2004 6.0 - NEW - ARP head studs, oil cooler, egr cooler delete, turbo cleaned and resealed, larger down pipe. Had this all done after head gaskets failed. Less than a month later driving 2 hours from home steam is pouring out of the exhaust. Had the truck towed back to the shop that had performed the service. Now they've had the truck for a month and I had to finally call them to see what the status was on the truck. They are trying to tell me that the truck is leaking coolant out of the side of the engine and that I have bad heads. Mine you that this is told to me without them even having the cab off or digging into the truck. They are saying that the previous owner must of had the heads of and resurfaced without anyone knowing and when they had them off they were resurfaced again. Which caused damage to the head. So now they want me to buy new heads. Shouldn't the machine shop check the heads for anything like previous resurfacing? I put almost 4 grand into this motor already and feel like I'm getting ready to be stuck in the backside. Any input would be great.

 

yea machine shop should have checked but also they should check for cracking. if they saw that it was coming outta the head without tearing it apart then its the gasket that failed. if thats the case they should cover it under warranty. but if you didnt have the heads pressure checked for cracks nor did they then its kinda both parties fault. heads NEED to be pressure checked no matter what. but i would think the machine shop could tell if it has been resurfaced being that they have to check and keep it in spec. but the valves would hit if surface to much so it could be a bad gasket. there are alot of what if's but check those things to make sure they were done

 

how was the egr cooler deleted? was it just an old cooler the was pluged/welded shut?
who chose the machine shop? you are the repair shop?
One of the many reason we at the dealer level never mill a head. as is the are just at minimum deck hight anyway.
I would go down there and ask them to show you exactly were its leaking at. Ive never seen a cyclinder head leak coolant externaly.. not saying its impossible but it would be my first and Ive seen a lot of 6.0's

 

i agree cheez. i havent and have seen alot at my machanics shop down south seen one leak externally just going though my head to see what pops up. btw i decked my heads and they are fine. but if they are minimum level then why are we still able to deck them? just wondering not doubting your advice

 

why.. because people do what they want and what will put coin it there pockets. They dont always do what is best for the end consumer. this is proven fact just based on the fact shops are cutting a head that ford says dont do it to.

 

huh...ok well from now on i guess i wont be doing that. hopefully im done with it though. next time i have to do it im hoping its helping someone else out and not mine. im thinkin though that if his heads were machined twice wouldnt the valves hit the pistons?

 

cut the steams and suck up the seats.
you can make anything happen with a dremel tool

 

this is true done it a few times but no where near my truck

 

egr cooler was deleted with a sinister delete.... they chose the machine shop. Who would be liable because it was done and said good to go.... I gave them the money make sure it was right and now I'm back at square one.

 

kinda hard to tell who is at fault. i want to say the shop but then again if you knew the heads were decked once already then the ball is kinda in your court. if you didnt know the heads had been decked already then its on the shop

 

There is a minimum head thickness spec, which is more important than how many times they are machined. The shop should not have taken off enough material to go below that minimum head thickness. How much did they take off?

 

I didn't know that the heads have or have not been off before. I just bought the truck used in January only to find out that it had bad head gaskets. Diagnosed by the shop that I am currently at. I did my research at put a little of 4 grand into the motor. I don't know what machine shop they sent the heads to, but I know they don't have the equipment to do it. I haven't even put 1500 miles on yet (600 were driving it home from where I bought the truck).

 

What kind of warranty did you receive? IMHO if they chose the machine shop then they are responsible for the machine shop's work. If the heads were bad to start with then you would still be responsible for a set of heads but they should be responsible for everything else to fix THEIR (or the machine shops) bad repair.

 

And if the heads were bad to start, then you should not be responsible for the original machining work or the second gasket job. They should have caught the bad heads to begin with.

 

Agreed. There may be a SMALL charge from the machine shop for checking/testing the original heads, but nothing else should be his responsibility EXCEPT a new set of heads.