2004 Ford Diesel

[Sourdough]

Coming back from hunting trip, truck started billowing white smoke.  Smelled of antifreeze.  Took 1 1/2 gal of coolant to fill.  Stopped every 50 miles and put in 1 1/2 gal of water, till I got home.  300 mile trip.  100 miles between towns.  Took it into the shop this morning.  Leaking head gasket, leaking into ERG system.  Causing ERG to spring a leak.  Pressurized ERG leaked into the injection system.  Putting coolant into the fuel.

Repairs needed:  Repair ERG system leak.  Replace head gaskets.  Check heads to make sure they are not warped.  Remove Catalytic Converter, not required in Alaska, and will improve mileage.  Damage to my wallet,  $7,200.00 if they can reuse the heads.  Truck has 60,000 miles, but warranty expired last year.

Anyone else have this problem?

[KP]

Rog,
 
What bad luck! Were you coming back from the 40 Mile caribou hunt? At least you made it back home.
 
I heard of a few bad news stories with those 6.0 at the 60K to 80K mark. Thats why I traded mine in even though I really like my '06. I hear the new 6.7 Ford is a real work horse.
 
KP

[Lloyd Smale]

man that sucks. Its one bad thing about diesels. there great trucks but when they break they break you!

[lakota]

I remember there being a lot of problems with the 6.0 diesels when ford starting putting them in their ambulance chasis. I recall there being some kind class action lawsuit over those 6.0 Diesels.

[hillbill]

my parents run with a bunch of folks that were using the 6.0 trucks to pull their heavy slant load horse trailers with. several of the 6.0 engines scattered their guts all over the hiway.these were relatively low mileage vehicles. from 30 to 60 k on the clock.under warrenty. in almost all cases ford told the owners to screw off and they were not going to fix them.the excuse they used was that the fuel had water in it and it wasnt their problem.which seems odd to me because ive been around diesel trucks, farm machinery and construction equipment all my life. both operating and wrenching on.in all the cases ive seen, water in the fuel just plugs up the filter, change filters and your good to go.why ford put a filter on their trucks that cant separate water from fuel even as good the stock filter on say a 1958 caterpillar dozer is beyond me.and why they would piss off these folks who were repeat customers and routinely purchased a 30 to 40 thousand dollar truck every few years is also a mystery.
my dad has tried to sell his f450 with the 6.0 in it with no luck.

[30-30man]

I've noticed that the Ford 6.0 in the f250 etc.  is much cheaper on dealers lots and this is for a reason.  I love to keep trucks till they hot 200k, but in this case patch it together and trade it in.  International made a big problem for Ford in the 6.0 and 6.4.  Get rid of it as it won't be worth the repairs because it will just happen again.  Ford knew there was a problem from the start with this motor.  You might try to get Ford to fix it at 1/2 the expense but i doubt they will do that.  Ford hated the 6.0 as it ruined their ratings and costed them millions in warranty repairs.  They did the same thing with the 4.2 gas motor.  They couldn't keep head gaskets on that one either.

[max1138]

feel sorry for you man, those 6.0 diesels are the reason ford doesnt use navistar/international diesel engines anymore. they are known to give up early and often. the older 7 liter motors were almost unbreakable, the recommended tear down interval was 300k for new rings and inserts.
 look around, theres got to be some aftermarket companies sharp enough to make money selling upgraded parts to make it reliable, banks turbo or one of the other tuner companies may have a fix for it and keep you from being out a big wad again, tho that would def hurt my feelings with a 7k+ repair bill.   
 for that kind of change a gas crate motor would be an option,

[hillbill]

update on what i said before. my dad found a guy up near springield mo that said he could bullet proof a 6.0 motor for 3k.i did not talk to him but my brother went with him and did.he sounded confident he could fix what wrong inherently with it and make it a good motor.he tore it down and found one of the head gaskets on this low mileage truk was close to blowing.a new head was 1800$ but we didnt need that.he went thru it and dad piked it up. runs good, but with no increase of mpg like he promised. also a prob with the gauges in the dash but that may  be related to the air bags he had installed in the rear suspension.onboard air compressor and all. time will tell and we will see.if it works it will be way cheaper than tradeing truks.if it dont, well yur talkin a 10k motor swap.myself i dont have a lot of faith in modern deisel pickup engines.the old ones yu cud fix yurself. i just get sik of listening to guys tell about the repair bills on the new ones.

[Hooker]

Having had a lot of experience with the 6.0 I call them the Sick Oh.
With half the head bolts that the old 7.3 had and a lot more boost they were head popping nightmares.
This is the engine that caused Ford to break away from Navistar (International Harvester) and produce their own in house diesel.

Pat
 

[hillbill]

Having had a lot of experience with the 6.0 I call them the Sick Oh.
With half the head bolts that the old 7.3 had and a lot more boost they were head popping nightmares.
This is the engine that caused Ford to break away from Navistar (International Harvester) and produce their own in house diesel.

Pat
 

ahhh now i see the prob. half the head bolts and more boost would explain a lot.i have not worked on one and dont plan to if i can avoid it. ill bet the new engine will have just as bad inherent defects tho also.

[chefjeff]

Folks here love the 7.3,and the old dodge cummins,but the duramax rules.I think ford has the tougher truck,engines aside.The chevy is so doggone ugly,the dodge interior fails faster than others. With diesel so high per gallon,You have to really need one for pulling power to justify it.

[Sourdough]

OK for the whole story on the engine.

Intercooler sprung a leak.  Sprayed coolent into the ERG valve.  The ERG valve pulls exhaust gasses, cools them through the intercooler then injects them into the engine to prevent engine knock.  The coolent was sprayed along with the exhaust gases into the intake system and injected into the engine.  The cooler coolent caused the heads to warp.  Had to have the engine totally rebuilt from the block up.  All the emissions equipment, (required by California) has been removed.  Once I get it rebroke in the milage should go up.  I should have no further trouble with this engine now.  We'll see.

[j104wd]

hate to hear the bad luck. I hope your mechanic installed the arp head stud kit to replace the factory bolts. the egr system casuses a lot of problems on these trucks with mileage they clog up and cause damage to the cooler. best option is to have a egr delete kit added you have to also get a tuner so the service engine soon light doesnt come on. with head studs and egr delete plus removing the cat it makes it a reliable motor shame you have to invest 3000 to make it that way considering the 5000-6000 diesel option you already paid for

[Sourdough]

Forgot to come back and let you know what it finally cost.  $10 K  That really hurt.

[hillbill]

Forgot to come back and let you know what it finally cost.  $10 K  That really hurt.

wow! ill bet that did hurt! ford has a lot of balls to put out a product so crappy and leave the customer hung out to dry.not that any of the rest of them are any better tho.but ive never seen the kind of outrage like ive seen over the 6.0 ford engine.

[Ranger99]

don't buy a light truck diesel unless
you pull a heavy load daily


don'y buy a 3/4 or 1 ton truck unless
you pull heavy loads daily


i'll bet 50 percent of the 3/4 or 1 ton
trucks on the road never get loaded
to even half of their carrying capacity




sorry you had to learn such a costly
lesson. 




ps  if you buy a new vehicle, always
buy the most expensive *factory*
extended warranty (not aftermarket)
available