How bad is the 6.0 powerstroke really?

I’m looking at a cheaper diesel truck (~$12k) to replace both my 04 4Runner and my old k2500 as a daily driver/work vehicle. I’ll probably have to go through a dealership because the frame on the 4Runner is starting to rot near the rear control arms, and I don’t know if my conscience would let me sell it privately.  

I’m finding nearly twice as many 6.0’s in my price range than any other truck. I’ve heard a lot of horror stories, but diesel forums and Facebook groups are E36 M3ty at best. My budget basically limits me to these, LB7s, and the occasional common rail Cummins, but they seem to be rusty and high mileage. 

So are the 6.0’s really as awful as everyone says? Are they DIY friendly? The trucks I’m looking at are 06-07 which are supposedly the ‘good years’ if such a thing exists. They’re supposed to be fine once they’re bulletproofed, but everyone has different definitions of what that means, and finding and verifying one with the work already done would  be almost impossible, I imagine. I’ve owned/worked on diesels in the past and did injectors on my old LB7, so I have a little bit of experience in that regard. I’ve only driven one 6.0 and it was BEAT, but I came away impressed with the engine, and I feel like the Fords hold up to Ohio winters better than Dodge and GM trucks do.

What do you guys think? 

Not that bad once you fix their issues it seems

This truck has a stock engine that’s been bullet proofed for the most part 

https://youtu.be/yAGNtbwsUAk

No opinion on the 6L, but if you possibly can, look at doing a fly and drive to buy down here in the deep south. Better prices and much less rust on diesel trucks.

A) Definitely shop in the south. 

B) Regarding the 6.0 I think they’re hit or miss. I have a friend who had his “bulletproofed” and it E36 M3 the bed again two years later. In fairness, this truck was loaded and worked hard every day and it was around 390k when he bailed out. 

I got a steal on my 6.0 F350 in San Antonio.  Things to watch are the oil cooler (just replace with new Ford version), EGR cooler will leak (bulletproof replacement or delete), and replace the coolant and add a coolant filter.  Lots of community support to guide you on it.

I would suggest a southern truck that has never been chipped and has been bulletproofed (with supporting paperwork).  

I wouldn't be afraid of a 6.0, the issues they have are well documented and there are upgrades to remedy all of them. 

Definitely do a fly & drive for a Southern truck and look for the most well maintained example you can afford. If you can get by with an extended cab instead of a crew cab, that will get you a much nicer truck for the same money. I've been looking at diesel trucks for awhile now and the extended cab trucks are always cheaper or much lower mileage/better condition than the crew cabs on the market. 

Clean, low mileage 6.0's are still bringing a premium though. My buddy just sold his 06 F250 crew cab Lariat with 95k miles for $23k and had 3 different people fighting to be the one to buy it.

I bought an 05, one owner, with 180k in 2013. I figured if it got that far, how bad could it be?  It was bullit proofed, new injectors within 2500 miles, all paperwork, etc. serviced at a diesel shop since new. 

I spent $5500 on it in the next 2 years/10k miles, then traded it in. 

I have a buddy who does performance and auto repair on the side and in the last year and a half diesel has become the biggest part of his business.

He says the 6.0s are very unreliable unless you bulletproof then which involves head gaskets and bolts, it's not just emission delete stuff.

I know when I was a service writer we did way more major repairs on the 6.0s than we ever did on Cummins a Duramax motors.

A mutual friend is looking for something similar and he's decided on an early 00s Duramax, I think it was 07 where they made some changes and are way better but also more expensive. The only thing my diesel friend had to say was they don't respond to mods as well as the later ones and he'll probably have to put injectors in it.

In reply to Turbine :

I owned a 2005 6.0L for a few years. I loved the motor but hated working on it. The cab sits over the top of 75% of the motor and its difficult to get too. The truck had over 200K on it and had original everything when I got it(as far as I know). I deleted the EGR system after it began to leak. I replaced drivers bank injectors and oil cooler. Here is a link that kinda of documents my experiences. 6.o Ownership experience In short plan on spending about $5k on it after the purchase price. You will love the truck once its up to snuff. Oh one last thing. Mine still had stock head gaskets when I sold it. I don't think its a big problem on the 05 to 07 trucks unless you throw a big tune at it. If you have questions feel free to email me. I sold it about a year and half ago. The buyers drove it from Arkansas to Colorado and back two days after they bought it from me.

