I have been looking at diesel trucks. Read some nasty posts on various forums about the Ford 6.0L having problems. All the talk of engine mappings made me think I was on the Cannondale forum. Also read that Ford is making changes that will be available in the 2004 trucks built after September 22nd (all the 2004s before will still have the old 2003 engine design).

Being a first time Raptor owner, I am real weary of buying a first year engine from Ford. Anyone on the forum running a Ford diesel? How many times you been back to the shop? Did your mileage suffer when they remapped your engine? Did you know they might have remapped your engine and you lost some power? I like the looksm the ride height, the solid front axle, and the interior space of the Ford. I can't afford to have something that isn't 99% dependable. I think I am leaning towards the Chevy 2500HD Crew cab/short bed. I would like to hear from someone who has either of these.

Thanks,

Jon

 

I believe the 6.0 is the same engine as the vt365 that is built by Navistar. I am a master technician and have been working for a fleet that has been buying powerstrokes and 7.3 liters since 1990. This is what I think of them and the company that builds these products. They are quick to rush into production new engines and loud about advertising how great they are. They believe the customer is the cheapest way of doing R&D and will deny any faults with thier products and quietly repair them for the next production run.
With that said I admit we have yet to get any of the new diesels but from ford or IH so I cant comment on thier reliabilty. I can say that 444e and the powerstroke are mechanically very reliable but they have gobs of problems with the quality of sensors and mechanical actuators like fuel injectors and the backpressure devices. I am qualified to do warranty work and am shocked at how much warranty I do compared to genral maintanence. Its about 50 /50. So if you ask me if you should buy a ford diesel I would say heck no for a least 3 years until they start to refine it. I have noticed that ford uses better quality of parts on the IH engine than IH which proves even they have a reputation to worry about.
I have no experience with the Duramax Diesel other than what I hear from other technicians so I will not comment on them.

 

I had a 2002 duramax last year and thought it was a pretty good truck in general, I can tell you that with the stock setting on the truck it was slow thirsty and lacked the high torqu it was bragged up to have.the truck was plane dead headed and was getting around 13mpg on average, I bought a BD power modual and the truck came to life. milage went up to around 16mpg on average (still thirsty when pulling heavy loads) the power leval came way up. This year I wanted to get back into a SUV and the only diesel SUV available is the excursion so thats what I have now with the 7.3 powerstroke and so fare I have 20,000 miles on it and have not had any problems, none by twenty thousand miles the duramax had several trips to the dealer (none to do with the motor though). Overall I would say the 7.3 powerstroke and superduty combo are hard to beat. I recently recieved my F450 for the office delivery truck with the 6.0 powerstroke and so far I have not taken it in for any work but I have noticed some strange idle problems (maybe normal maybe not)it only has 900 miles on it, My dad has had several 7.3 crew cab 4x4's and not any powertrain problems with the 7.3's but his new 6.0 does sputter and idel funny at times, and have seen it die a few times. Try and find a 7.3 powerstoke truck there are a few left out there, or buy a duramax i read were the duramax rebate is now up to 4000.00 compared to the 2000.00 on the fords.

 

I would snag the chevy, my dads has 95' silverado has 148,000 miles on it and hasnt had problems yet.

 

The allison 5 speed is a medium duty tranny and so far has performed flawlessly in our fleet . By the way it has a 444e (powerstroke ) pushing it. I think they would be nearly indisructable in a pickup. Ford and dodge have pushed light duty trannies into service on their diesels but there are kits to greatly improve their reliability.