The CAR WIZARD shares which Diesel Trucks TO Buy & NOT to Buy

welcome back to the wizard shop and today we're going to do another buy this not that diesel trucks let's get started [Music] so many of you have watched very many car wizard videos there's over 200 of them you won't find very many pickup trucks i'm not truck guy i don't really work on a whole lot of trucks here but in the past i have worked on tons of trucks now when i mention trucks i'm not talking about peterbilts i'm talking about chevy half tons dodge three quarter tons pickup trucks that's what i'm talking about and i personally am not a fan of bro dozers the huge trucks where the back end's lower than the front and the guys puffing vape pins out the side window i don't get into that stuff i i mrs wizard are of the mind a truck is a truck it's stock you leave it alone you haul horse trailers with it you haul construction materials with it it's not a stance mobile or you haul cars with it or cars yeah you go pick up cars and haul them home pick up engines whatever that's what they're for but that's not what we're talking about today we're talking about diesel trucks stock not talking about emissions deleted or modified or tuned or not getting into that it's stock as it left the factory there's going to be four of these that you should not buy and four that you should buy if you're in the market for a diesel truck so the ones i'll start with are four of the trucks you should not buy if you're in the diesel market you should run away from them they're going to cause you bankruptcy marriage problems it's going to cause you to lose your house they're really that bad the first one in the not to buy would be 2003-2007 ford f-250 or f-350 with the 6 liter power stroke diesel now it's easy to say car wizard everybody knows not to buy the 6.0 or 6.0 or six point blow or whatever you guys call it but there are a lot of people that don't know about the six liter i've had customers come in here and say i'm in the market for a diesel truck what do you think about the six liter diesel and bam that tells me right there this guy does not know about the six liter diesel so yes there are people out there that don't know about them now why not to buy these engines number one is blown head gaskets they had numerous numerous blown head gaskets they used torque to yield head bolts and they would stretch and it would overheat the engine below the head gasket and it's a major major repair another issue is electrical is the fuel injection control module or they also call it for short ficum ficm these regularly go bad and your truck will crank and will not start and you have to send the fm off to be rebuilt i've heard that worked so many times when i worked in the in the truck world my fikkum went out my victim was bad i sent it off to get rebuilt it's just a really common problem on these six liter diesels another one is the turbo fails to actuate these are vnt turbos there's little tiny veins inside that can actuate to make a big turbo seem like a small turbo and what happens is the unison ring inside gets stuck and your turbo only works under high rpm or only under low rpm and loses boost on the top end i actually bought a truck i had an o3 f250 with a 6 liter i had to pull the turbo off pull it all apart and clean the unison ring and put it all back together and it worked again you're not going to get that done for 100 bucks it's going to be very expensive and also oil cooler failures egr cooler the oil cooler it's a liquid to liquid cooler and it goes bad i've seen a lot of these issues the six liter is a very problematic engine it's one of the worst diesel engines you can buy it's really that bad unless you've got tons of money to just throw into the truck and you don't care i would really not even buy one of those now i did own one and i fixed some of the issues common things with it and it actually ran very well very powerful but while it was running perfect and everything was in top notch shape i knew in the back of my mind now is the time to sell this truck not when it blows the head gaskets or does something stupid so we sold it because i didn't want to get stuck with that i don't want you guys to get stuck with it either so on to the next next one will be 1992 to 2000 chevy 2500 or 3500 with the 6.5 liter turbo diesel these are fairly common there's a lots of them on facebook marketplace or craigslist for sale they're fairly cheap you're like oh three grand for a diesel pickup i can swing that i'll go ahead and buy one of those it'll be one of the biggest mistakes you can make because they really are not a good engine some of the issues they had was on the injector pump there was actually an optical sensor that would tell the fuel to turn on or tell the engine to start those can get clogged and get dirty your engine won't start you're stuck in walmart parking lot cranking cranking cranking cranking all because a little tiny optical sensor in the injector pump got dirty it's also very common for people to try to run waste vegetable oil or black diesel or used motor oil into their truck and i think oh this is cool my fuel costs will be reduced and then the fuel is so dark that the optical sensor can't see across to the other side now the truck won't start and they're like i wonder what happened another one is a common one i've seen is where the two starter bolts go into the block like a typical chevy small block has is that it requires so much torque to turn these motors over actually the starter can twist actually break the flange where the starter mounts and makes the block unusable who he actually bought one years and years and years ago back when i was working out of the shop at my house he thought i'll get this thing fixed up and he bought it