Join Our Ford Truck Forum Today

Document your Ford truck project here and inspire others! Login/Register to view the site with fewer ads.

6.0 questions

blacksnapon

Moderator
Staff member
The engine calculations rely on ebp (exhaust backpressure) to apply the correct amount of boost. An aftermarket exhaust will change the backpressure. "But the ebp sensor is pre turbo!" ,yes, but the way I explain that is what will happen to a constipated man in a pie eating contest? Eventually, he wont be going too fast. Backpressure, post turbo, DOES affect the ebp sensor. A cai affects it because the air is measured going in,(MAF, MAP) and measured going out (EBP). Only a certain amount of air can get in, changing the filter only allows more dirt in (with the same amount of air). The last 6.0 that was denied warranty at our shop by our FSE, was denied because of the CAI, not his controller.
 

Truckin4life

Texas Chapter Leader
alright thanks vince!
can the truck be tuned to make use of the exhaust and cai?
Or is basically throwing out money?
I mean an actual tune, not a programmer or anything like that...
 

blacksnapon

Moderator
Staff member
alright thanks vince!
can the truck be tuned to make use of the exhaust and cai?
Or is basically throwing out money?
I mean an actual tune, not a programmer or anything like that...
Until you make thousands of dollars worth of modifications to beef up the internals, it makes no sense to risk damage. Ford took an engine, with no changes doubled the horsepower, with a controller you raise it 90-125 horsepower. At what point does metallurgy come into play? When will parts start to fail?
 
I had an 05 and it sucked.

However I bought that truck new, not used. That I think is the key difference. For whatever reason some 6.0's didn't run right off the showroom floor. It took a few trips to the dealer to get them dialed in.

The problem I had with it was it was my light duty dump and I needed it to run right immediately after purchase. The constant trips to the dealer were causing schedule interruptions, lost productivity, and costing me money. So I got out of it.

A used one with 74K I would think about buying, actually. That's somethijng I'd definetely consider, odds are decent it's been to the dealer enough times to get it to run right and work out all the bugs. The Ford dealer did alright with me when I decided to get out of my 6.0, if he called me up and told me he had a good one I'd take a look at it. Probably demo it for a week at least. I'm still gun shy about the engine.

That's my take on the 6.0 for what it's worth.
Most 6.0s were not horrible. They do however need to be ran a bit "hard". Brad (BlueGoose) has one and to my knowledge hes had little to know trouble with his.
 
So really its money poorly spent then?
Are you also sayin a programmer is a bad idea on these trucks?

one of my uncles had a 6.0 that has a chip. He had no problems when he was driving it. Though, it did have problems after he changed trucks (It was a company truck), though I don't know if it was the result of the chip. Vince worked on it several times so he might know.
 
Most 6.0s were not horrible. They do however need to be ran a bit "hard". Brad (BlueGoose) has one and to my knowledge hes had little to know trouble with his.
I've had no problems with mine in 68,000 miles. I didn't have it plugged in (I don't unless it's brutal cold) Sunday when it was -2*. It started right up when I found out I had to go some where...
 
495
19
I don't necessarily think the 6.0 is an inherently bad engine. That's my measured reasonable response.

However when I think back to all the times my phone rang "Boss, check engine light is on again" it gets me a little hot under the collar.

I'm sure after all the bugs were worked out it was a good truck and it's somewhere making a contractor money.

That was a real stressful summer anyway. Probably distorted my opinion of the truck some.
 
The main thing if you do get one Don is that there's no room to scrimp on the maintenance. They need good fuel, and the proper filters and fluids changed at the correct intervals.

6.0's don't like to be neglected. It's going to cost you more than a gasser in upkeep, that's just the way it is.


But you'll have an ear-to-ear grin when you're driving it.
 
Last edited:

CaFordDude

Charter Member
7,748
464
Cali
Talk to Jeff (beachbumcook) if you wanna know how to do exacting maintenance like the 6.0's love. I think his may even be an 03, the dreaded year.
 

Truckin4life

Texas Chapter Leader
alright thanks for the input guys, i will keep the idea, but i am thinking the exhaust and cai is goin to do more harm than good here...
I am looking for an 05-06 area truck, what im familar with hell newer could be better...
 

Bloodhound

Oilfield Trash
The question I would have being that it has banks exaust and cold air on it is did they run the banks chip on it? My guess is that they did. The Banks and edge chips are verry bad on the 6.0. The blow head gaskets and tear trannys up.

Not my opinion just facts that I have read on the diesel sites.

I have 2 6.0's. My truck is a 04. It has had egr and oil cooler, head gaskets, low and high pressure oil pumps. I love my truck. Yes I have it tuned wit a sct with Innovative tunes.

My wifes 05 Excursion has only had an oil leak fixed. I am running a sct with canned tunes on it. The Ex has 107,000 miles on it.

The 6.0 has a bad rep that I don't think it deserves. Most of the problems have been caused by people running the crap out of them tuned. Then when they break they want to gripe and complane that ford built a pos.
 
I would have to agree. I wouldn't touch anything that has a programer or chip in it. Ask Vince I leared the hard way! New heads and head gaskets, new unison ring in the turbo thanks to an unoiled K&N air filter. May need a new turbo around summer time. Long story short $6800 later and I have a really nice running truck. I disconnected that Edge programer and through out the K&N air filter. I had Vince drop in a coolant filter and I just put in a bypass oil filter. Not to extend the oil drain intervals but to just keep my investment running smooth. Black Stone confirmed that my 5-40 oil was sheared down to 30w oil after 5000 miles even though the oil was clean.
 

Ford Truck Articles

Recent Forum Posts

Top