I work on the rigs for my ambulance squad, and we have a 7.3 and the 6.0. The 6.0 has been back to the dealer more times than I can count. And all of it from engine issues, and that was before it had 26k on it. The 7.3 has just about never gone back to get worked on, its a great motor.

 

The 7.3 was hard to kill...

Out 6.0 has 119,xxx miles on it and we have had one issue out of besides normal maintenance. At 96K, we lifted the heads off the motor. Was trying to pull up a hill with close to 27K on a trailer with it and the turbo tried to put out 33 pounds of boost. Yea, that popped the gaskets real quick fast and in a hurry.

Put the heads back on with a set of ARP locking head studs and it's been fine ever since.

Either way though, the 6.0 had its issue. I know of one guy that has made Ford install 13 different turbos over 30,000 miles because they keep imploding for some reason. It just all comes down to how you treat the truck.

 

the bad is that the guy i got it from said that he'd put like 10 gallons of diesel in it with some fuel additive, soo by the time i got it to northern indiana she was a smokin, white smoke that is, idle, acceleration you name it she was smokin, i talked with some of the other 7.3 owners and they all said that it was probably the injectors and that i could take it to ford and they would hook it up and tell me exactly which ones were the problem children, but then it hit me, i forgot that he told me that he only drove it 50 to maybe 100 miles a month, so i started thinking that the injectors where just caked with that additive, so i got a 7000lb trailer and took it to new york yesterday and wow i thought the fire department was going to chase me down, i had black smoke/white smoke, hell i had SMOKE pouring out of the exhaust, everybody in town was yellin at me to get that piece of sheet out of town so people could breathe, it was a classic scene, but anyways i got her out on the highway and took it easy but needless to say by the time i reached the ohio border all that smoke and decreased to meer puffs on take offs, and the drive back from new york was a totally different experience, she ran like she just came off the showroom floor, she just needed a good ol fashioned a$$ whoopin, blew out all that crap that accumulated on the injectors so now she's gold. right now i have a 10k lb trailer on and its going to lexington, ky tomorrow morning she how she likes that hill once you cross the river into ky. as far as gas mileage goes, i'm not expecting a whole lot right now simply because she didn't get used and abused like they were designed to, that trailer i took to new york i got roughly 9mpg, that could also be a miscalculation on my part but i wouldn't be far off, it has a beat up exhaust pipe that needs changed and i'm going to put a CAI on her and from what i've been told i need the SCT chip not the bully dog or the edge and i should get around 20 give or take mpg. and since i'm thinking about it does anybody have one of these F250's? something isn't making sense to me, the factory sticker said the tire size is 235x85x16, they guy i got her from put 285x70x16's on, but 235's would just seem a little small, i had 245's on the Ram and they looked small on it.

 

So I went to Tirerack.com and its showin that an F-250 takes 255/70/16's and a SuperDuty takes 235/85/16's.... so depending on if its a SuperDuty or not, it could take tiny tires... Jesus! Ford makes a ton of sense... lets put skinnier tires with less of a foot print on the truck thats meant to tow!!! Yay for ford! lol sorry to rain on your parade, i just really dont like fords...

 

i hear ya thats what didn't make sense, its a super duty, i'm not much of a ford person either, but i couldn't find a cummins that wasn't either near death or way out of my price range, i've had better luck with the fords than i did the dodge's, can't figure out why someone with a diesel would trade me for a V10????????

 

Hey look at the bright side you got a diesel and I have a friend with a 7.3 and that thing is beast, he got a shift kit for the tranny and it will roast any gears, granted it has some work done to the motor, but the best part about the truck is he averages 20mpg if he drives it normal

 

(feeling defeated because it does sound like a good truck, but too stuborn to admit it) It's still a FORD!!!! lol good luck to ya bud...