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Common 6.0 Powerstroke Issues, Issues, and Fixes

6.0 Powerstroke Common Issues, Issues, and Fixes

Are they really as bad as I hear?

I would say eighty% of the questions I get every week are from 6.0 Powerstroke owners or potential owners asking about the reliability of these engines.  In that location are and then many horror stories out at that place about them forth with a pile of misinformation from an aftermarket industry constantly coming upwards with the next large prepare to cash in on those worries.  In this article nosotros will effort to explicate these bug and requite you some insight on the 6.0 Powerstroke engine.

Beginning things kickoff, in this article we are going to assume that you are using this truck for regular activities that a person would buy a diesel truck for.  Hauling, towing, piece of work, or just commuting.  Understand that the information and recommendations below may be unlike if you are a drag racer, sled pulling king, or dyno contest killer.  The average truck possessor does a turbo back exhaust, a cold air intake, and ordinarily some sort of programmer.  We are talking about stock or slightly modified vehicles.  While nearly of this information all the same applies, some things you would do differently if you are going for ultra loftier horsepower.  This information is for the 95% of u.s. 6.0 owners that just utilize our trucks for trucks.

The big question is: Are the 6.0 Powerstrokes actually that bad?  To be honest, the answer is admittedly not.  They are a peachy running motor that can exist made to be durable if maintained properly.  Virtually of the horror stories you hear are coming from owners who exercise non maintain their vehicle properly and/or those who are unfortunate enough to have someone who doesn't know what they are doing repairing it.  We accept had and then many of these trucks hauled to our shop after having an amazing list of expensive parts thrown at it trying to get it to run right.  Then if you are going to own one of these trucks, you lot need to observe a actually good store who understands them or arm yourself with the cognition and tools to do the work yourself.

On the summit of your list if you are going to own one of these trucks should be maintenance.  I cannot stress how important it is.  Please make sure you lot apply a 15W40 quality diesel oil and change the oil and filter religiously at v,000 miles.  The engine uses the oil in several ways.  Turbo position is control past oil, injector pressure is controlled by oil, and of course engine lubrication.  The oil is asked to work really difficult and volition wearable out quick.  Proper oil changes volition benefit you more than than you tin can imagine.  Synthetic oil is fine to use and does help tremendously when cold starting the truck.  But information technology still needs changed regularly.  Fuel filters should be changed every 10,000 miles period.  Depression fuel pressure is a major killer of injectors.  Do yourself a favor and change both fuel filters every other oil change.

The starting time matter people hear about a 6.0 Powerstroke is head gaskets, head gaskets, head gaskets.  Are the head gaskets a existent event on these trucks?  Sorta.  The early on years had a different design for the head bolts which led to heads lifting and causing problems.  The half-dozen.0 only has 4 bolts holding down each cylinder and two of them are shared with the next cylinder.  It just isn't as robust of a blueprint equally the 7.3 before them.  The start couple years the six.0 was out is where the bad proper name for the caput gaskets really started.  Like I stated they had some problem caput bolts, simply also the aftermarket had not exactly figured out the tuning on these trucks yet.  Information technology was not uncommon for someone to put a programmer in and immediately see head gasket failure on the hotter tunes.  Every ane blamed the weak bolts and bad head pattern, but in the end we came to find out tuners were running besides much timing.  This created too much cylinder pressure which caused the heads to lift immediately.  Of class any owner still nether warranty took their brand new truck dorsum to the dealer for service after removing the programmer.  And the dealer who just got a $vii,000 chore dropped in their lap that had a guaranteed paycheck from Ford was all too eager to practise the job.  And then the stories get started about how bad these engines are and how bad the head gaskets are.  I am a firm believer that in that location are many head gaskets that go changed that have admittedly nothing wrong with them.  Of course as many know the solution to proceed the heads clamped to the block is new gaskets and ARP head studs.  Most owners who are confronted with a possible head gasket issue usually just seize with teeth the bullet and install new gaskets and head studs to be done with the problem one time and for all.  If you are ownership or own 1 of these trucks, my advice would be to keep it in the back of your mind that you may be putting head gaskets in information technology sooner or later.  But do not just resign to the fact that the head gaskets are bad every time you take it into the shop.  We have seen bad head gaskets be diagnosed when the real problem was a bad degas bottle cap, plugged heater cadre, unrelated coolant leak, plugged oil cooler, or our adjacent topic: the infamous egr cooler.  More so, there is absolutely no reason to supplant the head gaskets unless you have a leaking one.  We run across many trucks become a couple of hundred thousand miles easy with the stock head gaskets without a failure.  If y'all are in the engine for some other reason already and it makes sense to exercise studs and gaskets I would, but I wouldn't make a special job of it unless you are building a loftier horsepower truck or know for certain y'all have a blown gasket.  Too in that location is nothing wrong with using the Blackness Diamond/Victor gaskets.  They are identical to the OEM Ford gaskets.  There were some "Black Oynx" gaskets on the market for a while that may take had some bug simply they take been discontinued.  The surface of these gaskets was completely black all over instead of simply around the opening like the new Blackness Diamond 6.0 caput gaskets .  Besides, if yous are doing a head gasket job information technology is extremely crucial to have the heads surfaced or they probably will not seal support.

