Struggles

My 2017 F550 is losing oil, alot. It has been for months. About a gallon every couple thousand miles. It's right about the 300K mark

Little background, from 2017 til 2021 I put on about 225K towing 80% of the time. I have a small fleet of trailers ranging from fully loaded 16k bumper pulls to 40K gooseneck trailers. She doesn't run lite very often. The 300K number is almost irrelevant. My travels have be at days at a time transmission and oil temperatures at 240F traveling across the USA. Similar to a hotshot but I'm all company owned equipment.

Anyways, early this year, Ford quote me 13,000K to lift the cab, pull the motor, reseal the engine, new exhaust studs plus a couple of other minor things. I past on it.

This past hurricane season was tough on the old girl. I would start in the morning and not shut it off till the evening most days. The engine has about 10,000 hours, going on 4000 idle hours. She runs great. Just before Thanksgiving, it was a cold morning in West Memphis, I started it up and there was one heck of a racket coming from the bell housing. Sound like a torque converter had drain down overnight. Never once have I ever had a transmission concern. I was loaded at 45,000 lb. Made it home that day, Turkey was okay, that I brought her to work. Each morning that I've started it around Thanksgiving it's been rattling really bad in the cold mornings Clears up after a few minutes. I'm just returning back from Florida with another run on a different 550.

She's been a great truck, My biggest problem has been the fuel tank collapsing three times. I've replaced the brakes once, tires four times, regular maintenance every 7500 and 15,000. Never once had a problem with the emissions, did have a intercooler break and she's been hit twice with minor cosmetic damage. Heaviest load was 56K.

She has been a great truck absolutely great.

Now face with the dilemma of sticking 20,000+ into chassis or 80+ into a new truck.

I really don't want a new 550, and this is coming from a guy who buys a new personal vehicle every year sometimes months apart.

What would you do?

She been towing since she had 200 miles on her

1st load.

 

Sounds like time to replace it.

A low mile driver would take that as an occasional delivery vehicle set up…

 

Yea, it's clear that you love this truck. I'd go ahead with the repair. She's worth it 👌 ❤️ ✨️

 

At 300k with 10k hours and that level of work, you need more than a reseal, that motor is getting tired even if it doesn't feel like it. I think you are likely to spend over 80k to replace the truck but you should consider that you have worn out more than just leaking engine seals by this point. To me, replacement makes the most sense by far if you make you living using it. An engine reseal will just lead you to the trans rebuild and then a rear end rebuild etc etc. Certainly you can keep it one the road but I wouldn't. It is a tool and you wore it out, time to replace that tool

 

It's tough - I get attached too but you have to consider downtime. Sounds like she did her job and did not give you a lot of downtime, but that sounds like it may be coming to an end. I tried re-reading your original post but I am still missing something - can you be more specific on the motor reseal? Is it the common upper pan/front cover, or is it other leaks? If it is losing that much oil, there is oil everywhere I am sure which would make diagnosing difficult - but has the effort been made by the dealer to pinpoint exactly where it is coming from (dye used)?
And have you determined the cause of the cold start rattle?

Given that you need the wheels turning on that truck and wheels turning equals money being made, and that you have not layed a bunch of money out in repairs to this point = sounds like you are ahead of the game and I would lean towards replacement......while you are still ahead. There are 550 XL/XLT's out there - at least in my area.

 

Absolutely guarantee you that a good independent shop would be LOTS cheaper than 13K to do the repairs you need.

 

Me personally I would replace the money maker a little more often than my personal ride. I'm sure it's still a write off. Nothing worse than being on the road wondering or waiting for it to break down.

Or atleast that's what I do 200-250k miles in 4 or 5 years. Easy, cheap preventive maintenance items in those miles. Let the next person decide if they want a truck with those higher miles. If they're using it just local or normal driving miles probably not a big deal but for us that rack up miles fast and far from home sometimes newer is better. JMHO

 

As a work vehicle, don't love it too much. Make a purely economic and risk based decision.