for cheap and ended up having to dump it because the block was cracked it was broken right where the starter bolts go in there is a fix for it there's a small metal tab that fits on the end of the starter and bolts to the side of the block and gives some more stability those can come loose or the starter's been replaced and that part was not put back on the small little tab and you end up breaking the block it's it's really bad when that happens it's time for a new block another common problem they have is cracked heads and also the main webs on the block where the main caps are can be cracked had some block issues and when those go bad and if it really goes bad it can break the crankshaft and it's time for a new engine and lastly the little control module or it's called a pmd pump mounted driver is mounted on the injector pump itself and it gets excessively hot and vibration and they fail and then your truck won't start you can relocate these away from the injector pump and it solves the problem but many people that i've known that have the 6.5 have said i won't buy another one again it's it's really there's always something broke i'm always getting caught off guard and my truck won't start and it really gets annoying finally they sell it and i don't see that truck again so don't get one of those the next one not to buy is 2008 to 2010 ford f-250 350 6.4 liter power stroke diesel when these came out it was supposed to be an upgrade or an update to the six liter power stroke and you thought okay we got these problems solved we have a much better engine and it ended up being just as bad it was actually it actually backfired it was really really really bad they had decent power they had a little bit more power than the six liters but the fuel economy i've heard from some people was half of what the six liter was and no matter what they did people would get tunes they would do this they would do that and the fuel economy was really really bad all the time there wasn't much they could do about it these are getting into the year starting an 0809 on any pickup truck is when emissions systems start to get insane they start choking the engine out and if any of these things the sensors all along the exhaust system whether it be temperature sensors or dpf sensors or anything along this line it sends your truck into reduced power mode and if you're towing a load you're making money with your truck and now you're in reduced power mode and it's going to be some thousand dollar sensor and you're broke down on the side of the road i've heard this story so many times i get a phone call hey i'm halfway to nebraska and i'm into this reduced power mode and blah blah blah and what do i do and all because emission system there's actually nothing wrong with the engine the engine is fine it's that something went wrong in the emissions system and the way that they force you to fix it is they rob your power from your engine through the computer and they say now you're going to fix this problem a lot of people delete their emission systems and go without them which is highly illegal but i'm not going to recommend to do that because it's illegal they also have dpf and egr issues really bad it's a nightmare on the 6.4 and they also have fuel contamination getting into the engine oil past the rings is a very common issue your oil starts to get diluted with fuel very dangerous to the engine many of these diesel engines that i'm recommending not to buy especially when they get into 2008 and newer range most of them require the cab to come off to get to to do major work to pull the heads or to do major work on the engine it's actually faster and more efficient to pull the whole cab off in the air just like in this picture i know a couple guys north of here there's a diesel control and there's also diesel pickup specialist you can walk into their shop and at any given time there's two or three trucks with the cabs off and in the air and it's just like oh my god and it's common common for those pickup trucks that is really an annoyance if something goes wrong with your truck and you're like okay now i'm going to have to have the whole cab lifted off my truck this is not going to be cheap no it's not going to be cheap the last one not to buy is 1988-1994 f-250 or 350 with the 7.3 idi which means indirect injection now the 6.9 was a very good engine and we'll talk about that one in a minute but the 7.3 is known for one of the major issues is cavitation of the cylinders if you don't keep up on the antifreeze you don't keep up on the additives and the antifreeze especially the cylinder walls are thin enough on these engines that it can start to rust and pit and get pin holes through the cooling jacket into the cylinders you start to get coolant in there or combustion gases into the cooling system and when that happens it's time for a new block when these engines are new they didn't have that problem but as they get older it's becoming common more and more common in these these trucks when they get to be something wrong of that nature they're usually abandoned they're just like i'm done with this truck i'm not going to mess with it the 6.9 and the 7.3 both share this problem they do not like cold starts if your glow plugs and your batteries and everything isn't in tip top shape and the temperature drops below 50 down into the 40s and 30s you're not going to start one of those crazy d in the office when his day is doing salvage work he had a couple of three of those trucks and he said my cummins always started my old chevy diesel's always started but when it got below 50 i could just forget about my fords i knew when i woke up in the morning we're not taking those trucks because i already know they're not going to start and they never did