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I bought what I thought was a great deal. Immaculate work truck with a great service history, it ran and drove great. All work done at the dealer, oil changes like clock work every 3k, and new transmission 30k ago with a flush right before I bought it. This thing had its rear diff flushed like 15 times! ETC, ETC....
I have put less than 100 miles on the truck and the only thing I had noticed is it has a small exhaust leak between manifold and down pipe. Started it up this morning and it sounded like absolute garbage and the check engine light came on. After fixing OBD 2 port, found random misfire, misfire on 7, and bank 1 catalytic efficiency below threshold. Started playing around with the menus and found out this thing has 13,000k hours, 7800 idle hours(3k oil changes now don't sound that great ha)!!!!! 180k miles.
My questions are: Has anybody seen one with this high of hours? I run a shop of about 30 semi trucks and 60 trailers, we have a few with 4-500k miles with similar hours and they idle a lot! What can I do to find out if it has the original engine? Would you invest time and money trying to get this thing running right with this many hours, or just replace the cats and the engine? If it ends up needing cats, I don't want to put new cats behind a engine that has that many hours.
I plan on pulling spark plugs and doing a compression test today, fixing the exhaust leak see if that helps the cat code, and moving ignition components to see if the code moves to another cylinder.
I got this truck for a good enough price to just put in a new engine, mounts, cats and gaskets. Then it will just be a not great deal lol. I did not know this truck would give you engine hours when I bought the truck.
I work on stuff all day long and have gotten to the point that I don't like working on stuff in my free time. I'm just not looking to Band-Aid this thing along over the years.
Last edited by Jacob.moore; Sep 26, 2024 at 10:51 AM.
Probably a lot more experienced people here than me, but as a previous 2016 6.2 owner, they are extremely reliable. Guessing you got a P0420 code for the cat? Its possible that the misfire on 7 clogged the cat. Gotta find why 7 isn't firing. I'd swap coils with another cylinder on the same side (to prevent possible damage with the other cat) and see if the misfire moves. Coil resistor corrosion is problematic on the 6.2's.
I have heard great things about the 6.2. I did some research on high hour 6.2 and the highest I found was 7800. Mine has that many in just idle hours alone haha. I planned on swapping ignition components, fixing the exhaust leak, doing a compression test, and if the spark plug holes are large enough, sending my endoscope in each hole. the cat code is going to be from the misfire or exhaust leak, I hope anyways. yep it was the p0420.
Catalytic converters go quick when these trucks misfire and send fuel down the exhaust. Most likely you just need new plugs, coils, wires, and possibly a catalytic converter to be determined after misfire remedied. Best part as well is you wont be wasting anything buying new ignition parts because worst case you swap engines those parts are coming over anyway.
I've run into misfire codes on gasoline engines in the past on other vehicles, and most of those were due to faulty or clogged fuel injectors. So, don't depend on the misfire code as being strictly electrical (although it should be diagnosed and ruled out, absolutely).
Faulty fuel injector(s) could result in too much fuel contamination to the catalytic converter, and in some cases both faulty injector(s) plus the cat could possibly need replacing.
I've run into misfire codes on gasoline engines in the past on other vehicles, and most of those were due to faulty or clogged fuel injectors. So, don't depend on the misfire code as being strictly electrical (although it should be diagnosed and ruled out, absolutely).
Faulty fuel injector(s) could result in too much fuel contamination to the catalytic converter, and in some cases both faulty injector(s) plus the cat could possibly need replacing.
Good advise! My 6.2 had an odd ticking sound at around 40k. Started looking around and found 3 of my coils arcing. Started pulling them and found nearly every resistor (pill) in the boot was green and crumbling. Found that it was a common issue with the 6.2 engines. Ordered 8 new coils and replaced them all. Ended up replacing boots/resistors as a routine maintenance item every 20k after that. Much cheaper than blown out coil housings or MPG loss due to bad spark for me. Other than that, the 6.2 was the most reliable engine I had ever owned.
12,816 total hours, 7800 idle hours, means 5016 driven hours with 180K miles, calculates to 35.8 MPH.
So, it hasn't seen much highway time.\
And, I would be EXTREMELY leary of such a high record of service on a fleet work truck, all done at the dealer.
That would mean they spent considerably more on getting it serviced than the truck cost new.
I'd fix it up as cheap as possible to just get it running well enough to not trip and codes and sell it.
I agree with what you guys are saying. Im not necessarily asking for advice on how to fix it, as that has been my life for the past 15 years. I'm asking what would you guys do in this situation, and if you have ever seen this engine with this many hours. I feel confident to fix the truck without throwing unnecessary $ at it.
What I'm asking is I only paid 9k for the truck. I can sell it tomorrow for 15-16k fixed. $2-300 to make it honestly check engine free and trouble free. I love the truck, and is what I wanted. It drives and feels similar to a new truck.... I also don't want to pass on a high hr vehicle without advertising it. So idk what to do!
Would you guys sell it or keep it? There is just enough room to fix it and run it, with the possibility I need to spend 7k to put a new engine in. Or, fix the misfire and sell it for 15-16k.
The interieror looks new, exterior has minor flaws, but looks like a new truck from 5'away.
I agree with what you guys are saying. Im not necessarily asking for advice on how to fix it, as that has been my life for the past 15 years. I'm asking what would you guys do in this situation, and if you have ever seen this engine with this many hours. I feel confident to fix the truck without throwing unnecessary $ at it.
What I'm asking is I only paid 9k for the truck. I can sell it tomorrow for 15-16k fixed. $2-300 to make it honestly check engine free and trouble free. I love the truck, and is what I wanted. It drives and feels similar to a new truck.... I also don't want to pass on a high hr vehicle without advertising it. So idk what to do!
Would you guys sell it or keep it? There is just enough room to fix it and run it, with the possibility I need to spend 7k to put a new engine in. Or, fix the misfire and sell it for 15-16k.
The interieror looks new, exterior has minor flaws, but looks like a new truck from 5'away.
The key points I'm hearing...
- Immaculate work truck
- relatively new tranny
- high idle hours (which I believe only affect the engine)
- purchase price is low enough to accommodate a new engine and still make good deal price-wise
IMO, I'd fix the misfire and see how it does. Even if you end up needing a new engine, (assuming you can source a good new engine), I'd be inclined to install the new engine and keep the truck. Then you have a really nice truck with new engine and relatively new tranny for the price of an average used one that has unknown engine or tranny condition and may not be as nice otherwise.
