i just bought an 04 6.0 and was thinking about doing the bullet proof diesel egr cooler because i need to worry about emissions. i was also thinking about doing the head studs while i'm there but was wondering if i could not do the head gaskets or do they need to be done. i would also do the oil cooler too. i was wondering what else i should do to the truck to fix the problems that these motors have. please help me out, if you have any opinons, or experiences or whatever. i'm was thinking about putting a straight exhaust on it. ive heard to leave the stock intake on there. i was thinking about doing a tuner but nothing major just a little extra power. please help. thanks
To start with you need to know the health of your motor and the only way is with gauges.
the Edge Insight CTS a great tool, also the expandable probe so if you want to add more to it down the line plus you can run 8 things at one time.
http://stealth-automotive.com/index.php?target=products&product_id=1634
Things you can add down the line like turbo timer & back up Monitor & fuel pressure
The Edge accessory system (EAS) was created with future expandability in mind Product Code: EDG98603
http://www.toyhauleradventures.com/2011/04/edge-products-cts-update-turbo-timer-install/ Product Code: EDG98604
http://www.toyhauleradventures.com/2011/02/insight-cts-monitor-by-edge-products/
http://www.toyhauleradventures.com/...l-fuel-pressure-monitor-and-low-pressure-fix/
or you can order here Free Shipping for now??
http://www.alligatorperformance.com/part_finder_models.php?mID=6&cID=250
Lot of guys get the ScanGaugeII to me not as good as the Edge because you can not use the pyro a must if you pull plus it is harder to use.
http://www.scangauge.com/
You need to get a coolant filter to remove the casting sand and must be in place 5-7000 miles before a coolant flush
http://performancemachinemfg.com/i-...ration-system-by-performance-machine-mfg.html
or here this is a good deal
http://www.dfuser.com/catalog/ford-super-duty-2003-2007-6.0L-coolant-kit.php
Flushing the coolant system
Just remember if your temp spread is greater than 10* your coolers may be getting plugged and the Restore+ is not advised or you may plug the coolers you may be in trouble if you do or if you don't. it is a ticking time bomb.
This should help you understand the reason to ditch the Gold junk it can't take the heat. Gauges are a must to do this need to know EOT-ECT
http://www.powerstroke.org/forum/6-...ced-oil-cooler-still-difference-temps-21.html
This should be in the driverside block drain to ease the pain in draining and getting burned.
http://www.quickoildrainvalve.com/SearchResults.asp?Search=F-108N&Search.x=20&Search.y=17
Here is another great cooling flush if you have to back flush.
http://home.comcast.net/~lyon.family1/truck/Powerstroke Cooling System Flush v1-0.pdf
Flushing and cleaning the 6.0
Restore is for cleaning out any silicate goo. VC-9 is for cleaning out iron and scale. Restore Plus is the same as VC-9 and cheaper.
To flush drain the coolant by removing the lower radiator hose from the radiator, and removing the drain plug from the driver side of the block. There is a drain plug on the passenger side also but you have to remove the starter to get to it. I don't bother with that one.
I also highly recommend you pull the thermostat out on your first drain and put the housing back without the thermostat. It only takes about 10 minutes and will save you 2.5 hrs or so in doing this whole procedure.
Ok now put the lower hose back on and the drain plug back in the block if you removed it. This is the procedure you will use each time to drain the system, except you will not touch the thermostat again until you're finished the whole procedure. Make sure that you set your heater to high while doing this to flush out the heater core as well.
Fill the cooling system with distilled water, start the truck and let the water circulate for 5 minutes. (if you did not remove the thermostat you must run the truck until the thermostat opens + 5 minutes to circulate. This takes 15 to 20 minutes each cycle and is why you should just remove the thermostat) Stop the engine. Drain the system and repeat the flush.
