Frogman
Dedicated LVC Member
- Joined
- Jul 11, 2005
- Messages
- 6,914
- Reaction score
- 1
Well.. Let's go to school:
As I am sure you are aware, what with living in the great Socialist state of Kalifornia, there are these people called "Leaf Lickers". They go by name names, but that's what I like to call them. You may know them as "Environmentalists".
As such, some of these leaf lickers work for a government agency called the EPA. That's the Environmental Protection Agency. The EPA, being the leader in following other countries "standards", in 1997, decided that diesels were way too dirty, so they came out with this plan for heavy duty and medium duty on-road diesel vehicle manufacturers:
Reduce emissions out of diesel motors, or be fined.
The first deadline was the end of 2003. FORD would have loved to keep the 7.3, but International just could not make the engine any more cleaner than it was. Period.
International had been working on a smaller, more fuel efficient and more powerful engine that came in a 6 liter flavor, that actually met the EPA regulations. At the same time, International and FORD knew the standards would be even stricter come 2007. They also knew that fuel would only contain 15ppm of sulphur, so the 6 liter engine was what's known as an "Interim" Engine, while they set off to design an even cleaner engine.
International had not worked all the bugs out of the 6.0, so FORD and International had an agreement. They would each pay 50% of warranty costs. FORD, being the company they are, decided that the software engineers at International were idiots, so the FORD engineers re-wrote the engine management software. This is one of the reasons the 6.0 had so many issues with injectors.
By 2006, most of the bugs had been worked out of the 6.0. Unfortunately, the new 6.4 engine did not go into the 2007 MY because FORD wanted to make damned sure the motor would not give them another black eye, as the 6.0 did. So, they tested it for yet another year.
Enter the 6.4 Powerstoke. Bigger, better, common rail injection, twin turbos, and fixed headstuds. Unfortunately, with it also had to come such silly chokes as Catalytic converters (actually, those have been on diesels since 03), and this new-fangled DPF (Diesel Particulate Filter). What does this DPF thing do? Aside from choking the truck's exhaust, and using yet more fuel to burn these particulates, not much.
About this time, FORD and International started complaining to each other about the warranty costs I mentioned to you earlier. And as such, after a bunch of court battles, International told FORD to eff off. Some say that FORD intentionally did this, because they were secretly working on their own, in-house designed 6.7 Liter engine, codenamed "Scorpion". Some say that International was tired of putting up with FORD's BS. No one really knows, except the big cheeses at those respective companies. You see, when FORD can keep an extra 2-3 grand per each motor manufactured "in-house", they will do it. This whole issue started long before the 6.4 engine was out, so it's not a "reliability issue" as you put it.
Now, FORD had purchased enough engines to last them through 2010, as the new 6.7 Liter engine is slated for 2011 Production.
Again, I could really care less about fuel economy. I showed you that picture I took in march of this year, to show you that the 450 does indeed go over 15MPG with an automatic tranny. Now, of course, you conveniently don't "trust" onboard fuel computers. Whatever floats your boat, I suppose. I KNOW what my pick-up truck gets, I KNOW what it can do, and I KNOW because I have one. I don't have to listen to other people and form my opinions on this vehicle from them.
Now. Class dismissed!
As I am sure you are aware, what with living in the great Socialist state of Kalifornia, there are these people called "Leaf Lickers". They go by name names, but that's what I like to call them. You may know them as "Environmentalists".
As such, some of these leaf lickers work for a government agency called the EPA. That's the Environmental Protection Agency. The EPA, being the leader in following other countries "standards", in 1997, decided that diesels were way too dirty, so they came out with this plan for heavy duty and medium duty on-road diesel vehicle manufacturers:
Reduce emissions out of diesel motors, or be fined.
The first deadline was the end of 2003. FORD would have loved to keep the 7.3, but International just could not make the engine any more cleaner than it was. Period.
International had been working on a smaller, more fuel efficient and more powerful engine that came in a 6 liter flavor, that actually met the EPA regulations. At the same time, International and FORD knew the standards would be even stricter come 2007. They also knew that fuel would only contain 15ppm of sulphur, so the 6 liter engine was what's known as an "Interim" Engine, while they set off to design an even cleaner engine.
International had not worked all the bugs out of the 6.0, so FORD and International had an agreement. They would each pay 50% of warranty costs. FORD, being the company they are, decided that the software engineers at International were idiots, so the FORD engineers re-wrote the engine management software. This is one of the reasons the 6.0 had so many issues with injectors.
By 2006, most of the bugs had been worked out of the 6.0. Unfortunately, the new 6.4 engine did not go into the 2007 MY because FORD wanted to make damned sure the motor would not give them another black eye, as the 6.0 did. So, they tested it for yet another year.
Enter the 6.4 Powerstoke. Bigger, better, common rail injection, twin turbos, and fixed headstuds. Unfortunately, with it also had to come such silly chokes as Catalytic converters (actually, those have been on diesels since 03), and this new-fangled DPF (Diesel Particulate Filter). What does this DPF thing do? Aside from choking the truck's exhaust, and using yet more fuel to burn these particulates, not much.
About this time, FORD and International started complaining to each other about the warranty costs I mentioned to you earlier. And as such, after a bunch of court battles, International told FORD to eff off. Some say that FORD intentionally did this, because they were secretly working on their own, in-house designed 6.7 Liter engine, codenamed "Scorpion". Some say that International was tired of putting up with FORD's BS. No one really knows, except the big cheeses at those respective companies. You see, when FORD can keep an extra 2-3 grand per each motor manufactured "in-house", they will do it. This whole issue started long before the 6.4 engine was out, so it's not a "reliability issue" as you put it.
Now, FORD had purchased enough engines to last them through 2010, as the new 6.7 Liter engine is slated for 2011 Production.
Again, I could really care less about fuel economy. I showed you that picture I took in march of this year, to show you that the 450 does indeed go over 15MPG with an automatic tranny. Now, of course, you conveniently don't "trust" onboard fuel computers. Whatever floats your boat, I suppose. I KNOW what my pick-up truck gets, I KNOW what it can do, and I KNOW because I have one. I don't have to listen to other people and form my opinions on this vehicle from them.
Now. Class dismissed!