"New Diesel Owner" Suggested Reading

Okay so I'm gonna make a bit of a longer post.

I am not an expert. I'm a random dude from the internet. Take everything you're about to read with a grain of salt and I encourage you to seek out additional sources. I have never owned a diesel pickup truck before. I have never worked on or maintained anything with DPF and DEF. I was however, a diesel mechanic in the Marine Corps. I also have a helicopter company and we have a small fleet of diesel semi trucks. I am also a life long "car guy"

A diesel engine isn't magic or mystery. It works nearly exactly the same as a gasser. You take care of it exactly the same. You change the filters and the fluids either on your own schedule or these days when the truck computer tells you to.

The only new bits you're gonna see that are new are a water separator, a turbo, and the emissions systems.


Beginner level

Best practices:

1. RTFM (Read the fucking manual). Seriously. Read it. All of it. Then do what it says. You will quickly learn that a diesel is in fact not magic.

2. Emissions. Part 1. As discussed a few times now, be mindful of regens. This will be the only diesel related thing you will have to "babysit" (more like be mindful of) compared to a gasser. You can go in the maintenance page of your gauge cluster and it will show you how full your DPF is by percentage. Forscan is required to show this. It takes a while to fill up. I have 4500 miles on my truck since july and I just noticed my first regen last week. (Edit: Added 3/7/21) Other owners are reporting a regen about every 500 miles or so and now that I have been paying attention that seems accurate enough. When you're getting close to 100% full on DPF just keep an eye on your gas mileage. This will be the only indication you are in regen. It will tank. It will be like 9-10mpg. Once you notice this you can go back to the maintenance page and you can watch the % full number drop in real time. The DPF is a soot trap. When the flow sensors tell the truck its full enough, it will basically dump fuel into the exhaust and create a torch effect to literally cook the soot out of the DPF and expel it out of the tailpipe as ash. More or less. This is a very generalized description. Hop on youtube and poke around. You may or may not notice a bad smell. Mine almost had a burnt clutch smell when sitting still. I've heard this lessens with time as this was the first time some of that stuff has ever been that hot.

When you are in regen the best thing you can do is try to drive highway speeds 55+ for a sustained period so that the truck can dump a bunch of fuel in there and clean it out. I actually stopped in the middle of mine for about 2 minutes to grab something from the shop as I was going by. I left the truck running. Thats when I noticed the smell. The truck continued to regen after I left again. It took about 15-20 minutes total. I want to say the percentage dropped to about 20-30% full and there was no smell when I got home.

Don't overthink this, or let it be an inconvenience. Just be mindful and help it out when possible.

3. Emissions Part 2. DEF fluid. As previously stated I have 4500 miles on my truck. The dealership filled my DEF to full when I picked it up. I still have half a tank of DEF. So at least 9k miles on a tank of DEF. I've read places that guys like to fill it when it reaches half empty. I haven't read up on this quite as much yet, not sure if there is shelf life on DEF or not. Main thing to worry about with DEF is that if you run out, your truck will go into LIMP mode. With 9k miles per DEF tank, shouldn't be hard to stay on top of this at all.

4. Water Separator. The truck will tell you if there is water in the fuel. You should pull over and drain it immediately. Figure out where it is now, while its in your garage and you have plenty of time to figure out how you would service it in the field.

5. Fuel quality. This goes hand in hand with the water separator. The better quality fuel you buy, the less you'll have to worry about water. Buy from busy places. Don't buy diesel from places that look like they're gonna go bankrupt at any second. If possible buy diesel from places with dedicated semi truck lanes. Don't be afraid to use the truck lane yourself. Just learn the customs and courtesies with the truck lane. Bonus here is that places with truck lanes are going to take all the fleet contract fuel cards and stuff that truckers use to save money on fuel. You can get in on those fleet cards yourself. Again, head to youtube, a lot of the RV'ing channels will cover this.

6. Engine Part 1. Your engine works a bit differently than a gasser even if having mostly the same parts. The fuel injection system operates significantly differently. Read up on that. Know that fuel injectors cost 1k plus, and the rabbit hole of diesel additives is worth consideration. Good luck with that. Also a reminder to RTFM.

7. Engine Part 2. Cold weather requires a bit more attention than usual. Again, RTFM. Has a cold weather section. Let glow plugs do their thing. If you have a block heater, use it if you can. In the winter months make sure the fuel you are buying at the pump is treated for cold weather and gelling. There will usually be a sticker on the pump saying it is treated, it will often say down to what temperature. if you can't find this fuel you will need an additive to prevent gelling if it gets cold enough where you live.


