Questions on F250 or F350
 

My 2000 F250 5.4 gas, finally died after 285K miles. Engine overheated, cracked the intake, one head, and blew the head gasket.

so I'm looking for another truck, I want a diesel this time, as we leave the truck running with the AC on the whole work day

I've found a few, 2005 to 2007, for under 10K, but they have 200K to 230K miles on them. How is that for a diesel? Is that too high of millage?

what should I look at or look for when looking at these trucks?

thanks, I appreciate any input.
Richard

The B50 life of the VT365 was 375,000 miles, meaning half of the International engines were projected to have a head-off failure in that time frame. Then Ford came along and turned it up by 100+ HP, and that rating has fallen precipitously. If they haven't already had issues, the ones you're seeing are on the edge of component lifespans (like injectors), but also if they were abused and repaired poorly they could be coming up on repeat failures. Or they could be gold; to find one that's good it takes a good deal of effort and a decent knowledge of the engine.

Running the engine at idle for hours constantly isn't the design purpose of this particular engine, you're going to shorten an already short 5,000 mile oil change interval further using it like that, so cost wise it's going to be an expensive air conditioner. 200 hours per OCI is the Ford book on oil changes, so running it ten hours a day you're looking at an oil change every month. And it's not a thing you can skimp on; fuel dilution of the oil is a real issue, and the 6.0 injectors will shear oil out of the viscosity range (some oils are worth than others).

Questions or thinking of buying a used 6.0L truck? Click here