I shopped 6.0 and 6.4's as they were in my price range too. What I found was delete and dont do a 300+HP tune and drive it like a rented mule and it will be ok.  I ended up with a 6.4.

Working on it sucks for anything major, I had to do up pipes, apparently they "can" be done with the cab on, but Im skeptical. Trans had to come out. I did DPF delete and tune only first, but the EGR valve stuck open a few thousand miles later and everything came off. Run a +80hp tune/delete and it seems good. I try to stay under 45psi of boost to hopefully keep HG and studs happier.

I had an 06 Lariat. It was 100% stock minus the bullet proof egr and oil cooler. Had a new FICM as well. Never tuned but did do some towing.

The most that's ever happened to it in my owner ship was new shocks, new tailgate (stolen), oil changes. Only reason I dont have it is because it was stolen. I did find the best one i could and it was a steal. 

I miss that truck to this day. 

In reply to java230 :

6.4 has an even worse reputation than a 6.0 but good lord can that thing ever be a beast.  When it’s running it will humble all others.  Look at the con rods.  They make even the mighty 6.7’s look like play things.  

yupididit said:

I had an 06 Lariat. It was 100% stock minus the bullet proof egr and oil cooler. Had a new FICM as well. Never tuned but did do some towing.

The most that's ever happened to it in my owner ship was new shocks, new tailgate (stolen), oil changes. Only reason I dont have it is because it was stolen. I did find the best one i could and it was a steal. 

I miss that truck to this day. 

Guy that took it from you got a steal too.

:-).  Sorry...you walked into that

In reply to A 401 CJ :

Meh yes and no, they both have theri "known" issues. The EGR stuff was pretty much fixed on the 6.4's but the HPFP is a lot weaker. 

In reply to A 401 CJ :

I've heard this. Had an old fleet guy say the 6.0s and 6.4s in commercial stuff like busses and big trucks dont have all the emissions stuff and they use a different head bolt, and they are incredibly reliable, and can take a ton of abuse even with a hot tune loaded.

Because of his great experience with them he got one in his F250 we serviced and he proceeded to have all the common issues with it. He never missed a chance to tell us how Ford ruined probably the best diesel he's every dealt with by changing whatever they did to put it in a truck.

The truck version of the 6.0 did still have some issues (including sticky injectors and EGR coolers), but they weren't prone to head bolt / gasket issues.  Mostly because they aren't tuned nearly as hot as the pickup version.  In medium duty trucks, the highest rating for the VT365 was 230hp / 620 lb-ft.  They did up-rate some to 300hp / 660 lb-ft in RV applications from what I've seen.  They also make peak hp at 2600, governed at 2800 for most applications. 

By comparison, the 6.0 PSD makes 325hp / 570 lb-ft.  Peak power is all the way up at 3300 rpm and from what I can find, governed RPM is around 4000.  That adds up to a good bit more stress on some of the parts.  

Emissions stuff is a bit different on the bigger trucks, but they still have the same basic stuff the pickups do in that department.  

I've only got a small amount of experience working on the 7.3, 6.0, 6.4 and 6.7 but between my smallish experience and a 4-day Ford training i took that covered all 4 of those engines, the 6.0 is the only one I'm personally interested to own. The newer trucks are hyphochondriacs that are constantly dreaming up problems that aren't really problems that all have to do with the emissions controls. At least with a 6.0 you have a known recipe to revert it back to a 7.3 level of emissions equipment and once you do that you have almost 7.3 reliability, but with like 200 extra hp after minor power mods. 

Thanks for all of the replies, guys! The EGR delete and BPD oil cooler are definitely on my radar if I end up with one. I think at this point, it’s my first choice, unless a decent LBZ pops up in my price range.

Is the general consensus that you shouldn’t tune them at all on stock head bolts? On my old LB7, I had a light/heavy tow tune and a fuel mileage tune that really improved how the truck ran, and was kind of thinking about doing the same thing here. 