Now add at least 1/2 gallon of Restore and fill with distilled water. I used cardboard in front of the radiator because you have to get to 185* 190* for these products to work. Drive truck or run on high idle for 60-90 minutes just before you get back from your drive remove the cardboard this will help in the cool down same on the Restore+ flush. Drain and flush 3 or 4 times. or tell clean
Add 2qts VC-9 or 1/2gal of Restore Plus, top with distilled water, and drive the truck or run on high idle for 60-90 minutes. Now drain and flush until flush water comes out clear and clean. When you get clean flush water, flush 3 more times using distilled water while draining the block.
After your final distilled water drain it is time to put the thermostat back in take a funnel and dump the ELC coolant down the t/stat hole 3 1/2 gallons or till full to the top of the hole that way you have O air in the block, I recommend you install a new thermostat at this point 3C3Z-8575-AA Thermostat with housing come with new o-ring. They are only $30 or so and it is good maintenance procedure to do so and top off with distilled water. Drive the truck or let run for a while topping off with distilled water. Check the truck over the next few days and top up as required while any air left in the system works its way out useing the 1/2 gallon left over but fill with distilled water that will give you 1 gallon of mix fill ONLY to the add mark this is the new full cald mark. Remember the system hold 7 gallons of coolant by draining the driverside block drain and Radiator you remove adout 3 1/2 gallons of DISTILLED water that is why you only use 3 1/2 gallons of concentrate coolant this gives you a 50/50 mix.
Keep some 50/50 ELC on hand to use to top off the cooling system from here out and you are good to go.
new t/stat from Ford it should all come together (housing-t/stat-o-ring) in a box. The part number is RT-1169
My advice is to get some ph strips from Napa and check the ph level before add ELC coolant because you what a ph level of 7.0 if higher you must keep flushing to get to a neutral balance in the distilled water then you can add coolant, for me it was 6 flushes or 24 gallons of distilled water.
Here is the Restore Product from Cummins dealer
http://www.fleetguard.com/pdfs/produ...LI33024-GB.pdf
You can order here but some say you must order 4 at a time, don't know
Restore
http://www.ryderfleetproducts.com/r...lebase&utm_medium=search&utm_campaign=product
Restore+
http://www.ryderfleetproducts.com/r...tem-cleaner-restore-plus/erm/productDetail.do
Fuel pressure--Pressure under 45lbs at WOT kill injectors need a gauge.
This is what i got for the fuel pressure gauge, it goes into the test port, this is a cool set up gets the sender away from the heat and viberation of the motor.
http://dan.prxy.org/Truck/6L_bible_html/html/Page_030.html
http://shop.strictlydiesel.com/store.php/products/60L_FP_Adapter
Column Pod
http://shop.strictlydiesel.com/store.php/products/15010
Autometer Fuel Pressure gauge---Bottom Left (This matches my Dash gauges)
http://shop.strictlydiesel.com/store.php/categories/Phantom_II_Gauges
the 6.0 is known to blow head gaskets. This is why it happens. The Ford Gold coolant contains silicates. The silicates are not able to handle high EGT's generated by a good load or relatively high boost when run through the EGR cooler. They break down into a jell like sludge and fall out of suspension. This crud gets caught up in the tiny coolant passageways of the oil cooler. As the cooler clogs up it restricts coolant flow to the egr cooler. Now the egr cooler doesn't have enough coolant to carry off the heat generated by high EGT's. The limited amount of coolant in the egr cooler flash boils causing high pressure in the cooling system and the truck pukes coolant from the degas bottle due to the pressure. (it has to go somewhere)
Your uninformed Powerstroke owner is not monitoring his coolant temps and oil temps so he doesn't know whats going on and he keeps driving it this way. The problem get worse, the pressure causes the egr cooler to rupture. Now the egr cooler is leaking coolant into the intake manifold which then runs into the cylinders. Again the high combustion temps cause the coolant to vaporize. This causes unacceptably high cylinder pressure, the TTY head bolts stretch due to the additional pressure and there go your head gaskets.
