- As a Truck guy,
there are few things that I like more than a good deal.
I mean, at the end of the day,
there's nothing better than a good deal
because the better the deal you get,
the further you can stretch your dollars
for things like building your truck or going to shows
or overall just mobbing around with the homies.
But there are some cases where the best deal
maybe isn't the best deal after all.
And if you've ever shopped for a diesel truck,
then you probably already know
where I'm going with this one.
Well, the early 2000s were great in a lot of ways,
one industry that took a pretty wicked hit
was the diesel truck game.
Specifically here,
we're talking about the good old blue oval,
Ford Motor Company.
But what happened?
Why did Ford replace the iconic 73 Powerstroke
that everyone just seemed to love?
And more importantly,
why does this six liter have such a bad rap?
I'm Dustin with Custom Offsets.
You guys can follow me on the Gram @dusti.co.
And today we're sitting down,
we're spooled up the VGT
and we're praying that the heads don't fail
and the TTY bolts don't stretch,
to find out why you may want a six liter Powerstroke
turbo diesel.
(techno music)
Those trucks just sound so (beep) good.
There's just something about a six liter cold start
when you forget to plug it in and they idle all rough,
and then they do the high idle thing
where it kicks in and they spool up
and it sounds like a jet plane taking off.
(truck motor heating up)
(beeping)
It just gets me going.
When it comes to six liter trucks,
they seem to be relatively popular.
I mean, I had one, Hunter had one, Justin had one,
Brent had one in an Excursion for awhile.
They were just kind of all over the place.
The common theme here though,
is that there were a ton of us that had one
at one point in our lives, but none of us have them still.
And after talking to most of the guys,
the reasons all seem to be the same.
Let me explain for a second here.
In the early 2000s
Ford was running the iconic 73 Powerstroke turbo diesel.
You guys know it, it's the one and only,
built by Navistar with some help from Ford, of course.
The 73 would be the most powerful diesel engine to date
for Ford motor company making just over 275 horsepower
and more torque than ever before.
The truck was reliable,
it was dependable and they just downright ran forever,
mostly because they didn't make enough power
to tear themselves apart.
So much so, in fact,
that there are guys still to this day, 21-
- [Cameraman] Don't be stupid.
(vocalizing)
What's nine plus 10?
- 21.
- [Cameraman] You stupid. (beeping)
- Freaking years later that swear by the 73 Powerstroke.
Things were good for the old Ford motor company back then,
or so they thought.
Enter stage left, the EPA.
In an effort to clean up our air and reduce emissions,
the EPA posed new stricter regulations around the NOx,
or N-O-X levels, that could be produced by new vehicles
and old reliable 73 Powerstroke, just wasn't going to cut it
because of this,
Ford knew a complete overhaul was necessary
and thus the six liter was born.
When the six liter first hit the market,
it seemed to be a noticeable upgrade.
It featured things like four valves per cylinder head;
an all new, all sexy variable geometry turbo;
and, of course,
the one and only high pressure HEUI injection system
that the 6.O is known for.
And it really did seem to be the new king on the block.
And for few months after it's released...
Yes, I said months.
This would prove to be the case.
As we always say, though, it's not a rainbows and unicorns
in this Cinderella story.
There's no glass slippers here or tales of a prince,
just lots and lots of disappointment.
(sad tune plays)
(beeping)
For those of you who know the 6.0 Powerstroke
than you already know all of its quirks.
However, if you're new to the platform,
let me break it down for you for a second.
Ask any truck guy,
regardless if they have a diesel or a gas truck,
what they think of the six liter Powerstroke,
and you're bound to get one of two answers.
Number one, guys love it
and are going to rave to you about them
and how awesome they are
and how they got the best deal on them forever.
Or you're going to get some variant of a joke
about head gaskets.
You know what?
I'm just going to say it.
Okay.
The 6 liter Powerstroke is the Subaru of the truck world.
It's just the way it is.
While there are plenty of jokes to go around
when it comes to the good old six liter Powerstroke
and their head gasket failures,
there is some truth to the statements.
Allow me to explain for a second.
Most modern day diesels have some sort of oil cooler
in the engine.
This cooler works in two ways.
Number one, helping warm the engine oil up quicker
with the residual heat from the coolant
that's running through the engine block
and, you know, keeping your cylinders cool.
And it also helps to keep that oil cool
once your engine reaches operating temperature.