The 6.4 is really interesting to me, but the HPFP issues have pretty much killed my interest in ever owning one as anything other than a project truck. 

Texas A&M FSAE has a rule "The trailer shall not be towed by a Ford with a Six Liter Navistar Engine"

That rule got there the hard way, on a trip to Lincoln for competition in 2013. One 2004 truck started blowing smoke and accelerating slowly near Dallas, and by Denton barely had enough power to roll itself to the back of a parking lot after unhitching the trailer. Turbo + two headgaskets, cab-off repair.  We substituted another 2003 F250 and drove north normally for a tank of fuel, then stopped in Stillwater. Getting back on the highway the temperature gauge went straight to the moon; it took five gallons of water to get to Wichita. EGR cooler, head gaskets, head studs, head straightening, cab-off repair five hundred miles from home at a dealer.

We made it to Lincoln behind a borrowed 7.3 that was diverted from KC on its way from Springfield MO to Lincoln, and came back using a rented Chevrolet. After getting home we weighed our "5500#" trailer and discovered that it was really only 3500# and could've been towed by any of our late-model half-tons without trouble.

I’d still look for a nice 7.3.  They’re all a bit long in the tooth now so I don’t see a huge difference in an early 6.0 and a late 7.3.  7.3 performance deficit can be easily addressed.  Yes, the 5R100 is superior to the 4R100 but either should be fine as long as you aren’t being dumb.  7.3 is still a relatively simple engine and can clack along happily (albeit illegally) on #2 home heating oil.  Try that with a common rail (yes I know a 6.0 is not a common rail...just saying).

The 6.0 did make a good bit more power in stock form.  Look at the redline on its tach and it’s pretty easy to see how it did it.  If I didn’t mind getting power from revs, I’d have stuck to the other 6.0.  The LS.

Turbine said:

 

Is the general consensus that you shouldn’t tune them at all on stock head bolts? On my old LB7, I had a light/heavy tow tune and a fuel mileage tune that really improved how the truck ran, and was kind of thinking about doing the same thing here. 

I don't understand why people even tune the 6.0. They are fast enough stock and tow very well stock. I went from my 6.0 F250 to a 7.3 Excursion and the 6.0 is better in every performance measure, mpg's, and noise. I do however, understand why people feel the need to tune the 7.3. Lawd they're loud, stinky, and slow but very tough and loves being worked. 

If you can find the latest model year and most well maintained stock 6.0 you can from the south or west coast.. 

Realistically, if you don't need a diesel and you're looking at 05+ trucks, look at the 3 valve 6.8 V10 as an option.  It'll burn more fuel than the diesel, but it's cheaper and makes more power than a stock 6.0 or even a stock 6.4.  Has to be revved a bit higher to get all of the power, but if you don't mind revving it, it'll pull at least as well as the diesels.  

rslifkin said:

Realistically, if you don't need a diesel and you're looking at 05+ trucks, look at the 3 valve 6.8 V10 as an option.  It'll burn more fuel than the diesel, but it's cheaper and makes more power than a stock 6.0 or even a stock 6.4.  Has to be revved a bit higher to get all of the power, but if you don't mind revving it, it'll pull at least as well as the diesels.  

This.  Heck, these gassers were designed to rev anyway.  

The old adage about horsepower selling cars (trucks) but torque winning races USED to be true.  It is less relevant today since we have transmissions capable of putting the engine in its powerband at all times.  That didn’t work as well in the days of unlocked TH400 3 speeds.  Torque was king.  But at the end of the day it really is about horsepower.  The soot heads were incredulous when TFL pitted the Titan Cummins against the base model 5.6 gasser up the “Ike Gauntlet” loaded and the diesel lost.  

A wise old farmer in my area always kept at least two one ton trucks.  Never diesels.  I asked him about it once.  “Hell, the gas motor will wear the truck down, why would I pay more for a diesel?”

For the most part, the advantage to the diesels is the lower fuel consumption (especially when unloaded).  So if you're going to use the truck enough, the cost of the diesel may justify it.  Otherwise, the cheaper purchase and maintenance costs of the gas truck will likely out-weigh the higher fuel costs.