I have a friend who just bought an 04 Ford with a Powerstroke.

I have heard horror stories on some models but I don't know which ones are bad and which ones are OK.


It's got 250K on it and I was wondering what if any are problems he might expect.

Any opinions?

2004 is the first year for the 6.0
It replaced the wonderful 7.3, which had a great reputation
The 6.0, on the other hand, has a very poor reputation.

They are Ok with some upgrades, chances are if it made it to 250K it has had at least some of them done. Probably not a lot of bone stock 6.0s out there anymore.

Watch this

Maintaining a fleet of local transit busses on E450 chassis. I know about Powerstrokes. The 7.3 was a VERY reliable engine developed over many years from the old 6.9L Navistar V8. As emission controls were added, they were tacked on to the outside of the unit. LOTS of of small oil and coolant leaks. Ford complained to Navistar about all of the leaks, and when they designed the 6.0 they put all the stuff INSIDE the engine, but they still leaked, not onto the ground, but inside the engine where you have to tear the whole thing apart. We'd put about 250,000 miles on a bus in 4-5 years, with 100% of that inside of a 36 square mile city. Our 7.3's usually never came out of the chassis during their life. With the 6.0L, they began having issues around 100k and had to be removed to have all of the "extra" internal components serviced. I actually purchased a spare engine so we could have one on hand to swap in when one started giving us problems. After that generation of busses, we went to the V10 gas motors. The selling point of the diesel in the first place was reliability, and the 6.0L killed that. The modifications recommended to make them bulletproof are basically to get all of the emissions crap out of the engine. As a governmental agency, that option was not available to us. Be aware that all of those modifications violate EPA and other federal regulations, and if some governmental functionary decides to make an example of you, you'll be the next Jammie Thomas-Rasset (the Massachusetts grandmother that was fined $1.9 MILLION because her grandkids downloaded music on her internet connection without paying royalties).

The 6.0 was the engine that killed the Navistar engine plant in Indy. Buddy of mine was an engineer on the project. It was an enormous cluster..........

2003 was the first year actually. I had one and got rid of it before any thing major came about. I had a harmonic drone you could hear on the inside of the cab while driving and all the ford techs that looked at it said "Nope, can't hear a thing'. Meanwhile, everyone that drove in the thing with me asked what the hell is that noise?.
The computer also went on the thing and so the dealer had to take one out of another new truck as Ford did not have any new replacement part.

Yes,they made both in 2003. 2004 was the first year exclusively for the 6.0

I met a Ford dealer tech from Pomona Ford at one of the old MATS races in 2006 or maybe 2007 and he said that the 6.0 exploders were horrible motors, they had 176 trucks waiting on their lot for parts under the factory warrantee.
He had attended the IHC training on those motors in the summer of 2003 and was told by all the instructors in that school to not hop those motors up, they were maxed out and would break parts if you even change the air cleaner element to a high flow unit

The 6.0 is a disaster and there is no such thing as a "bulletproof kit" for them either. None of it works. There's a reason they sell so cheap and seem to be in such good condition. I've had a couple of friends get roped into the 6.0 trucks that had 150k miles, "bulletproof kits", and sold for like $14k. Tried to warn them, but they said it's such a good deal. Within a year they needed head gaskets again.
The 6.4 that replaced the 6.0 is not much better.
The 6.7 seems to be a good engine.

Not the information he had hoped but I will let him know.


Thank you all.

Crazy emissions controls ruined diesels, high torque electrics will sweep that industry within 5 years.

There is a company out of I believe Idaho that can take care of the Powerstroke issues. Its called Fummins.

I remember guys running for the exits on those before the warranty expired. Maybe try to transplant a 7.3?

The 7.3 had all the reliability and no power, the 6.0 had decent power and no reliability. The 6.7 has both at least but it has all the emissions haha.

My neighbor has an 05 F350 with the 6.0 and has had issues with the injectors and had to replace a few. Also had some small issue with a sensor that a few shops chased and costed him a few thousand. The 03's to 07's are apparently very easy to steal so they are sought after. Pricks also tried stealing it but I think my dog interrupted the theft buy of course the truck got damaged. My 09 was sitting right beside his and nada.

Multiple friends HAD the 6.0's. We used to laugh about the 6 point, oh there goes another turbo....or the 6 point, oh there goes another head gasket.....Everyone I know either got bought out by Ford under warranty or got rid of them shortly after buying them.

Mine is a o6 305.000 thousand miles.. One set of injectors other than regular maintenance using oe filters no problems.. I guess some
are better than others.. I don't idle it long times and drive it normal.. Now the body is starting to get very crusty..

Wife had an 05 we bought used. Had around 250,000 before things other than regular maintenance went bad. Sucked a lifter and trashed it down in Harrisburg, PA. Some guy who specialized in 6.0 out of Maryland bought it out of the parking lot when it died

There are "Destroke" kits out there for the 6.0 trucks. It's a whole kit to swap in a 5.9 cummins. That should be a clue to the 6.0's legacy.
I live on the main route in/out of Myrtle Beach, SC. I've seen a LOT of older Ford trucks pulling big camper trailers that sounded different, lol.

There's good and bad in every one of the diesels. Some hate the '98.5-'02 Cummins b/c of the VP44 pumps. The early '01-'04 LB7 Duramax trucks are bad for injectors and head gaskets also.

I thought about a Powerstroke when I was looking for an older F-250 with manual trans... ended up buying a 7.3 IDI.
It won't win any drag races, even after I put a factory turbo setup with a non-crush downpipe on it... but it WILL get you there, if slowly.
And a set of injectors is around $300 (for all eight).