Replacing my F250 5.4. Diesel or not? Help!

Sounds like he wants a 3/4 ton for towing duties. I have a new F150 Ecoboost and love it, but its probably not up to towing big loads.

No idea why someone would drop 22 large on an 11 year old truck with probably 100K+ miles, but I guess he has his reasons.

 

I have an '03 f250 6.0. I've been through just about everything with it from EGR to injectors, to studs and full bulletproofing.

The 7.3 motor is a workhorse, but is slow and the transmissions suck. The 6.0 can blow, bit if set up correctly are great...Including transmissions. The 6.4 was a bad apple, but the newer 6.7's seem to be solid.

 

If the 5.4 serves you well then there is no reason not to get a newer 6.2 if you don't ever plan on towing anything heavier than you do now. The diesel is a $8K upgrade from the 6.2 but you'll also recoup some of that cost on resale. I do know the 6.2 is a thirsty engine compared to Ram/GM but don't know how it compares to your 2 valve 5.4, probably the same since the 6.2 has a 6spd.

Some numbers for you
2001 5.4L - 260 hp 350 lb·ft

2011-16 6.2L - 385 hp, 405 lb·ft
2017+ 6.2L - 385 hp, 430 lb·ft

2005+ 6.0L - 325 hp, 570 lb·ft

Driving a diesel is a completely different experience than a gas because of where they make their power. Mine is not stock, it has a full exhaust and tuned. I spent the $150 on custom tunes and love it. I have a high HP tune which great for city driving as it locks the torque in more than 5th gear and helps reduce shifting. I also have a tune designed for up to 13K that I've used traveling all over country when I did RV hotshot, no problems going up west coast mountains, etc.

Here's a link to a thread that discusses all diesels and I gave my thoughts on the 6.0 I own somewhere in there.
http://forums.13x.com/index.php?threads/older-diesel.342516/#post-5057208

 

I can see $100 for oil if you're using high end oil but $150 for fuel filters?

 

I would only own any new diesel while it is under warranty, and I do not care who built it. Otherwise, the 6.2 gas is a great replacement to the dog that the 5.4 was.

 

+1 on the V10. The newer '08 -10 V10's are 3 valve vs the original 2 valve.

 

All good input. Thanks.
My Featherlite is a hair over 2000lbs unloaded so even with my Exige in it not much over 4500lbs. The horse trailer is also aluminum, a two horse with dressing room Sundowner gooseneck and we never haul more than one horse.
The "dog" 5.4 has been very good overall.
Pulling my trailer from Virginia to Daytona two years ago it got about 8mpg but I was flowing in the fast lane the whole trip. Used some oil as well but it was over 285000 before the trip started
Seems like diesel ownership has diehard fans. I don't stress my truck much and have been between 12-13 mpg since new. Resale has never concerned me as I keep my stuff until it is basically worthless and have all but given the last two and probably this one too to someone in need for next to nothing.
Maybe I am naive thinking trucks under 100k miles are low mileage based on my getting far more than that from mine.
Thanks to the two WERA guys for contacting me about their trucks as I would love to buy from within our community. But both were dually long beds and just more serious heavy work horses than I need
Midway through this thread I figured the "bulletproofed" 6.0 diesel Lariat was probably my best option at what would probably be $20k
That said, I have not started checking dealers for exactly what I would like to find which would be a new version of what I have. A crew cab 4x4 F250 four wheel non dually, 7ft bed, gas powered v8 Lariat package truck. I like white with the goldish looking bottom trim and as a luxury item I see some even have sunroofs.
so that is a best case scenario
Though I am guessing that even if I find exactly that I am back up to double that nice 06 diesel 6.0 which would do the job nicely.
I guess I need to figure out how many miles I have left in me...

 

Here's a big reason why the 6.0's has the problems. Count the studs in the 7.3 vs the 6.0.
Ford decreased engine size, but increased power by 200 hp or whatever and reduced the number of studs by half almost.
Which caused blown head gaskets so easily.
New studs as part of 'bulletproofing' doesn't fix the bad design

 

My 6.0 has been pretty reliable about leaving me on the side of the road every 6 months. Always electronics, last time was the FICM, don't know yet why it quit last week. Injectors are shit, too. The engine itself has always been fine but given the puny state of tune they use in the vans that's no surprise.

 

If it is not a Cummins. ..buy a gas...my opinion. Ford and Chevrolet doesn't have a diesel worth a crap!

 

Thanks for that. I have 230k on my 6.0 with little to no issues, but it is largely stock and I baby it for the most part. Gonna order one of these just in case.

 

yes great but the 7.3s run stupid high injector pressure and guess what happens when one fails (which a daily driven unit will experience at least once a month...lol)?

I would rather spend $2500 once over the course of 300,000+ trouble free miles on a 6.0 vs nickel & diming a 7.3 for less than 200,000. (hindsight...lol)

I will say this... if you are on the road alot & want 2-300,000 miles out of a unit, the upfront acquisition cost of a diesel truck is peanuts compared to the operating budget of fuel, tires, oil, etc on the back end. Just got rid of a 2006 XL crew cab 6.0 with 360,000, last summer, for $5500. The cost of the truck was ~$34000 when new.

 

The IH ford diesels blow head gaskets due to not enough clamp load from poor design. happens to stock motors .

You want stone reliable? Cummins is the answer, followed by DMax.

Not just my info; four machine shops in the area confirm it, along with cracked heads and pstons as the norm on the fords.

On top of those issues, they have that over complicated hydro-electric injector system that multiplies problems.

The Cummins is already 'bullet -proofed"

 

This thread is like a tire thread...What do you have? Well that must be the best! I only listen to folks who have had problems then try to decipher if it was them or the machine....

 

Most of the 6.0 'problems' can be found ahead of time with a good set of gauges. I use the edge CTS gauges which gives digital readout of all the sensors in the truck with alarms that go of when something falls below limit. I also installed a pyrometer and fuel pressure gauge to monitor those.

The most probable cause of a FICM failure is low voltage Battery voltage putting pressure on the FICM

 

A local diesel shop owner I was talking to recently has said that the 6.7 Cummins has had it's share of issues. He rarely see's the 5.9L in for anything other than maintenance, but has done quite a few head gaskets on the 6.7's.

 

I just picked up a leftover 2016 F-250 6.2L Gas. I really wanted a diesel, but after running the numbers, the return wasn't there for me. If you do a lot of towing, then it may pay off. An older diesel, however, has a much better payoff. The cost of the DEF (for newer diesels) and slightly higher fuel price made the break-even point over 100K miles, and that is not even taking into account the increased cost of oil changes and consumables like the water-separator/filter. So far I am averaging 11.4mpg....yikes, but that 8-10k price difference buys a lot of gas.

 

Have you considered the Titan XD with the Cummins 5.0?

Word on the street is they haven't been selling well and dealers are discounting them like crazy to try and move them......I'm seeing up to 30% off MSRP on some dealers websites, but not sure if/what all those incentives entail.

However, I've heard of some teething issues with the transmission programming and the fact that some owners are complaining that it consumes DEF at an alarming rate.

 

Well of course it's always the owners fault, it's the way of the internets.