Diesel truck discussion

trade it for a Ford 7.3L would get my vote. You will notice that A LOT of tow companies, and just fleets in general have been migrating back to gassers in the past few years. A friend of mine traded all his diesel F-550 wreckers for V-10's and he's MUCH happier to have all his trucks actually on the road earning money all the time instead of each of them spending a month per year on average in the shop just costing him money.

 

Are you loosing coolant? Your trouble strikes my memory as something I may have read regarding that engine. There was a slight coolant leak which corroded one of the sensor plugs. I may be way off base here.

 

The new 7.3 gasser is impressive on paper. I crawled under the hood of a coworkers. There is a ton of room all around that engine.

Looks to be a pleasure to work on.

 

Yes...almost everybody that runs fleets of 3/4 and 1 ton trucks!
UPS and FedEx going back to mainly gassers on their route trucks too...

 

Unfortunately, ford has been struggling for many years to make a dependable diesel.

 

I seriously considered a 5.7 Toyota Tundra or a Chevy 6.0 gasser. The Tundra ran short on payload and just wasn’t up to my towing needs(while hauling a family of 5). The chevy, well I’m not a big late model chevy fan, and have worked on the neighbor’s enough I didn’t care for it. If I had found a screaming deal I’d do it, but I went with old reliable 7.3 psd. 01 ccsb. Very happy with the choice. I could buy 6 or 7 for the cost of a new f250. I do my own maintenance, so no big deal there. I do agree gassers are bridging the gap, but as far as a 300-500k rig. Better be a diesel. Most folks don’t keep them that long, do it doesn’t matter.

Fwiw, my rancher friend has two duramaxs. She hates the 2018, loves the older one. Go figure. She offered to trade the ‘18 in 2018 for a early 2000s with under 100k. She hated it that much.

 

Ups used to run the ford I6. Fairly slow, but man so reliable! I see a lot of transit vans around here too using the ecoboost engines.

 

Absolutely. From the real world mountain testing towing a trailer, it seems to be the real deal too. I am very likely going to replace my Caddy with a new truck in the next six months. A real truck engine with push rods definitely has my attention. Especially since my work pays my fuel bill

 

6.4l run hpfp at ragged edge. when it goes you have to clean the entire fuel system from fuel tank forward when replacing pump. they tend to implode sending tiny shards everywhere which then mucks up the injectors. On that unit the fuel is used to power the injectors vs the 6.0 that used crankcase oil. 6.4l HPFP is unique to that unit as well.

 

Had a 99 v10 F350 with 4.77 gears auto trany . 8mpg in town and 10 Hwy. That unit could pull about anything- but sure did empty the wallet quick at fill up time. I have 03 6.0 get an honest 18 mpg Hwy

 

I'm hearing a bulletproofed 6.0 is actually pretty stout...

 

I've heard mixed reviews. I have a friend that is a Ford diesel mechanic, but he really knows his crap. Not your normal dealer tech knowledge of diesels. He strongly objected to my thoughts of buying a 6.0 and bullet proofing it a few years ago.

 

Yeah I don't think too many people were fans after how things worked out when they were new...but as the bulletproofed 6.0's have had time and miles to prove themselves, many people have changed their minds on them...and prices on the 6.0 trucks have rebounded greatly too! Almost couldn't give them away at one point!

 

most of the used trucks have rebounded quite a bit- new ones are insanely pricy. a totally decked out 3/4 or 1 ton can bunp off the $100k mark with out adding in loan costs, if you go that way.

 

Full bullet proofing a 6.0l Ford diesel $6-15,000, depending on components used and who does the work. Its 10k just for a re-manf. long block. You can only get re-manf, injectors apx $1600 for a set at present. HPOP $900, fuel pressure regulator and sensor ( for some reason that sensor is not to robust- seems to be an industry problem) about $600 for the set. glow plugs apx $70 for a set. You will need a new wiring harness for these & the injectors also. I forget the inter cooler, oil cooler and up pipe prices, Turbos start at apx $1500. Base on the fly tuner apx$400 ( 2 canned programs economy and tow). if you want to do it right double O ring and stud the heads after checking heads for cracks and resurfacing if they pass inspection. EGR & cat. delet is minor but EPA is breathing down everyones necks on this. Open up exhaust 4" min.
One other note only use Ford oem oil filter cap- NAPA and some others are incorrectly made - allow oil to circulate by passing filter cartridge- spells premature death for injectors and hpfp ( actually this is called HPOP high pressure Oil Pump in the 6.0)-- I do not have my heads studded (cats and EGR are deleted)- if they go south I guess I will have back track to 7.3 ( wiring harness for the 7.3 are almost impossible to find at present) or the v10 as I do not think I can find anything worthwhile with my beloved 6.9 ( over 300,000 miles never unbuttoned it- red death ate the rest of it away). That was pretty much an unmolested International design- almost bullet proof OEM. Mine was rather cold hearted - luck of the draw. I have apx $10k in my 6.0, hopefully it will out last me at this point. ( ya right).

 

But being a dealer tech did he ever get to work on bullet proofed trucks? I’m pretty sure the dealers here wouldn’t allow one on the lot.

Knock on wood they haven’t changed the HPFP yet. Mechanic found a harness plug loose that was causing the codes after the previous work. I have to say the new Chevy 6.6l and Ford 7.3l gassers are looking interesting. You might need to fill up more often but economy gas is much cheaper than diesel so...

 

He does, or did a lot of side work on diesels. He used to have a shop he shared where he worked out of as well.

 

Cheaper to buy, cheaper to maintain and repair...and with the gasser fuel mileage going up, and diesel mileage dropping, I don't see the advantage anymore...unless maybe you are towing heavy, and often. And when you figure that diesel prices are at least a dollar per gallon more...I can see why fleet owners have largely switched over...especially when you factor in that the diesel reliability has dropped...and not just any shop can work on them...not good when you are stuck out in BFE.

 

I think over 2/3 of our mileage on that truck is highway towing with 6-10k. That’s not a terribly heavy trailer but it’s enough to keep mpg down. Doing the math, it seems paying $2.90 at 12mpg (current diesel truck) vs $2.35 at 8mpg (new big block gasser) only saves .05 per mile. Which is $5,000 per 100,000 miles. So there is no fuel economy argument. There hasn’t been one for years really. It’s actually about paying more up front and in maintenance for gobs of torque and some range.

One wildcard: the new big block gassers have a lot of tuning potential. Once their warranty is up, a tuner and a few airflow mods could wake them up noticeably. It it won’t cost $3k in labor to make those changes.

 

I've been running diesel cars and trucks for 20+ years. Typically diesel fuel runs 10-30% higher. Never have i seen diesel more than 30% higher in our area. (Its been 10% more since the beginning of the year)
Diesels pickups easily get 10-30% better mileage. Towing heavy, like our camper, i get 50-90% more miles per gallon than the 6.4 ram that my BIL runs.
5-8 mpg 6.4l gasser vs 11-13 mpg cummins.. our campers are similar weight 11-12 k

(Yes my bil gets near 5 mpg towing from Harrisburg to Altoona. And 7 the other direction)