Ford's 6.0l Power Stroke Has A Reputation: Here's What's Actually True

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Although Ford replaced nan 7.3-liter Power Stroke pinch its 6.0-liter successor successful 2003, nan reception was little than stellar, shall we say. Depending connected who you ask, nan 6.0-liter diesel is either a reasonably trusty workhorse aliases an absolute money pit that shouldn't beryllium touched pinch a 10-foot pole. The truth, however, is that neither group is needfully wrong. There is an overwhelming mostly of group who see nan 6.0-liter Power Stroke a reliability nightmare, acknowledgment successful portion to its EGR issues, caput bolt/gasket problems, lipid pumps, substance injectors, and truthful on. However, successful its defense, if nan motor has been looked aft decently and near untuned, nan Power Stroke tin beryllium decently reliable, according to MotorTrend.

Let's reside nan elephant successful nan room, nan 6.0's EGR system. Although it was designed pinch bully intentions, nan execution near a batch to beryllium desired, arsenic is nan lawsuit pinch galore of nan Power Stroke's auxiliary components. The EGR cooler, which uses motor lipid arsenic its coolant, has a estimation of cracking aft prolonged vulnerability to nan basking exhaust gases, which wouldn't beryllium a problem if nan lipid cooler did what it was expected to do — cool nan oil. This is successful summation to nan EGR cooler perchance failing because of soot buildup and consequent clogging. The EGR valve, which besides had its ain group of problems, is different 1 of nan 6.0's documented headaches.

Bringing our attraction to nan lipid cooler reveals really its location led to respective contaminants clogging its travel paths, starring to inefficient cooling and raised lipid temperatures. Not only did this impact nan EGR cooler, but it besides opened up a big of different issues, ranging from malfunctioning lipid pumps to injector failure. The 6.0's reliability was truthful bad that Ford yet ditched Navistar.

The HEUI injectors (short for hydraulically actuated electronically controlled portion injection) require high-pressure oil, supplied utilizing a high-pressure lipid pump aliases HPOP. But debris-ridden lipid tin perchance participate nan HPOP done a faulty strainer design, causing it to fail, which result results successful nan HEUI strategy malfunctioning. Then you person lipid leaks from faulty O-rings connected nan standpipes, which proviso lipid to nan injector's lipid rails. Apparently, moreover nan low-pressure lipid pump had problems.

Moving connected from nan HEUI strategy brings america to nan 6.0's FCIM (fuel injection power module), infamous for its voltage-related tantrums, to nan constituent wherever nan full FCIM could spell retired conscionable from a anemic battery. Problems pinch nan adaptable geometry turbocharger (VGT) are not uncommon either. 

As for nan caput bolts/gaskets, it's not needfully a Ford issue, but alternatively nan consequence of chasing much horsepower. Understand that aftermarket tunes push nan banal TTY (torque-to-yield) bolts to their functional limit, compromising their clamping abilities. This was not helped by nan Blue Oval's determination to spell pinch 4 bolts per cylinder, arsenic opposed to six successful nan 7.3, which successful itself was a fairly problematic Ford Power Stroke engine.

Although our readers opportunity that nan 6.0 is 1 of nan worst engines, if you're still keen connected getting this peculiar Power Stroke diesel, make judge to cheque if it's been cared for properly. Another replacement is to spell pinch nan later 2005-to-2007 exemplary twelvemonth trucks, which fixed a batch of nan engine's early creation flaws. Also, it's not difficult to find "bulletproofed" engines that reside these reliability issues pinch aftermarket upgrades. However, beryllium judge to inquire nan seller for receipts and attraction records — don't simply return their connection for it. All told, nan 6.0's towing abilities and half-decent substance system tin beryllium put to bully usage pinch regular attraction and nan correct group of mods.