I hope I didnt screw up. Give me some good words!

[F-SERI-ouS]

preventative maintenace

i thought i would add my own $0.03. i see many people replied with all kinds of good info, but no one really told you to replace the exhaust and upgrade the oil cooler. i have a truck similar to yours. in my experience, these trucks will work but they like certain mods more so than other. i have found that 4" exhuast will work wonders for these trucks. make sure to get the down pipe also though, otherwise you kind of just wasted money. i have a hydraulic dump bed, and while the truck may not idle as much as yours, it sure tows its fair share, if not more. someone told you to change to ec-1 coolant, and a filtration system, well i can tell you right now that there is not much that will do for you if you do not get a better oil cooler. if you have seen a stock oil cooler you would see right quick how small and crappy of a design they are, and difficult for coolant to pass through. whether or not you delete the egr, you will definitely want to upgrade to an aftermarket oil cooler! then and only then will a coolant filtration system and even other coolant really make a difference.

 

[NJKen]

Im not sure how this thread went to motor oil..
This 6.0 in this truck I bought seems to have a blown head gasket or the EGR cooler. I likes to spew coolant all over the place and has some oily crap in the coolant. Guess I'll try bulletproof diesel or maybe make my own fix....bullet proof V10.
What is anyone elses experiences with this problem?
Ken

 

[F-SERI-ouS]

the "oily crap" has got to be... oil. and more likely than not, it is just the egr cooler. i would delete the whole system and definately call Bullet Proof for one of their oil coolers. here is what my brother and i did, i posted it somewhere else:

on my brother's 6.0l we did an egr delete, and did it ourselves because we are too poor to pay for any labor. we basically took the stock egr cooler and drilled out the crap inside so that coolant would flow unrestricted through it. we welded a freeze plug into the exhaust end of the cooler. we took out the stock up pipe(passenger side), plasma cut the factory grove in it and welded a piece of sheet metal back on to it. the reason we did that is because the stock up pipe is half blocked off by another piece of pipe that is welded in right were it bolts to the egr cooler. that way exhaust is routed(forced) into the egr system. if/when you delete the egr, you will be left with(in my opinion) a major exhaust restriction. we also just left the egr valve where it sits. we wrapped the up pipes and down pipe in some funky low buck 2k degree lava tape and it works well. no noticeable mileage gains yet (we do hand calculate the mileage over a monthly 230 mile road trip we take, but thus far .3 miles extra i think may have been more of another modification we did in conjunction. besides we both have steeltoe boots.) but the jump in throttle response and less turbo lag is certainly noticeable.

 

[snicklas]

Ken,

Not sure how it turned into an oil thread. I live in Central Indiana and see 90 + F in the summer and 0 - F in the winter. I used Rotella Dino at first, and have since switched to Motorcraft 15W-40 Dino and not had an issue with starting or stiction. The best "cure" I had for stiction was the PCM/FICM Inductive heating flash.... I drive it in the winter when the weather is bad, and several times, it has sat outside, not plugged in for 12 hours + and has started with just the glow plugs at 10 degrees.

One question on the coolant, how full do you have the coolant level in the degas bottle. If you have the factory bottle, or no decal on the bottle, it may be too full. There was a TSB on this, if the Full mark is fairly close to the top, Ford has found that to be a problem. I have the factory bottle and no decal, I keep it at the Minimum mark and it does not puke coolant. A quick check if the EGR Cooler is leaking, park the truck with the rear "up" on a driveway, or a set of ramps.... you get the idea. Leave it sit overnight, and pull the EGR Valve (It is located right behind the Power Stroke plaque on the fan shroud, follow the boos tube from the drivers side, it is right behind the elbow into the intake, in front of the Oil Filter.). If there is any liquid in there, it is the EGR Cooler weeping. I would get the O-Ring kit from Ford and replace them, and clean the valve while you have it out. Does it only puke coolant when it is hot, or being worked, or does it do it all the time? The "Oil" conserns me, because if it is just the EGR cooler leaking, there is no oil in that cooler, it may be coming from the oil cooler, but normally what happens to the EGR Cooler is, the oil cooler is in the coolant path first, then the EGR Cooler. The coolant side of oil cooler plugs due to contaminates in the coolant, which starves the EGR Cooler of coolant. The EGR Cooler superheats and caused the solder in the cooler to melt, opening the seams, and leaking. This is one reason that the EGR and Oil coolers at the same time. A coolant filter on a 6.0 is important (it is on my to do list). The gold coolant has some sillicate in it, and it drops out, along with the casting sand in the block. This is what starts the problem. The fact it has an EGR Valve and cooler is not the issue, it is the coolant path, and restrictions that can occur. Just like on all the other diesels, there should have been a coolant filter from the factory. Most will monitor coolant and oil temps, and if there is greater than 15 degrees between the coolant and oil, the oil cooler is suspect of being plugged.

If it is oil, that has me wondering about the head gaskets. On other issue I remember, but this was on a 7.3PSD. The 7.3 has injector sleeves that are between the injector and a coolant passage in the head (Not sure if the 6.0 has these sleeves). Mel's Excursion was having coolant puking issues, and it was actually diesel being "injected" into the coolant, and was causing a diesel / coolant mess to spew all of the engine compartment... and with the smell of ULSD it was hard to tell it was diesel... and it had an oily look to it. I hope it is not the head gaskets, but if it is, fix it right this time, and it will give you years of good service. Even if you do an EGR Delete, I would make sure to change the oil cooler while you are in there... hate to see you have to go in there twice.

