So it begins

[L8 APEX]

Well at 73K plus miles I now have a noticable slip in the 1-2 shift. So my tranny is going South:icon_sad:. Just about the time I get my head above water here comes a 3K dollar ride back to the bottom:hammer:. Oh well I should know better than anyone that performance ain't free. Now I need to decide wether or not I am going to plan on keeping this truck past 100K. That will determine how much I put into the rebuild. I think I stretched the head bolts pretty good on the Colorado trip. She pukes coolant at will now. It may be time to look for a new truck:icon_eek:. I hate moving trucks since I build into them so completely. It is a lot of **** to remove and mess with...

[tiffo60]

no warranty?

[L8 APEX]

3/36K on the drivetrain and 100K on the engine. But with a pillar pod and NX license plate frame they would void it anyway. I think the 20" wheels did it, vanity has its price...

[tiffo60]

going up and down those passes in colorado could have played a part in it too if you were pulling a trailer

[slick-svt]

Here's an idea.....Leave it stock???...:eek:

[tiffo60]

Here's an idea.....Leave it stock???...:eek:

blasphemous:flaming:

[Wht95Lightning]

Here's an idea.....Leave it stock???...:eek:


You need a psychological evaluation immediately.

[slick-svt]

I knew that would get everyone's attention the word stock does not excist on this forum......:rll:

[L8 APEX]

I don't know if the grade braking feature wears on the clutches or not. I think it is the WOT up shifts. Probably some with the trailer. I guess it is just too much for stock parts. I am pretty easy on it for the most part. I rarely go WOT from a stop, fuel and tires are too expensive. When you have 8K lbs running low 14's something has to suffer.
I don't think I will ever learn or be able to leave anything alone. The only power mods are tuner and 4" exhaust, not like I replaced the turbo, injectors or anything major. Stock trucks suck wind.

[99bolt]

Yep stock 6.0's are strechting head bolts. My 03 made it to 85,000 plus before I had a problem. The 06 started having problems off the bat. Had the 06 apart with 22,500 on the clock. The 99 lightning is aanother story. It has 160,000 on the clock and made the colorado trip with no problems. A 4-wheeler in the bed and one on a 5x10 trailer with gear. There and back without a hicup.

[mikelemoine]

Well at 73K plus miles I now have a noticable slip in the 1-2 shift. So my tranny is going South:icon_sad:. Just about the time I get my head above water here comes a 3K dollar ride back to the bottom:hammer:. Oh well I should know better than anyone that performance ain't free. Now I need to decide wether or not I am going to plan on keeping this truck past 100K. That will determine how much I put into the rebuild. I think I stretched the head bolts pretty good on the Colorado trip. She pukes coolant at will now. It may be time to look for a new truck:icon_eek:. I hate moving trucks since I build into them so completely. It is a lot of **** to remove and mess with... Sounds like you need a bigger turbo to compensate for the leaking heads and slipping tranny :evil. There is a member selling a built trans for $1800 on here, will it fit your truck? Sorry to hear the bad news..

[L8 APEX]

Ah, if its got tits or tires its gonna be trouble. The F250 runs a 5R110 transmission. I will build my own I learned not to buy other shops stuff back with my Lightning. I smoked my Level 10 in a week and an Art Carr shortly after that. I just started doing it in house.

[dboat]

Terry, for me the real question is whether or not any of the newer stuff is any better than what you have now. IIRC, there are issues with the current version of the diesel in the F250 that are just as bad or worse. You are getting closer to having this one paid off, so why not just mod-up what you have and then go for a bigger turbo etc on the engine and do a fix on it as well too? What would you have to do to the engine to reduce the leaks, etc? new head bolts or a complete rebuild?

Dana

[L8 APEX]

A lot of it is time and reliability. Donnie is building his up and I cna't do what he is doing. His truck has been at Elite Diesel in Colorado for two+ months and is another month out. He spent about 10K for the first phase to fix the head gaskets and injectors. Two weeks after his build the engine started puking again and his $2K dollar Spearco intercooler busted a seam. So we dropped it off for repairs and trans work when we went up for our ATV trip. This round will be another 10K or so. I can't spend another 20K and three months to fix it. I don't have a shop and diesel work ain't easy or cheap. I am thinking about selling the trailer and truck and getting another toy since I don't need it like I once did.

I think the TruTrac diff gave me so much traction it ate the trans up.

[dboat]

I had no idea that it was that much $$ involved.. I was thinking that the F250 was my next vehicle after the L goes down.. now I would have to reconsider that option. Thankfully, the L is going well and only has 44k on the odometer and , thanks to you, is really still stock reliable.. I still want to do some more mods to the truck, but not sure what else I can really do and keep the reliability where I want it.. I did do a HE upgrade recently. I wouldnt mind doing the whipple upgrade but not sure that I want to risk the bottom end just yet.
Dana

I do have to say that I had the opportunity to drive a Subie WRX 5 door with a 5 speed and found it a lot of fun and it can scoot too.. it was a nice ride and I can see why people buy them.

[L8 APEX]

I spoke with my Ford guy today. He has a 03 6L as well. He said his engine lost head gaskets at 72K as well. They replaced his whole engine and he paid them 1000 extra to do ARP studs at the same time. That was in May, the remand motor had a crank failure in July so now he is on his 3rd motor under warranty. He recommended I put it back to stock and take it in for head replacement. His head diesel tech told him if he didn't stud it to expect to be back in another 70K due to head bolt stretch. So he studded it.