In the case of the six liter,
this oil core sat in the valley of the engine
or in between the V of the V8, right?
Right up on the top, it just sat right there.
It's kind of cool actually.
And overall, it worked relatively okay.
Inside of this oil cooler are tiny little passages
that the coolant flows through
exchanging heat from the engine oil
and doing exactly what it's supposed to do.
This works good so long as those little passages are open,
flowing free coolant and exchanging heat,
just like it's supposed to do and like necessary.
It's really a great setup.
In the case of the six liter, though,
what happens is these tiny little passages become blocked
with silicates that were in the coolant,
restricting coolant flow.
Coincidentally enough, next up on the old coolant train
after the oil cooler is the one and only EGR cooler,
which cools exhaust gases
prior to dumping them back into the intake
for a cleaner burn and less emissions and less NOx
and all of that good stuff that the EPA wants us to do.
This reduced coolant flow
oftentimes causes a lack of coolant in the EGR cooler,
where temperatures can get awful hot
because exhaust gases are just warm.
High temps plus not enough coolant
equals flash boiling coolant in the EGR cooler,
which will then cause these coolers to fail,
dump coolant into the cylinders,
and then ultimately it stretches the TTY
or torque-to-yield bolts
that Ford used to hold the head gasket down
in the first place.
Not only that they use bolts that stretch,
but they didn't have enough of them anyway
so then it just lifts the hat off.
It's just a chain reaction.
Besides the ever iconic head gasket failure,
the 6.0 had its fair share of troubles.
The HEUI, or Huey, injection system
worked great for vaporizing fuel
and for creating a clean burn.
However, it meant that any debris is in the oil system
could be catastrophic to the entire system.
Now, additionally,
any significant loss of oil pressure along the way,
such as, I don't know, an IPR valve maybe,
could literally leave you stranded
as the engine control module needs to see the oil pressure
before it will fire the injectors.
There's countless stories on all sorts of forums
of guys having a no hot start because their IPR is failing
and it won't drive enough pressure
to fire the injectors off,
which means your engine's not starting, homie.
And that's just the beginning.
We're talking fuel injection control module, low voltage,
ICP sensors, blown boost tubes, stuck turbo veins.
The list just goes on and on and on.
The 6.0 truly had its fair share of gremlins
and it really does take a special kind of guy or gal
to own one.
Never fear though, it's not all bad news
if you're looking at a six liter.
Despite all the little gremlins
the 6.0 are all right trucks.
For as old as they are, they make great power,
the bottom ends are very stout,
and the five-hour 100 automatic transmission is also king.
It just handles a ton of torque if you throw it at it.
If that's your thing, it might be a good option.
Plus they just sound fricking fantastic
with that loud-ass variable geometry, turbo goodness
and spoolie boing just...
Ooh!
They're just so good.
So with all the issues that we know about now,
why in the world would you want a six liter Powerstroke
in 2021, or heck even 2022, because, let's face it,
we are closing on 2022
faster than Maverick closing on a MiG in "Top Gun."
For starters, because of all the issues,
the six liters are typically priced quite a bit lower
than a Cummins or Duramax equivalent
from the same timeframe.
They make good power.
And, from my experience,
I can say that they're just a blast to own.
I had one, it was awesome.
Cold starts are fantastic.
VGG noises are great.
They're not bad trucks.
Additionally,
most of the above mentioned issues can be solved
for the low, low price of a few thousand dollars,
and, you know, a couple of weekends spent in the garage
doing what most guys refer to as bulletproofing their truck,
which is a term coined by
the one and only Bulletproof Diesel,
where you address most of the common failure points
on the six liter Powerstrokes.
Love them or hate them,
you have to admit that the six liter Powerstroke owners
are definitely a proud group.
Maybe it's the constant worry
about the catastrophic engine failure
that keeps them banded together.
Or maybe it's just that their turbo whistle
is just so (beep) good that it keeps them coming back.
Either way, one thing is for sure here,
if you're looking to buy one,
you should definitely do your research beforehand
so you know exactly what you're getting into.
There's just a lot of info that you're going to want to know
before you own a six liter Powerstroke.
Well, there you have it guys.
There's our take on the six liter Powerstrokes.
Would you own one or are you staying far, far away?
Let us know down in the comments section below
and as always be sure to subscribe to the channel
if you haven't already.
With that, I'm just Dustin with Custom Offsets,
we'll see you guys on the next one.
Peace.
(electronic music)