This is all that comes to mind at the moment. Again, not an expert. RTFM! Its not magic, enjoy your truck. Check out the turbo diesel forums on the interet. Not just this one. There is a ton of collective experience out there. Don't pidgen hole yourself to one source of information.
 
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Okay so I'm gonna make a bit of a longer post.

I am not an expert. I'm a random dude from the internet. Take everything you're about to read with a grain of salt and I encourage you to seek out additional sources. I have never owned a diesel pickup truck before. I have never worked on or maintained anything with DPF and DEF. I was however, a diesel mechanic in the Marine Corps. I also have a helicopter company and we have a small fleet of diesel semi trucks. I am also a life long "car guy"

A diesel engine isn't magic or mystery. It works nearly exactly the same as a gasser. You take care of it exactly the same. You change the filters and the fluids either on your own schedule or these days when the truck computer tells you to.

The only new bits you're gonna see that are new are a water separator, a turbo, and the emissions systems.


Beginner level

Best practices:

1. RTFM (Read the fucking manual). Seriously. Read it. All of it. Then do what it says. You will quickly learn that a diesel is in fact not magic.

2. Emissions. Part 1. As discussed a few times now, be mindful of regens. This will be the only diesel related thing you will have to "babysit" (more like be mindful of) compared to a gasser. You can go in the maintenance page of your gauge cluster and it will show you how full your DPF is by percentage. It takes a while to fill up. I have 4500 miles on my truck since july and I just had my first regen last week. When you're getting close to 100% just keep an eye on your gas mileage. This will be the only indication you are in regen. It will tank. It will be like 9-10mpg. Once you notice this you can go back to the maintenance page and you can watch the % full number drop in real time. The DPF is a soot trap. When the flow sensors tell the truck its full enough, it will basically dump fuel into the exhaust and create a torch effect to literally cook the soot out of the DPF and expel it out of the tailpipe as ash. More or less. This is a very generalized description. Hop on youtube and poke around. You may or may not notice a bad smell. Mine almost had a burnt clutch smell when sitting still. I've heard this lessens with time as this was the first time some of that stuff has ever been that hot.

When you are in regen the best thing you can do is try to drive highway speeds 55+ for a sustained period so that the truck can dump a bunch of fuel in there and clean it out. I actually stopped in the middle of mine for about 2 minutes to grab something from the shop as I was going by. I left the truck running. Thats when I noticed the smell. The truck continued to regen after I left again. It took about 15-20 minutes total. I want to say the percentage dropped to about 20-30% full and there was no smell when I got home.

Don't overthink this, or let it be an inconvenience. Just be mindful and help it out when possible.

3. Emissions Part 2. DEF fluid. As previously stated I have 4500 miles on my truck. The dealership filled my DEF to full when I picked it up. I still have half a tank of DEF. So at least 9k miles on a tank of DEF. I've read places that guys like to fill it when it reaches half empty. I haven't read up on this quite as much yet, not sure if there is shelf life on DEF or not. Main thing to worry about with DEF is that if you run out, your truck will go into LIMP mode. With 9k miles per DEF tank, shouldn't be hard to stay on top of this at all.

4. Water Separator. The truck will tell you if there is water in the fuel. You should pull over and drain it immediately. Figure out where it is now, while its in your garage and you have plenty of time to figure out how you would service it in the field.

5. Fuel quality. This goes hand in hand with the water separator. The better quality fuel you buy, the less you'll have to worry about water. Buy from busy places. Don't buy diesel from places that look like they're gonna go bankrupt at any second. If possible buy diesel from places with dedicated semi truck lanes. Don't be afraid to use the truck lane yourself. Just learn the customs and courtesies with the truck lane. Bonus here is that places with truck lanes are going to take all the fleet contract fuel cards and stuff that truckers use to save money on fuel. You can get in on those fleet cards yourself. Again, head to youtube, a lot of the RV'ing channels will cover this.

6. Engine Part 1. Your engine works a bit differently than a gasser even if having mostly the same parts. The fuel injection system operates significantly differently. Read up on that. Know that fuel injectors cost 1k plus, and the rabbit hole of diesel additives is worth consideration. Good luck with that. Also a reminder to RTFM.