 

I think you're lucky to have made it this long without some expensive gremlins rearing their ugly heads. You're very hard on a truck and down time equals money lost. In other words, you're not just looking at inconvenience when (not if) it goes ***** up, you're looking at lost revenue and being stuck on the side of some remote highway at midnight. I'm really surprised you haven't needed a tranny rebuild or new injectors and such. She's been good to you, put her out to pasture.

 

I use my trucks until I just can't stand them anymore, and then sometimes regret bailing on them!
My previous truck, 2015 RAM, had well over 600K on it when I got out of it.
I pray that my current F250 will go at least 500K, it is a tow monster compared to my RAM, and the RAM was very good at towing too.

Were the OP's truck mine, I would have done something about the issues on this truck a very long time back, you can't have a truck you rely on for your livelihood to be eating itself alive because it is puking oil out so fast you have a hard time keeping up with it.
And, the dealer is the worst, most expensive place to go for out of warranty repairs.

 

Where is the engine leaking all this oil?

 

Sounds like you should erect a monument to that beast!

 

A remanufactured 6.7 is $10k 5 yr/100k warranty. A remanufactured trans is just over half that. So for 20k you could have a new drivetrain.

 

At the pace I was at until March of 21, I would be approaching 400,000. There was a corporate buyout and things changed somewhat. Not necessarily for good or for the bad. At least I did get away from the idiots who like putting gasoline in the diesel vehicles. And I don't travel nearly as much.

Am I attached, hell yeah, best truck I've ever driven. I've often done a thousand miles in a day with the old girl. Load her up with 240 gallons of fuel and roll. The downtime isn't a issue so much, this traditionally becomes our slow time till spring. I have other 550's.

​​​​
I due have a fleet of Ford vehicles, 68 of them and 37 are Super Duty 6.7s. 32 trailers altogether. Just replaced a 6.7 due to bad EGR cooler. Just replaced a F150 10 speed last week.

I've never once been left on the side of the road, the rattling of the bell housing did give me pause. I'll be back at my office tomorrow, I may drop it off at Ford.
​ Needless to say I do have a fairly good relationship with them. I already get a discount of their rates and parts, and points.

Not sold on the long term durability of the 10 speed. I have searched for a black super crew with the 204 inch WB, haven't found one in the country. Then I'd have to have it up fit with a flatbed/tool boxes.




The 10 speed is my biggest hold up.

Not afraid of high mileage, I have an E350 van that I own that's got 388,000 miles on it with a 5.4. I haven't been home for 2 months, she's a little dusty.

 

I lean more this way as well. Given availability and the potential price/cost markups, it’s still likely so much cheaper to maintain/repair/replace parts on one you’ve had that long. No guarantees in anything, obviously, but the cost to do as above (especially at an independent shop vs dealer) is most likely a significant amount less than buying another one with taxes, fees, etc.

Maybe as another poster commented, stay ahead of some preventive maintenance a little sooner and keep chugging away.

Clearly not a direct comparison, but I was in aviation in the Navy for many years. The maintenance and upgrade plans on aircraft get decades upon decades of service out of them under similar load experience as what you’re doing with your truck. Apples/oranges a bit given budgets, crews, etc., but I learned as a young aviator from many folks maintaining the planes about the value of repairing/maintaining a vehicle, even my trucks and my wife’s Expedition and old Odyssey. Heck, back then I had an early 90s Nissan Pathfinder that I finally let go with over 600k miles on it. Had a crew chief talk me into using aircraft oil in it. Interior didn’t look so hot, but that SUV never gave me any power train issues thanks to planning ahead and doing some repairs sometimes before they became an issue.

Pardon that tangent, but I’d at least get a quote from an independent shop on the various overhauls, repairs or as @Grass Lake Ron suggests a new power train. That should help inform a little more complete scenario to use in among your decision.