My 99 Superduty with the 7.3 is at the mileage where things are wearing out and im replacing something every month. Im looking at getting another truck and was going to stick with another 7.3 Superduty, but there was a good deal on an 03 with the 6.0 and only 130k miles on it. Plus its a full crew cab which I really like since mines an extended cab, it has leather, sun roof, power seats etc.

Ive heard the horror stories about the 6.0, but have also researched it on my own and it looks like the EGR system is mostly to blame. If you can clean the EGR valve regularly and ditch the cooler or add an aftermarket one, it seems like you can fix the majority of the problems.

One reason I would go with the 6.0 is because my bank offers a better interest rate on 03 and newer and a longer loan life. However I know the 7.3s are proven motors and what aftermarket stuff I have on my truck I can transfer over to the new truck.

What do you 6.0 owners say? Do you like your truck and what problems have you had?

I'd keep the 99 and rebuild your 7.3 if it needs it.

I've got an 05 Excursion with the 6.0 and so far so good.I hope it stays that way.:( About 55,000 miles.

My buddy has a 7.3 F350 and it's getting way up there in miles. 300k and change. He picked up a used ambulance cab and chassis for $2500. The motor has 140K on it which is a lot less than his current motor. He's also going to swap in the dually rear axle with air bags. Check out companys in your area that build or work on Rescue equipment.

a little off the intended subject but my old man is a mechanic at UPS and they regularly get 750k out of there 7.3's before any major work 300k isn't a big deal.

The 6.0 is a good engine if treated right. The '03s probably had the most problems overall though. I plan on buying a 6.0 this summer, but i'm going to try and find an '05 or '06.

I have an 04, and I'd like to pick up another stupid duty if I had the money.

From what I have learned, You just need to stay on top on maintenance.

I just changed out my oil cooler and cleaned my turbo, it really wasn't all that hard.
I don't run a tuner on mine, so my headgaskets should be ok.
I deleted my egr, so I don't have to worry about that.
I have a new oil cooler, and coolant filter, so it should never clog up again.
I had my fcim redone by swamps.
I hope to get many trouble free miles outta mine now that I have the most common problems taken care of. All the above was relatively cheap and easy.

When they run they run good. When they run bad they useuly don't run. I have an 05 and I love it but it has been on the hook twice and in the shop about 5 times. 65,000 miles and all stock and my 5 years is up in a couple months. I keep my fingers crossed.
Jack

I had a 04 I bought new, 4 turbos 2 egr coolers,2 egr valves ,Igave it back to ford and got a dodge megacab 4x4, 5.9 cummins with a g-56 6speed .

My dad had an 04 that went through a turbo and egr plus some other stuff. The dealer forgot to hook up the high pressure oil line to the turbo when he went and picked it up, oil was all over the place. :shaking:

It had about 55k when he sold it.

He now has an 06 with 75k trouble free miles. :D

It seems the '06's are the least problematic from what I "hear". I've talked to numerous owners who have not had any problems. The bulk of the horror stories are second or third hand. They have had their share of problems but I wonder if it's not overblown. One thing to consider is that there are so darned many of these trucks out there. If only lets say 3% (pullin' that # outta my ass) of all of them that were sold had problems, that would make for a lot of trucks. I'd like to see an actual % of how many sold actually had gasket failure.

I think if you'll stay away from any kind of tuner, or power upgrades it'll be ok. I went through three sets of heads/head gaskets, and two EGR's in my '06with 45,000 miles before I traded it for a 5.9 Cummins Dodge Dually. Now that I look back at it I contribute my problems 75-80% due to power adders.

IMO the Dodge/Cummins is a no brainer up against a 6.0, the 7.3 I will admit was a great engine but it is getting really hard to find one in really clean/low milage shape these days.

I have an 04 with a 6.0 & 6 spd its been a good one got it with 48k and just turned 120k I have changed 1 u joint, cleaned the egr valve @100K, cleaned the battery terminals once and serviced every 5-6k miles and changed all filters including both fuel filters every service. Haven't had an injector problem yet. I run the prem fuel most of the time. I did lose the cat and did a 4' turbo back exhaust made a big difference in 6th gear. I have never put a tuner on it.
It stays hooked to my 53' gooseneck car trailer & gets loaded heavy & pulled hard always I think this is good for these engines and keeps the turbo & egr clean.
If you are not gonna use it like a truck I would stick with the 7.3 (I've had several) If you are gonna use it as a truck and not do a lot of idling I would go with a 6.0 but not without getting the vin and having a dealer run the oasis report. This will tell the tale. I've ran several looking for another good one, still looking. This is way more important than what year it is IMHO.

What is the Oasis report exactly and what does it tell you or what should I look out for?

I purchased a used 03' 6.0 F250SDSC4x4 from the first owner, guy took great care of it, it has 240,000 miles on it and I just had to take it in for its first major repair.

Had to replace the aluminum manifold on the front of the engine, turns out the previous owner had the oil changed religiously but neglected to have the coolant changed. This resulted in cavitation that literally ate through the aluminum casting and the gasket, this can happen on any motor utilizing aluminum parts in the cooling system and can hardly be attributed to the 6.0 model however.

Got it for 8 under book, and just put 3,400 into it, had the turbo serviced while it was in, that was 500 of the 3,400, they replaced water pump, belts etc during the front plate fix, hopefully good to go for another 1/4 million miles.

Great truck, absolutely love it, power for days, sounds great, looks great pulls like a tank.

From what I have heard, the 6.0's had problems but usually died early in life, if they make it to 50k just service them regularly and watch the EGR system and they run forever.