7. Engine Part 2. Cold weather requires a bit more attention than usual. Again, RTFM. Has a cold weather section. Let glow plugs do their thing. If you have a block heater, use it if you can. In the winter months make sure the fuel you are buying at the pump is treated for cold weather and gelling. There will usually be a sticker on the pump saying it is treated, it will often say down to what temperature. if you can't find this fuel you will need an additive to prevent gelling if it gets cold enough where you live.


This is all that comes to mind at the moment. Again, not an expert. RTFM! Its not magic, enjoy your truck. Check out the turbo diesel forums on the interet. Not just this one. There is a ton of collective experience out there. Don't pidgen hole yourself to one source of information.
 
Excellent post. Exactly what I have read and understand. As mentioned above my first regen on tractor I DKWTFWGO. (didn’t know what the fuck was going on). So I RTFM, followed it and have never had a problem.
 
This is good feedback - should you do any sort of active maintenance on draining the water separator? From what I've read online, if you wait for the sensor to tell you to drain, you need to drain right now. So if you just started a 300 mile trip, it can't wait until the end.

Just what I've read and some of the unnecessary fear I'm trying to understand and hopefully help others understand.
I’ve only had to separate water from diesel one time on my truck and it was because the gas station sold me more water than fuel The water in fuel light came on I went out open the petcock drained it closed it and kept going did this several times it cleared the water out of the fuel never came back again
 
Okay so I'm gonna make a bit of a longer post.

I am not an expert. I'm a random dude from the internet. Take everything you're about to read with a grain of salt and I encourage you to seek out additional sources. I have never owned a diesel pickup truck before. I have never worked on or maintained anything with DPF and DEF. I was however, a diesel mechanic in the Marine Corps. I also have a helicopter company and we have a small fleet of diesel semi trucks. I am also a life long "car guy"

A diesel engine isn't magic or mystery. It works nearly exactly the same as a gasser. You take care of it exactly the same. You change the filters and the fluids either on your own schedule or these days when the truck computer tells you to.

The only new bits you're gonna see that are new are a water separator, a turbo, and the emissions systems.


Beginner level

Best practices:

1. RTFM (Read the fucking manual). Seriously. Read it. All of it. Then do what it says. You will quickly learn that a diesel is in fact not magic.

2. Emissions. Part 1. As discussed a few times now, be mindful of regens. This will be the only diesel related thing you will have to "babysit" (more like be mindful of) compared to a gasser. You can go in the maintenance page of your gauge cluster and it will show you how full your DPF is by percentage. It takes a while to fill up. I have 4500 miles on my truck since july and I just had my first regen last week. When you're getting close to 100% just keep an eye on your gas mileage. This will be the only indication you are in regen. It will tank. It will be like 9-10mpg. Once you notice this you can go back to the maintenance page and you can watch the % full number drop in real time. The DPF is a soot trap. When the flow sensors tell the truck its full enough, it will basically dump fuel into the exhaust and create a torch effect to literally cook the soot out of the DPF and expel it out of the tailpipe as ash. More or less. This is a very generalized description. Hop on youtube and poke around. You may or may not notice a bad smell. Mine almost had a burnt clutch smell when sitting still. I've heard this lessens with time as this was the first time some of that stuff has ever been that hot.

When you are in regen the best thing you can do is try to drive highway speeds 55+ for a sustained period so that the truck can dump a bunch of fuel in there and clean it out. I actually stopped in the middle of mine for about 2 minutes to grab something from the shop as I was going by. I left the truck running. Thats when I noticed the smell. The truck continued to regen after I left again. It took about 15-20 minutes total. I want to say the percentage dropped to about 20-30% full and there was no smell when I got home.

Don't overthink this, or let it be an inconvenience. Just be mindful and help it out when possible.

3. Emissions Part 2. DEF fluid. As previously stated I have 4500 miles on my truck. The dealership filled my DEF to full when I picked it up. I still have half a tank of DEF. So at least 9k miles on a tank of DEF. I've read places that guys like to fill it when it reaches half empty. I haven't read up on this quite as much yet, not sure if there is shelf life on DEF or not. Main thing to worry about with DEF is that if you run out, your truck will go into LIMP mode. With 9k miles per DEF tank, shouldn't be hard to stay on top of this at all.

4. Water Separator. The truck will tell you if there is water in the fuel. You should pull over and drain it immediately. Figure out where it is now, while its in your garage and you have plenty of time to figure out how you would service it in the field.

