2004 chevy 2500 6.0L

[rankrank1]

As close to claw hammer reliable as you can get. On paper it will never win the hp bragging rights wars if that is important to you and it will like its gas but the competitors of the era were no better in regards to fuel economy and way worse in reliability. Fact is the 6.0 is still running and doing work even with high miles while majority of competitors from same era have been in junkyard for years. There is a reason lots of working professionals love the 6.0 and it simply runs and runs for several hundred thousand miles.

 

[CADplans]

My 1999 is the first year of the 6.0,, and I bought one of the first seven that came to the Roanoke valley,,

This is how clean I have kept the engine compartment with an annual scrub of Dawn dish soap, and a hose.

It looks like that right now. Nothing under the hood has been replaced, except filters, and one set of plugs.

Oh, yea, those two little plastic fittings that connect the heater hoses were replaced.

 

[Woodstock Walt]

I personally have pounded the snot out of three generations of Chevy trucks with the 6.0L pulling 10k-13k all over the mountains of western Maine. Never hesitated to hold the throttle wide open to maintain speed up the long hills. Never had any trans/engine issues of any kind.

I sprung for the Duramax Diesel on my latest truck. The extra power is nice, but in IMO it's not worth the added cost of ownership especially after accounting for repair bills that you'll never see with a 6.0L (ex. $1,300 turbo last fall). To be honest, if the Duramax were ever to have a catastrophic failure like a hole through the block ($10k+ for a new crate motor), I'd 6.0L swap the truck before I spent the money to replace the diesel. Bet you've never heard many people say that ^.

I've become convinced that 6.0L's are generally bombproof. By far the most reliable powertrain combo of early-mid 2000's HD gas trucks. Plus, the generation of Chevy you're looking at has the most comfortable interior/seats out of every one I've owned so far.

^ My last 6.0L truck, a 2014 2500, pulling about 12k gross in this pic.

 

[dodge man]

I owned a much newer one, a 2011. I like the truck but when I first saw rust starting to show I got rid of it.

 

[Lineman North Florida]

Any gas truck in that era is going to get 10mpg and a new 3/4 ton won’t get considerably better for a considerably higher purchase price. For a lower budget truck a 2004 6.0 gas is as good as it gets.

I agree, I own one. Do you have one?

 

[4570Man]

I agree, I own one. Do you have one?

I used to. I don’t currently.

 

[tacticalturnip]

I have nothing but good things to say about the 03-07 (Classic) GM trucks; hell, I've owned 4 of them and rust is the only thing that did them in. Arguably the best of these was my 2003 1500HD. A light-duty 3/4 ton, it had the 6.0 and 4L80E transmission and ran like a tank. Bought her off of Craigslist, drove it until the the frame was irreparable, and damn near cried when I got rid of it.

Now, to be fair it wasn't a 2500, but it shared the same drivetrain and outside of the alternator any issues I had were self-inflicted.

 

[lostcause]

i had an 06, for 10 years, and i believe it is one of the most bulletproof setups of that decade. The thing to put into perspective is that the motor is a replacement for the 350 WHEN YOU GET INTO THE 2500/3500 PLATFORM. do not mistake this motor with a big block. the 6.0 replaced the 5.7 and the 8.1 replaced the 7.4. i had a 2000 classic 2500 with the 5.7, followed by the 2006 with the 6.0. I'd take the 6.0 in this platform over the 5.7 every day and twice on Sundays. the 4l80e is also an equally bulletproof transmission. the New Process transfer cases have been known to wear holes due to pump rub, but i haven't seen it myself with anyone i know.

while i love this engine / transmission setup, i will certainly say it is not a towing powerhouse. it certainly performs fine, but my opinion is that it is well suited for the application you are looking for, but i would not want to tow 10k all the time with it. again, that is based on my opinion and geography too. lot of windy and hilly areas here.

 

[Boss 302]

I had a 2003 2500 with the 6L engine that I drove for quite some time. In my opinion (and that's all it is) the engine was the better part of the truck while mostly everything else would cause trouble. It spent many days in the shop, items such as numerous gauge cluster replacements, head liner was falling down within a few years, manual window regulator on driver side replaced 2 times, passenger side once, accessory knobs falling off, numerous check engine lights, and the catalytic converter fell off when the truck was only a year old, etc, etc, etc.

 

[MoMower]

Good motor! Decent truck. I bought an ‘06 in 2017 @220k miles, sent it down the road this past November at 240k miles.

90% of the time I owned it it had at least 5k behind it usually closer to 10k.

Brake lines was the biggest expense.

Plan on replacing the hitch if it still has the factory one, mine was starting to rot on the backside.