 

[NJKen]

It had the sticker fix from Ford and was at the proper mark. I got almost a gallon of oil out of the reservoir after realizing I had a problem. It filled itself up to the point that oil poured out when I took the cap off. I am hoping that its a cooler. I ordered $2100 worth of parts from bulletproof diesel and I really hope it fixes it.

 

[snicklas]

Let us know what you did, and how it worked....

Just makes me wonder if the PO knew this was going on, and dumped it.... you have not had it long enough to have caused something like this..... Sorry to hear you are having trouble.

 

[Brimmstone]

Never was real fond of Bulletproofs stuff. I do Sinister kits all the time. Just did a delete kit on an 03 F450 and he said the truck came alive. I'll be doing head studs and gaskets in January when he gets his next truck. I've got four more lined up for oil coolers and EGR deletes over the next month.

 

[NJKen]

UPDATE
I spent about 10 hours yesterday with my brotherinlaw and we changed the EGR cooler and the oil cooler with a bulletproof kit from bulletproof diesel. I opted for the air to oil cooler kit that deletes the factory cooler. Doing an oil cooler and EGR cooler is not quite as bad as I have read. I did not bother trying to loosen the up pipes before you try to take the turbo out. I had no problem getting the turbo out with the pipes tight. Trying to loosen those ******* bolts would have added hours to the job (PTO in the way) and I am almost certain they would have broken anyway. I also opted to replace the IPR when it was apart because I could actually see it and take it out with a normal wrench. At the least one should pull the IPR and make sure the screen is clean on it.
After we got it all back together (thermostat is removed) I dumped 1/2 a gallon of simple green and a big pile of calgon in a bucket, mixed it up, and dumped it into the coolant bottle. I let it run til hot and drained out a disaster that is only rivaled by the exon valdez!
I have a few more flushes to do before I fill it with antifreeze and put a new thermostat in it. When I get that done ill put a final update to this thread.

 

[NJKen]

Final Update.
No more oil in the coolant but the truck decided to eat 2 injectors (#3 , #7) so I changed 1,3,5,7. This is quite possibly due to coolant in the oil from the failed cooler.
This truck finally runs rite and i sincerely hope it stays that way because I am flat out of loot!
If you need to change injectors on one of these make dam sure you have a good torque wrench, a 2 1/2" T40 Torx socket, a 12mm gear wrench and a 10mm gear wrench. Otherwise, not to bad of a job. Way easier than the coolers where.
Ken

 

[snicklas]

Ken,

Thanks for the update!!!! Sorry th hear about the problems. So to get this clear, you have eliminated the EGR Cooler and the factory Oil cooler, so neither of these are in the valley. Is the Oil Cooler like a Transmission Cooler mounted on the radiator, or is it like one of the fancy trans coolers with a thermostat and fan on it? Just curious, as this seems like a good setup. How much did this upgrade cost, if you don't mind me asking, and how much did you get injectors for? Just curious... never had to replace one....

Sounds like it should be in good shape for a long time to come. If you did not do it with this round of upgrades, when you get some $$$$ built back up, I would install a coolant filter kit on it. I and boing to with mine, and like the looks of the Dieselsite kit, as it comes with everything, and a bracket to mount it, since space is a premium under the hood of these things.... I plan on getting the ball valves from them also, so I have everything when I get started.... Then I need to do gauges, at least a pyro and boost gauge..... maybe a fuel pressure gauge.... oil temp.... might just get a monitor instead of gauges.... might be cheaper/easier than gauges... since the truck already monitors those, it just doesn't show you them....

 

[NJKen]

The EGR cooler still lives in the valley but it is designed not to fail. If you ever get one of these things in your hand you can see that it wont fail even without antifreeze in it at all. It has a lifetime waranty also. I did not want to do a total delete because I didnt want to put any kind of programmer on this truck at all. You can see the kit I used here . It cost me $2100 as advertised and did totaly replace the oil cooler. It is like a big trans cooler now.
I picked up four injectors from my local ford dealer because I didnt have the time to find out who else rebuilt them and updated them properly. I paid $1054 for 4 injectors from Ford. I know they can be had for less but I really like my local dealer and they have them in stock. they also did the diagnostic work to narrow down the failed units. They did fuel pressure, flow, compression, and cylinder contribution testing for me for $230. They found a bad #3 and #7 injector. I decided to do 1 and 5 since I was in there. The injectors where easy compared to the coolers!
I have a wealth of 6.0 knowledge now. Just hit me up if you ever need any advice (goes for anyone here)
Ken

 

[NJKen]

Forgot to mention... I have a Sinister Diesel coolant filter kit on order for $139 from Extreme diesel. I cant find it on their site for some reason. I just walked into their very expensive toybox like showroom and ordered it since they are not far from me. You can see it here on someone elses site. It fits rite about on the passenger side of the radiator in that little bit of space that is between the battery and the radiator itself directy above the tubo to aftercooler pipe.
Ken

 

[NJKen]

One more forgot to mention...
Bulletproof does offer the round bodied EGR cooler that are present on the 03 and 04 6.0 instead of forcing you to use a square one like some others do. I really am not sure how hard it is to interchange the two but I do know its always easier to put in what came out.
Ken

 

[NJKen]

Dammit! New problem....
bad trans fluid leak out of the bell housing. More info to come.....
Ken