breaking her in properly

[jimmycrackcorn]

Yeah your right, you can find these 6.0's pretty cheap when found at auctions or decent dealers. The thing is, the ones I've been finding that are selling at a reasonable price all have around 150-170k & i have no clue what the history is. Alot of times they list as having the egr & oil cooler replaced recently & use it as a selling point, but...

What that says to me is,

1. How long was it driven while bad & were the heads warped because of it.

2. Is it selling because that issue is already in motion & the replaced parts are a band-aid.

3. If it had the delete kits done.. Again, is it just a band-aid.

4. If it already has the entire shebang done (head gaskets, studs & delete kits), how do i know it was done correctly? Ive heard alot of ppl don't do them right or with incorrect parts & end up having to do it all over again.

All legitimate questions to a seller or dealer but i highly doubt i would get an honest answer because the worth of truck goes in the toilet when riddled with the issue. A transmission, rear end, front end, yeah, i can swap out myself if bad, but tearing down an engine or having to take the cab off to do so is over my head. It's kinda like rolling the dice as i don't know of a simple way of testing to see if it does indeed have head issues. It's not like i can just hook up a scanner, ya know?

So what the deal with the torque shift? Stronger than Allison? Most my knowledge revolves around the 7.3 drive line. I would but another in a snap but can't find them with good bodies.

 

[jimbojango]

Say, what was it about the 6.0 you didn't like? Was it the maintenance? You catch the head problem? I've got an OBS 7.3 & imho, it's one of the greatest rigs ever made but it's at the point where im at a crossroads, sell it while it's worth something & buy newer or start with the body work that's soon down the road. 2006 & up is out of the question as i don't want big loan. I'd like to get another Ford but if i was to get a 6.0 & run into the head problem it would put me down for quite sometime. Chevy is cool, but don't know much about them.. Then there is Cummins, i wasnt aware of there superior fuel eco & low maintenance cost.. The flip side to that is, most ppl i know with them have 2 or 3 transmissions in them so it sounds like a wash unless i could find a 6speed. Do they even make them in 6speed or is it a 5?

Which one are considered newer with stronger trans?

Speaking of dodges... Mine is an automatic and i've never had it worked on 441k miles later. If it starts making the "thump" going into second gear its a $150 problem to fix if you don't' wait til the band falls OFF and you have to rebuild the whole hunk of junk. in 2004+ the auto's are pretty bullet proof and had few problems, before 04 and you got to work on them. The 6 speeds aren't as good as you think either... ive seen a few of them rebuilt but its not that expensive. The OLD 12 valves w/ the 5 speeds behind them got the tranny worked on every 100k because 3rd or 5th gear would fall off and it was like $100 for the kit and a day of work to fix. you can drive a dodge and put trannies in it and STILL be way under what ford ownership is. I have no knocks against fords but if you want to put 500k miles on a pickup for the least amount of money a dodge is the way to go hands down. They ride the worst, they have no resale value past 300k and they are simple to work on.

Lots of my friends have dodges (i live in farmer country cause i'm a farmer) and we all have had the same issues so its not like its a unique experience.

My biggest whine about fords and chevys is i haven't seen very many with 300k plus and if they are they don't hang around to 400k very often. LOTS of dodges make the 500k+ mark and the body rattles off them.

 

[jimmycrackcorn]

One of the main things I'm looking for out of a truck is it's maintenancability, yup i just invented a word. I want to be able to work on it easily. What I've noticed with the Dodges is, they have alot of room in the engine compartment. It looks as if they are easy to turn a wrench on without having to take off a thousand other parts, intercooler houses, harnesses, shrouds, etc.

Explain the trannies again? I didn't quite follow about the 04 & up or before hand. Something about "you could it couldn't work on it"?