5. Fuel quality. This goes hand in hand with the water separator. The better quality fuel you buy, the less you'll have to worry about water. Buy from busy places. Don't buy diesel from places that look like they're gonna go bankrupt at any second. If possible buy diesel from places with dedicated semi truck lanes. Don't be afraid to use the truck lane yourself. Just learn the customs and courtesies with the truck lane. Bonus here is that places with truck lanes are going to take all the fleet contract fuel cards and stuff that truckers use to save money on fuel. You can get in on those fleet cards yourself. Again, head to youtube, a lot of the RV'ing channels will cover this.

6. Engine Part 1. Your engine works a bit differently than a gasser even if having mostly the same parts. The fuel injection system operates significantly differently. Read up on that. Know that fuel injectors cost 1k plus, and the rabbit hole of diesel additives is worth consideration. Good luck with that. Also a reminder to RTFM.

7. Engine Part 2. Cold weather requires a bit more attention than usual. Again, RTFM. Has a cold weather section. Let glow plugs do their thing. If you have a block heater, use it if you can. In the winter months make sure the fuel you are buying at the pump is treated for cold weather and gelling. There will usually be a sticker on the pump saying it is treated, it will often say down to what temperature. if you can't find this fuel you will need an additive to prevent gelling if it gets cold enough where you live.


This is all that comes to mind at the moment. Again, not an expert. RTFM! Its not magic, enjoy your truck. Check out the turbo diesel forums on the interet. Not just this one. There is a ton of collective experience out there. Don't pidgen hole yourself to one source of information.
Good info last time I was at Ford the Service manager told me it will region at speeds above 30 mph so they my have lowered it from previous years
 
What is the point in buying a diesel if you aren't gonna drive it enough to even get it fully warmed up? Diesels are designed to be workhorses, if you use them as grocery getters, the exhaust system will be doing lots of regens and the engine will be producing extra carbon in the EGR cooler. They need to get fully warmed up, and worked

This is the problem... most people that get diesels don't need them and freak out when they realize repairs are over 2x of a gas engine and that often times the dealers don't even have a mechanic truly proficient on them...

I've had 10 superdutys...most diesels (one v10). The main issue was the 6.2 was just not enough for the rare times I needed to tow heavy. The 7.3 is a game changer, I think it finally gives a viable option and resale will no longer be an issue. (Yes a desel will sell for more...but you paid 8k more for it so it should. )

Diesels are awesome if you need them. Fuel mileage alone won't pay for them until deep into your ownership.

What I found with mine was stay on the maintenance and install some good guages....watch your EGT when towing, etc.

Enjoy it...its going to be a fun beast!
 
The new 6.7s can be set up with manual regeneration so you can do it in your driveway and not have to maintain 30-40 mph for 20 minutes for the cycle to complete. I have a 2016 6.7 and do not have that option. At about 80,000 miles, my DPF was toast according to Ford and it would have been around $3000 to replace. I had the premium care warrantee through 100,000 miles but because it is a "filter" it is not covered. I pull a trailer all day, but the regen would always seem to come on when I was pulling into my neighborhood at the end of the day. Even if I wanted to keep driving to complete the regen it would be difficult with traffic and a stop light every half mile. Bottom line, get the manual regen set up from the factory or with forescan if possible. My 2 cents.
 
I had the premium care warrantee through 100,000 miles but because it is a "filter" it is not covered.

Ouch. This is brutal. Is there anything that would have covered it? The premium maintenance brochure I've looked at doesn't mention DPF, but does mention other filters.
 
Do yourself a favor and get the SPE billet water separator valve. There are tons of posts out there about the cheap plastic ones Ford uses breaking and stranding owners after they had to drain their water trap.

Also, take some time to research fuel additives and fuel pump lubrication. The high pressure fuel pumps are a potential problem, and if an additive can help prevent a major repair expense, it’s well worth it. I started running Opti-Lube XPD from day 1.

Don’t overthink or excessively worry about your diesel. It’s like any other machine that requires some knowledge and maintenance from the owner. Remember, there are millions of these things, being driven everyday by morons who do nothing but drive it and have never read anything (including the manual) regarding how to care for their purchase, that aren’t broken down in the shop.
 
Don’t let people get you worried about diesels there easy to maintain people say the cost all new cars cost too much for parts or how you drive it my wife drives ours to get the kids in the groceries and then when I drive it I’ll take it from 0 to 90 from stoplight to stoplight I haven’t had any problems so far and you can’t beat the gas mileage i’m more worried about all the recalls than I am the maintenance ??
 
