Originally Posted by
BigDawg
Your fears with the horror stories can definetely be found on the 03-04 motors. The late 04 motors on up were far less prone to being hurt. The late 04 motors are different, pretty much you can tell with the location of the ICP sensor. Or looking at the manufacturing date of the motor. After August 05 Navistar(International) really tightened up there design and therefore made things a little better. With about 3500.00 on the 6.0 motor you cant beat it
See, that seems totally reasonable to me.
buy the truck. spend a few grand on getting all of the little stuff done and have a great, ready to go truck.
That's not anywhere near as bad as "the internet" was making it out to be. they were talking like it would cost several times that much just to get the truck to the point where it wouldn't break down all of the time.
Originally Posted by
BigDawg
If you purchase the model year 05 you pretty much get the same truck with the exception of the front grill and headlights. If you buy the 03-04 you can easily buy the grill and the Harley Davidson headlights.
So Ideally, I'd be looking for a 2005 truck, in good shape.
OR a 03-04 truck that is about 4-5 grand less so I could put that money towards the fixes that need done and any cosmetic/cool stuff swaps.
Originally Posted by
BigDawg
And if you really want the perfect truck, you want to build on a F250 Platform with the Alison Transmission and the Cummins 24V common rail, that would be the perfect truck in my eyes.
What is the difference between the alison tranny and the "other one" (can't remember what that one's called) I remember people saying that the T-whatever tranny that came with the 6.0 was a really good tranny. Or am I thinking about the even newer trucks?
Cummins 24V rail? forgive the ignorance, what what's that? You talking about the fuel rail? Changing it from the dead head style to the return style with a pressure regulator? Don't have all of the details about it, but that is on the list of things I'd like to do when I get my truck. Since I'll be using it for work and at this point, plan on driving it into the ground, I'm kinda looking at this whole thing as a bit of an investment. So when I get the truck, I want to do all of those things to it, like the return style fuel rail, and the air separator for the fuel and all of that. So any suggestions on those things would be great. I really appreciate all of the info and insight. I'm taking all kinds of notes so I know what to be looking for/expecting/to do etc etc.
Originally Posted by
BigDawg
But seriously with 3500.00 you can easily buy the items you need and an SCT with custom tunes and easily throw it on your rig and ride out. There are tons of guys that have done it. The problem is when some people throw the 150 CAN race tune on a stock motor and expect it to stomp ass, when all it is gonna do is fall on its face. You can do that but after it is all built and be safe about it.
SCT? I'm not totally versed in the acronyms yet.
CAN tune being a "off the shelf" more or less generic tune, right? I wouldn't want to run on one of those all of the time. Over in the car world, I would use that kind of tune to get the car running enough to get it to the shop and on the dyno to get tuned for real. I'm assuming the diesel trucks would be the same way. With as many "big manly man trucks" I see driving around, I would imagine there is someone around here with a dyno and good tuning skill that would be able to fine tune it, right? Or is it more or less up to me to watch the AFRs and "street tune" it myself?
Martin at ZFever is the man when it comes to tuning Nissans. A few hours on the dyno with him and the tune is god sent. Anyone like that for the diesel truck world?
I'd rather take the time and get it done right the first time instead of rush through it so it is done now and just have to bo back and re-do it all when it breaks later.
Originally Posted by
BigDawg
Check this out, this is primarily what you would need to get pass the crap
6.0 Diesel Powerstroke EGR Delete Black Onyx Oil Cooler | eBay
Do the work yourself and badda-bing. Call Jody at Innovative Diesel and he can set you up with some custom tunes on an SCT Xcal and your ready to rock and can get you an economy tune as well, pull your FICM and Jody can also tune FICM's also for economy driving and runs the new flash on them. Supposedly people are saying running the economy tune and the FICM flash are yeilding about 20 mpg. I dont know the truth to that or if it is just propaganda.
Thanks, I'll check that out. I'll make sure Innovative Diesel is on my list of people to call in the very near future.
FICM?
20mpg would be pretty sweet.
thanks again man.
I'd rep you again, but gotta spread the love around more first.