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6.0 PSD or V10?

3K views 39 replies 23 participants last post by  WhyNot 
#1 ·
Lookin at buyin my first SD. Thinkin 05 ish..Never had a Diesel before but know a small bit about them. If i had one id like to do exhaust, intake and maybe a tune or programer. Lots of highway drivin for work, might pull a smaller camper for work and an ocasional car trailer. 8000 pounds total maybe on occasion.. Thinkin F250 lariate CC LB 4x4 auto. Sould i consider the V10 a bit more or go for blo on the Diesel?
 
#10 ·
I've got an 05 Excursion with the V10. Great low end torque, smooth running, moves the Excursion around nicely around town, towing, and climbing long steep grades. I'm happy with it. The 6.0 is quite a bit more powerful once it gets spooled up, but it is gutless until the turbo spools.

My brother has an F250 with the 6.0. On a snow packed road sinking in about 4 inches, trying to turn around, he had no power. He would floor it and it would make a funny growl, wouldn't move, wouldn't break traction. He could barely get it moving in low range. I loved the 6.0 on the highway when the turbo is spooled, but once I saw this, it was V10 for me. I plan to use the Excursion off-road later in its life and the 6.0 clearly is not up to the task.

A buddy of mine has an 06 F250 with the 6.0. Again, great power once the turbo spools, but on a cold morning hooked to a trailer, the thing can hardly get rolling. If feels like you could stop the truck with your hand on the grill it's so gutless off the line when it's cold. It's a little better after letting the engine warm up a long time, but it's still pretty gutless even then.

You get better mileage with the 6.0 than the 6.8 V10. The V10 gets around 12 mpg in the Excursion, the 6.0 seems to get around 18 to 20 in the trucks.

Depends on what's important to you. For me, it was low end torque. Around town, pulling away from stop signs, the V10 moves the heavy Excursion effortlessly with 3.73s. I pulled a Blazer on a car trailer halfway across the country and over the passes through Colorado. Pulled great. 65 to 70 up the steepest parts. The engine puts out great torque off the line, then it seems to hit another band of power around 3100 to 4500 rpm so it also has decent top end as well.

If you put the V10 vs. the 6.0 in a towing contest up the passes, the 6.0 wins hands down. My buddy pulls his skid steer in a dump trailer half full of dirt up the passes and the power is unreal. But how heavy are you towing, how steep, and how fast do you need to go? Towing 5000lbs up the passes at 65 is fine for me.

It's quiet and no diesel stink keeps the wife happy. She drives the vehicles when still pretty new. I get 'em once they become the family camping rig/beater.
 
#11 ·
V10-6.0-7.3

The V10 is a good motor, just not so good on gas. My Excursion gets around 12.5 on the highway and significantly worse in town. The most common problems with the V10 are stripped spark plug holes and coil packs going bad. Both of witch are a farely easy fix.

The 6.0 on the other hand, well lets just say I don't have enough time or energy to list all of it's downfalls. They are extremely dependent on perfect maintenance and when they do break, it will cost you an arm and a leg.

I will hit the problems highlights for you:

Egr cooler failures
FICM's go bad for no apparent reason
Clips fall off the internal oil rails in the heads
Head gasket failure do to a lack of sufficient # of head bolts, and they are torque to yield (this is a huge problem when running programmers)
Turbo failure is common
Cracked injector cups are common
I could go on and on, but I think you get the point.... Just say No to 6.0

The 7.3 however is a very reliable engine and is easily modified to produce more power dependably
They had a few issues, but no where close to the problems the 6.0's had
Mainly:

Cam position sensors
Occasional leaky HPOP
Injector problems if Poorly maintained
With the 7.3 it is simply change the oil and filters and drive it till the wheels fall off.
 
#12 ·
Wow! I had no idea.... I really wanted a newer truck lol. 02 is old news these days. I do not however want a POS thats gunna keep me from getting to work since i do a lot of traveling. Whats the milage capabilities on the 7.3?
 
#13 ·
Then you have the "other side of the story" that people are not as quick to pipe in about. There are hundreds of thousands of 6.0's on the road, clocking miles with no issues whatsoever. I was leary after hearing horror stories about the 6.0, but I've put over 50K on my truck (04 CC F250), towed many miles with 14K lbs, etc. The result of the bad rep the 6.0 has earned, is resale on the 7.3 has gone through the roof. So good luck getting one with less than a bagillion miles in decent shape. Not saying the 6.0 is an awesome engine or anything, just that there are a lot of them out there that can be picked up for cheap due to the bad rep. Good luck on the truck shopping.
 
#14 ·
Buy the 05 V-10, drive it for a while until you get tired of the fuel economy and pay it down a bit, then do a cummins swap. Tons of info on doing them, and by far the best truck out there. If a cummins came in a ford, Cheby and whatever company dodge is now would be out of business.
 
