7.3 vs. 6.0 vs. gas

[UrbanCummin]

Just got the word yesterday that my 07 6.0 Leaker has the dreaded bedplate leak, and it's a bad one! They have to pull the engine and only then can they tell if they can fix this one or have to order a new engine. Good grief, I thought that by the time they built my engine all these issues had been worked out and fixed. I was wrong. Add to this mileage swings from 4.5 to a high of 9.8 and this will absolutly be the last diesel I will ever own!! I'm going back to gas!

Don't let your expierience with the 6.0 turn you away from all diesels. You have to consider that you own arguably one of the worst, if not the worst diesel engine ever made. Not saying this is insult you or anything, but there is simply no way to sugercoat how bad the 6.0's are.

In fullsize trucks both the duramax and cummins have been proven long lasting and reliable especially with good maintence and better then stock filtration.

 

[UrbanCummin]

I've got a first-year, early-run 6.0 Diesel in my F350. I had one issue with the engine programming, fixed under warranty, and one problem with the turbo, fixed under warranty. Neither issue ever stopped the truck, or even kept me from putting 105,000 miles on it in Baja.

I'd buy another one.

You are one lucky man, you couldn't pay me enough to take a 6.0 deep into expedition country.

 

[chiefer]

For what its worth I can share my thought process.

Bought an excursion last year 2000 model with the V10. mostly bought as a tow vehicle. I really like the V10. Had a crew cab 250 prior to this also V10. As you know with the excursion finding a decent one with the diesel nearly doubles the price at least when I was in the market...they are nice though. I did own a cummins Dodge truck prior to the 250 with the v10 so I know there is a difference. I tow anywhere from 5000 to 7000 pounds with it and it does well. It certainly is not a diesel with the torque, but it does a good job. I am very happy with the decision. No problems yet, 75000miles on the truck.

I have a friend with one that has the 5.4 and just not enough power for the truck and gets similar fuel economy.
Another friend has one also 6.8 v10 and just turned 190K no major problems with that one yet, and it is an early 99 excursion.
Fuel mileage is not the best...11 empty around town...8-9 towing flat lands in the midwest...with a good tailwind on a long highway ride I have gotten over 14! At least it has a big tank!
Good luck.
I am happy with the truck, and would do the v10 again and save the money.

 

[stevenmd]

For what its worth I can share my thought process.

Bought an excursion last year 2000 model with the V10. mostly bought as a tow vehicle. I really like the V10. Had a crew cab 250 prior to this also V10. As you know with the excursion finding a decent one with the diesel nearly doubles the price at least when I was in the market...they are nice though. I did own a cummins Dodge truck prior to the 250 with the v10 so I know there is a difference. I tow anywhere from 5000 to 7000 pounds with it and it does well. It certainly is not a diesel with the torque, but it does a good job. I am very happy with the decision. No problems yet, 75000miles on the truck.

I have a friend with one that has the 5.4 and just not enough power for the truck and gets similar fuel economy.
Another friend has one also 6.8 v10 and just turned 190K no major problems with that one yet, and it is an early 99 excursion.
Fuel mileage is not the best...11 empty around town...8-9 towing flat lands in the midwest...with a good tailwind on a long highway ride I have gotten over 14! At least it has a big tank!
Good luck.
I am happy with the truck, and would do the v10 again and save the money.

That's one of the things I was talking about with a friend the other day. Sure you might spend $XX on fuel every year with the big V10, but you'd be spending close to that amount anyways with the upkeep of a diesel added in to the fuel costs and the extra money a diesel commands when you buy it. So I guess it comes down to how much you want to spend at the get-go. I figured that I would probably come out around the same in costs, with the diesel coming out ahead in 7 - 10 years after purchase.

 

[Saline]

Without a doubt the 7.3 is by far a less finicky workhorse than the 6.0L.
There is one simple, cheap item that fixes the most common and expensive problem on the 6.0L. A coolant filter. It doesn't seem like a coolant filter can remedy much but it can prevent oil cooler, EGR, and head gasket failures. Also if you want reliability, don't chip it.

You must also remember that there are more 6.0L's on the road than both Dodge and Chevy combined.

I have an 04' 6.0L and haven't had any big issues. (fingers crossed). I love the power and fuel mileage.

 

[SunTzuNephew]

My 2002 Excursion with the 7.3 gets 18 MPG, up hill, down hill, stop and go, freeway, pulling a 8K trailer or not....

My 2009 6.4 F350 gets between 14 and 17 MPG, depending... Towing the 14K 5th-wheel toy hauler it gets around 14-15. Unfortunately, I've had the cab off twice for maintenance (under warranty, thankfully).

The 6.0? No thanks...

Hopefully, the new 6.7 will do better...the 7.3's are hard to find.

 

[bat]

My buddy's Dodge has been in the shop 4 times and he is getting very upset. He really gets mad since he picked on my 6.0 before he bought his Dodge and knock on wood 0 trips to the shop.