 

[jimbojango]

One of the main things I'm looking for out of a truck is it's maintenancability, yup i just invented a word. I want to be able to work on it easily. What I've noticed with the Dodges is, they have alot of room in the engine compartment. It looks as if they are easy to turn a wrench on without having to take off a thousand other parts, intercooler houses, harnesses, shrouds, etc.

Explain the trannies again? I didn't quite follow about the 04 & up or before hand. Something about "you could it couldn't work on it"?

ok, pre 2004 the auto's were hit or miss and SOME of the 03's had the good ones and some didn't. 2004 on the auto's are all fairy good. the manuals up until about 02 were pretty craptastic as well. You had to rebuild the manuals OFTEN but it was a cheap adventure just a pain. the 6 speeds are fairly solid but i have seen a few of them have to be worked on.

I have put 1 water pump in and it took less than 20 minutes. 1 power steering pump (my fault on it going bad.. long story) and it was under an hour. 1 alternator, 15 minutes, 1 radiator (my fault... damn sunflower field) and it was an ALL afternoon job and it SUCKED... but it was doable. i've replaced the entire front end once and it needs it again, steering box took 15 minutes tops, ball joints..... well, it was an all afternoon adventure on tie rod ends and the joints and i put brakes on at the same time ect. ect.

The brake job is pretty standard, i've had brake caliper problems though and wound up blue locktighting the bolts in. I've put 3 or 4 of the front bearings in and thats an hour job and $200 bucks but its not bad. i've put 2 carrier bearings (they don't call them that, but its what they are) in it.

i've had 1 set of injectors ($2900 installed) put in and 1 pump on the back of the motor (the factory ones were junk anyway) and 1 throttle position sensor put in. When i put the radiator in i didn't get the fan clutch wire in the right spot and ATE it... so $200 there.

Everything has been easy to work on save for the injectors which i could of done myself but i only paid $300 in labor to have it done by a guy that does them constantly so it wasn't worth it to me. LOTS of room to work on almost all of it. I've never had the fuel tank off and i've never unbolted the bed or cab to work on it (can't say that for chevy's and SOME of the fords)

 

[jimmycrackcorn]

Well I would say you know your way around that rig...! All that stuff sounded like routine stuff for a truck with 400k. You said it has 400k, right, or was that someone else's? I really like the fact that there is room under the hood. From what i understand, the transmission combinations can get pretty tricky. I went to wikipidea for the rams once & noticed throughout the years that there are quite a few different variations introduced throughout the years.
Personally, i think a 6 speed would be nice as i would imagine that 6th gear would be good for mpg.

My rpms with the dang E40D trans are SCREAMING when going faster than say 70. It really sucks trying to get Mpg out of her. I get passed by grandma's driving 98 escort wagons on the highway trying to do so. Kinda makes you feel like a putz, but hey I'm getting a whopping 15mpg doing 55mph...LOL

I don't know why they can't produce these trucks with some real high od gears, push them up & over mid twenties in highway mpg... You know like an a regular trans ratio but have an extra tall od gear you can use after 60 (if that makes any sense). All i ever see are options to go higher in your rear ends which affects the entire gear range.

For example, my old man just picked up an left over 2013 X5 35d. It's a diesel, it is gets 27mpg highway on paper & it has 6 gears. Now, the 2014 X5 35d basically has the same motor but they introduced the 8speed trans & it gained close to 5mpg highway. Now i can drive the 2013 & manipulate it to squeeze a few more than the paper specs suggest but there is no substitute for having more gears & a lower cruising rpm. I can only imagine what it would get if it had a dedicated highway gear like i was talking about. Is it not possible to do without burning other things out.. IDK..? I do know i've never been one to believe car manufactures have our wallets in there best interest. I think they are right in bed with big oil & have alot to do with fuel prices & what cars get for mpg.

 

[jimbojango]

Well I would say you know your way around that rig...! All that stuff sounded like routine stuff for a truck with 400k. You said it has 400k, right, or was that someone else's? I really like the fact that there is room under the hood. From what i understand, the transmission combinations can get pretty tricky. I went to wikipidea for the rams once & noticed throughout the years that there are quite a few different variations introduced throughout the years.
Personally, i think a 6 speed would be nice as i would imagine that 6th gear would be good for mpg.

