If anyone can figure this one out the next round is on me!
I have an 05 F350 6.0l 99k miles. Last April 2011 b4 extended warr ran out Ford in Prince Rupert here had to pull the engine to fix an oil leak. Had ARPs, Black Onyx gaskets and BPD egr installed. Also have an Amsoil "oversized" bypass oil filter (since 2009) and coolant filter installed. Oil cooler wasnt replaced 1 yr ago when 1st went but it was chkd and cleaned. Had Degas return hose that was wearing on ficm replaced 6 wks ago. Since then some "puking" of gases and some coolant when under load. not a lot but some. Lots of pressure and bubbling when releasing pressure in degas bottle. Not losing coolant but pressure too hi. New degas cap. Now only have heat in cab only when under load. If just idle, no or little heat. Ford chkd everything, heater core ok but said heater controller hooped ($660.00) but not the reason why it's puking. Oil and coolant clean.
Running Cortex tuner on economy & tow tunes only, 4" dual exhaust, gauges, Hi-idle, CAI, 190amp Alt, and more but did all this for reliability. So much for that. Could the Onyx head gaskets be shot after just 3-5 months? Any help is appreciated!

 

I see you have gauges so I assume coolant isn't getting too hot? Other than that, head gaskets are the only thing to overpressurize the coolant system. If you are seeing purging at the degas bottle under load only now it is likely to get worse. A dealership installed the Black Onyx gaskets?

 

Yes, Port City Ford in Prince Rupert, BC Canada. They were doing warranty work for leaking web plate and had the engine pulled. The warranty ran out during the process so they agreed to do the ARPs, Black Onyx gaskets and BPD EGR Cooler at the same time. I saved a ton of money but can't figure out how the gaskets would have failed? Especially since I've only towed a few hundred kilometers in max 20 degrees C (70 deg F).

 

Correct on the Coolant temp. Not overheating in the slightest. And to top things off, my heat in the cab is fluctuating from 45F to 115F depending on load.

 

Black Onyx gaskets have had an issue going around were they were failing. Quality control issues from what it sounds like.

Only other thing I could think of right now is that your dealership didn't do the install. Given that there have been numerous complaints about Onyx gaskets, I would go with that initially until something else is found out.

You should just stick with Ford gaskets. They are good until you start getting up to 600HP, I'm at 508.

 

imo it sounds like you have a flow issue. something along the lines of a blockage of some type. start looking for cold spots in the cooling system

 

Maybe I over looked it...do you still have the stock EGR system?

 

Sri for not getting back to the replies, working nights.

I have a full flow egr system except Bullet proof Diesel EGR Cooler installed when the Studs and ARPs were. Stock original Oil Cooler that was cleaned when they did the work. There weird thing is that I'm only getting heat when I'm giving it "gas", under load, when I take my foot off the pedal the heater goes cold. Ford looked at the Heater Core and and ran water through it with with no blockages. They say that problem may be a Heater controller but that wouldn't explain the over pressure in system.

I do have Coolant Bypass (and Oil Bypass filters) which I turned off flow to but it didnt affect anything. Installed new Degas cap as well. I am not overheating in the slightest and otherwise my 6.0l runs like a top. I too at running about 500rwp but thought that was borderline for Ford Gaskets, hence I went with Onyx. Did weeks of research and didn't see anything about them failing. If that's the problem and since Ford only did the work a few months ago they may do the work for free <S>

Appreciate all the advice!

 

So they just back flushed the oil cooler and did not replace it? If so what is you're ECT/EOT deltas?

 

The Heater thing is what gets me might be a bad water pump with a broken impeller since the heater dont seam to work unless your in a higher RPM range
or Like Jim said an oil cooler issue

might also be worth a Cylinder compression test to rule the headgaskets out

 

That's exactly what Ford is going to do. Go at it as if it is a suspected Oil/EGR cooler/Hd gasket issue. Going in Tuesday hopefully because need the truck to take hockey team 800kms next weekend and it's getting cold up here.

Haven't checked the deltas recently but 2 weeks ago were 14F and symptoms haven't really changed. 1 year ago when EGR 1st went Ford only replaced it and cleaned and updated the oil cooler. They said Ford had changed it's protocol for a while and didn't replace the oil cooler when EGR went. Just happened to be when mine was being fixed. Shortly after that they went back to changing both. This may have been a Ford Canada thing only? BPD EGR put in with hd gaskets and studs last April. Still original Oil Cooler in there but an inch away from changin it if they have to go in again.

1 other thing. Ford zap-strapped closed the valve on the heater line near the oil filler tube. Not sure what it's called, but got no heat what so ever. After I removed the strap I still got no heat in the cab and the engine wasn't warming up very fast so I turned it off, restarted it and back to heat under load, then no heat at idle. Engine warmed right up on restart as well.

I'm beginning to think Blade35 is on to something. Broken H20 pump blade? Partial Obstruction of cooling system allowing "some" heat through under load only? This could also but causing the increase in pressure???

Is there a gauge out there that I can install so that I have constant EOT/ECT readings? If so what is the brand and do I need a different sending unit or can I use the stock ford sending unit?
Cheers

 

500 is not borderline for the stock gaskets. As far as I know the only difference between black onyx and stock gaskets is that black onyx has more adhesive to it, structurally they are the same gaskets. More adhesive typically means more precise installation.

 

I stay pretty plugged into the Ford TSB's and what-not - I don't recall ever seeing anything that said they changed their protocol on replacing oil coolers w/ failed EGR coolers (once they established that protocol).

ScangaugeII

If your BPD EGR cooler failed, please let us all know. That would be the first one I have heard about (except for the very few recalled ones that the BPD people mentioned to me that were due to a bad welder they employed once). It has a lifetime warranty on the part IIRC.

 

What I minute, I just went back there. How did you determine that you are running about 500 horses with just a Cortex tuner? Especially with just running the "economy" and tow tunes? I didn't see anything about other performance mods and I know I wasn't in the range of being able to say that I was close to 500HP with just a tuner and that was with custom tunes. You can get custom tunes for the Cortex, but you didn't say anything about having those.

 

Bismic. That's why I was wondering if it was a Ford Canada change (not replacing the oil cooler with failed egrs) but I was only going by what my local dealer said. Perhaps he was misinformed.

As for the 500hp range of my truck, I had a custom tune written for me by superchips but only played with it for a bit. I did all this work in case I ever decided to go that route but for now only interested in reliability. I guess I got a few months of it!