#15 ·
Well, Being an equipment operater I think they should have CAT motors in em.

"whynot", thanks for the posative post about your personal expierence. I really wanted an 05ish because they look nice and were in my budget range. I was really dead set on a diezel for the MPGs and there easy to get power out of. The V10s milage just scares me due to the driving i do for work. I get high teens now with my Explorer and hate to go backwards in milage.

Not a chance on the cummins deal. There not that great of an engine IMO. Not terrible to.

Im always on the road tho and the last thing i want to have is a truck that i cannot trust because im always broke down or worried that im going to be broke down.. Need to hear from more 6.0 owners. Ive found a few REALLY super nice 04-05 harley davidson 6.0 trucks!
 
#17 ·
Well, Being an equipment operater I think they should have CAT motors in em.
"Not a chance on the cummins deal. There not that great of an engine IMO. Not terrible to."
I fully agree with you on the CAT engine. But if you think a cummins in not that great of an engine, then you should buy a 6.0. Then my friend you will know what a "not that great" engine is.
 
#16 ·
dang, i must have 1 of 3 6.0 that isnt bad, hasnt been in the shop, has a turbo that spools, and all with 118k on it.

obviously if its cold, let it warm up, thats a downfall ive found, slow to warm up in those winter months.

imo, dont program a ticking time bomb like many of you think. its got the power stock to tow most anything, that black cloud of smoke will only help get ur trailer and equipment dirty and not there any faster.

some exhaust work, and if you want egr delete, otherwise not much needed on these "pos" motors.

and yes, i have first hand use of the v10 and i think it contends well with the 6.0 as a dd, but with heavy towing, i prefer to not be revving in the 4k range, also i dont believe low end torgue on the v10 is comparable to the low end torque of the 6.0

So i guess for the OP, let me re-itterate the point:
6.0 is junk ive gone through several fixes such as filling my tank up constantly, changing the oil, new treads and a steering wheel cover. had to change the radio station numerous times 2 find something i like as well as turning the volume up or down.
 
#18 ·
I'm sure it's just like the Dodge automatics, there are millions of them on the road, the only things you hear are from the guys who have smoked a few. My experience with the 6.0 at work; hopped in it like any other day, fired it up only to have it sound like it's turning big rocks into little rocks. Shut it off and re-fired, seemed ok. Drove about 1/4 mile and stopped at a stop sign, then the truck would basically only idle or make ugly noise if throttled. Got truck turned around and headed back to the shop and had to coast it in when it quit and wouldn't re-fire. This truck had zero issues up until this and there was nothing that would have led anyone to believe it would do this. It went to the dealer a couple of times over the next month or so, they finally got it running good (better than new actually) and it's been ok since. It is, however, getting harder to start lately, long crank time before firing. My uncle has had his stop running on him while towing his travel trailer. It sucks to spend a couple of days in the middle of nowhere getting you truck repaired so you can finish your trip. His low power and cranks, no fire problems are also completely out of the blue with no indication of problem.

If you do buy one, have the dealer service dept run the vin to see what work has been done to the truck. It might save you from buying a pos.
Travis..
 
#19 ·
possible the low power was the engine saying hey, something might be wrong but ignore me like its nothing and shtf and you thought it went wrong out of the blue. obviously when you ignore the signs of danger, shit goes wrong and can be misconstrued as nothing led anyone to believe it would do this except the 15 other guys that hop in the truck, fire it up to hear rocks grinding and not tell anyone?

btw wheeling66, how will your friend let a 6.0 know its not good? if its a 1vs1 towing, ill care to bet they do damn near the same as eachother.
 
#21 ·
I just got a 2010 CC SD with the V10 in it for a farm truck. So far in 2000 miles I've filled up the tank a few times, and it handles a 14k trailer with no problems.

I did just get rid of my '07 Dodge Cummins on Monday. I had the tranny go out 3 times in 2 weeks (dealership kept "rebuilding" it), and finally I told them they could buy it back from me or put a brand new tranny in it. They end up giving me 1500 less than I paid for it brand new, I took my 35s off it, and gave it back to them. I also drove a 2010 TRX4x4 off the lot with a Hemi in it.

As for the 6.0s all my neighbors that have had them, are now driving dodges with the 5.9 or 6.7 Cummins in them. They were having the turbo, head gasket, injector problems that they are notorious for and only averaging about 12.5MPG on the hwy.

I say get a 2011 Ford and start dumping the Urea in it!!
 
#22 ·
i have owned a 03 6.0 and have a 05 at work both constantly give problems. if you buy a 6.0 plan on doing alot of work to make it reliable.also drive a v10 at work and it is a piece of crap, want pull out of its on tracks.i would never consider owning a v10. the old 7.3 are the best, two or three friends have them and average 18 to 22 mpg.
 