The side by side affair you may have read or heard about is the egr cooler and/or valve.  This system is just a nightmare on these trucks.   For emission purposes the engineers designed a system to reintroduce frazzle gases into the intake manifold to exist reburnt. Exhaust Gas Recirculation.  While I suppose information technology must take met whatsoever standard for emissions that they had to see, it is a nightmare for anyone who owns these trucks.  At the very least sooner or subsequently your egr valve will either go completely clogged up with soot and quit working or simply plain neglect.  Which leads to terrible running that commonly gets misdiagnosed as bad injectors, faulty FICMs, bad turbos, or a host of other shade tree guesses.  How the egr system works is as follows.  The hot frazzle gas is let into the egr libation from a pipe between the exhaust manifold and the turbo.  This exhaust has a temperature anywhere between 400-1400 degrees.  In club to cool the gas before introducing it into the intake, they have coolant running through the egr cooler to exchange the heat.  On the other terminate of the egr cooler is the egr valve.  This valve opens to let exhaust gas into the intake manifold when the pcm decides conditions are proper to do so.  The major bug with this organization are ii fold.  First, muddy, sooty frazzle gas is being blasted into your intake tract.  The soot covers everything in it's path.  It is not unusual for us to tear down a motor that has had it'southward egr system intact information technology'due south whole life and detect the intake ports into the head to be coked up to half their diameter.  The intake manifold becomes restricted from this coking as well.  Just that is not the worst problem.  The extreme oestrus acts on the cooler and breaks it downwardly.  Sooner or later it volition rupture either letting coolant into the frazzle or intake. (lot's of misdiagnosed head gaskets here since fluid tin run into the cylinder once you lot close the engine off and hyrdolock it up) Actually bad leaks let frazzle pressure level into the coolant system. Which if not taken care of speedily can and will result in blown head gaskets.  But wait in that location's more.  The farthermost heat that the coolant is trying to scrub abroad in a normal functioning egr system breaks down the coolant.  Some of the components of the coolant outset turning into a goo similar substance that does a really nice chore of clogging upwards all sorts of coolant related parts.  If you lot take been doing any research nearly these engines you accept no doubt heard about replacing the oil cooler.  These need replaced considering this goo volition clog them upwardly.  Oil temps volition then exist elevated causing quick overheating when the engine is worked.  Also, the coolant leaves the oil cooler and continues to the egr cooler next.  If the oil libation is restricted, your egr cooler will non go enough coolant period to continue information technology absurd.  Next matter you know, diddled egr cooler.  Then of course a shop diagnoses the bad egr libation, replaces it, and the client comes dorsum in a month with another diddled egr cooler.  It is not unusual for us to get trucks that have had six or seven egr coolers replaced in their lifetime and never an oil cooler.  This is the kind of stuff that gives these engines a bad proper name and it stems from the people working on them misdiagnosing them and non doing complete repairs.  My advice to you lot would be to delete the egr libation out as soon as possible and supercede the oil cooler if you have more than 50,000 miles on the truck when you do it.  At the very least, if you take to have the egr system operation, supersede the cooler with a upgraded ane that has a very robust center department that volition not rupture.  Calculation a coolant filter to every engine is also a great way to combat coolant contamination and is a must.

