You make a $2-3K job seem ordinary. If the oil cooler goes it could destroy the block. Most of these trucks have oil cooler failure at about 80-90K miles.
Go do yourself a favor and buy a scan gauge or other monitor and see what your EOT/ECT temps are. More than 15* and you're due for an oil cooler job too. You won't be so smug after paying out $2-3K to fix Ford's screw-up.
That's the problem. You can't tell it's done the damage until its too late. Looking back on it, when we were running 6ls it's like we should have had a laptop or some kind of diagnostic tool hooked to them to warn us.
Anyone who thinks the 6l problems are lore oughta do some reading outside of the brand loyal ford websites, like this one. Get the truth on the lawsuits and how IH and ford knew these motors were a problem. It doesn't seem like lore when you write the check knowing it reduces your hard earned savings by thousands of dollars. I didnt seem like lore when I had to put off purchases on equipment I wanted to make because of repairs to these trucks. Currently I have a 6.4l ford, which may be worse. I had it in for repairs months ago under warranty and the mechanic, who is a buddy of mine, took me aside and strongly suggested I buy the extended warranty because my rocker arms are about to let go at 60,000 miles. That's pathetic. And the 6.4l was supposed to be the answer for the 6l. It's just a different engine with a different set of expensive problems.
Here's some independent published material from Wikipedia that just scratches the surface. No sales figures, no rah rah, no bashing, just observations if you don't believe my personal experiences with the 6l and 6.4l:
"Some of the problems encountered, was the possibility of the variable geometry turbo charger to stick due to carbon deposits and/or rust buildup. This could potentially cause over boost and under boost conditions, which could lead to headgasket failure. Other problems include sticking exhaust gas recirculation valves, restricted oil coolers, which lead to leaking EGR coolers, and in turn blown headgasket.
Carbon deposits can be an issue with any engine with EGR, but had a tendency to lead to a domino effect of problems for the 6.0.
Most of the problems with the 6.0 were all caused by the domino effect. For example, Ford uses sand cast molds; the residual sand in the system would clog the oil cooler, in turn taking out the EGR cooler with it because both use coolant in their design to function properly. When the EGR cooler failed, it would pump coolant through the engine. If enough coolant entered the engine, it would stretch the head bolts allowing the head gaskets to blow. These trucks mainly got a bad reputation because of repeat failures. These repeat failures were due to improper service bulletins. When Ford first started experiencing problems with the EGR coolers, it was not standard procedure to also replace the oil cooler. This led to many repeat failures until Ford found the domino effect and implemented new standards for fixing the trucks."
Also read this link. Not real in depth, but gives you an overview.
Common 6.0L Power Stroke Problems
I like ford not taking a lot of bailout money and surviving the horrible recession we continue to muddle through. I always look at ford vehicles when I buy for business or personal use. I am not a loyalist to any brand. Instead, I recognize that certain vehicles of any brand were less reliable than others. GM's early diesels were not good engines. They weren't so much unreliable as they were a disappointment. Ford raised the bar with the 7.3l when it came out. GM responded with the duramax and Allison transmission which raised the bar again. Ford responded with the 6l which was a disappointment and really didn't make a good power curve down low, either. Now GM has the edge in reliability over the last 10 years. Now ford has a new diesel. It will take time to tell if its a winner.
I have run both brands of diesels side by side since the mid 90's and I can tell you I've written way more checks to ford than GM for power train and overall repairs.
There was a guy who used to hang out here on this forum with thousands of posts. Can't remember name, but I remember him once saying something like " if you just replace the head gaskets and head bolts it's a reliable engine !!!"
Why should the customer have to do that? Why doesn't ford/IH do it when the built it? Not a bash, just a question. Why didn't they clean out the casting sand? Too stupid or cheap to do it? Those are the questions that should be answered.