Ok now you know the problem. Here's the cure. Get a good engine monitoring solution like the Edge Insight so that you can monitor your ECT and EOT. If those temps get more than 15* apart at normal cruising when at normal operating temperature your oil cooler is clogging up. Rebuild it now to prevent all that down stream damage from occurring. Flush that Ford Gold coolant crap out of your engine with a 1/2 gallon of Restore. This is made specifically to clean out that silicate residue. Then flush with 1/2 gallon Restore+ this removes the minerals. Now refill it with a silicate free Cat EC-1 rated ELC coolant. This removes the silicates that clog the oil cooler from the equation. If you live in an area where you don't have smog inspections delete the egr system. If you can't delete it replace the egr cooler with the cooler manufactured by Bulletproof Diesel. This is vastly superior to the Ford oem egr cooler and it will not fail on you. If you find that you need to replace head gaskets replace the TTY head bolts with ARP studs and use Ford head gaskets. If you have to replace the egr cooler always replace the oil cooler. That is the source of the problem.
Now that you have addressed the common problems that scare the hell out of people, get an SCT tuner (i like the X3) and install some custom tunes and drive the heck out of it. DO NOT baby it. The Powerstroke hates this and will rebel with turbo issues.
Turbo issues are also common repair points with the 6.0. People like to complain that it's because the VGT turbos are pieces of junk. This is not so. The VGT vanes in the turbo need to be exercised regularly. This means making them go through there full range of motion. So put your foot in it regularly and let is see some full boost runs. That will keep your VGT vanes from getting all sooted up and freezing up because of the soot. Again, that is what happens when you baby it. Put you foot in it and you will have less problems. Lay out of it and try to milk it for mileage like you would a gasser and you're going to have turbo issues. Don't let it sit either. That is also the kiss of death to the turbo. The unison ring rusts up and again you have turbo problems. So now that you know you need to give your turbo a regular work out to keep it happy, give it a proper cool down as well. Just whipping into your parking place and shutting it down will lead to coking the bearings and again major turbo issues. Running a good synthetic oil will help here immensely because it handles heat so much better and resists coking. But always let your turbo have time to cool down. This is one of the reasons you need a Pyrometer (EGT gauge), Let the EGT come down to 350* before shutting your truck off. This only takes a couple of minutes, especially if you take it easy on it for the last couple minutes of your trip. If this is too much hassle for you get a turbo timer that will automatically delay shutdown when you turn off the key to allow the turbo to cool down.
Injectors. Fords injection system HEUI fires the injectors with High Pressure Oil, to the tune of 4,000psi at Wide Open Throttle. Maintenance is critical here so you can not let your oil maintenance slide like you can on a gasser. It will kill your injectors. The injectors also are known to suffer from something that we call stiction. That is when the oil side spool valve of the injects hangs up or sticks when cold until the truck warms up. I believe this is caused by varnish buildup that is common to dino oils, especially those containing paraffin. Using a good synthetic oil will take care of that because it actually cleans the engine as it lubricates. If you do find yourself with some injector stiction add a couple of bottles of Rev-X to your oil. It has cleared up 99.9% of the trucks it has been used on. 2 bottles run around $70. A new injector is about $250-$290. Be **** about keeping your oil clean and fresh and changing your fuel filters regularly. The other thing that kills injectors is low fuel pressure. The fuel pressure needs to stay above 45psi at all times and is typically set around 52 psi from the factory. Well the Factory fuel pressure regulator spring is weak and looses it's tension over time and can't maintain adequate fuel pressure. There is an updated rebuild kit that uses a better, stronger spring. Installing this spring will bring your fuel pressure up to about 62 psi and solve that. Get a fuel pressure gauge. It's important.
So that covers the frequent complaints with the 6.0. They are all well known at this point as are the solutions. Does it suck we have to fix Ford's blunders? Heck yes it does. But again we know how and once done you will have a very reliable robust truck that is well worth the effort. So address the issues as you can and enjoy your truck. It is a dynamite vehicle. I love mine.
I used 48 gallons of distilled water 1/4 tank of fuel and 12.5hrs of my time but my system is clean.
2 stroker
thanks.
