Also correct me if i'm wrong, but isn't the 5.9L cummins a meduim duty engine (thus built heavier) compared to the light duty powerstorke and duramax?

 

Red Rage,

Well said, but I'll have to disagree on the PM rods. PM has exceeded the technology of forged rods, but true performance rods will be solid billet for a long while to come.

Me and the PM rods don't have a good history

 

Everybody is going to PM. Even cummins.

Inline sixes have perfect primary and secondary balance. V8s are the ones with heavy counterbalance weights. Inline blocks are more robust because of flex issues with an inline engine. The crankshafts are also robust for the same reason. There is a nice side effect. You can run crazy hp out of a stock crankshaft. Try to find an aftermarket crankshaft for the cummins or supra inline engines.

Gm does not own Isuzu. At one time they were a majority stockholder, 33% is majority in japan. Isuzu traded dmaxltd and some small diesels to get GM out of their pocket.

Time will tell if the 6.0 is worth its salt. Every single 6.0 owner I have spoken with has had some issue. Including two owners with rebuilds at less than 50k miles. Im not impressed so far but time tells all.

 

The 7.3 is a very reliable engine, where i live the 7.3 is the predominent motor for tree planters (and they beat their trucks) and the all the guys that work in the bush prefer the 7.3 to the 6.0 or the duramax. Although the 7.3 can't go as fast as the 6.0 it is still a very reliable truck (we still buy the 7.3 over the 6.0 for our service trucks)

 

Argo, you hit it!

 

The duramax is awesome as far as I am concerned. For the overall package, I think that GM has it. Every motor has teething problems. The dmax had injectors and i won't bother to list all of the 6. OH problems. The Cummins has just been around forever so it does have better reliablity. IMO what good is the motor when the rest of the truck is junk. I am mainly talking about the automatic trannies. Dodge continues to put poodle poop together when they could easily out do ford and gm with a reliable transmission that was something other than a handshaker.

I can say I was on the powerstroke diesel forum and they shut down everything related to the competition because they couldn't take the heat that they were getting from the other sides.

 

Just what did you say here. I am puzzled

 

Did you think ...any of us, would think you would say anything else

 

the dieselstop shut down the ford vs the competition forum because of all of the problems with the 6.0 powerstroke. because i would say 90% of the people on there that bought the 6.0 when it first came out had problems with it. the track record of the 6.0 we all know is not good. this doesn't speak about the 7.3 powerstroke, but people remember the most recent, 6.0 being junk so they lump all powerstrokes into the 6.0 catagory. even when brought to an average the 7.3 won't offset the 6.0 bad reputation. sorry i was not talking about this site. hope this cleared up the fog.

 

I believe maintenance is the key. For example, we have a customer with a 2000 e350 sd van with a 7.3 psd. It has 404,xxx miles on it without a single problem with the engine. The tranny was rebiult around 275,000 and various chassis parts have been replaced. Still has lots of power. He still likes the van, but might buy a new mercedes sprinter van for the mileage. I have a friend that has a 96 Dodge Ram 2500 with the cummins. Truck just flipped 300,000 and the the only problem he's ever had is the fuel pump makes a little noise. Both of these guys work the vehicles very hard, but they are very strict with the maintenance, changing the oil etc. Just my 2 cents

 

Yeah, if you go by some sort of statistics involving only internet diesel owners than the 6.0 is'int faring too well in terms of reliability or overall reputation. But how representative are these owners of the overall US truck population? For one thing, it seems the majority of diesels are in fact owned by small to medium sized companies who specialise in one form of service oriented type construction or another.

The majority of online owners seem to use them as daily drivers. (Remember folks - the key word I've used in both points thus far is "MAJORITY"- this does not apply to all of you). I'd bet most fleet owner operators don't run chips, tuners, exhausts (cat back or turbo back), lifts, 35" meats, propane injection, transmission alterartions, guages, or any other types of serious modification. All of these are quite common (some more, some less) to daily driver trucks owned by internet enthusiasts it seems.

Next, many people are simply not enthusiasts. This especially applies to company owners who own their trucks for work and have no idea that such modifications even exist. If they do run into problems with their stock vehicles, they come in search of answers to these problems and nothing more. Had they never run into any problems to begin with, they would not be looking for any sites to post such information - they're not enthusiasts.

