truck engine,
Before you actually read the truck engine the facts below, I was discussing this issue with Brian, the man at GotEngines.com and asked him how one would know if, when a used Ford diesel engine was purchased from his company if it had been diagnosed and cured solving the problems listed below. I got an easy answer to that. Apparently GotEngines.com checks serial numbers and update codes on all used engines of this ilk to make sure they only sell the upgraded engine versions.

With that on mind, the 6.0-liter Power Stroke engine has been lack of maintenance from the day it was launched in the fall of 2002. It replaced a somewhat unrefined 7.3-liter diesel.

The engine was built by Ford diesel engine supplier, International Truck and Engine Corp.

For this version of the engine, International Truck designed a unique high-pressure fuel-injection system.

Most auto companies use only a fully electronic control system to operate the fuel injectors in what would be a common fuel injection system. International diagnosed and cured the Power Stroke’s fuel injectors by using a high-pressure oil pump as well as normal electronics.

factory defects,
The engine also has been plagued with other lack of maintenance: with leaky fuel injectors, oil leaks, broken turbochargers, wiring harness troubles, faulty sensors, defective exhaust gas recirculation valves and bad computers.

Since the engine was introduced three years ago, Ford has issued at least 77 technical service bulletins. Obviously this is far above average, even for a new engine. These bulletins tell mechanics how the flaws should be diagnosed and cured and fix various problems.

Looking further at the reports I noticed there have been only eight lack of maintenance bulletins for GM’s Duramax diesel V-8 and none on record for the Dodge Ram truck diesel engine. Both engines debuted at similar time frames as the Ford Power Stroke.

diagnosed and cured
After just a year on the market, International claims to have almost completely redesigned the Power Stroke’s fuel system, diagnosed and cured or redesigning nearly ‘500′parts. That helped reduce the number of problems, but did not cure the engine of all its ills. Ford has voluntarily recalled the engine at least twice to fix various problems.

Although International claims the engine has been diagnosed and cured with the extraordinary amount of updates made specifically for this power-plant the problems have caused some troubles and a rift in relations between Ford and International and Fords customers.

Why would you buy a new truck if you knew it needed upgrades to be reliable. If I wanted to have to upgrade an engine I would buy a used car or truck. New is new, unused, not needing to be diagnosed and cured.

The upside to all of this is that the problems are lack of maintenance and can be applied to a pre-upgraded engine. All new and rebuilt engines come with the upgrades too. There is more than one reason for our GotEngines.com Blog: Number one-identifying the most reliable versions of whatever engine you may be interested in, and Number 2-having use-able information for repairs and decision making, when it comes to home-based car repairs.