Aquired an 05 F450

[RColston]

Well... let the adventure begin. I traded my IH 4700 for a very nice 05 F-450 Crew Cab Fontaine toter conversion with Link MFG rear air suspension. Ultimately this will probably wind up a Cummins conversion but for the time being the 6. 0 stays put. The truck is a lodaed Lariat 30k cgvw rating truck with only 45k on the clock (can easily handle the 4300 lb. pin weight of my Teton. Full Banks mods except the air cleaner. I like the truck part of the truck as the cab is very quiet compared to my 01 3500 with respect to wind noise and seat of the pants comfort. The truck actually runs very good and has been exceptionally maintained. I have done some of the mandatory reliability upgrades like having Bullitt Proof Diesels EGR cooler and remote external oil cooler/filter system installed. Excellent products which replace the most failure prone sytems. It'll never be a good ol 5. 9 Cummins (at least till the transplant) but so far (which is not very far) the complaint list is short. I will say that many of the common issues, according to IH, not Ford or Ford haters or loyalists, seem to relate to lack of maintenance, bad engineering with respect to the egr cooler and oil cooler system which is, well frankly, poor engineering at best. As far as ease of repairs, what a nightmare to get at much of anything under the hood. Even on the 6. 0's cab removal is almost mandatory to remove the heads (can be done without but not the easiest). Fuel milage is actually better than I expected. After about 400 gallons used avg hwy only (hand calc'd) 15. 7 mpg within 2/10 of the computer reading not towing (4:88's at an avg speed of 65). City/combined seems to avg about 12-12. 5mpg. An interesting side note is that people that baby these trucks (drive them real easy for mileage issues or ???) apparently have more problems than those that regularly drive them like they stole them. Driving them too easy apparently cokes up the EGR cooler and VG turbo vanes. That said if you try to get too much out of the 6. 0 with performance addons, headgaskets and ARP studs are mandatory (more so in the '03/'04) due to streched headbolts from the high combustion chamber pressures. All in all the 01. 5 CTD 3500 stays in the fleet cause (sentimental value aside) it's such a good workhorse, gets 20+ mpg on the hwy and has never let me down. The 450 will be used primarily as a tow mule for my heavy 5'er.

 

[Bill Stockard]

Why did you trade your IH 4700? I can guess, but would like to see your answer.



Bill

 

[RColston]

Well... the real reason is that my wife hated the ride, noise, climb up and finally refused to ride in it. I had few issues with it, but I will say that it was expensive to register, insurance was a little high but not too bad and the AC/Heat system was not the best (no recirculate setting = fumes in the cab any time you followed a stinky vehicle. The truck had a lot of good points such as only had to do service/oil change once per year, 22. 5 tire/rim combo offered extrodinary tire life, excellent brakes and it would tow most anything, although even with the DT 530E steep grade speed was a slow ride if we were towing our 5'er.

 

[GCroyle]

My neighbor just traded a 6. 0L for a '11 F350 6. 7L. When the 6. 0L hit song, it was a getter for sure but it disappointed him once too often, turbo issues, EGR delete finally and it started to rack up solid miles, we can't forget the mysterious PS system it had felt like freewheeling PS a couple of times. But the last straw was when about 8" of intercooler crimp blew open while coming home with his 5'er and family. No power to merge on HWY while loaded, truck got gone.



Sounds like you know what you have and how to take care of it, thats a big plus.



BTW, I fixed the crimp enough to get it traded w/o replacing the entire CAC.

 

[MChrist]

Go to POWERSTROKEHELP. COM - The Information Source for Ford Power Stroke Diesel Owners & Mechanics and Home of EDAS® "Engine Damage Avoidance System" for Powerstroke Diesel Trucks for information to keep 'er running. Lots of valuable information

 

[RColston]

Gary... I've got the Banks intercooler so that shouldn't be a problem from this point on. When we pulled th oil cooler and the EGR cooler, boith were clean as a whistle. The EGR valve was only slightly sooted and the turbo looked very good. SO... I am hoping that problems from this point on will be few and far between. If she makes 100k i'll probably start the swap at the first sign of trouble after that.



MChrist, thanks for the info. Been on one of the other sites gettin some good info as well. I'll definately check this one out.