if you have everything in order your glow plugs they do okay or if you plug it in the block warmer they do okay but they are not tolerant of cold temperatures at all the 7.3 don't have much more power than the 6.9 and as they get older they can also start to develop oil usage the rings get worn actually can use a couple or three quarts between oil changes when you've got 10 or more 12 quarts it's not that big of a deal but still that's a lot of oil being burned that's just something to keep in mind but i really would recommend not to buy the 7.3 idis of those years now before we move on to the two by diesel pickup trucks it's amazing what it costs and also the amount of money that people put into these trucks one guy was actually in the shop that i was working at before he came in and i guess he was kind of bragging he knew that i worked on european cars and was starting to get into working on exotics he says yeah i got this duramax and i my lift kit i've got nine grand into that my wheels are seven hundred dollars a piece my tires are almost a grand a piece of i went through and had a tune i had all the emissions deleted i've got 12 grand into that and i bought the truck for 68 000 i was like what you almost have a hundred grand into this truck he goes yeah that sure is nice i said man for a hundred thousand dollars you can go buy a lamborghini gallardo and it'll be ten times cooler than this truck i said i've heard you mentioned that you'd like to have a ferrari someday but you can't afford it and then you go and spend a hundred thousand dollars on a truck and you look me right in the eye f you like if me i didn't spend that money waste that money on a truck i would never put a hundred thousand dollars into a chevy pickup truck no way i don't get into that i know a lot of people do that and if that's your thing that's cool but it's not my thing but if you have that much money into your truck don't come to me talking about how you can't afford a ferrari yes you can the next thing is the cost of repairs especially when you get into the 2008 and newer diesel pickup trucks i kind of know the owners of the pickup shops i talked about a little bit ago the diesel pickup shops and both of them have both told me a truck rarely leaves their shop ever for less than five thousand dollars it's usually upwards of 10 or more so if you're in the market for a newer diesel pickup truck just know if something majorly goes wrong with the emission systems or the injection system it's not going to be 1500 bucks it could very likely be 15 000 bucks they're not cheap to fix my old mentor that taught me a lot of the wizard tips that i have he told me he said unless you are earning money with your truck hauling freight you should not buy a modern diesel pickup truck because the cost to keep them running is cost prohibitive it doesn't make sense now if you're hauling a camper a heavy camper or you're hauling a heavy load frequently weekly they do make sense you're earning money and when you can make that money you can pay for the repairs but if you're using it to go around town and take the kids to soccer practice you might want to stick to a gas engine because you can be in a world of hurt if something major goes wrong on one of these i got one more story to tell you before we move on to the two by trucks it's not in a fault of the truck but the story i have is a customer was a farmer they had a 2008 f-250 with a 6.4 diesel and the truck ran fine was not a not a big problem but on his yard at his farm he had a giant diesel fuel station like a big container and he could pull his tractors he could pull up his truck or whatever and fill it up with diesel there on his yard and somehow it got condensation and water in it and he filled his truck up and it was like 25 or 30 percent water just plain water into his fuel tank it completely wiped out the injectors the high pressure pump it just wrecked the entire injection system one small mistake he took it to one of the reputable diesel shops here north of newton ninety nine hundred dollars almost ten grand putting water into his gas tank accidentally was ten thousand dollars out of his pocket when i heard that i kind of started thinking you know what i don't think i need a diesel it's just wow ten thousand dollars they're crazy so make sure you keep that in mind when you're looking to buy one now we're going to talk about some trucks that you should buy if you're in the diesel market the first one to buy is 2006 or 2007 chevy 2500 or 3500 with the duramax specifically the lbz duramax the previous years of duramax were good engines they just had a lot of injector failures they would drop out pretty regularly they actually kind of fixed that in the 06 to 07 model and that was taken care of these are some of the last years that you can buy a duramax before like the aforementioned 2008 and newer trucks where they choke them to death with emissions 0607 really doesn't have a whole lot of that going on maybe a little bit but it's enough to where it's livable you can deal with it these have very good power very good fuel economy and they're fairly easy to work on they're not too bad your starter your alternator things like that go out it's not really that big of a deal but you are starting to get into the cab off to fix major problems but these would be one of the duramaxes i would really recommend the next one i recommend to buy is 1989 to 1998 dodge 2500 or 3500 or also could be 250 350 which is basically the 12 valve cummins now these aren't known for super high horsepower figures they can be tuned for high horsepower but these engines are stupid simple they are just so easy to work on the parts aren't super expensive it's as basic as you can get almost as basic as a farm tractor