My rpms with the dang E40D trans are SCREAMING when going faster than say 70. It really sucks trying to get Mpg out of her. I get passed by grandma's driving 98 escort wagons on the highway trying to do so. Kinda makes you feel like a putz, but hey I'm getting a whopping 15mpg doing 55mph...LOL

I don't know why they can't produce these trucks with some real high od gears, push them up & over mid twenties in highway mpg... You know like an a regular trans ratio but have an extra tall od gear you can use after 60 (if that makes any sense). All i ever see are options to go higher in your rear ends which affects the entire gear range.

For example, my old man just picked up an left over 2013 X5 35d. It's a diesel, it is gets 27mpg highway on paper & it has 6 gears. Now, the 2014 X5 35d basically has the same motor but they introduced the 8speed trans & it gained close to 5mpg highway. Now i can drive the 2013 & manipulate it to squeeze a few more than the paper specs suggest but there is no substitute for having more gears & a lower cruising rpm. I can only imagine what it would get if it had a dedicated highway gear like i was talking about. Is it not possible to do without burning other things out.. IDK..? I do know i've never been one to believe car manufactures have our wallets in there best interest. I think they are right in bed with big oil & have alot to do with fuel prices & what cars get for mpg.

i get 24 MPG on the highway with just my pickup. No tunage, no extra crap, stricly stock. My buddy with a 6 speed gets 27. We both have less than 50k on our engines without a trailer behind them. I have 441k on mine, he as 375 on 1 of his and 455 on another. We have another buddy with 490k. All original motors, all pull trailers almost constantly. The biggest thing any of us have noticed about the dodges is that they'll never quit once they start unless you run them out of fuel. I've never been stranded and had to be towed home. I have an uncle and cousin with a 97 and a 98 dodge and they both have 750k but they have 5 speeds and have rebuilt them about 5 times each.

We run 75 down the highway pulling loaded trailers at right at 2100 rpm. I can pass anything with the cruise left on until i start climbing a hill and wiegh more than 20k. BTW, i get 16 MPG pulling a double deck gooseneck full of sheep or pigs weighing 20k or so. put that in your pipe and smoke it.

 

[jimbojango]

BTW i hate working on anything. I wouldn't change a tire if i didn't have to. I'm allergic i promise.

 

[jimmycrackcorn]

What year is your buddies that gets 27mpg? I guess that 6 speed helps! Is that under ideal conditions or average. I'm just wondering as on that X5 i was mentioning i can get the mpg meter to run up to 40+mpg if I'm doing about 45mph in 6th gear & barley touching the throttle, but it's not realistic & add soon as i need to accelerate it goes right back down to 12-15mpg then levels out to the norm 20-30mpg.

I'm not calling BS at all, I'm just wondering the circumstances vs what is posted from the factory.

Oh yeah I only smoke crack corn, check my avatar. =P

 

[jimbojango]

What year is your buddies that gets 27mpg? I guess that 6 speed helps! Is that under ideal conditions or average. I'm just wondering as on that X5 i was mentioning i can get the mpg meter to run up to 40+mpg if I'm doing about 45mph in 6th gear & barley touching the throttle, but it's not realistic & add soon as i need to accelerate it goes right back down to 12-15mpg then levels out to the norm 20-30mpg.

I'm not calling BS at all, I'm just wondering the circumstances vs what is posted from the factory.

