Just doing a little brainstorming for a future project. I like diesel engines (and also don't have much experience working on them) and I think it would be pretty fun to have a 6.0 in my f100 if it works well. My question is are they actually reliable when there bullet proofed or is this a really bad idea that would be nothing but headaches. Would the wiring be a nightmare? I can figure out how to fab in new motor mounts and beef up the front suspension, not very knowledgeable when it comes to electrical though. Just like the way it sounds and the amount of power it has for its time.

 

Plenty of ford HD trucks cam with the Cummins 5.9, that be my choice. Why use the arguably worst diesel engine made for a transplant?

 

The 6.0 is a turd engine that almost bankrupted Ford. Can the swap you're talking about be done, sure it can,,,,by why.

Pick a different engine, almost any different engine would be better. The 6.0 is so bank it literally spawned a cottage literally of businesses making parts to swap Cummins engine in their place (google up Diesel Conversion Specialist, or DeStroked, or Wildhorse manufacturing to name a few)
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He's not, unless I missed where he was talking about putting a 6.4 PSD/MaxxForce 7 or Caterpillar C7 in there. Those were the absolute bottom of the barrel, Caterpillar quit making on-road engines after that and Navistar quit making any engines after that until they got bought out by a VW subsidiary recently. Unfortunately Ford used both of those engines in their trucks.

Putting a 6.0 weighing over 900 pounds in an F100 might be difficult to do well without significant front end modifications because it weighs hundreds of pounds more than the stock engine. A F-250 or F-350 would be easier to put a diesel engine into. I'd personally stick with a gas engine in an F100, a warmed-up Windsor or a 460 would be a bunch of fun and a bunch easier to accomplish. A Coyote would be a good choice if you really wanted a newer engine in there.

 

This. The 6.0, when properly bulletproofed and/or cared for, is a solid engine. However, in such a light-duty truck you would basically have to turn the front end into a 3/4 ton suspension to handle that extra weight. I would agree that a built 351 of your choice or a 460 would be a better fit.

 

Bullet proof is a brand not an action. The 6.0 can be made reliable with the right work and right parts. There are examples of performance trucks out there with these platforms. Check out videos from Left Lane Diesels, Atomic Diesel, Automedic and others. The 6.0 isn’t terribly difficult to work on but if you haven’t worked on diesels before they are definitely unique. I do agree with what’s above, any diesel is heavy and will require major modifications with the entire power train. An F100 needs a gas engine…..

 

I hope you've never said you're Googling anything.

 

If you google "bullet proof.".......... Just kidding. Yabutt..whats the cost of going thru a 6.0 to make it bomb proof? You could build one nasty 351 or 460 for less.

 

Anything is possible with enough time and money. However, by your description, you feel comfortable with he engine mounts and suspension upgrades, but there isa significant amount of wiring and control logic to get done. You'd need a whole truck donor and really get familiar with each and every wire in both rigs.

If you are dead set on swapping a diesel and have money to burn, look into the Cummins swap kits. They have a nice little 4cyl (2.8L) mean for Jeeps ands small trucks with respectable power.

But if you really want the worst diesel made, swap in the GM 5.7 disaster. Set back the diesel industry at least 10 years. The 6.2 was better, but sooooo weak. I've owned three.

 

I don't know if the Olds 350 really was the worst diesel made. The issues it had when new were poor torque-to-yield head bolts, a lack of a water separator, and too-short main bearing cap bolts. Those were all fixable issues, although you'd still be left with an engine that was pretty weak even by Malaise Era standards, which is certainly saying something. The notable lack of power of a naturally-aspirated diesel small and light enough to fit in a passenger car, fuel prices decreasing a handful of years after the 350 Olds came out making the super-efficient diesels less desirable, and to a lesser extent the noise, smell, and harder starting in cold weather compared to gasoline engines is what made passenger-car diesels unpopular in my observation. GM was far from the only manufacturer selling passenger-car diesels in the U.S. during the Malaise Era, the Europeans made a bunch and the Japanese made a few. Those engines were usually quite reliable (such as the Mercedes-Benz diesels) but were equally sluggish. I didn't have one but when I went to high school the lot was filled with Malaise Era cars and trucks, and there were certainly some diesel Rabbits as well as GM 6.2s in there. The #1 complaint about them was they were horribly slow, Rabbits if anything were slower than VW Beetles, which usually were what held up the line of cars turning onto the street. People bought a whole lot more diesels once they became turbocharged and made a reasonable amount of power, which for the most part happened in the early 1990s.

 

I’m fairly certain I’ve never used that phraseology…..not even when drinking.

 

It’s maybe not the best motor, but after the usual hot no start issue after I got an F250 it was reliable the following 10 years and 120k miles. That was with a street tune and Atlas 40. It’s not so hard to work on, will not be stressed in a light chassis so bulletproofing should not be necessary, but it’s one heavy beast - as already mentioned.

i loved the sound, the 6.7 is a sewing machine in comparison, and a French friend would always come out after I visited him just to hear it fire up.

 

The GM 6.2 is the motor that got me familiar with working on vehicles, diesels, and mechanical fuel injection. I HATE that engine. It was the bane of my youth.

My dad had one in his '86 GMC CCLB 3500 dually 4x4. He wanted a Ford, but they didn't build that combination - it was 4x4 OR dually from them at the time.

That 6.2 broke a glow plug, which broke a piston and caused enough internal damage he ended up putting a crate motor in. THAT motor dropped the rear main, broke the crank, and bent the input shaft on the manual transmission. The next one (a junkyard motor) ran for about a month before it started knocking, pulled the oil pan to find the 3rd and 4th mains had broken out. The final motor we put in that truck we pulled from a known-running truck, tore it 100% apart, mic'd and machined everything to the absolute loose end of all specs, put it together and dropped it in...and it purred like a gas motor, quiet with no noise. He ended up selling it shortly after that to the city, who drove that truck around town for another 15 years.