diesel from the old days it's just an ejector pump injectors an alternator it's just really not much to it as far as electronics there's not a bunch of modules controls and computers and it's really really nice to work on these engines and like i mentioned you can put on bigger turbos you can change the injector pump change some things around you can get a lot of power and really good fuel economy there's a lot of guys that have these old 12 valves and the truck is starting to get beat up and everything but they're like it still keeps running i just want to keep holding on to this thing crazy d actually has a 91 or 92 dodge ram with the 12 valve in it the truck is destroyed the front end's out of it the transmission doesn't even go into gear anymore it's sitting in a field it's been sitting there for seven years they just jokingly went out one day and threw a battery in it and the 12 valve fired right up and it just idle perfect and it was it was saying to him i'm ready to get back to work even though it's not possible because the truck is destroyed by now but the engines are that good next one i recommend to buy is 94 to 2003 ford f-250 or 350 with the 7.3 liter power stroke these engines are really pretty good they can be complicated to work on they have high pressure oil system and things of that nature to operate the injectors they can be a little complicated but this is before all the emissions garbage and the parts aren't all that expensive they have good power decent fuel economy they're used in ambulances they're used in farm trucks there's these engines are everywhere there's lots of them on the road with over 400 000 miles on them they really are a good engine these also can be tuned for more power you don't have to do a whole lot and you can get quite a bit more power out of them and they really they really haul a load really really well if it's been maintained and been taken care of a 7.3 power stroke is nothing to run away from they really are a good engine and the last one is 1983 to 1987. ford f250 350 with the 6.9 liter idi this is a little bit smaller version as far as displacement is concerned of the 7.3 they do have the inherent cold start problems but other than that these engines are bulletproof they are stupid simple just like a 12 valve cummins there's no computers there's no modules there's no emissions there's nothing but a good running diesel engine they don't have tons of power but if you need a good engine to do grunt work around a farm to haul hay bales or whatever and you don't need to get anywhere really fast these engines really are bulletproof if they've been maintained and it's got 300 000 miles on it i wouldn't even think twice about buying a 6.9 idi they really are a good engine the parts are cheap to buy they're very easy to work on you can fix most everything in your garage to keep it running like i mentioned they do have the cold start problem it's not a problem if you keep up on your glow plugs all eight of them are in good shape the wiring harness is in good shape a good set of batteries and your glow plug controller which a lot of people bypass is still working you can bypass it with just an on off switch better than that these are really good engines okay car wizard those are getting pretty old though they are pretty old but they're still sought after for somebody who just needs a pickup truck it's a little bit more durable a little bit more heavy duty that's somewhat decent on fuel they want a diesel but they don't want to spend 50 grand on a diesel these are really in the range of a cheap diesel you can pick up one of these trucks for two or three grand that still runs great most diesels especially these older ones i'm talking about it's not unheard of to hit 500 000 miles they last a long long time you might have to go through a set of injectors or an injector pump or something during that time frame but the core engine can last a very long time they're built very heavy duty and they're made to be lugged and worked hard that's what they're made for so we're nearing the end of 2020 and a lot of us are really happy about that we're ready to see 2020 go away we're ready for 2021. you guys have been really supportive the channel is growing really well and i'm really thankful for that really thankful to you guys for that i've got many years of knowledge things i've seen in the shop crazy stories good wizard tips to pass along to you guys again i want to thank you guys for your support here's to more wizard videos in 2021 if you're curious what kind of tools we use in the shop check my amazon affiliates link in the description below if you haven't hit the subscribe button already i really recommend you do that now we've got boat videos to come we've got malibu v12 videos and we got many other cool cars in the shop many more cool videos to come thanks for watching you

Channel: Car Wizard

Views: 558,349

Keywords: car wizard, david long, hoovies garage, tyler hoover, car issues with tyler hoover, omega auto clinic, scotty kilmer, car repair, car maintenance, tavarish, Doug DeMuro, samcrac, vinwiki, Hoovie, mechanic, Car issues, BendPak, Car trek, dodge, chevy, chevrolet, ford, f250, f350, diesel, 2500, 3500, durmax, cummins, ram, 7.3l, 6.9l, 12 valve

Id: 7wDmoUm5VCI

Length: 24min 5sec (1445 seconds)

Published: Thu Dec 31 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/Darkbloodmon]

Keep in mind when he talks about the prices of the "to buy trucks" regional demand. In the South East if you're looking for a 12v, 3 Grand might get you one, but it'll just be a generator sitting in a frame.

Wish he had an honorable mentions list for "to buy" I think the early Dodge common rails would've made it filtration system for the fuel was really the only weak point.