Oh yeah I only smoke crack corn, check my avatar. =P

Thats penciled out MPG check pump to pump. If i get in my pickup and go from the house to dallas where my sister lives or to houston where my folks are i get 26 myself. Mine is an 03 and so is his... but if it makes you want to cringe his son bought a 13 and it gets 20. What kills the dodges is town driving, i think on a good day they get 18 or so piddling around town. 16 or 17 if you let them idle while you run around in stores (yes, we let them idle) instead of shutting them off. Its probably not entirily true but we have the opinion that its better to idle for 3 hours than to start it once and it keeps everything warm. They hold a lot of water and you have crap for heat if its cold and you don't let them warm up and its hard on engines and transmissions to get in them and drive them.

 

[kjp]

Yeah your right, you can find these 6.0's pretty cheap when found at auctions or decent dealers. The thing is, the ones I've been finding that are selling at a reasonable price all have around 150-170k & i have no clue what the history is. Alot of times they list as having the egr & oil cooler replaced recently & use it as a selling point, but...

What that says to me is,

1. How long was it driven while bad & were the heads warped because of it.

2. Is it selling because that issue is already in motion & the replaced parts are a band-aid.

3. If it had the delete kits done.. Again, is it just a band-aid.

4. If it already has the entire shebang done (head gaskets, studs & delete kits), how do i know it was done correctly? Ive heard alot of ppl don't do them right or with incorrect parts & end up having to do it all over again.

All legitimate questions to a seller or dealer but i highly doubt i would get an honest answer because the worth of truck goes in the toilet when riddled with the issue. A transmission, rear end, front end, yeah, i can swap out myself if bad, but tearing down an engine or having to take the cab off to do so is over my head. It's kinda like rolling the dice as i don't know of a simple way of testing to see if it does indeed have head issues. It's not like i can just hook up a scanner, ya know?

So what the deal with the torque shift? Stronger than Allison? Most my knowledge revolves around the 7.3 drive line. I would but another in a snap but can't find them with good bodies.

Yes the torqshift is stronger than an Allison. Allison is a great transmission, very smooth and if the truck is left stock very reliable. If you start chipping them they start to slip much above 100 more horse. A torqshift can take well over 200 extra horsepower and still be very reliable with a good tune that bumps up the line pressure. My 6.4 had a spartan with a 210 hp tune and the torque conveter had zero slip even when the truck was loaded heavy. You could watch slip on the screen. I believe your auto is a 4 speed? I think with a five speed auto you would be much happier on the interstate. I would see about 2k at 70

 

[Deleted member 83629]

read my sig because the truck i have is just as bulletproof as a 7.3 or a 6.9 but it might not be as strong but the 4:10 rear and zf5 5spd make up for that.

 

[jimmycrackcorn]

You must be referencing a 95 Explorer? =P hahaha.. I can't see sigs in this tapatalk app..

Ahh IC.. A inliner.. I vaguely remember those.. I concur, definitely not as strong..Lol. A couple friends of mine had those, one was a Dodge, one was a Ford. The Ford used 2qrts oil a day & then blew a rod through the side of the block. Kept going for a mile or so after, then was kaput. Definitely wasn't worth fixing.. The Dodge went for a swim after the nut job jumped a burm & landed on a frozen swamp that wasn't actually frozen...idiot! He junked it after that.

What does that thing get for mpg?

 

[jimbojango]

read my sig because the truck i have is just as bulletproof as a 7.3 or a 6.9 but it might not be as strong but the 4:10 rear and zf5 5spd make up for that.

those 300 6's were good motors, just not a diesel. They lugged relatively well (being a 6 and all) and were fairly trouble free

 

[jimmycrackcorn]

Yes the torqshift is stronger than an Allison. A torqshift can take well over 200 extra horsepower and still be very reliable with a good tune that bumps up the line pressure. My 6.4 had a spartan with a 210 hp tune and the torque conveter had zero slip even when the truck was loaded heavy. You could watch slip on the screen.

