6.0 headgaskets, oil cooler, stc, ARP studs w/cab on

[Crawler]

I think y’all will be surprised how much crud there is, even after several flushes.

That's what nice about the external cooler: no coolant side to plug at all. My buddy is very particular, did a ton of flushing and made sure it ended up with the correct coolant in it, and a coolant filter. Still had it happen again in another 50K.

Just remember: even with a coolant filter in place, if it goes into bypass for just a short period of time, the coolant side of the factory air to water cooler gets exposed to that debris. Any partial plugging can't really get anything but worse, then the delta starts to increase, and then the expensive stuff breaks.

I was really surprised my buddies truck did it twice as he really flushed it and used all the best parts, including a monitor to keep an eye on the oil and coolant temps.

@bismic1 knows these systems very well and he can weigh in.

My opinion is that the external cooler is nice and does a good job. Unfortunately they are quite expensive. Especially when a guy is not planning on a repair or his truck being down. Unfortunately the bulletproof external cooler is $1745 MAP pricing without the cold weather option.

My experience has been that a truck that has been flushed properly(multiple flushes with driving included in those flushes, not just stationary) and switched to the Red ELC coolant-will have a cooler that lives a long life. A coolant filter doesn’t hurt and is relatively cheap.

 

[bismic1]

Exactly right Crawler! The BPD air cooled oil coolers are nice, but they are too expensive for me! And what I have heard, you really should also get the cold weather package. Even the simple OEM cooler relocate kit is expensive.

Keep the coolant maintenance up and the OEM coolers work fine (very well actually). I know lots of folks that have even had good luck w/ the Ford Gold coolant - they just keep the maintenance up. That said, the Ford Gold isn't very robust. If you have a problem you can't anticipate (coolant leak, water pump fail, radiator fail, etc), you could clog up the oil cooler (ie head gaskets start leaking into the coolant can cause solids drop out, and so can overheating it or going too long on it). That is where an EC-1 rated ELC coolant comes in. It is an essential part of "good coolant maintenance" IMO!

206k on mine - still at a 5-6 degree differential.

 

[Crawler]

Here is a pic of samples from a single truck.

The truck was flushed prior to work. However as the samples show, it takes multiple flushes to get good results sometimes. This truck was not in a condition to run for extended time periods and flushed the way we prefer.

These samples are post work as we continued to flush the system.

From left to right

Bottle one was the first flush post work.

Bottle two was the second flush.

Bottle three was the third flush.

Bottle four was the fourth flush.

Bottle five was the fifth flush.

Then a 6th flush was done stationary with hot water running non stop into the system and dumping out of a removed petcock and the drivers side block drain. The truck was ran for a long period of time and taken above 2000rpm during the stationary flush.

Between flushes the truck was driven at least 50miles. There were 250 miles out in the truck between flushes 3-4 and 4-5.

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