Anybody know what year engines will be easily replaced in a 2005 Ford F250 with the 6.0 Diesel? 2003-2007 or what?

 

If you ar getting a comete engine then stay with 05-07 if you just need a long block and ca reuse you HPOP then the year doesn't matter. The basic differences are the HPOP system, there are 3 versions of the system/ 03 to early 04 have the aluminum pump and log style oil rails/ the late 04 engines have the aluminum HPOP and pretzel styles oil rails/ the 05 and up have the cast iron HPOP and the pretzel style oil rails, each system has it's own branch tube to connect the oil rail standpipes to the HPOP, also the 03 and early 04 rocker boxes won't take the pretzel style oil rail. You have to use the right rocker boxes for the style of oil rails you have. I just recently put the 05 HPOP system on my early 04 truck, it involved 05 rocker boxes,05 HPOP, 05 branch tube, 05 oil rails.
Whatever you do make sure you put new head gaskets and ARP studs on the new motr before you even drop it in, torque the studs/nuts/ to 240ftlbs and you won't have any problems in the future.

 

Thanks for the great answer

 

If you were going to replace with a used engine what year would be best 2005,06 or 07?

 

To be honest I would go with one with lowest miles on it but 05-07.
You might want to stay with 05 to erly 06, that way everything will work as spares, in late 06 they changed the injector hold downs and I think the rocker boxes are slightly different to accomidate them, The heads also change in later 06 as they went with the 20mm dowl pins,
Everything will bolt up on the outside no matter what year it is, you can even change the 03 HPOP system to a 05 and up system if you have the donor parts.
I hope you plan on at least rebuilding the oil cooler before you install a used engine, are you planning on doing anything else to it before you drop it in??
Don't know if I ever asked, what happened to the original motor??