Whew! I'm glad I found this thread. It would suck to get stranded, as mine will mostly be used to cart my Ducati to Starbucks on Saturdays. Now I know I will take the long way there.
 
I do not keep the Def tank topped off in winter. Just in case it would freeze and expand. I watch the gauge and will add a gallon or two if it get below half tank. I do top them off in summer at truck stops where I can pump it in at the pump and buy it by the gallon. Burns more with a trailer ( a lot more) than empty.

I never let the fuel tank below 1/2, I keep it full unless on a long road trip. I always purchase my fuel from the same station, which has good fuel and never had any fuel issues.

I don't let it idle for long periods, and don't beast on it when its not up to operating temps.

So pretty much the same as a gasser minus the DEF tank stuff.
 
So really, your general Diesel questions are much better suited on the Powerstroke forum (https://www.powerstroke.org/forums/). Much more and better info to suit you there rather than here. I personally don't consider the heavy front-ended Diesel to be top-dog when it comes to the Tremor option, just doesn't fit that well (in my opinion), but they're trying to fit the round peg in the square hole to make people happy. You have the looks & style and you definitely have the towing capability, but not the articulation and weight advantages of the gasser for off-road, kind of a joke. If Ford used a Cummings engine, I just "might" have considered a diesel because of their great track record, of which the Ford diesel is sketchy. The F-150 Tremor will definitely separate the pack from towing capability versus "looks" in the upcoming model years. Not sure why Ford wouldn't make the future Ford F-150 Tremor a Gen (x?) Raptor?
 
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So really, your general Diesel questions are much better suited on the Powerstroke forum (https://www.powerstroke.org/forums/). Much more and better info to suit you there rather than here. I personally don't consider the heavy front-ended Diesel to be top-dog when it comes to the Tremor option, just doesn't fit that well (in my opinion), but they're trying to fit the round peg in the square hole to make people happy. You have the looks & style and you definitely have the towing capability, but not the articulation and weight advantages of the gasser for off-road, kind of a joke. If Ford used a Cummings engine, I just "might" have considered a diesel because of their great track record, of which the Ford diesel is sketchy. The F-150 Tremor will definitely separate the pack from towing capability versus "looks" in the upcoming model years. Not sure why Ford wouldn't make the future Ford F-150 Tremor a Gen (x?) Raptor?
Geez, it’s not as though the 7.3 transforms the Tremor into a lightweight vehicle. Yes, it’s significantly lighter but it’s still very heavy. Nor does the 7.3 reduce the wheelbase or overhangs. For me a Tremor is a tow vehicle. A tow vehicle which can cope in moderate off-road conditions where I can take my off road caravan. If I wanted to do serious off roading I would be getting a different vehicle altogether. Still, everyone has their own priorities and hopefully everyone is happy with what they got or get.
 
my unpopular but opinion based off experience, do your engine a favor and delete the emissions, ( even if its illegal ) just keep the stock stuff for inspections, and your motor will last forever and will give you much better MPG, the emissions on these things cause more issues than anything else and are super expensive to replace.
 
my unpopular but opinion based off experience, do your engine a favor and delete the emissions, ( even if its illegal ) just keep the stock stuff for inspections, and your motor will last forever and will give you much better MPG, the emissions on these things cause more issues than anything else and are super expensive to replace.
Two problems with this. If you live where there are inspections, you'll be re-installing the equipment for every inspection, and then taking it back off in between. Second, you will not be getting "much" better mileage deleted. Maybe a little better, but it's easy to be fooled when re-programming and think you are.
 
Two problems with this. If you live where there are inspections, you'll be re-installing the equipment for every inspection, and then taking it back off in between. Second, you will not be getting "much" better mileage deleted. Maybe a little better, but it's easy to be fooled when re-programming and think you are.
Considering I’ve deleted every truck I’ve owned since 2010, I can say with 100% certainty that you do gain much better fuel mileage. Hand calculated not going off the lie-o-meter. And it takes all of 25 mins to take a delete pipe off and put the dpf back on if you don’t get a full exhaust and just do a dpf delete pipe.
 
Considering I’ve deleted every truck I’ve owned since 2010, I can say with 100% certainty that you do gain much better fuel mileage. Hand calculated not going off the lie-o-meter. And it takes all of 25 mins to take a delete pipe off and put the dpf back on if you don’t get a full exhaust and just do a dpf delete pipe.
just out of curiosity how much better mileage are you getting? looks like low to mid 20 is possible stock, so are you seeing closer to 30 deleted?
 
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