[mikelemoine]

I spoke with my Ford guy today. He has a 03 6L as well. He said his engine lost head gaskets at 72K as well. They replaced his whole engine and he paid them 1000 extra to do ARP studs at the same time. That was in May, the remand motor had a crank failure in July so now he is on his 3rd motor under warranty. He recommended I put it back to stock and take it in for head replacement. His head diesel tech told him if he didn't stud it to expect to be back in another 70K due to head bolt stretch. So he studded it. Seems like if you reinforce the top end, then the bottom end goes faster. I guess its gonna go out sometime either way when you mod it, just have to decide which option sucks the least!:(

[L8 APEX]

The bottom ends are solid it is just the stock stretch head bolts that are failing. The only thing anyone is breaking is oil pump gears at high HP high RPM.

[Moonshine]

Grrrrr:flaming:. I'm at 67k, so I suppose all this is right around the corner for me. Pretty, sad, as the biggest reason that I bought this truck was for the supposed durability. Also sad to realize that my L., even with spitting plugs and defective intercooler, has been the most reliable and durable Ford product I've ever owned. If the SD takes a premature dump I may have to swear off Fords for another decade or two. Last time they pissed me off I stayed away from Fords for 14 years.

[L8 APEX]

I knew the 6L was a flawed motor when I bought it. I think it was common knowledge among the truck community. It was still the lesser of the evils when I bought it. It was rumored that they fixed most of the issues by 2005. I figured I would be okay as long as I had a warranty over me, which is to 100K. I planned to own the truck 3 years and trade out at 80-90K. The EPA has brought the modern diesel to its knees. They have made so many restrictions the engines have become twice as expensive and unreliable to boot. EGR valves, particle traps, regeneration cycles are all against all that is diesel. I don't know what the answer is at this point. It looks like the old 7.3L PSD is the last reliable engine made by Ford. Ford made a lot of changes to the new 6.4L it has 15 fluid coolers, 5/8" head studs, thicker decks, twice the water pump, they addressed head and overheating problems by at least 200% on the new truck. Duramax seems to be doing well with the new restrictions but their trucks are IFS 4wd and kinda ugly and quiet. Dodge is on a new engine for 07 no telling what it will do. Also the Cummins doesn't pull RPM's like the V8 diesels do. I love my smooth exhaust note and high rpm's.

[Ohmsby]

I am out of a DD Diesel for the first time in my life because the new diesel's are at best a crap shoot with all the added BS on them

I bought a Denali and am enjoying it

[L8 APEX]

The question is what to do for a reliable work truck? I thought about stepping back down to a half ton but how would I haul my trailer or build my house etc? I like having the 3/4 ton capacity. I don't think I could afford to feed a V10. Those also have zero resale value.. If anything I would probably look at a Duramax in a GMC body.

[03LightningRocks]

I am in the same boat Terry. I need a heavy duty truck for work/play purposes. My F250 is beginning to show signs of trouble. Nothing major, but my milage just dropped off by almost 4mpg for no apparent reason. I have some kind of weird sh!t going on with the front suspension. My fricking wipers just come on for the hell of it intermitently. The brake system is doing some weird stuff. The tranny occasionally shifts funky going into third. I plan to take it in, but with only 50K on the ODO, I shouldn't be dealing with bullsh!t issues yet...IMHO. Oh and I almost forgot...the brake controller had to be replaced at 3000 miles.

Rocks

[L8 APEX]

Here is something from diesel garage forum. I waited too long to cap off my EGR line it never puked until the pull home from Talon Fall Classic last year. Running 1200 degree exhaust over your engine coolant is plain stupid:hammer:

We all know we live with this coolant puking problem, some of us in stock form, mild form and specially those beating their motors with a 10lb maul!

EGR is the number one problem on the list, Ford designed the Exhaust gasses that get recirculated into your engine for a better enviroment to get cooled by an EGR cooler, the EGR cooler is only 1 3/4" thick. The exhaust gasses are getting so high the coolant is actually getting Flash boiled, remember this is the same coolant that is supposed to cool your engine down. My solution is to leave the stock EGR plug in the sensor, and block off the exhaust part of the system. We can start a "NEW" thread about HOW-TO plug your system if you guys want.

Second, I do recommend the switch from head bolts to Head studs, as the design of the 6.0 head only carries 10 MAIN bolts, and 5 smaller ones. Their pressure capacity from Factory is 195,000 PSI, they are NOT holding up, and stretching and causing the head in it's weak areas to actually lift upwards and seperating and losing contact with the engine deck surface. Cylinder Pressure will find the least restrictive point of exit, and you got it, it's finding your cooling passages in your head to leak cylinder compression into. This is causing blown head gaskets, warped heads and even engine decks! The solution "PERFORMANCE HEAD STUDS" with atleast a PSI of 245,000 or a stronger metal, like a grade H11.

When doing the upgrade make sure you trash your old head gaskets as they are no longer good. Also take the time to take your heads to a machine shop to get them checked for cracks, and warpage. Once you are ready to install purchase from Ford their NEW upgraded head gasket kit. Problem solved!