I was going through this exact dilemma a little over a year ago. Drove both the 7.3 and a 6.0 PS and the 6.0 was the obvious choice. Took awhile to find the right truck, high mileage but fleet serviced with a stack of records. Multiple EGR cooler replacements, injectors, hpop, lots of filters, oil, and flushes. Plan to do nothing to it other than maintenence and it tows my 24' enclosed loaded to the gills like it's not even there.
Paul_VR6 said:I was going through this exact dilemma a little over a year ago. Drove both the 7.3 and a 6.0 PS and the 6.0 was the obvious choice. Took awhile to find the right truck, high mileage but fleet serviced with a stack of records. Multiple EGR cooler replacements, injectors, hpop, lots of filters, oil, and flushes. Plan to do nothing to it other than maintenence and it tows my 24' enclosed loaded to the gills like it's not even there.
Just curious, if it needed all of that before you, what makes toy think it won’t need them again?
The 6.0L bottom end is wonderful. They are one of the go-tos for people who want to hop up a diesel.
The top head bolt is on a boss that kinda hangs out in the lifter valley and it likes to fail. Studs usually fix the issue.
Emissions stuff is the big killer. If the solution was "I have to replace my $150 EGR cooler on Saturday," it wouldn't have such a bad rep. Instead, the solution is "crap, I need to bulletproof my 6.0L with an oil cooler and EGR cooler, which means one weekend of lifting the cab off the frame to save time, one weekend of tearing apart the whole top of the engine, and a third weekend to put the cab back on, and the parts total about $1500 plus whatever rusty bolts get broken in the process."
The best solution is to find one that is already bulletproofed. They seem to still follow the same basic depreciation curve. You might pay a bit more to get a bulletproofed truck, but not as much as THEY spent getting the work done. Our shop did a few and they were north of $4500... closer to $6000 if we did head gaskets and studs while we were in there.
If you're a DIY kinda person and don't mind doing the work, find a bargain non-proofed version and drive it until it fails... which may be never. If you don't need bells and whistles in your truck, look for a state DMV truck. At least you know the maintenance was likely flawless, but you'll have vinyl seats and rubber floors with hand crank windows.
In reply to Steve_Jones :
Some of the parts (EGR coolers, etc.) have updated / improved parts out there, so if the better version is put in, it's less likely it'll have another failure.
As bad as the 6.0 is, the 6.4L is even worse. A good buddy of mine is a master Ford tech, and he refuses to touch either motor.
Steve_Jones said:Paul_VR6 said:I was going through this exact dilemma a little over a year ago. Drove both the 7.3 and a 6.0 PS and the 6.0 was the obvious choice. Took awhile to find the right truck, high mileage but fleet serviced with a stack of records. Multiple EGR cooler replacements, injectors, hpop, lots of filters, oil, and flushes. Plan to do nothing to it other than maintenence and it tows my 24' enclosed loaded to the gills like it's not even there.
Just curious, if it needed all of that before you, what makes toy think it won’t need them again?
Its a 340k truck and upgraded parts were installed luckily. I will only drive it a few k a year but all long/hard tows so I wanted the torque. Bulletproofed would be nice but people seem to want crazy money for even rotted out trucks with the nice stuff. I will probably check compression/piston condition over the winter and if it's good leave it as is. If not I will do the headstuds, gaskets, etc.
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