That's pretty impressive, i never new they were better than the Allison. I always thought the Allison top dog for trannies, Cummings for motor & Ford for chassis. At least if i was to build from scratch that's where i would take it. What year were they introduced? When you mention you can watch it on a screen, what screen are you referencing, the programmer screen? How does it present the data? That sounds so cool.

those 300 6's were good motors, just not a diesel. They lugged relatively well (being a 6 and all) and were fairly trouble free

Where all the 300 IL's produced with a manual trans? Now that I'm thinking of them, i don't recall ever driving one that was an auto? Call me ignorant but, I never understood the point the 300's while they had other gas/diesel V-8 options available. Was it an upgraded option at the time or just there version of having a 6cyl but big enough to pull double duty in 1/2 tons & 3/4 tons?

 

[jimbojango]

That's pretty impressive, i never new they were better than the Allison. I always thought the Allison top dog for trannies, Cummings for motor & Ford for chassis. At least if i was to build from scratch that's where i would take it. What year were they introduced? When you mention you can watch it on a screen, what screen are you referencing, the programmer screen? How does it present the data? That sounds so cool.



Where all the 300 IL's produced with a manual trans? Now that I'm thinking of them, i don't recall ever driving one that was an auto? Call me ignorant but, I never understood the point the 300's while they had other gas/diesel V-8 options available. Was it an upgraded option at the time or just there version of having a 6cyl but big enough to pull double duty in 1/2 tons & 3/4 tons?

no, 300's came in everything, for quite a while. They actually had more torque than any (ford) motor until ford came up with a 460 (gas hog holy god)... the 300 6's had great lug and torque to them was their big selling point. Not a ton of power but they pulled well.

 

[jimmycrackcorn]

Ahh.. No kidding.. So it was an alternative to a diesel with decent torque. I wasn't aware the 460 hadnt been around all that long. I thought it dated back to muscle car days.. I remember my neighbor had 86 f350 monster truck with a 460 in the early 90's. Thing sounded like a drag car, would spin 40+inch tires. I wanted it so bad as a kid.

Anyone ever hop up these 300's?

 

[jimbojango]

Ahh.. No kidding.. So it was an alternative to a diesel with decent torque. I wasn't aware the 460 hadnt been around all that long. I thought it dated back to muscle car days.. I remember my neighbor had 86 f350 monster truck with a 460 in the early 90's. Thing sounded like a drag car, would spin 40+inch tires. I wanted it so bad as a kid.

Anyone ever hop up these 300's?

300's have been around since i think 65, and 460's were mid to late 70's and were fuel hogs. They actually put 300's in dump trucks with high flow intakes and exhaust manifolds and a bigger carb, they wouldnt run a foot race but could haul 25k and move it decently well

 

[jimmycrackcorn]

300's have been around since i think 65, and 460's were mid to late 70's and were fuel hogs. They actually put 300's in dump trucks with high flow intakes and exhaust manifolds and a bigger carb, they wouldnt run a foot race but could haul 25k and move it decently well

25k? Wow! So in other words, they tow, but it's a slow tow.. Kinda like comparing a stock 7.3 to a stock 6.0. The 7.3 will pull a house down but a 6.0 will do it faster..Why did they stop with them? EPA?

 

[jimbojango]

25k? Wow! So in other words, they tow, but it's a slow tow.. Kinda like comparing a stock 7.3 to a stock 6.0. The 7.3 will pull a house down but a 6.0 will do it faster..Why did they stop with them? EPA?

i don't know. they quit in the mid 90's. they replaced it with a v6 that then got replaced with the eco-boosts. It wasn't all that fuel efficient either, it just wasn't like a 460 or 454 ect.

 

[jimmycrackcorn]

Say, speaking of those eco-boosts, any of y'all own one? Ford has been throwing them in a bunch of stuff including the Mustang & 150's. Theyre tout them to have something like 300hp & sip fuel. Are these Eco boosts just a marketing frenzy or do they actually produce power? I used to have a early 90's notchback with the typical modded 5.0. When i had it, I always just chuckled when i would overhear ppl talking about how bad a$$ there mustang is knowing it was a V6. Am i naive to still think the same with the Eco boost? Are they actually fast?