I've actually heard of two recent 05 6.0 trucks with problems. One is a neighbor who works for a concrete company and just bought a new truck 2 months ago - it's in the shop as I type this waiting on a fuel pump to be delivered and installed. The other is an F550 with 6.0 owned by a guy who owns a well drilling company - he's lost the turbo on his new truck and it's currently in the shop too. These are the only two stock trucks which I'm personally sure have had problems ( meaning not hearsay)
and that's it.

Keep in mind I'm also personally aware of 14 other 6.0 trucks owned by others and these gentlemen have reported having absolutely no problem with them. I see these trucks just about everyday, and there's not a week which goes by that I don't see each of them at least once - if they were having problems with any of them I'd know.

Ford obviously had more problems with the 6.0 when it first debued, some people have a sour taste in their mouths because of it still. Ford still has problems with the 6.0. Guess what? GM still has problems with the Duramax. Dodge still has problems with
the Cummins too. These other two just don't have the same stigma attached to them - and that's really the only difference. I'd bet the 6.0 does have less tolerance for performance enhancers though, and there's where alot of reported problems are coming from.

Really I think there are also many diesel owners who really should be gas owners. No doubt many have fallen into the misconception that diesels require way less maintenance, will go on forever and ever when abused and neglected, and can take an unholy amount of performance enhancement without compromising reliability.

 

Amen!!! That was well said. I personally know a half a dozen guys with 6.0s and not a single one of them has had a lick of problem, heck two of them own early 03's and other than the normal reflahses none have actually experienced any problems. Out of those 6 guys there is only one that actually vistis this site!!! And there again he comes here in search of mod info, go figure!! I know at least 8 people with 7.3s and not a single one have ever benn here. So as it was said above the skew of problems on this site is quite over exaggerated about the 6.0s entire population and amount of problems.

 

I know 2 people with 6.0's and one is my dad, he has a late 03 F350 with 40k on it and he has not had one problem with it. He loves it, but he doesnt visit any of the online places to voice that opinion.
The other person I know that has a 6.0 is an uncle who has a 03 F350 with a work bed on it thats loaded with torchs, welders, ladders, tools and parts. It gets driven all over every day and they pull a 8,000 pound scissor lift with it sometimes. The truck has 90k miles on it and been back to the dealer 5 or 6 times and a couple of those it had to be towed. Most were computer related, that same truck has been in 3 times to replace alot of the front end suspension including the beams and hubs.
The truck he had before that was a 98 Chevy 1 ton with the Vortec 350, That truck had 230,000 miles on it when it was replaced with the Ford and they still have it at their shop, it had the work bed swapped out for a flat bed and its used for parts pickup. It never had to be towed and only broke down one time and that was because some idiot forgot the refill the rearend during a fluid change. Both trucks had regular service done on them, fluid and filter changes, lube and oil, and both trucks have had the same work bed on them hauling the same amount of weight. The same company has 2 other trucks both are 99 Chevy 1 tons with the same big work beds, they only have around 100,000 miles on them and neither has had any problems.

 

my friend has a 04 2500 chevy with a duracrap and he was towing his bobcat and I was not impressed

 

I think that a large part of the problem wih these engines is the Horsepower war and one-upmanship that the manufacturers are engaging in. We now have pickup trucks with enough pulling capacity that they are into the CDL license zone. We have people who see 300 hp diesels or 400 hp diesels as a license to pull 15,000 lb trailers at 90 mph, because they can, instead of seeing them as having a nice reserve capacity to reduce downshifting and increase efficiency of operation. Also, do these engine manufacturers sell these engines in commercial duty with this much power? I sincerely doubt that they do. It doesn't make sence that we have an engine that would go into a truck with a GCWR of 35,000-40,000 lbs and rate at 200-230 hp being installed into pickups that can have GCWRs approching these bigger, medium duty trucks and be rated at 300-400 hp. That can't be good for the durability of these engines. I would actually wager money that any of these three engines installed into a meduim duty chassis and rated to the HP level that these engines were actually designed for will last allot longer than they would in the lighter chassis with more power. Just think of how high the cylinder pressures must be getting to do that! And consider that this is BEFORE someone chips or flashes it.