The weekend started good...

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edjunior

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Apr 12, 2005
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Roman Forest, TX.
But went downhill in a hurry.  We got to the campground, all was well.  We did some antiquing, putzed around, found a nice little hole in the wall cafe, and day 2 was supposed to be more of the same.  But as I was driving the truck over a hill, the diesel started dieseling loud.  Then louder.  When I stepped on the gas, it was even louder.  So I got to a place where I could pull over (right in the middle of someone's country driveway), as I slowed and finally stopped, the truck was shaking like a magnitude 10 earthquake.  I shut it down and that was that.  It gave no warning, no lights, no bells, no whistles.  Just the increasingly louder dieseling and the shuddering, then dead.  It is now at the dealer, waiting for them to open and spring the bad news on me.  Crap!  CRAP!!
 

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RVMommaTo6 said:
Oh no! Hopefully it's a quick, easy, inexpensive fix!

Thanks Amanda.  I don't think it's going to be, but we'll see if any of that Irish luck blood in me will make an appearance.
 
The only good thing about this is the fact it didn't die while you were pulling the trailer. 

Last year at 11pm a guy got pulled into the site next to me with a tow truck that was hooked to his Ford Diesel that had a fifth wheel attached to it. They had towed him 40 miles like that into a campground in  Newberry Springs CA on I40 which is in the desert.

They disconnected the fifth wheel and then towed the truck on into Barstow. Found out later his turbo that had been replaced a month before had gone out for the third time in a year.
 
Well, of course it is the worst news.  I didn't really expect otherwise.  Diesel guy said it looks like a dropped valve.  No compression on at least two cylinders on the driver side.  Of course, a new engine is the recommendation of choice.  At 18K  I did ask him to check on a used or rebuilt engine, which he said would only be a paltry 12K or so.  And I asked him to give me an estimated trade-in value.

I know there will be a lot more speculation and questions, as I've see how these threads run.  I will get more updated info, but I am out of warranty, out of extended warranty, and everything they do there is going to cost me.  So I'm not going to have them tear down the engine to have a deeper look.  I expect they've seen enough of these to know what the problem is.  

So even if I get a new engine, or a rebuilt engine, the rest of the truck, even though it is in good shape, is still seven years old.  Not a lot in SuperDuty years I realize, but still.  I've been toying with the idea of a new truck, but the prices are just ridiculous, and I hate the thought of getting a "new used truck", though even newer than mine, with more or as many miles on it.

But I have a few days to mull it over, and who knows.  Someone might even hit the jackpot with great idea here.  Anyway, thought I would give an update.
 
Sorry to hear that. It aint cheap when it's diesel. How many miles on it?
 
Comes down to do you want to make payments on $18,000 or $50,000. 

I've bought several new vehicles over the years but never again. These guys are insane on their prices. 
 
I hear good things about Powerstroke Help.  I believe they are in GA.  I see you are in TX.  There is a company in Mesa AZ called Bullet Proof Diesel, probably a lot closer.  Might be a good idea to talk to both of them, compare their prices.  The people who do the Long Long Honeymoon videos had their 2007 6.0 bulletproofed in AZ when the engine failed, they made a really nice video of the whole thing which you can find on YouTube.

Powerstroke Help also has used, rebuilt trucks for sale.  People bring in a problem like yours, decide they can't afford to fix it, and Powerstroke Help buys them and rebuilds the engines with all their trick 'bullet proof' stuff.

This is why I went for the 6.2 GAS engine.  I can replace the whole thing one HELL of a lot cheaper than a diesel.  Diesel engines in general have this reputation for running forever, but when you start sticking turbochargers and emissions crap on them . . .
 
I would definitely get it to a diesel shop and not a dealer. All they know how to do is replace with new and not how to fix. I was always a Powerstroke guy until about 10 years ago. I gave up on them after pulling the cab to work on 3 different ones. Friend of mine pulls RVs for a living his is in the shop no ow with 20k miles and they haven't figured out yet why fuel pressure keeps dropping. If yours did drop a valve and didn't destroy anything they should be able to rebuild the head.
 
Ghostman said:
I would definitely get it to a diesel shop and not a dealer. All they know how to do is replace with new and not how to fix.

+1!

Ghostman said:
I was always a Powerstroke guy until about 10 years ago. I gave up on them after pulling the cab to work on 3 different ones.

The only diesel pickup I hear good things about is the Ram, which come with Cummins diesels.  Cummins seems to know what they are doing, which is more than you say about Ford.
 
John From Detroit said:
Sounds like a good USED pickup may be the solution.  Though the price of pick up trucks these days is insane in my not very humble opinion.

Law of supply and demand.  For some damn reason, everybody and their kid brother wants to drive a pick up these days.
 
If you buy new maybe you can move down in the model lineup. That's what I did. I need the truck not the fancy. Mine is a Ram SLT and does have backup camera, power rear window, mirrors, CTD, CC, 4x4. Vinyl floor which is what I wanted, no on screen gps. I'd even buy it in the work truck model with power windows etc.

The other thing I was wondering about is perhaps Ford will do some kind of Goodwill for you that mileage at that year for that type of failure is pretty bad.
 

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