I'm looking for a comparative analysis of Ford's diesel engines. What are the good and bad points of each engine? Fuel consumption, reliability, durability, power, ease of maintenance, cheap replacement parts, known problems, etc.

mid '80s 6.9
early '90s 7.3IDI
mid '90s 7.3PS
early '00s 7.3PS
'05 and later 6.0PS

 

why you say 05 and later? the 6.0 came out in 03.

the overwhelming response you will probably get is the 7.3psd, due to it being the most popular and proven engine.

evrybody and thier brother seems to dawg the 6.0, but no one can really say how good it is until a few more years from now. mine is just fine, and so is my dad's company's fleet of 12 6.0psd's, not one prob, but their are ones that do.

the "old timers" will always insist that idi is the way to go, and from a back in the forest, survilist point type of view, i agree, i ran into someone a few months ago that had a 6.9, he got it rebuilt after 350k miles and had almost 100k on the rebuild, to me, you can't really beat that, though it was no racecar.

but i like the mid 90's psd, proven performer and really wish ford/IH could have worked it out some how to keep it in productionh.

 

Mainly because the '03 and '04 are supposed to have the worst problems. There was a fuel system redesign in '05 that was supposed to fix a number of issues. I fully agree, it will be a few years before we can say for sure how the later 6.0s rate. And by then the debate will be on to the upcoming 6.4s.

I have to agree, I'm a little torn between the simplicity of the 6.9/7.3IDI and the more powerful and upgradeable later 7.3PS.

 

I voted 05 and later 6.0. I have been wrong before, my prediction is the 7.3 is nothing but a faint memory when the 6.0 is finally dialed in. Only problem with the 7.3 was the weak trans put behind them and you had to mod them to get similar performance out of them as the 6.0 is stock. Weak the torqueshift is not. Putting flame suit on starting now....


Ryan

 

I voted 7.3. It was more reliable and better on diesel. But like was mentioned the 4R100 pales in comparison to the Torqshift.

Now the 6.0 is definitely faster and more powerful, but it has issues. I work in construction and fire/EMS so I see a lot of different diesels used in many different ways. The 6.0s go to the shop for problems a lot more than the 7.3s.

The 6.0 has had almost 4 years to get dialed in. It's not ever going to be completely right. It's a flawed design. I think this will be an even bigger issue when the 6.0 powered trucks get to be older.

Anything older than the Powerstroke is just slow.

Mike

 

Agreed. The survey does not include the 03/04 MY and the 05/06 6.0 has been a great, reliable engine for the majotiry of owners. Anyone recall 7.3 CPS issues? The trucks themselves from 05 going forward are better overall as well. Anyway, it's an engine poll so I voted 05 and later 6.0 PSD. Mine has been flawless for 25K miles including over 4K towing my WW trailer over the Grapevine several times. Let the 'usual suspects' bash away....

 

I think i will toss my vote on the 6.9, when i worked at the transmission shop. We had a truck come in that had over 700,000 miles. we had put 4 trannsmissions in it (C6) and the owner was still using it.

 

None of those engines are really Ford's, the only true Ford diesel truck engines were the British Dagenham/Dorsett diesels of the 60's and the Brazillian New Holland engines of the 80's. But, I'll play along. I say the best were the rare '92-'93 IDI Turbo 7.3L's.

 

of course not, the thread is about the best diesel engine ford used(which were all supplied by international). the only true ford diesel i know of was the 6.6L and 7.8L diesel it used in its medium duty trucks a while back.