i will be picking up a 2004 ford f250 crew cab diesel 4x4 fx4 with 60k miles on it.
i will pick it up in NC and will be driving it to Massachusetts(about 900 mi)(what to ck before the trip)
its my first diesel truck. i will not be pulling anything. i will be installing a plow for next winter.

i want to know what service i should do and some preventive maintenance and so on.
please any input will be apreciated
PS: is a salvage title

 

Welcom
Well the 6.0 you haft to keep on maintenance verry verry important
You need to change the oil ever 5k and fuel filter every 15K and only use ford motorcraft filters.

The 6.0 uses high pressure oil to run your injectors so if you do not keep clean oil in it you are asking to replace injectors an at $275.00 each oil change is cheep.

There are a few flaws i guess you could say with the 6.0

1. Is the Oil Cooler which clogs up and blows due to sillicat (caused to the crappy gold coolant ford uses) and casting sand out of you block cloging it up. You can avoid this by putting on a coolant filter and eaven better flushing the ford gold coolant crap out and installing a good ELC Cat-1 rated coolant in.

2. The EGR cooler have caused several problems thanks to the EPA it takes exhaust out and recurlates it back into the motor to help out on emissions but first it goes through a cooler which used coolant to help cool down the gases. The only fix you could do to it is get a bullet proof diesel kit or do a EGR delete kit.

3. Weak head bolts. If you plain on doing any kind of extream towing or tunes the factoy head bolts just dont work do to higher cyl pressure. The only fix is to install a good set of ARB studs

4. Fuel pressure ford used a weeker fuel pressure spring when they built the truck and most truck i have seen with the factory spring will only have around 40psi of fuel pressure at mid range throttle and 45psi at ital the 6.0 needs at least 45psi to keep the injectors working. Ford came out wiht a new updated fuel pressure spring kit and it takes your fuel pressure to about 65psi at idal and 58psi at WOT. And it is arount $75.00

So if you plain on keeping the truck stock and not doing anything to extream i would most defentley install a good coolant filter and the updated fuel press reg kit forom ford only and change your oil ever 5k and fuel filter every 15k and only use motorcraft filters.

 

Well just the basics before the trip, check oil level, trans lavel, the factory tires should be bfgoodrich rugged trails, I got 120k on my first set, put 80lbs in rear and 70lbs in the front for mileage, take a bottle of cetane boost - injector cleaner with you, a long trip is perfect way to help clean everthing out. watch your speed in Virginia, cops down there don't play and you never know what the hell they are driving, anything from a VW beetle to a F350, you will see them, Be safe and welcome to the diesel world. Bob

 

Holy crap 120k on a set of tires really i got like 45K before i needed new ones on mine

 

yup, I have 230k on the truck now and I am going to have buy my second set here soon, I rotate them once when I get about 75000 on them

 

Wow I think that just may be a world record. We have run them on our work trucks and can only get about 50-60k out of them and that is all highway miles

 

I'm on my 5th set of tires and I'm at about 77k miles. You drive like my father.

 

edge juice with attitude, banks intercooler,cfm intake, injen air cleaner, 5" magnaflow exhaust, amsoil bypass setup, and I can smoke the tires while cruising 35, normally drive 80 plus up 95 every day, if your dad drives like that he is cool////my oldest is 25 but I have always been the gearhead of the family/ I think the key is it is an 04 with the 16" wheels, I got 120k on the BF Goodrich rugged trails so I went to Ford and bought the same tire. mostly highway miles and about 5% of the time towing a trailer.

 

made it in in one piece.
i left NC at noon time and got to MA at 3;30 am cus of the snow storm.

thanks guys for all the good info. on my way to buy oil and filter, coolant and filter to start and find out about the other stuff (egr and spring kit)to see if is easy enough that i can do it myself

 

Congrats on the truck, glad everything went smooth, nice ridin trucks aren't they