Requesting Tips on Ford F450 and 6.4 Diesel Engine - RV-Dreams Community Forum

Terry and Jo · RV-Dreams Family Member

Requesting Tips on Ford F450 and 6.4 Diesel Engine

flyone · RV-Dreams Family Member

Terry, I have had the 7.3 L diesel for a few years now. I'll offer my opinon--most all stations in colder climites carry the winter fuel, however at very cold temps it can still gel, as a precaution I put and additive in every time I fill up in cold weather. You never know for sure what quality of fuel you are buying. There are many fuel additivies on the market and you can pick them up at any number of places, Wal-mart, fuel stations, target just about anywhere. Also I will plug my truck in any night that I see the temp will be below freezing, as far as I know they all have an engin heater built in. As far as oil "normal" oil will do fine I prefer Shell Rotalla, its a heavy duty diesel oil. Synthetic may do better I don't know I have never used it. I do know it is more expensive and when you are buying 15 qt's more expensive is not good. My filter has a small monitor gauge on it, it just shows basically how dirty your filter is and how much air flow is restricted. When it gets down in the "Dirty" area I get it changed out at oil change time with a OEM filter.

Flyone

DZ · RV-Dreams Family Member

As far as warmup, they don't require a long time to warmup, just make sure you're up to operating temp before putting a heavy load on it when towing. Does your info center tell you when it's cleaning exhaust filter? If not you need the latest reflash. The DPF is hands off, the only thing is watch your miles between regens and be on the lookout for black smoke, could mean a cracked DPF. Also after putting a load on it, make sure you allow the turbo to cool down before shutting engine off. There's a ton of info on the dieselstop forums.

contra · RV-Dreams Family Member

Thanks Terry for posting on our behalf! These are the exact kinds of questions that I don't know enough to ask. But I'm learning more every day!

-Connie

Terry and Jo · RV-Dreams Family Member

Connie,

Trust me, Darlin'. After so many years since I drove diesels, I need a lot of help with diesel trucks myself. In road vehicles or farm vehicles, I haven't dealt with them since about 1982. At that time pickups were beginning to get diesel engines. However, a lot of them were converted from gasoline designs. They weren't all that great and wouldn't pull the loads that we as farmers and ranchers needed to pull.

However, you were in my thoughts when I started this thread. I suspected that anything at all that you could learn would be helpful. Even questions that I ask that I think I may know the answers for will still be asked, even if for no other reason than clarification.

With the great folks on the RV Dreams forum, I am sure we can all learn something. I never tire of learning, so I listen quite a bit and read even more.

Whatever you happen to see or hear, don't get overwhelmed by the feeling of not knowing something. I'm 63 years old, have been over the mountain and across the river a few times, and I'm still learning.

Terry

traveljunkie · RV-Dreams Family Member

I take our 2008 F450 to the ford dealer to have the oil changed and they use a synthetic blend oil. I usually carry about 3-4 quarts of mobil one just in case. Haven't had to use any as of yet.

There is a glow plug indicator on the dash that indicates when it is O.K. to start the engine. I haven't found anything about waiting for it to heat up prior to towing.

Living in northern Illinois and traveling to Wisconsin quite often I have been in quite extreme weather which includes sub zero conditions and blizzard snowfall with the truck. When it is quite cold (I mean getting near 0 degrees) I will plug the truck in overnight and when starting the truck, just wait until the glow plugs light goes off (will take a bit longer in colder conditions). The good thing is we have a heated garage at our home so I only have to worry about it if I am traveling.

I have not had any problems with the diesel #1 or #2 in the winter. In fact, most places where we live don't even give you a choice.

If you are traveling in blowing snow conditions, your air intake may (likely will) clog with snow and saturate and plug up the air filter. This is a problem with the truck and Ford knows about it. If this happens the check air filter light will come on. Ford's fix for this is to give you a free bra for the front of the truck to block snow from coming in. I don't know if you plan on traveling where it is snowing so don't know if this applies but its best to have it just in case. To me it is a terrible fix because it screws up the outside temp reading on your dash. When towing, you shouldn't have the bra on if it is above 30 outside.

I also installed valve stem extenders on the rear wheels to make adding / checking air pressure easier.

Don't expect too much with mileage. We usually get around 11mpg or so driving around town not towing anything, towing we get around 8-9mpg or so.

A nice thing that I use with the truck is the upfitter switches. I have hooked our pressure pro to upfitter switch #4, CB to switch #3, and our rear back-up camera to switch#1.

You will also notice the clean exhaust filter message coming on when driving. When towing, it comes on for us roughly every 100 miles or so, when not towing it comes on around every 150-175 miles. Your gas mileage will drop during the 10 or so miles it takes to go through the cleaning process.

If you have any questions or would like pictures on the above, just let me know. I know I mentioned some issues, but we love the truck and wouldn't trade it for anything.

Terry and Jo · RV-Dreams Family Member

Traveljunkie,

Sorry if I failed to clearly word my question. I wasn't referring to "warming up" with either an engine block or a glow plug. (I do need to research both of those topics as well.) My reference was to how long would one need to allow the engine to warm up while running at idle before driving it. As some of the others mentioned, they need to warm up fairly well before towing a heavy load, but I wanted to know how long before just driving the truck.

When I drove 18-wheelers (back in the '70's primarily) we had to allow them quite a bit of warm up because as soon as we started driving, we would usually be under load. Same with warming up farm equipment that were diesel equipped. Since diesel engines may have evolved quite a bit since those days, I wanted to be sure and do things right to properly operate and maintain the new (to me) F450 that we bought.

I had heard about the "fronts" that were available for cold weather country, but I doubt that we would get that cold down here in Oklahoma. When I drove 18-wheelers, if you didn't have a "winterfront" designed for your model of truck, a piece of cardboard placed between the grill and the radiator worked just fine to keep up a good operating temperature. (After all, we also need for the heater to work well too.)

Nice to know that about the oil and you not normally needing to add any. And, if I can get 11mpg just driving the truck around the city, I will be pleased.

Thanks for your reply, and if you think of anything else later, feel free to chime in. I could use all the help I can get with learning more about the newer technologies.

Terry

igotjam · RV-Dreams Family Member

Travel Junkie....The clean exhaust message has never appeared on my dash. It does regenerate often though and you can sure tell when it idles.(high idle and god awful smell) At 60,000 I've only replaced one radiator but others I know are on their thrid at that mileage.

DZ · RV-Dreams Family Member

The latest reflash was to let all owners receive a cleaning exhaust filter message. Igotjam, you might want to check with your dealer and see what reflashes have been done to your truck. Ford is supposed to notify all owners when a new reflash is available, but in my case I found out on a forum and went to the dealer and had it done. I've had several mechanics advise me not to let these new trucks sit and idle for long periods of time. They say if you want problems, that's the best way to cause them. As far as warmup before driving, just a few minutes is plenty.

sirwinston21 · RV-Dreams Family Member

I am a firm believer that letting a vehicle idle to warm up is a waste of fuel. It warms up best under load. All you need is to give it a few seconds to circulate the oil. Also I have had my truck in Colorado for 2 years before full timing and I never had to add anything to the fuel. I did add the electric plug for the engine heater but that did nothing for the fuel in the tank. Now I avoid those cold extremes.

traveljunkie · RV-Dreams Family Member

I personally have not seen anything in the manual or otherwise to indicate a need for warming the engine at idle prior to towing. I would be interested to see if this is necessary.

We have also had to replace a radiator (the rear radiator closest to the engine). Our Ford dealer said that Ford had some issues in a couple of builds of radiators and that they would leak when they get hot. Obviously they replaced ours for free.