2003 Ford 4x4

[coxy]

 yes MR goat please stay far far far away from the 6.0   they also have injector trouble I have a 96 7.3 with a little over 400 thousand burns no oil gets changed every 10,000 miles  and yes the 6.7 is a beast I think they will be as good or better then the 7.3 it has more gitty up go then the 7.3 

[scsmith42]

My take is a little bit different than the others.  I've owned three 6.0 Ford diesels ("03 Excursion, '03 F350, and '05 F350) and I have not had any major engine failures with any of them.  We still own the '03 Excursion, and it now has 175K miles on it and I intend to keep it until at least 250 if not 300K.  It had the ERG cooler replaced around 95K miles, and then I removed it around 125K miles.  We had to replace the high pressure oil pump around 125K miles (removed the EGR cooler at that time), and we've recently replaced the electronic control for the injectors.  We get 20mpg out of it on the highway at 65mph, not bad for a 7000 lb 4wd truck!

Most of it's life is spent pulling a horse trailer, and it averages around 14mpg doing so. 

The relatively small amount of maintenance that we've had to do on it is still much cheaper than a payment on a new truck.

The two F350's were sold with around 50K miles on them and no major problems. 

Yes, the 6.0's had some problems, but they are well known and solutions exist.  Stay away from add-on tuners - many of the problems that people experienced with the 6.0's came from pumping up the power beyond what the engine was designed to handle.

From your description of the phone call with the truck's owner, he's done everything right (add head bolts and get rid of the ERG cooler), and it sounds like a nice truck.  Personally I would not be afraid of it, but I would try to get it for less than 17K.

Yes, the 7.3's are more bombproof, but they are pretty expensive, and they usually don't get the fuel mileage of the 6.0's.  A friend of mine recently bought a cherry 2003 F250 crew cab 4wd with a 7.3 and he paid 23K for it.

I sold the '05 F350 when I bought an '08 F450 with the 6.4.  It's an incredibly strong towing truck.  The 6.7's have an outstanding reputation too.

[LeeB]

You can get the same year model Dodge with the 5.9 Cummins for that or less. 18 - 20 MPG. I have twoof them now and about to buy a third. Have had 6 so far. The first one was a 92.

[snowstorm]

unless used trucks bring big money in the south its way over priced. the 6.0 is by far not the worst diesel ever made. some would say that would be the 5.7 6.2 and 6.5 gm. the 6.0 was the first year under 04 emissions rules thats why it had cooled egr. i have a 6.0 in a f550. deleted the egr cooler . runs good pulls good. also had one in a f250 never really had much trouble with it out of warranty. often times the head gasket issue is caused by a leaking egr cooler. engine tries burning the antifreeze dosent compress well bye bye head gasket. international built all of the ford diesel until the 6.7 came out. hp rating depends on what its in my f250 is rated at 400hp 800tq 2015 is higher. in a f450 f550 its cut back to 300hp 660tq 

[ohiowoodchuck]

I wouldn't pay more than 10k for the 03 6.0, if it was a 03 7.3 i could see a price of 17k but it's just not worth it. The 7.3 powerstrokes I have had ate injectors like candy. When I bought my 3rd one and the engine went south, I asked myself the same question again, Why did I buy another one? I was looking for a regular cab dodge and my wife said look honey it will be so much easier to get our child in and out of the truck, being a crew cab, plus much safer. I was just caught in the moment!!!!! If you want a diesel stick with a cummins, I don't know of them having major trouble besides rebuilding a front end when they get to 100k.

[Kipper]

Cummins only.. I have two of the 6.7 I6 and they are great. The dodge truck, well its a dodge truck.... :-\