i just wanted to drop in and introduce myself. i don't currently own a PSD.....yet......but i'm looking. i was initally looking for an '02-'03 with the 7.3L and have found a few that looked promising. but the other evening the wife was looking over my shoulder and noticed the prices of those vs the prices of an '06 with the 6.0. i was shying away from these trucks because of the bad press they've had but after doing a bit of research on the trucks themselves they seem to be very nicely equiped compared to the 7.3 trucks. sooooooo.....i've read many, many posts about problems with the 6.0s and it's got me a bit concerned. i do realize that most of the time when someone posts things on a site like this it is because they need help with something. but overall, would an 06-07 with the 6.0 be good truck to step into? i've never owned a diesel pickup but i'm tired of being left in the dust by all of my buddies when we're all en-route to the boat ramp.

 

You'll be happy with an 05+ 6.0 they had the kinks worked out by then. I'm pushing 90k on my 03 one of the first off the line and the only thing thats been replaced is one injector.

Read through the tech folder and bismic has a couple threads out there for new 6.0 owners. I'm sure he wouldn't mind if you sent him a pm eather after reading his threads.

Also if your worried about reliability you'll be able to get the 7yr/200k mile warranty for pretty cheap on a 06.

Also one more thing when you find a truck post the vin in the oasis request page. It's a sticky thread at the top.

Welcome and have fun. Let us know when you get one.

 

thanx liv, i'll definitely be lurking around in here and asking dumb questions i've already asked bismic for the GIANT list of tech articles that have been assembled. i've heard of the oasis reports before. i would love to get a report like before i purchase but there is a very good chance that i'll be getting mine from a dealer auction. thanx again.

 

i've got a couple of questions. i've read NUMBEROUS times about head gaskets etc etc going bad on the 6.0s. is this stuff covered under warranty? it seems that a good number of people are sweating the doctor bill? also, i've tried posting a couple of times in the thread trying to get the tech articles that bismic mentions but my posts are not showing up. i'm not in any hurry for them since i haven't purchased the truck yet but i'll definitely be needing them before too long.

 

if you would like the spreadsheets let me know. i have them and am one of the many that are distributing them to all the new owners. just send me a PM, email or if you can't do any of those just post your email on here and i'll hook you up

 

They are covered under warranty defiantly as long as you keep your truck stock. If you add a tuner then you take a chance. The only problem is if they do go and they do replace your headgaskets, they will use the inferior bolts and you run the risk of it happening again. You can upgrade them to head studs and that along with a good install job would cure any future problems with the headgaskets, but at best you'll only have to pay for the studs and get the job done under warranty, but only a select few dealerships would do that and then if you do still have warranty, your stuck going there for all future warranty work.

 

i'm in no hurry for them since i haven't purchased my dream truck yet but i'd definitely like to have them. when you get some free time feel free to send them to jdirig at ***.net. or hold off until i pull the trigger on a truck. that's ok too. thanx again.

 

i don't have any intention (at least not yet) of adding anything to this truck. it will be such a night and day difference compared to what i'm pulling with now that i'll be like a kid in a candy store. i was just more concerned with the motors holding up and having a warranty that would cover the common problems with them. from the sounds of it, it would be money well spent to add the head studs right off the bat, whether i have head gasket issues or not. i won't be pulling anything heavy (about 6k worth of boat/trailer) so i'm sure it won't even break a sweat. but i'm a big fan of preventative maint. there's a lot of hot desert out here and i'd rather not be stranded in it. thanx for the input.

 

There is only one other thing that I would atleast bring to your attention is the EGR valve. This is something that you don't necessarily have to do, but I think it's worth it. Have either yourself(if your handy with a welder and have oen that can work with the weaker metal of the up-pipe(y-pipe)) or someone from an exhaust shop weld shut the EGR valve and weld by-pass plates. Now there are things like cleaning periodically the EGR valve to keep it from getting gunked up, but even though I'm religious about maintaince, that type of stuff just doesn't float my boat. Also by removing the EGR from the exhaust gas loop, you also help eliminate the VGT turbo from sticking and getting gummed up as well. Now you can also do maintaince around that if you keep the EGR valve working and this maintaince is more fun: after you get up to operating speed build up quite a bit of boost in order to help burn off the the soot that gets stuck on the vanes. Personally I think it's easier and in the long run cost effective to just eliminate the EGR valve all to gether, but I list everything to show you don't have to and still maintain reliability with the truck, just have to be more diligent.

 

there are a few guys in your area that would know which dealerships would be best to go to. look up the users jmaskew or william_04_x. they both live in the las vegas valley and would be able to give you some good insight as to where would best service your truck.

 

you mention welding and by-passing factory pieces. i'm assuming that this would pretty much take me out of the loop for having things fixed under warranty correct? some of the reasoning behind getting an 06 or 07 for me is to have that warranty. i've even marked a couple of sites that offer the extended warranty. the second part of your "fix" i think i'm going to REALLY like! i don't think i'll have a problem mashin' the gas

 

mxer0022, just so you know i did receive the email you sent. thanx for that. also, i'll definitely look up the two guys you mentioned.

 

Perfectly understandable. Yes, if they do go rooting around those pipes and find that then more then likely it probably would be warranty denial. Like I said though, that can be worked around to where it would still be reliable and not have to worry about warranty denial as easily, just requires more work on your end. If you add a tuner though, that will have to become more of a reality as you'll be putting more fuel in the flow and that will cause even more soot to go thru that valve and add to either increase cleaning or gumming up the works.

I do think though that headstuds are the one thing that is pretty much something you should do(and like you said you were going to do it), the EGR valve can be worked around.

 

i'm going to try like crazy to stay away from tuners. i should be pretty satisfied (at least for a while) with the truck in stock form.

 

Well you know, if you go custom tuning, you can get someone to tune it and not affect hp/tq numbers of your truck just change shift points. Change the shift points to optimize street, towing or even economy(as much as you can on this one).