2017 6.7 Powerstroke, 6 year 171k review. Has it been reliable

What’s going on, everybody? Welcome back. Today, we’re going to talk about my 2017 F250 with the 6.7 Power Stroke. I’ve had the truck for almost a year. I got it on April 16th, 2022, and this is April 4th or 3rd, 2023, so we’re coming up on a year. I figured I’d talked about some of the things I love about it, some of the things I don’t like about it, and give you a general update on how I like it and the things I’ve done to it. So let’s get this video started.

The first thing we’ll talk about is whether I’m happy with it. Yes, I’m very happy with it. I happen to like the looks of these 2017 trucks, especially since the 2023 is so ugly, in my opinion. I don’t like the bed step or the bumper step. The only thing on the 2023 that I do like better is the design right here by the handles. You don’t have this going around. The handle just goes directly into the door, so no more dirt getting stuck between there and looking really crummy. The 2017 through 2019 is by far one of the best body styles, in my opinion, and they’ve been proven to be pretty reliable trucks, as this one here has currently seen 171,054 miles, so you can tell I’ve driven it some. It had 139,000 when I bought it almost a year ago, and here we are at 171, so going on a trip this weekend, so they’ll probably have 172. So what’s that, like 32 or 33,000 miles I put on it in a year’s time, not terrible. You know, a lot of that’s towing heavy loads. I got a 30-foot gooseneck sitting up there. I just bought, but I’ve towed a lot of goosenecks, 40-footers, 30-footers, 32-footers, bulldozers, forklifts, skid steers, excavators, concrete, you name it. This truck has probably pulled it. So it’s definitely worked hard. It’s had its fair share of heavy weight behind it, and it is just an F250. With that being said, it got the job done. I really can’t complain.

The truck pulls great, stops great. That engine brake is something else. Definitely nice to have. The only thing I’ve had to do repair-wise, which we’ll get into this in more detail here in a little bit, is the manifold. I had to do manifolds. I went ahead and did the BD performance manifolds. People say it gives you better fuel mileage, they say. I don’t know what else they say, but that’s what I’ve heard. Better fuel mileage. The kit’s really nice. It comes with the whole set of gaskets, the new studs, and everything, so you can drill and tap if you have broken studs, which in my case I did. I had two broken studs on the passenger side manifold, so she was screaming really loud every time you use the engine brake or get on it. A lot of that was being caused by me running it on the hot tune with a heavy load behind it at 100 miles an hour. So I’m assuming that’s probably why the manifold is warped and you know popped some studs. Not the end of the world. A four-thousand-dollar repair, a lot went into it, a lot of labor, so I could have done it myself, probably, but didn’t really want to learn. So we paid somebody to do it. You always pay premiums as far as that goes. Besides that, that being one of the problems I’ve had, besides that problem, I don’t think I’ve had any other problems that I can think of. I do have an existing problem, another one that’s self-inflicted, is the U-joints there in the wheel for your four-wheel drive. Those are definitely worn out. They clunk, they make noise, they need to be replaced. A lot of people say to replace the whole axle. As you know, it’s almost cheaper just to do that by the time you do all the labor pressing out those U-joints and putting in new ones. You can get the whole axle and put it in brand new. A couple of aftermarket companies make them. So that might be something we have to do. Still not bad, though, for 172,000 miles or 171,000.

