- Oh, come on guys.
The 6.4 can't be that bad, right?
Guys. No, guys, wait.
But no, but come on.
But I had a buddy who had one
and they're like, all right, fine!
A few days ago, we dropped the video
on the six-liter Powerstroke
and you guys absolutely loved it.
We got a ton of positive feedback in the comments.
And while the contents of that video aren't important here,
there was a resounding theme in the comment section
that while the six-liters had their fair share of issues,
it seems that the 6.4 was even less of a crowd favorite.
With all of the comments,
you guys already know what's coming.
You know what to expect,
you know that we couldn't just let you guys talk about that
and not make a video on it!
I'm Dustin with the Custom Offsets,
you guys can follow me on Instagram @dusti.co,
and today we're taking a dive
into perhaps the worst Powerstroke engine of all time.
We're talking the holy grail of unreliability
and perhaps the number one truck that comes to mind
when we say unreliable diesel engines post 2000,
to find out why you guys would ever want a 6.4 Powerstroke.
In true fashion for a "So You Want" video,
let's set the stage, shall we?
It's the early 2000s and things are, well,
for the most part, as they should be.
Movies like "Borat" are coming out for the very first time,
and people are hearing the iconic-
- Is nice!
- In their local theaters everywhere.
Meanwhile, things over at the old Ford Motor Company
are getting a little toasty.
Facing increased emissions requirements,
Ford has ditched to the iconic 7.3 Powerstroke
and instead has teamed up with Navistar International
to bring to market the one and only six liter Powerstroke.
This engine, though flawed,
would stay in production for a total of four years,
from 2004 to 2007.
Technically, it was an old three and a half
model year change.
Don't at me, right?
It was in '07 Ford decided they needed to make a change.
I guess you can only be on the receiving end
of so many head gasket jokes before you've had enough
and you opt for a completely new redesign.
Thus, the star of today's show,
the one and only 6.4 liter Powerstroke was born.
Based on the International Maxx Force 7,
with two X's in the Maxx Force for twice the force,
the 6.4 would be the first Powerstroke engine
to be used in a Ford truck that featured
a diesel particulate filter, or DPF for short.
Produced for only two short years,
the 6.4 would be the straw that broke the camel's back
when it came to the rocky partnership
between Ford and Navistar.
But we will touch a little bit more
on this scandalous little nugget later,
so stay tuned and subscribe to the channel
if you haven't already.
Also, just really quick, if you're like me
and you're on like the post holiday comatose thing today,
where you're sleeping off all that Turkey
and you don't really want to go out,
but you know that there's Black Friday deals,
then I have good news.
We have a bunch of them.
You can find them all at customoffsets.com,
just check them out.
We've got a ton of inventory.
You guys can pick it up right away
and you don't have to leave your couch.
You can just hang out and drink another beer,
and lay back and watch some football,
because I know that on Black Friday
that's what I'm going to be doing.
Now, when you look at the 6.4,
it really had all of the foundation,
all of the building blocks to be a really solid engine.
The block, ironically enough,
was cast iron and was pretty solid.
Instead of main bearing caps on the crank shaft,
the 6.4 opted to have a bed plate
to secure the connecting rods to the crank,
meaning that it was also quite a bit stronger
than some of the other engines on the market at the time.
Just like the six liter,
the 6.4 also featured four valves per cylinder head.
However, unlike the 6.0, the 6.4 had four,
count them, 1, 2, 3, 4, torque to yield
or TTY head bolts per cylinder,
meaning that they didn't see the same head gasket failures
that the 6.0s did,
which was a solid win for For Motor Company
after a few years of, you know,
struggling to keep head gaskets in their truck
on anything more than a stock tune.
It was a good improvement,
and Ford really did one thing well there
with the four TTY bolts.
Also, while we're singing the praises of the 6.4,
we should talk about the connecting rods,
which from the factory are known to handle in some cases
up to or over a thousand fricking horsepower
before they have issues, which is pretty freaking incredible
when you look at diesel trucks.
Here's the thing.
The good news, though, it pretty much stopped there.
- Has the hustle and bustle
of holiday shopping got you down?
Nervous that you'll miss deals on your favorite brands?
Are you waiting for the perfect deal?
Don't worry, Custom Offsets' got you covered.
That's right, Custom Offsets has you covered.
We got Black Friday deals live right now.
There's no fighting in for a line at Walmart.
There's no fighting Karens.
40,000 wheels, 38,000 tires, so much inventory.
And the best part is is all this inventory's ready to ship
to you guys right now, no wait, customoffsets.com.
(upbeat music)
- As we always say here,
life ain't always rainbows and unicorns,
especially when it comes to diesel trucks,
and thus was the case for the 6.4 Powerstroke.
For as much disappointment as some people
think the six liter was, the 6.4 was even worse.
Perhaps one of the most prevalent issues we've heard of
when it comes to on the old 6.4s is that the pistons
are basically made of glass and are known to just fail.
