Sorry, couldn't resist... - Page 3

twogone · 02-13-2014, 12:48 PM

This one's for you Mike... I promise... no more

Ford_6L_E350 · 02-13-2014, 02:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by twogone

This one's for you Mike... I promise... no more

Fortunately, no car payments.

And I like my 6.0. Don't know exactly why, but I like it. Probably, if I stayed home my van would never fail. I've been towed 50+ miles in the Yukon, Nova Scotia, British Columbia, Death Valley and South Dakota. AAA paid for them all. I don't think AAA likes me anymore.

Mike

WhitH · 02-13-2014, 02:46 PM

So you're the reason my AAA rates have gone up, it all makes sense now... Mike, how many miles total on yours now? Is your handle still pretty accurate at 111K ish?

Ford_6L_E350 · 02-13-2014, 02:49 PM

Close, I'm at 113K.

Mike

86Scotty · 02-13-2014, 03:01 PM

I don't want to add insult to injury but a friend of mine has an F450? diesel flatbed he bought for his landscaping company. 6.0, stays filthy, he doesn't have time to maintain it, he lets tons of college age landscapers of various un-education and skill run the piss out of it, and it runs great. He never does anything to it. It's got way over 100k on it. I don't get it either, even knowing this I would be afraid to buy one.

WhitH · 02-13-2014, 03:11 PM

That seems to be the deal, sometimes they workout great except for when they don't. The only consistent thing is the inconsistency. The guys here who have had bad experiences and have posted about them recently, no doubt kept very good care of theirs...and they kept braking. I've also heard stories like you just mentioned which just leaves you scratching your head. For now, I really love mine and all I can do is be vigilant with maintenance, watch my temps when climbing or pushing it a bit, and hope for the best. I'd love to be able to report as many miles as Mike someday..but hopefully with a couple fewer AAA tows...

tildadog · 02-13-2014, 07:33 PM

Looks like you can have your 6.0 and your Unicorn!

BajaSportsmobile · 02-13-2014, 11:23 PM

It is like everything, you only hear about the ones with problems, and then assume it must be all of them because it is all of them that you hear about. That's all.

Ocsmb · 02-13-2014, 11:38 PM

I would say that statement about consistency nails it.

I've consistently heard that 6.0s have inconsistent reliability and 7.3 are consistently reliable.

carringb · 02-14-2014, 08:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BajaSportsmobile

It is like everything, you only hear about the ones with problems, and then assume it must be all of them because it is all of them that you hear about. That's all.

I agree, most of them don't have problems. But what is an acceptable exception rate? Based on the people and fleets I know that run them, it's at least 1/3rd and maybe even close to half under some applications. By 200,000 miles my observation is a 100% exception rate. Feel free to prove me wrong if you can find one example of a 6.0 with over 200,000 miles without at least an EGR cooler, turbo, or injectors. Most of the shuttle buses I've browsed with that many miles have a complete reman engine.

Remember how bad the the reputation was for 90's Taurus transmissions? Its exception rate was only 15% (within 5 yrs) but people started avoiding them like the plague for the simple fact there were other options with a lower failure rate.

Not only that, the average cost of repair is pretty high too. The Ford/Navistar 6.4L has a much lower exception rate, but a much higher average repair cost compared to the 6.4L because of the higher percentage of repairs that require a complete new motor. The trend is even continuing with the Ford-built 6.7L. It doesn't have many problems, but when it does it's probably dropped valves or worse a failed injection pump (Bosch CP4) which is also having problems in GMs and VWs, so the point the NHTSA is investigating because when it fails, it can cause nearly immediate seizing of the engine. At least the 6.0 lets you pull out of traffic.

http://www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/acms/cs...003-50102P.pdf

The OEMs have been quietly reducing injection pressure to get them through the warranty period, but that doesn't give me confidence that buying a used one won't result an $20,000 fuel pump repair. If the Transit diesel has the CP4, it would be an instant no-go for me.