The adjacent surface area that comes up all the time is injectors.  Another horror story area.  I have heard reports of customers having three or four complete sets of injectors changed and still not fixing the trouble.  Do you recall it might non be the injectors?  This is an surface area where merely competent mechanics with proper diagnostic equipment can do a adept chore.  Whatsoever moron can suggest to bandy out a whole set of injectors to "run into if it fixes it."  Run abroad from that guy.  At that place is equipment bachelor to pin point nearly whatsoever injector outcome.  A good diesel fuel store should accept this equipment.  Replacing a whole set of injectors considering you lot are not smart enough or well equipped plenty to find the bad i is ludicrous.  There are two bones bug that happen with these injectors.  The beginning is normal mechanical failure.  The mechanical parts in the injector just wear out or pause and cause a expressionless miss.  Well-nigh mechanics can figure this out with basic browse tools.  Just supercede the bad injector in this case, there is no need to replace the whole set anymore than there is reason to replace all your teeth if yous get one cavity.  The other injector problem is from what is called stiction.  The injectors on the half dozen.0 have two spool valves on peak of the injector.  One opens the injector to let high force per unit area oil in to fire the injector and the other closes it.  After time and use, these spool valves volition start to weaken.  Especially when the engine and oil is cold, weak spool valves cannot pull the valve open and airtight fast enough to operate without severe missing.  This is what causes the common complaint of terrible starts and cold running until operating temperature comes upwardly to normal.  When the oil and engine temp reaches normal the truck will run like normal with no performance problems.  Combating this issue is tough.  Regular oil changes with skillful oil helps.  Maintaining a good electric organization also helps.  But unfortunately stiction usually happens one-time in the life of whatsoever injector.  Nosotros accept equipment that can pinpoint which injector is sticking.  In most cases 1 or ii injectors are the culprit and merely replacing those two injectors volition solve all the common cold first issues.  Once more, good diagnostics are going to exist needed hither to figure out whether yous take bad injectors, bad batteries, bad glow plugs, a bad ficm or something else that is causing your hard cold starts.  Be leery of the mechanic who immediately prescribes a complete prepare of injectors as the set up all.  Also if you are having rough running at start up simply the problem goes away when the coolant temp gets to normal, yous may want to endeavour a couple of bottles of Rev 10 with your side by side oil change.  We take had slap-up luck curing many trucks with these cold start symptoms with this additive.

Equally long as nosotros are on injectors, ane more than thing.  When you are replacing them, there is absolutely no reason to supercede the whole set or side if yous have one bad i.  A competent experienced mechanic should be able to replace an injector (WITH THE CAB ON) in two to 3 hours, menstruum.  That small amount of labor is not worth spending the extra money on the other three injectors for that side if they are still functioning properly unless you have a pile of miles on the engine.  When buying replacement injectors, brand sure you are using a quality injector.  Alliant, Pure Power, and Black Diamond all brand good 6.0 Powerstroke injectors.  They each have their own benefits that we will discuss in some other commodity.  As I write this nosotros are selling these injectors starting at $225 each.  Virtually "rebuilt" ones you lot see floating around on the internet are $140-$200.  These are usually not quality units.  The spool valves are not existence inverse or tested.  Information technology is not unusual to have stiction problems very apace have installing them because the spool valves have who knows how many miles on them.  Purchase a quality injector the first fourth dimension no matter what smashing deal your mechanic claims he has on these rebuilt ones.  Nosotros went through a pile of them in the past.  They are not worth your fourth dimension or money in the end.

Along with injector problems are Fuel Injection Command Module (FICM) problems.  This is the silver box that is mounted on the driver's side valve comprehend of your engine.  It'south task is to convert regular 12 volt vehicle power to the 48 volts the injectors need to burn down.  It also has programming that controls injection timing to some extent.  If this module breaks down internally, information technology volition non provide for proper injector operation.  A faulty FICM can crusade hard starts, missing, poor performance, poor fuel mileage, and a few other problems.  A good scan tool tin can check the FICM for proper operation.  It should put out 47+ volts under all operating conditions.  While a FICM can and will eventually merely wear out, a quick killer of these units is low battery voltage or charging system problems.  We run across trucks on a regular ground that come in that have one or two bad batteries.  The possessor usually has trouble getting the truck started for a week or so and brings it in.  Bad batteries volition ruin a FICM quickly.  If you have i bombardment go bad, just replace both of them.   Spend $100 on a battery and save $800 on a FICM y'all won't have to replace.  Btw, if you do need a FICM, y'all do not have to go one from the dealer exclusively.  Nosotros tin program a new bare FICM in business firm and many other shops can too.  If your store tin can't, we tin send yous a new FICM that is preprogrammed and ready to install in your truck.  You don't accept to pay the ransom the dealership wants for these units with labor and "programming" heaped on tiptop of the price.  Btw, if you lot suddenly get a cylinder contribution code from all eight injectors, you lot demand a new FICM.  Don't permit your mechanic change all eight injectors.  Also we have had some good luck using 58 volt fuel injector control modules lately.  They seem to help in cold starts.