Over time, the pistons on these 6.4s
would crack under pressure worse than the Minnesota Vikings
in the 2021 football season.
(man laughing hysterically)
And are known to cause oil and fuel dilution to occur.
Now, listen, if you don't know a ton about the internals
of a diesel engine, then no sweat.
It's okay.
All you really need to know here
is that fuel belongs where fuel belongs,
and oil belonged where oil belongs,
and when things start kind of mixing,
you get bad stuff, bad things happen.
Thus was the case with the 6.4s
when the pistons would crack.
You would get diesel in the oil, it's just not good.
But the troubles with the 6.4 don't stop there either.
A known issue with the six liters, for example,
was the HEUI injection system,
which is an electronically controlled,
but oil pressure applied injection system
that was known to be a pain in the
(censor beeping) from the 6.0s
if you had any sort of contaminants in your oil.
To fix this on the 6.4, Ford opted to instead jump ship
to a common rail fuel injection system
and a brand new injection pump.
This new pump did a great job.
It pushed fuel into the engine, it, you know,
atomized it really well,
but it does have tendencies to kind of,
sort of self-destruct when exposed to lower quality fuel
and/or water in the fuel system.
When this happens, the pump quite literally
yeets itself apart, throwing metal shrapnel
through the entirety of the fuel system,
and then destroying the injectors to boot.
The more we dive into the 6.4,
the more I really struggle with this engine.
While its predecessor, the six liter,
seems to get all the hate,
at least all the issues on the six liter were,
for the most part, external or top-end failure, right?
We're talking ICP sensors, IPRs,
thicken modules and the like.
They were all troublesome, right?
But they were at least relatively easy to fix.
Hell, even the catastrophic head gasket failures
on the six liters were relatively simple jobs
when it came to repairing them.
It took a weekend,
you could tear the top into the engine apart.
It really wasn't all that bad.
The common theme we found with the 6.4s
is when they fail, they detonate like an AC130
raining down holy hellfire on the opposing forces.
We're talking like a 10 kill streak on Cotting,
or just getting warmed up kind of catastrophic, right?
P.S., P90 Scavenger Pro is the way to go.
Oil dilution due to cracked piston,
clogged EGR coolers because there's not one
but two EGR valves on these trucks.
Sequential turbo starved for oil
and sending metal through the intake system.
Cylinder washing,
wire chafing on the high pressure fuel pumps,
cracked heads, and don't even get me started
on the clogged first-generation diesel particulate filters.
The 6.4 was, by most definitions, a pretty big failure,
and so much so that it spelled the end
of the Ford and Navistar partnership.
Much like the quarterback and the prom queen
after graduation in 2009,
Ford decided that just after two short years
of producing the 6.4,
that they just needed a little time to find themselves.
And so they terminated the partnership
after several pretty intense lawsuits.
To say it got sticky was a bit of an understatement,
but ultimately these failures, these lawsuits
and this failed partnership is what drove Ford
to build their very own in-house Powerstroke,
the 6.7 liter Powerstroke diesel.
With all that being said, though,
why would you want a 6.4 in 2021?
Now, sure, they have their issues,
and they're known to have some failures
and some pretty catastrophic failures.
And quite honestly, the guys that have them right now
aren't entirely sure that they still want them anyway,
but they're not all doom and gloom.
Let me explain for a second, right?
Despite all of the known issues,
I think that they look pretty damn good.
The exterior styling is sharp
and it's a little bit more aggressive
than the very round six liters were,
and they set the stage for the first-generation
6.7 Powerstroke trucks.
Interior wise, these trucks were really nice,
so long as you looked for something like a king ranch
or bleriot trim package.
And of course you can scoop these up dirt cheap
because of the known engine issues on these trucks, guys.
This creates a really unique opportunity
for you to get your hands dirty
and do an engine swap, for example.
Take Wesley Chample, for example, who scooped up a 6.4
on a local auction for next to nothing.
We're talking pennies on the dollar
out in the state auction,
and immediately pulled the Powerstroke out of that truck,
drop the Cummins in its place, and then, you know,
had a truck that was significantly more reliable
than the 6.4 that was in it to begin with.
It really was a decent build
for the amount of money he's got tied up into it.
And while sure that was a couple years ago,
you could still get into one of these relatively cheaply.
Overall though, if you're a handy guy,
this could still be a good truck for you
if you're looking for a project.
But that's enough out of me. What do you guys think?
Would you own a 6.4 or are you staying far away from it?
Should we build a 6.4 and come and swap it in the shop?
Let us know down in the comments section below,
and as always, be sure to like the video,
share it with a friend or two,
and if you guys have an episode that you want to see,
if so you want, drop it in the comments below.
I'll be looking forward to seeing each
and every one of those comments from you guys.
With that, I'm Dustin with the Custom Offsets.
We'll see you guys on the next one.
(casual hip-hop music)