Oh, while I am praising what is apparently an unpopular engine I may as well add this, Praise for a dealer: Team Ford in Las Vegas rocks, professional and prompt, they do great work, I would recommend them to anyone.

Good luck!

lj

I have an 06 and love it. Its only got 34k or so but 75% or more of it has been pulling something(from 6500-14000lbs) and so far have had zero problems.

I agree with the post above about using it as a truck. I think the motor needs the weight of a load to keep it happy. Anybody I know locally that had problems used it as a commuter.

From what I have heard, the 6.0's had problems but usually died early in life, if they make it to 50k just service them regularly and watch the EGR system and they run forever.



I've heard others say the same thing. Does this seem to hold true? I'd like to hear more input on this.

The best motor ford ever had was the 7.3 td. My buddy had 2 different 6.0 go out on him in 2 different trucks and 2 different problems 1st the lifters turned sideways and a bearing peice locked the oil pump up and the other egr cooling passage faiked and burned the motor up . Why do they keep changing the engines and make one that will last and get good fuel milege unlike the new ford deisels out 13-15 mpg cmon! . The chevy duramaxx has been the same basic design for more than 10 years and has been proven in japan more than 10 years before that. Ford keeps changing them every 5 years or so WTF!

i drive an 04', it's fine, but, just did the new 6.7l training... should be a good motor,lots of head bolts, common rail fuel,a very interesting turbo w/vgt but different, no bedplate, two cooling systems, now a new kind of fun starts....

The oasis report is the complete warranty & service record on the vehicle done by any ford dealer. With a 5 year 100k warranty you get a pretty good picture of how the truck has been. Like I said earlier I would not buy a 6.0 without looking at this report. Ive seen alot of them & most are not pretty. One thing I forgot in my earlier post is it seems these engines with their hydraulic (oil press driven) injectors like the recommended Motorcraft 10w-30 HD oil and some dealers will even void the warranty if you run 15w-40 they run much smoother & quieter on the lighter oil.

From what I have heard, the 6.0's had problems but usually died early in life, if they make it to 50k just service them regularly and watch the EGR system and they run forever.



I've heard others say the same thing. Does this seem to hold true? I'd like to hear more input on this.
IME, this has been the case. My 04' had gone through 3 EGR valves, a couple coolers, a turbo, and a set of headgaskets by 80K. OTOH, my 06', now showing 80K, has never had any EGR or headgasket issues. The only time its been on a hook was back in Jan. of 06' when it was a month old. A wire had shorted out to the frame causing a no start.

With the 6.0, keep your oil changed every 6K or better. Tolereances in the injectors or VERY tight so they like fresh clean oil. Drive the thing like you stole it to keep the EGR system happy.

Incedentally, tuners are not instant death for the 6.0. There are plenty otherwise stock 6.0s living happy lives putting 400+ horses to the ground. My 06' has been tuned practically since day one.

IMO, the leading cause for the 6.0's bad headgasket reputation stems from Ford/International's very loose acceptable machining tolerances during factory assembly. Those "in the know" seem to be coming to the conclusion that the heads aren't warping on the motor, they were assembled that way from the factory. This goes back to the theory that if the truck makes it 50K without headgasket issues, you probably got a good one.

The 6.0 is a good engine if treated right. The '03s probably had the most problems overall though. I plan on buying a 6.0 this summer, but I'm going to try and find an '05 or '06.

This is very true do not buy a 03' or a early 04' feel free to send me the vin and I'll run it through Ford to see what's been done to the truck. My personal 6.0L has about 68K on it and had the vanes in the turbo stick at full boost, that's the only problem I've had. Seems like a lot of the ones we get into the shop with problems have power adders on them or are oil field rigs that run 18 hours a day and are lacking in oil changes/service.

my 6.0 had a turbo back 4" with a magnaflow muffler and no power adders and I changed my oil at 4500 miles @ the dealer ship (free oil changes for life)but the truck just had to many issues .when it was running it was great! and I loved the truck everything was covered under warrenty ,if you did a egr delete kit and got rid of egr cooler I think it would be a good truck . but here in california the are starting visual inspections this year. So I got rid of the lemmon and got a cummins.Dave

Keep the 7.3 ours is at 330,000 and still can pull any hill infront of it with a heavy load. I know a few people who had them the turbos like to go and my buddy just dropped 2G's on fixin his oil pressure pump? Half the teeth where wore off and the pump didnt pump either. IMO keep the ol 7.3 there the best they have ever made

I'm on the fence myself I have a 7.3 and my old man had both a 7.3 and 6.0 and never had trouble. Everything I've read suggests that like stated earlier if it made it to 50k and wasn't in the shop it's probably Ok, but don't buy one without the oasis report for sure having some guy say it was a great truck, and seeing it on paper could save you serious cake down the road. The EGR cooler delete,upgraded oil pump,and coolant filter are money well spent if your gonna keep it long. I hope they fired whoever talked them into that EGR cooler, that is a POS:shaking:

Well I just put a down payment on a 99 F350 Crewcab. Its a Lariat and fully loaded. Has 180k miles, but its in really good condition and is completely stock. It doesnt even have an aftermarket stereo.

I had to many reasons to stick with the 7.3 or I would of liked to tried a newer truck.

http://www.ksl.com/emedia/its/slc/905/90549/9054996.jpg?filter=ksl/gallery3

No never buy a 6.0 especially a 03. The guys at left coast diesel the best shop in the SF bay area claimed that they are shit Ive heard nothing but problems with them. They said they dont have to worry about running out of work with the 6.0 on the road. There are lots of great low mileage 7.3l for sale out there. Its just not worth it.