I often wonder if the rattly 12V would generally run smoother with a Fluidampr.

 

this. always always always overbuild.

 

it will a bit below 3k but if you are going above 3k they make a big difference.

 

I do sometimes. And when I do, the last thing I want to be thinking is that my 12V sounds like a Powerstroke.

 

odd, that's the only thing I want to be thinking. a T444 beats the hell out of a 6bt in the sound department, to my ears.

 

To me they always sound like they're ready to grenade, which is appropriate because every Powerstroke in our fleet has done just that. 7.3, 6.0, 6.4, 6.7, get on any of them and they sound like a gas engine that was designed for 93 and somebody put old 87 in it. Like in spite of the shrapnel grinding around in the top end it's somehow still running. Like a handful of cracked marbles rattling around in a wheel...
I'll take my pissed off school bus any day of the year.

 

Powerstroke Grenade? That never happens!!!

 

You're right.. "grenade" implies one intends for it to happen

 

Which is kinda funny. . .considering I ran my 7.3 through hell and it did better than my 6bt ever has. All while having markedly more power from stock and getting the same or better fuel economy, and not sounding like a moose farting into the wind. I actually regret buying my Dodge almost every day. Which, if you had talked to me 3 years ago, when all I wanted was a Dodge diesel, woulda sounded akin to blasphemy to me. But so far, the Basket Case has spent more time in a shop than it has driving. Now lots of that does some down to the previous owner being a jackass, but really, when the biggest issue I have with my Ford was a fuel leak that I edend up solving for 65 bucks of used parts from a member on this board, can I complain?

Never had a single engine/driveline issue with my Ford. Well, i did replace a 20 dollar wheel bearing, and swapped out the dual mass flywheel I guess. . .The T444 was a good engine, and the ZF5 was an adequate transmission. At least it could keep 5th gear in it. The 6.0L wasn't a bad one either, emissions killed it. the 6.4 is an unknown quantity to me, and the 6.7 is unproven as yet, with some really cool stuff on it.

One thing they sure as hell don't do, is blow up transmissions, anyway. I can spend 5 grand on a 4 speed dodge, or I can go buy a 5R110 for half that. Oh, and manual locking hubs. if I do a froint suspenion swap on the dodge, it'll be getting an F350 Dana 60. Cause f*** CADs.

Yeah, brand bashing against FoMoCo doesn't go very far in my eyes. I loved my Ford. I wish I could've kept it.

 

We have well over 100 trucks in our fleet. The owner loves Fords so that's what 80% of them are. Almost all are Powerstrokes- we have some gas Fords, but even my Ford loving boss hates the Ford 5.4. Since nobody gives two ***** about fleet trucks, they almost all get the **** beat out of them all day, every day. Every Powerstroke has blown except a few of the 6.7's, which are still well within warranty mileage so the one of them that blew was only an expense in that we had a truck down. Some get to 100K, some to 150K, but every 7.3, 6.0 and 6.4 except one went somewhere in between there. That one made it as far as 280K, it was a shop truck with a 7.3 pretty much only driven by two or three mechanics who more or less took care of it. Very few of them were modded, and there doesn't seem to be any pattern to how long they last based on it.

We have ten or so Duramax, all but one have been fine. That one seems to be a lemon, it melted down three times before 100K, but seems to be a decent truck now that the dealer who sold it to us rebuilt the heads for the second time. The Cummins are bulletproof. I will concede that every Dodge got a new transmission at least once, and very seldom do we change them in Fords. We've done more Ford transmissions than Dodge, but we own ten times as many Fords so that's not saying anything. We seem to go through transfer cases in our GM's and Fords though, and almost never in the Dodges. By almost never, I mean exactly once. Mine. Regardless, it costs a lot more money to replace a Powerstroke than it does to build a Dodge transmission that can stay together. And since- unlike most private owners- we almost never sell trucks, we buy them and then drive them into the ground until there's nothing left to fix anymore, this is a life cycle that I've had the pleasure of observing for the last few years happening much faster and on a much larger scale than most people get to.

That all being said, much as I hate Fords (and I do), I'm more of an age basher than a brand basher. You couldn't give me a Ford, but you couldn't give me a new Dodge either. By new, I mean 1999+. Most of the ways my truck has proven superior to our Fords over the last quarter million miles are just as applicable to our newer Dodges and GMs. I have the oldest truck with the most miles, pull more weight over more distance and generally work my 12V harder than any truck we own, and the records show that it costs so much less per mile to run between economy, repairs and cost of parts (not to mention purchase price) that it's just plain silly. To be fair, I've spent thousands on my truck that aren't in those records because the company didn't pay them, but aside from a few grand in the transmission none of it was necessary. It didn't need a new turbo, new injectors, a built head or a benched pump. With over 300K on it's clock all that stuff had already lasted way longer than any of our other trucks, it was still fine when it came off and could go right back on the way it was, aside from the governor in my pump. I did it all because I get paid to drive around in my personal toy all day, and I'm a gearhead who wants what I want even if everyone else thinks I'm crazy for it. But bang for the buck, it's still at the top of our heap and it's a very big, extremely brutal heap.