That is what it just cost my company to replace the engine in my company truck.
Before anybody jumps on the bash brand X trip, I did not post this for anyone to take in that direction. This issue happened to my company truck while I was driving it back in August.
I did not post this until now, because I wanted to gather any relevant information before posting anything. Sadly I know little from this episode that could help other 6.4L PSD owners avoid where this has taken us.
Here is what I can tell.....I was driving on a MO Ozarks 2-lane road, cruise set at 57MPH, tach at 2100RPM......Engine was not stressed. The engine developed a tick that rapidly turned into a knock.
I was able to roll into a nearby Ford dealer with a definate knock, and miss, but with no other symptoms.....No excessive blow by, no overheating, no oil smell, coolant level was normal, nothing to indicate a problem except for the knock, and miss......Anyhow, left the truck with that dealer, and about a week later they called with an estimate for $17,500 for a new engine. I was shocked, the noise sounded like a rocker arm, and not something more than that. They said the EGR cooler was blown, and that is what destroyed the engine. I'm thinking no coolant loss????, no white smoke (or any other color for that matter) out the tail pipe. Hmmmm.......No other symptoms.....Hmmmm.....
So, I had the truck towed to a different dealer for a second opinion. The mechanic there agreed with me that it sounded like a rocker arm. According to him, they are seeing a few rocker arm failures on 100,000+mi 6.4L PSDs. Good, I thought, cheap repair. Well, they called back, and said it had low compression on #8 cylinder, and that the rocker arms all looked fine. They suggested the engine route as well, and gave us the aforementioned estimate. After some struggling with what to do, the powers that be told me to have them change the engine.
Since this wasn't a warranty repair, and the dealership was on bid, they didn't let the tech tear the engine down to see what actually failed. He, and I can only speculate as to what actually went wrong. He thinks it was a bent connecting rod. My thoughts are related to the regens every 100mi. I am afraid the all too frequent regens are washing the rings, and diluting the engine oil. One other thought I have is about a year ago the front cover on the engine failed and allowed all of the coolant to be pumped into the engine. Maybe this preceeded where we are now? Hard to say, but babbit bearings don't like ethylene glycol.
I guess if I were to give advice to 6.4L PSD owners it would be this:
1) Consider having your truck looked at to see if it is covered by the TSB that states that the engine front cover is suspect to failure. Ours is an early 2008 build truck.
2) Keep the engine oil changed. Monitor the oil level. If it is overfull, this is fuel dilution, not more oil.
3) Add an aftermarket oil pressure gauge. Ford sucks at this.....The oil light never came on when I had this problem, all it takes is approximately 7psi of oil pressure to turn off Ford's idiot light. That is not enough to keep the engine, and turbo alive. Had I had an accurate gauge to monitor, I might have been able to intercede before this thing completely let go. Maybe, maybe not, but we will never know......
The powers that be told me not to get too used to this truck, as it is slated to be gone in 2 years when the unlimited mileage warranty runs out. One positive note, the new engine gets about .5mpg better fuel mileage. Might see a full 1. after she gets broken in.
Geez...for $15,892.41 you could probably have had Destroked repower it with a Cummins. Yeah, you're still out fifteen grand, but at least you have a good motor!
Gas power is looking better and better.
John and Elizabeth (Liz), with 3 nutty cats
My beloved St. Bernard, Marm, lost him 1/2/12
Current rig:
1992 International Genesis school bus conversion
Since you apparently think this is too high, I have two questions. 1)Why would you agree to the repairs (I assume the dealership gave you an estimate and if not, only fools give anyone a blank check). 2) If you feel it is too high, what should it cost to replace the engine? Bonus question 2A) how did you arrive at the figure in answer of question #2?
Wow that's steep but I've seen creat 6.0 deisel engins with a 13,500.00 price tag as a display in Ford dealers service departments before. Why is this not a warranty repair (I have to ask). More than 100,000 on the truck? Certainly not over the 5 year warranty period.
2011 F-150 HD Ecoboost 3.5 V6. 2550 payload, 17,100 GCVWR - 2004 F-150 HD (Traded after 80,000 towing miles) 2007 Rockwood 8314SS 34' travel trailer
US Govt survey shows three out of four people make up 75% of the total population
Fordlover wrote: What other driveablity repairs has this particular truck had?
3 radiators, and 1 fuel lift pump. The engine thermostats were replaced per a TSB with the last radiator. And of course the normal software upgrades when required.
skipnchar wrote: Wow that's steep but I've seen creat 6.0 deisel engins with a 13,500.00 price tag as a display in Ford dealers service departments before. Why is this not a warranty repair (I have to ask). More than 100,000 on the truck? Certainly not over the 5 year warranty period.
skipnchar- Truck had 120,9xx mi when the engine failed. Original warranty is good to 100,000mi.
Lantly- The new (remanufactured) engine has a 2 year unlimited mileage warranty per Ford. This particular engine comes with new (not rebuilt) EGR coolers, engine oil coolers, and reman turbos. All of which are covered by that warranty.
Tax $997.13. 
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