Can you make a 6.4 reliable?

wise guy said:
yep they call 6.4 for a reason broke 4 times as much cost 4 times as much to fix and 4 times as hard to work on. Our old beater 03 6.0 just rolled 550,000 original gaskets and turbo. other than injectors its been good my personal 05 280k fully bulletproofed by bpd.@ 75k last 200k only thing it has had was ebp sensor
Click to expand...

you have 550k miles on a 6.0? damn whats your secret?? :what:
 
Ltk said:
you have 550k miles on a 6.0? damn whats your secret?? :what:
Click to expand...

full service every 2 weeks 4000-6000 miles try to keep up on the little things before cause problems. last time I drove the truck had 563+ and counting original hg 03 egr cooler oil cooler and turbo.
At 1 time owned 20+ trucks 14 drivers I went from 6.5 turbo 7.3 obs to 7.3 sd 6.0 to 6.6 lb7 to 5.9cr back to 6.6lbz to 6.4 economy took a dump ended up 6.0. never sold the 03 no one would give me any thing for it so kept it. Also had a mb900 and a couple crapapillars. over the last 15 years I cant count how many trucks had but I would say 75+ of the trucks I think the 5.9 in 650 was the worst 63k blew a rod cummins would not warranty it said I was ford issue ford blamed cummins ect. bought long block on my dime.my lb7 were turds all of them blew hg ruined the heads 1 picked up a knock shortly after gm put new heads on it hg went @98k motor went @ 101k gm would not cover it all the 6.6 trucks got inj and pumps my personal 3500 5.9 cr ate 3 trans 2 rears more electrical gremlins than I could count in first 70k I dumped it and ran. had 1 08 6.7 only put 20k on it and had to sell it. I will not say 6.0 is perfect but neither were my 6.6 5.9 6.4 and sure as hell not my 6.5. best engine I think was my obs sd 7.3 1.3 million never opened still runs decent burns some oil friend of mine still has it to this day keeps it as a backup/ still uses it in the winter.
But my opinion should not count for anything I'm not out racing all of these trucks were cab and chassis work trucks none were used for performance. I fired a driver for putting a bully dog on my 04 6.0 came in hg bad puking coolant tuner set on extreme pulling ccdrw3500. only 6.0 that had hg issue had bully dog? hmm was it the tuner? I used to try to keep trucks for 250k and trade them off 2500 average miles a week adds up quick. My 2 personal trucks are both 05 6.0 one is ccsb 250 and the other is 05 f550 4x4 oh and my plow truck is 04 6.0excursion. Some day I'll figure a way to make money again and buy some new rigs
 
Last edited:
We used to budget 7500 for first year 100,000mi having our own mechanic do the work 15k for second. If I could not keep it on the road for that I considered it a lemon. I'm not super brand loyal just looked @ operating cost vs downtime + cost of ownership bottom line is what matters to me.
 
Powerlifter405 said:
Ain't that the truth. Add more epa crap till it become unreliable?!
Click to expand...

Add more hp till they become unreliable... Compare reliability between a 160hp VE Or P pump B vs a common rail. Compare a 230hp 7.3 to a 350 whatever hp 6.4... They make more hp and people take advantage of it, more stuff breaks... I have a point.
 
If your a home mechanic don't bother with a 6.4. Actually don't bother at all. I don't own one, but I get to work on them every other day. Major pain in the ass too when lifting the cab is not an option....

Hell, go change the AC belt and tell me you still like your 6.4 power stroke.... LOL
 
Do an alternator or serp belt on a 6.0 in an E van then report back, lol
 
will24 said:
Do an alternator or serp belt on a 6.0 in an E van then report back, lol
Click to expand...

Im doing heater hoses on a E van right now, probably the worst job I've done in 5.5 yrs of being a tech. FML.

Sent from my ME301T using Tapatalk 2
 
zabyvu9y.jpg


Sent from my ME301T using Tapatalk 2
 
I like the challenge of working on a 6.4. Most expensive engine to work on to date. But they do make good power


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk - now Free
 
Update this 6.4 is still junk and the heads are cracked. Anyone know where a guy can get the new style casting heads with valve guides.
 
Biggest issues we've seen with 6.4s comes from lack of maintenance. Other than cracked pistons which is hard to avoid. But the international pistons seem to cure that issue. Atleast none have failed yet and we've sold alot of them in the last 3 years. On your exhaust manifolds I would make sure they're being torqued properly or upgrade to 6.0 manifolds and uppipes. I personally think the 6.4 is easy to work on. I've done 100% of the work on my drag truck with the cab down due to the cage. I also only pull the cab on customers trucks to remove the engine or a stud job. Everything else can be done cab down fairly easy.
 
Done a lot of searching nobody really specifies if 'there' heads are the new style castings or just reworked heads that are ready to start cracking.
 
97singlecab said:
Biggest issues we've seen with 6.4s comes from lack of maintenance. Other than cracked pistons which is hard to avoid. But the international pistons seem to cure that issue. Atleast none have failed yet and we've sold alot of them in the last 3 years. On your exhaust manifolds I would make sure they're being torqued properly or upgrade to 6.0 manifolds and uppipes. I personally think the 6.4 is easy to work on. I've done 100% of the work on my drag truck with the cab down due to the cage. I also only pull the cab on customers trucks to remove the engine or a stud job. Everything else can be done cab down fairly easy.
Click to expand...

You must be a skinny bastard.

Side note: has anyone figured out why 6.4's dilute the oil with diesel? We have two at my work that do it, one with 143k and one with 95k on the engine. Everyone says its from the injectors, just curious if there is a fix for this.
 
International's solution to engines making oil was to swap engines... seriously...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top