I did find out who owned this truck before me. I’ll show you right here on the tailgate. It shows Randy Marion Ford, which is exactly where the truck was bought brand new. That’s where I bought it. The records showed that the truck was maintained every single oil change at Randy Marion. It had a clean Carfax. The truck was definitely well taken care of. I’m not going to say who, but I did find out who owned this truck before. The guy owned a landscaping company. Seems like he took pretty good care of it. I even contacted him and talked to him a little bit about it. From his word, there’s no proof, no facts behind it. You can’t trust his word 100%. You never can, but as far as he said, he never had to repair anything on this truck. So if that’s the case, then that’s pretty impressive, that you can go 171,000 miles without any issues except for, of course, manifolds and the U-joint switch. Both of those could be self-inflicted, all because of one thing. There’s a little programmer up here that allows me to put in the hot tune, which is in the hot tune right now, but we need to switch it back out. Normally, I run the 100 horsepower tune. This truck is running proven tuned. I normally keep it on 100. You get better fuel mileage. The truck runs good still, has a little bit of giddy-up and go, and seems to shift the smoothest around the best. Now, this truck was not deleted for the first 140,000 miles. I think I deleted it right around 141,000, so I didn’t even have the truck two weeks, and it was deleted. I did not hang around to that. I did not hang on to that emission stuff, as I don’t like the idea of putting death in my truck. I don’t support it. I think it’s a bunch of BS that the government’s invented, so we went full five-inch straight pipe. A five-inch has a four-inch downpipe, but no muffler, no def, no DPF, no EGR, none of that hoopla. So the truck sounds really good. We’ll go ahead and give you a startup right quick. It’s not cold out here by any means, but probably around 55 or 60 degrees. Sounds pretty good. Smells pretty good. Don’t get mad at me for cold starting trucks and cutting right back off. I think it’s a myth that it hurts anything. I don’t think it hurts anything, but I’ve heard it does, so I’m going to do what I want to do. Works for me anyways.

Besides that, when I bought the truck, it had 37s on some 22 by 10 XDKMC wheels. It had Nitto Ridge Grapplers, which are sold to a friend of mine, so he’s running those wheels and tires still. I put these 2022 Lariat stocks on here. I paid a thousand dollars for the wheels. They only had, I think the guy said, a thousand miles on them, if that. He didn’t really know. I mean, the tires were brand new, though, obviously, so the wheels were brand new. The tires were brand new. We sold the tires for 800 bucks, so basically got the wheels for 200 dollars. Then I went and bought these Toyo Open Country MTS and the 35 1250 R20s. They were kind of expensive, about 2500 bucks, but worth it, I guess. They seem to ride pretty good. As far as noise, they do get pretty loud, and they start to wear down. They’re pretty worn down. Several burnouts. I think those have about 23 or 24,000 miles on them, but like I said, self-inflicted a lot of towing, so that’s to be expected. Mud tire to wear out quick.

I put this BMW drop hitch on it from my other old trucks. I’ve had a hitch for going on five years. Been super handy, of course, when I was in Montana for just a little bit of time with the salt started eating. Hitch was never rusty till then, but anyways, um, oh geez, anyways, the truck had already had this tailgate assist, which is super nice. I did not put that on, but it comes in handy. Tailgate step, something I use on a daily basis. Definitely love the tailgate step. I do not love bumper steps. I don’t like bed steps. LED box lighting comes in handy. Use it all the time. I have my big huge Weather Guard toolbox. I put in here carried on from another truck, but you can see here where is it? 6-8-21s? I’ve had that on there quite a while. We got the YouTube logo sticker right there. Toolbox keeps me holding up pretty. Definitely like that toolbox better than the new style Weather Guard that they’re making. Another thing when I had it deleted, had the death tank removed. Nice cap. Those caps come on the gas trucks. So that’s a factory thing. These running boards were on it when I bought the truck. These are off of a 22 also. I’m assuming they come off this guy’s new truck when he bought it, because this one, from what I knew, had power running boards on it, not from the factory, but the guy put them on there. So I’m assuming he swapped them out for these off of 22.

The rubber floor mats, factory Super Duty floor mats, love them. We’re trying to keep the truck pretty clean. I think I do a pretty good job, which that’s another thing I have to appreciate from the previous owner, that this truck was flawless when I bought it. I mean, there’s not a scratch or ding on this truck. Interior was completely perfect. It’s finally starting to show a little bit of wear there, which is normal for these trucks. Yeah, so the interior is nice. I love the heated cool seats. I come from a 2002 7.3, which some of you may or may not know of, called Gary. That’s the name of it, but it was a long bed, crew cab, automatic, had 448,000 on it when the engine let loose. Some of you may be glad to know that engine is getting redone right now to be put in it. We’ll be making more videos on that truck when we get it back, but anyways, just figured to let you know that’s where I come from. So this truck was a huge upgrade. Love everything about it. Love this right here, having your keyless entry, your keypad there. Shame GM and RAM.