#24 ·
The biggest things are an EGR delete, head studs and an oil cooler/coolant filter. From what I've read/heard, the trucks are fairly reliable after these things are done, however I've never owned a 6.0.

I have an early '99 7.3 myself with 241,000 miles with a Superchip tuner and I run the shit out of it every day I drive it. I put rear differential bearings in it about 10,000 miles ago, and the previous owner put a waterpump on it. Other than that, factory everything. I can't complain.
 
#30 ·
To the OP
I'll pipe in about a good one. I bought an 04 in 06 and it's been hooked to my 53' car trailer ever since. I'm a small town car dealer and usually have about 15-25 units in stock. About every weekend we go somewhere to get more vehicles any where from 400 to 700 miles round trip. It also has the 6 spd manual which is the only way to tow IMHO. This is strictly my tow rig I dont drive it around town. I think this is why it has been a good rig as the 6.0s don't seem to like this kind of driving.
I load it heavy & drive it like I stole it always. It had 46K miles when I got it in 06 and has about 125k on it now. It has only failed me once, it was sitting on my lot & wouldn't start. Turned out to be a plugged EGR cooler.
It is now losing anti freeze (1/2 gal. per 400 miles) and has at least 1 injector not operating right. I have the extended ford warranty and will be using it before long.
The only way to safely buy a 6.0 is to have a ford dealer run the oasis report this will tell the tale. I've checked alot (hundreds) of these and I would say 10% of them were good. I've looking for another F350 crew long 4x4 manual to upgrade my current one for a year now, no luck yet.
I did the full turbo back 4" exhaust, left the airbox stock because of reading alot of testing by banks that showed there was only a marginal gain with their system no one elses was even close to as good as stock. The exhaust was a seat of the pants noticeable improvement. I would not chip one of these without doing at least the head studs & EGR delete you will be begging for trouble if you do.
Sorry if this got long & rambling but I think I know what I'm talking about and wanted to let you know. Do the oasis report find a good one, if you find a bad one you really like buy it cheap enough to do the mods others have suggested. It can be done but it's getting harder, now these 6.0s don't look so bad compared to the mega-buck emission choked newer trucks.
The v10 is a great engine especially 05 or newer but are going to get less MPG like every one has said. I've run the numbers alot and if you give the diesel a 5 mpg advantage and figure true cost of ownership (cost of vehicle, cost of maintenence, resale value' etc) the gasser is cheaper per mile to own unless you are doing alot of towing or racking up some serious miles. This will vary with the cost of fuel vs gas but works to the gassers favor more often.
 
#31 ·
Whats it usually cost to have this oasis report done at the dealer? Also, if I was looking for a good truck would that be a truck that already had all these problems fixed or one that hasnt been to the shop for repairs at all yet?
 
#33 ·
Whats it usually cost to have this oasis report done at the dealer? Also, if I was looking for a good truck would that be a truck that already had all these problems fixed or one that hasnt been to the shop for repairs at all yet?[/QUOTE


I've never been charged for one yet but I do some business with them. I don't think they would charge for it. Call up a ford dealer & ask to talk to the service manager give him the VIN and ask him to run the report.
Seriously don't buy a 6.0 without doing this. If you don't you might as well not even look at it just buy it over the phone sight unseen!

I don't have a problem with one that has been fixed, the ones you want to stay away from are the ones that keep having the same or simular problems over & over again like injectors, egr coolers, oil coolers, etc. Alot of these rigs will be on their 3rd engine, third set of injectors, have repeated egr & head gasket failures. When they read the report you'll know a POS when you hear it.
 
#34 ·
'06 250 w/6.0 90K miles. Lost an ignition control module at about 75K. Replaced in less than an hour under warranty. NO other problems.
Just regular maintenance.
I don't baby it. I drive it like a patrol car.
 
#35 ·
I got my '04 in '07 with 60K on the clock. I had one issue, IPC sensor was bad. The engine is completely stock, with 110K on it now. I did cat and muffler deletes a couple of months ago, and it is obnoxiosly loud with 14K GN from a stop with a LOT of turbo whistle. I'm getting consistant 16-17 mpg daily driving. From all the reading I've done, it seems that if you leave the engine alone (no programmers) and don't drive it for short trips all the time, they do better. I'd buy another one when the time comes, if the deal is right. Ain't skeered.
 
#36 ·
Id get a 7.3L those 6.0s are like russian roulette you may lucky and have a good one or you may get a bad one, 7.3ls can be tuned to get the power of a 6.0 real easily and if you do some basic preventative mods on the 7.3L she will last a long time. and not to mention you can make a 99-03 7.3L SD look like the 05-07s and its not very expensive to do.
 
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