think all automakers on all engines are doing everything they can to make them cheaper and less capable without intensive modification, and I think that's wrong...but in this case it is the reality of the engine. It's just not built from the factory to run anything but stock.
While true the piston cracking issue is made worse by tunes ( as higher HP tunes generally increase cylinder pressure), but several other 6.4 issue are not tune or HP related. Issues like fuel dilution from DPF regens causing oil lubricity issues, rocker arm wear /failure issues, front cover cavitation damage issues, radiator end tank leaking issues, K16 injection pump failure that take out all the injectors in the process issues, bedplate oil leak issues.
The 6.4 can be made into a decent engine, but it requires engine out to do so (the crankshaft line bores are crap/ not straight from the factory and the pistons are crack prone). But even at stock power level, it has issues that most other engines just don't have. Most are emissions equipment related ( like the oil dilution and front cover cavitation damage issues for example), so its not really the engines fault, but its still something you have to live with if you're gonna own one of them.
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