And lastly, no vi.0 problem article would be complete without touching on turbos.  I cannot stress enough how often the turbo gets blamed for poor performance when there is admittedly naught wrong with information technology.  Here are simply a few misdiagnosed bad turbos from the terminal week.  One guy heard a pop and lost all boost pressure.  No fume, no oil leaking anywhere, but lost all his power.  "The turbo isn't working.  My mechanic says I need a new turbo."  After talking with the guy for a few minutes I found out an intercooler boot had come off.   I brash him to fix it kickoff and he was on his fashion.  The 2nd one was a client who had the turbo replaced not once but twice and now the second i was bad after two weeks.  Come to discover out his exhaust backpressure tube was completely plugged.  Since the pcm uses exhaust backpressure to command the turbo to open and close down the exhaust side and wasn't getting expert feedback, the turbo performance was erratic.  No turbo needed there either.  We had a guy with a blown intercooler that had been misdiagnosed.  There was another with a sticking egr valve that was calling for a new turbo.  All those people were going to buy or did purchase a turbo when they absolutely did not need ane.  Turbos are another detail on 6.0 Powerstrokes that I hear, "Those engines are junk.  I had to put six turbos on it since I have owned information technology."  No you didn't.  You paid your mechanic to put six turbos on it and the sixth time he really noticed what else was wrong in the kickoff identify.

Here is how to see if you turbo is bad:  Take the inlet from the air cleaner off the turbo.  You will be able to come across the compressor wheel.  Grab the stop of the shaft with your fingers.   Does it spin freely without coming to a sudden abrupt stop?  If it spins good, information technology'south expert.  When yous take a hold of the shaft, attempt and motility information technology side to side and then in and out.  Some modest play is acceptable.  It'southward difficult to draw exactly how much play is ok to someone who hasn't worked with many turbos.  The best I tin can exercise is this: If information technology feels similar it is moving back and along confronting a uniform bearing, it is probably ok.  If you are picking the shaft upwardly from the bottom and it falls back downwards when you let go, the bearings are probably out of it or worse.  The other examination for the turbo needs to be done with a scan tool.  With a scan tool you lot actuate the valve that moves the variable veins in the exhaust side of the turbo.  You should hear the frazzle tone change and see a fluctuation in back pressure.  If zippo happens, either the actuator is bad or it is possible the variable veins in the frazzle side of the turbo are coked up and need cleaning.  This tin be washed by removing the turbo.  Disassemble the frazzle housing and clean the rust and soot out of there.

If you are having a problem that is diagnosed as a bad turbo bank check the shaft play and turbo actuation kickoff.  If both of those are ok, y'all exercise not need a turbo.  Only good diagnostics will find the real problem.  A turbo isn't a mystical device.  It is much more than like a current of air mill.  If it is non spinning and not broke, there may exist no wind.  If it is spinning but not producing any ability, it may not be connected on the output side.  If you practise find out that yous do indeed need a new turbo, we accept a great selection of 6.0 Powerstroke turbochargers.

I realize this has gotten pretty long and there are yet a few other things to bear on on.  But this should give you lot a heads up on the most common problems these trucks have.  I personally have four of them.  1 I drive every solar day and the other my wife does.  They both are reliable, become good mileage, and have great power.   The Ford Powerstroke 6.0 is not a bad engine at all.  Much of the "junk" or "trouble" label that has been given to them is from poor maintenance, worse diagnostics, and just apparently unscrupulous shops who alter and charge for many parts the customer doesn't need.  Worse however is the whole aftermarket niche that has sprung up with the side by side bully set for these motors.  With proper maintenance, diagnostics, and competent repairs, these engines are as skilful or improve than whatever of the other diesel pickup motors out there.

We accept put together a bank check over list for the 6.0 Powerstroke trucks.  If yous are going to purchase one of these vehicles or if you lot just desire to give your current truck a good check over, this list is essential to have.  If you sign up below for the email nosotros will send the check over list absolutely free and besides email you lot the Ford 6.0 Powerstroke information book.  This book includes an in depth caption of all the 6.0 Powerstroke systems along with diagrams and photos.

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Source: https://www.littlepowershop.com/common-6-0-powerstroke-problems-issues-and-fixes/

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