 

[bigford]

Part of the reason for the lower mpgs on the newer engines is the fact that fuel is fed into the cat from time to time. The older ones burned all of their fuel for power. I have a 95 7.3 still going strong. 200k+. No plans to trade or sell anytime soon as it just works.

A gas motor loses power the higher you travel above sea level unless you boost it. Then you have fuel (octane) limits on how much boost you can get away with. By the time all of this is considered, a diesel IMO is money well spent, with the 7.3 as the better choice.

One down side to a diesel could be if you intend to do a lot of (very) cold weather driving. You will need some type of block heater. I rarely have used mine as the glow plugs do the trick, but nice when needed.
Gas motors are not afraid of the cold.

I would still go 7.3, and take an extension cord!:smiley_drive:

 

[Youngunner]

We have three E450 ambulances with the 7.3 and one with the 6.0. That 6.0 is notorious (at least in the ambulance world) for being a dog of a motor. If the block heater is not plugged, in even in summer, it takes forever to get going. We really hate that rig. The 7.3s are pretty good and seem to take a beating quite well. Ambulances take some thrashing, especially out here in the desert. We're running about 14500 lbs and the acceleration up hill and at altitude is way better than my Tacoma. The only frequent problem we have is killing alternators or some other electrical issue, but that is a given with emergency vehicles. Water pumps are probably second on the list of bad parts. Its a tight engine bay in the E series which may drive up maintenance costs. The excursion has more nose on it too for a little safety factor if that makes a difference.

 

[UrbanCummin]

Without a doubt the 7.3 is by far a less finicky workhorse than the 6.0L.
There is one simple, cheap item that fixes the most common and expensive problem on the 6.0L. A coolant filter. It doesn't seem like a coolant filter can remedy much but it can prevent oil cooler, EGR, and head gasket failures. Also if you want reliability, don't chip it.

You must also remember that there are more 6.0L's on the road than both Dodge and Chevy combined.

I have an 04' 6.0L and haven't had any big issues. (fingers crossed). I love the power and fuel mileage.

I have seen a ton of injector/Ficm failures on 6.0's, many of which disable the vehicle. Turbo carbon buildup and EGR issues. Also as far as I know most of the oil cooler failures I have run into were not coolant and oil mixing issues rather the oil cooler was getting plugged and oil temp was to hot.

And imho the single best thing you can do to a 6.0L is an EGR delete kit.

 

[john101477]

I would love an excursion with a 7.3 psd. would not own a gasser at all. 6.0 has to many issues. the 3 that i have had issues with had the same issues, stretched head bolts. which comes down to a $6000 dollar fix at the stealership

 

[stevenmd]

Uhh, you are right, this has been talked about to death. Not just here but all the world wide web there is a mountain of information to the questions you have. I would suggest searching the internet a bit more.

It is no accident that the 7.3 is harder to find than 6.0's which some people can barely give away. This should be your first clue.

If you read through this thread you will hear from firsthand owners, which is something that was missing in most of the other threads. So I guess this thread turned out original content.

 

[ujoint]

Guess I should chime in since I'm a 6.0 owner. My only problems to date are a leaky fuel reg (probably at 20K?) and I just replaced the vacuum pump (63K) I've changed my oil every 5K, and fuel filters every 10. That's it.

I agree that the 7.3 is an awesome. And the V10 is pretty damn good too. The power output of the 3V V10 is pretty close to the 6.0.

I would consider another 6.0, but only with detailed service records.

 

[Saline]

I have seen a ton of injector/Ficm failures on 6.0's, many of which disable the vehicle. Turbo carbon buildup and EGR issues. Also as far as I know most of the oil cooler failures I have run into were not coolant and oil mixing issues rather the oil cooler was getting plugged and oil temp was to hot.

And imho the single best thing you can do to a 6.0L is an EGR delete kit.

The most common EGR cooler/Oil Cooler is this:
The oil cooler has very small passages on the coolant side that get plugged with contaminants, especially casting sand from the block. This reduces or stops the flow of coolant to the EGR cooler. This in turn flash boils the coolant in the EGR cooler and destroys the cooler, and can also send exhaust gases through the cooling system or send coolant into the engine. The oil temps become very high in the plugged oil cooler as well.

As far as carbon buildup on the turbo and EGR valve, the remedy is to not idle at low rpm's for any length of time. Combustion temps are not where the should be at low idle and this carbons up the EGR valve and turbo.

I'm not trying to argue the point, the 6.0 is a fickle beast. I still much prefer the Cummins over the Powerstroke but that simply isn't an option for a SMB.

 

[Darwin]

If you read through this thread you will hear from firsthand owners, which is something that was missing in most of the other threads. So I guess this thread turned out original content.

If you search the world wide web, even this site you will find literally hundreds of thousands of owners who absolutely hate the 6.0. Not to mention the number of people who work on them daily that have nothing but bad things to say about the 6.0

Sorry, but I wouldn't call adding to the list of complains about the 6.0 as "original content."