donzi matt

iTrader: (1)

BUP, if you read all the diesel interweb forums you are going to be scared chitless about your truck. It's the equivalent of all 525's leak headers and eat motors, all 496's shatter pistons, and all bravo's grenade at over 1/2 throttle. Like everything else there is a vocal minority that is very good at making waves. Ford is NOT the best company for standing behind their product and lots of people are bitter with them over expenses they feel Ford should have covered.

You own a very good truck, but it is more maintenance intensive than a gas job for sure. Follow the factory guidelines to a T and it will be a very reliable truck. You will also be rewarded with much higher resale value when you go to sell it.

575cat

What about the cavitating water pumps eating through the block & spitting the glow plugs through the valve cover ?

j21black

From what I remember, most of the trucks with actual radiator problems were pre - 09 models...I had mine flushed at 60k, and will do it again at 120k....No issues other than a leaky hose out of mine...

I run Valvoline 15w40 Blue Premium in mine.

I don't want to get into a pissing match over oil, but I will share my experiences....I have ran Rotella twice in my truck, both times the oil coming out of a change was much "blacker" than normal. And after the second time, I found metal shavings on the drain plug. The Valvoline oil never gets over 200 degrees when running, I have seen the Rotella hit 213 degrees, and rides pretty consistantly 10 degrees hotter than the Valvoline (207/208 Rotella) on the interstate not under a load. If you are running Rotella Oil in your truck, I highly recommend monitoring your oil temps.

I sold a prop to a guy a couple months ago...We got to talking and he owns a Diesel Performance shop in the Miami area....This was right after I found the metal shavings on my oil plug....I started talking diesel trucks with the guy and he asked what I had.....The first words out of his mouth without me telling him my experiences with oil, or mentioning the shavings I had just found was "Do not put Rotella oil in that truck" He said he has seen more failures with that oil than any other brand...He also said they removed some of the additives from that a oil a few years back and it was a great oil up until that point..

I am seriously considering a move to AMSOIL in the truck....I have heard it runs 10 to 15 degrees cooler than everything else...

Again, I'm not knocking what everyone runs in there truck, just sharing my own personal experience with Rotella Oil...

tsatrooper1

Never seen or heard of a glow plug go through a valve cover. Not saying it hasn't happened its just news to me. The 6.7's had some glow plug issues early on but that has been resolved. As for the front cover, most of those issues are from running them low on coolant and the coolant cavitating in the water pump/front cover area. Also the 450-550 trucks are bad about this because they run at such a high rpm constantly. There are alot of people who talk trash about fords and the issues they have. I have seen just about all of them. With that being said, I have owned them all, stock and tuned, and wouldn't own any other brand. I personally believe they are the best trucks out there. They all have issues!!

Biff

Just had my radiator replaced on my F-450, $1300.

tsatrooper1

Doing the egr cooler delete on these seem to help on the radiator failures. The egr coolers cool the temp down from well over 1200deg down to 200ish. My theory is the major drop in temp heats the coolant so hot that the heating and cooling process across the radiator causes them to leak over time. That and poor mounting doesnt help. Just something I have thought about and I'm by no means a engineer. lol

wannabe

The leaking radiators is a design flaw on these motors. Do yourself a favor and trade it in ASAP. This is just the start......

I know I am a broken record just repeating myself...

Wannabe

j21black

I had mine ready to trade in when I found some metal shavings on the drain plug, then the wife remembered the warranty we had....

seafordguy

The cavitating water pumps were mostly on the 450's.

The radiator flaw is just that, a flaw. Oddly enough most radiator failures are on the 2008's. I think mishimoto realized their flaw and have fixed it. Ute luckily I don't have to worry about it. Do some research on powerstroke.org.

Never once have I heard of the glow plug thing and I spend a LOT of time on powerstroke.org.

Jmoore - understood on the oil and I'm like you said, no reason to get in a pissing match. I've never seen a single piece of metal in mine but who knows?!...!?!? I will stand by my comment though that the majority of forum folks on powerstroke.org run rotella.

My take on it is that there is no reason to get rid of a good looking truck with a great engine, transmission and interior just because they missed the mark on the radiator and the EPA forced emissions junk on them.

Just delete the truck, ignore the horror stories and enjoy. There are hundreds of thousands in service where the owners aren't online whining about them

j21black

IWhat kind of oil temps are you getting with the Rotella? If it's up over 200, I'd try something else for 1 change just to see if it runs cooler.

I ran it the first time when I got my truck because of the powrstroke.org forum. I didn't like what I saw and swore never again. Ran it the second time 80k later because I couldn't find the Valvoline on sale. I won't do that again. Again, I don't care what anyone runs in theirs, and they may have a completely different experience. Just sharing what I have seen with mine from First hand use.

I switched to Valvoline based on a recommendation from Jeff at Spartan. Not sure if he is still with them. Haven't been on those forums for quite sometime.