So here's the rundown, my truck was bone stock for 103,000 miles before I sourced a tech to swap out my factory head bolts for the ARP Studs. While ordering the parts from River City Diesel I was told how much better the Black Onyx Head Gaskets "Are" vs the Stock OEM ones...

Well by now there have been many other forum members who have now experienced the same ill fated frustration that I have just been dealt three weeks before xmas... Needless to say, I would never recommend the Black Onyx Head Gaskets to my worse enemy. I wound up with 6 out of my 8 firing rings being blown. Subsequently resulting in another FULL Tear down and Re-installation of Factory OEM Gaskets.

I ordered all my parts from RCD which included;

I also ordered my "tunes" for my truck thinking since they new all the parts I ordered might be a good idea for them to write it (not happy with tunes at all, since replaced them with Matt's from Gearhead Automotive Performance and couldnt be happier!!!!)

I have since now had to replace the head gaskets again after either the tune was partially to blame or it was purely the Black Onyx Head Gaskets. Now I wasnt pushing the truck when it seemed to start to act weird but I did stop into one of the international truck repair centers close to my office and they pulled out a snap-on coolant tester which when they did the test turned from green to blue and started to bubble. Which according to them there was exhaust in the coolant which meant that I had blown my head gaskets.

Suffice to say, I hit up my trusted ford mechanic who then tore into my truck and was shocked to find out that as I mentioned above 6 out of my 8 firing rings let go.

So he put back the OEM New head Gaskets, and put my motor back together... Again... Now Im not going to lie right after that I immediately contacted Matt since I wasn't happy with the way my truck drove with the tune from RCD, I ordered his SLP+ tune and two Tow tunes. I have since put on another 3,000 miles and coming due for my first oil change since the rebuild. I have not been puking coolant and couldn't be happier with both my Ford Tech and Matt.

Lastly I will be contacting Black Onyx, and RCD. I will not suggest anyone to use anything but the OEM Head Gaskets. Now that I'm a few more thousand dollars poorer because I believed a story that these were better than OEM.

 

911, that is terrible, especially with the amount of labor required to pull an Excursion body.

I know of several trucks with Victor-Reinz/Black Onyx gaskets and ARP's that have big miles on them. Maxium (John) and I were questioning whether they all come from the same manufacturing facility, as some seem to live, some don't.

I personally have installed aftermarket HG's (NOT Black Onyx) in a number of trucks, including my own, and have had exceptional results, but as you are well aware there have been some Black Onyx failures. They look like a quality piece, unfortunately looks can sometimes be deceiving.

Thanks for sharing your experience. May save someone else a headache.

 

This was my first time using the black onyx, and will be my last. Im pissed Ive had to spend another $3,000 approx on parts and labour. I wound up buying an extra set of heads so I wouldnt need to wait another three days of downtime while the existing heads were sent out. So hopefully I can post the heads I have off the ex and sell them to recoup some money!!

Wasn't nice to have to spend that much again after only driving the truck for approx 20,000 miles before they went. Not to mention that I just spent over $6,000 on the truck a few months before trying to "bulletproof" it!!

Ahh well its fixed now trucks running great and thanks to a few good guys from here they pointed me to Matt and Mike and Im roadworthy again!!

Thanks again and happy new year before I forget!! but dont drive!!!

 

Man I feel your pain im sorry your having such a hard time with it. hopefully you can start building some big miles now.

 

That really blows ,too many of us know what it's like to dump our hard earned money into repairs. fortunatley I've got 40,000 trouble free miles since the last big one.

 

to be fair, the issue seems to be the ARP's...not the Black Onxy HG's

ARP put out a new lube with their studs. They lowered the torque spec significantly when they did. Before this, pretty much nobody had any failures with the Black Onyx (Victor Reintz) gaskets.

After the new lower torque spec, people have been blowing the black onyx alot.


I personally would run OEM. Almost all the time the OEM stuff is better, and there are many guys running 800-900 RWHP with the OEM gaskets. I do plan on studding my truck, but I will be using the old torque value myself. The new lower torque seems to have caused too many issues that I don't want any part of

 

do you know the two torque specs?

 

I don't know if I can agree w/ you yet. I just have not seen the reports of OEM gaskets failing after ARP studs. I HAVE seen MANY ones on the VR / BO. I watch a LOT of forums (10+).

 

I would be seriously pissed too! But try not to dwell on it, like you say it runs good now! Happy New Year to you too!

 

I agree Mark, although I just peruse some of the other forums, and do not post, I have seen your name everywhere!

 

I haven't seen a single one either.

There is a huge thread over on "the nation" right now about the VR/BO headgaskets right now. Many people blame the lower ARP/H11 torque values. Makes sense if you think about it.

I also think the OEM HG's aren't failing at the lower torque value because they are such a higher quality

 

Black onyx head gasket failure here too. Just 2 weeks ago. I wish I had gone with my gut and installed oem ones with the studs but I also read so many good things about the BO's. No matter, I am gonna pull the 6.0, fix the head gaskets and sell it to help finance my Cummins conversion.

 

When I purchased my ARP studs a year ago they came with the new lube and new torque specs. I had read every post I could find about torque value and opted to go with the 'old' torque instead of the 'new' torque.

If I remember right the 'old' torque was 240ftlbs

'New' torque 210ftlbs.

I torqued my heads with the Black Onyx to 240ftlbs.....so far they are holding and I have towed my TT many times, even tandem pulls with a golf cart on a trailer behind the TT.

I am keeping my fingers crossed.........

 

the torque specs I got was 3 sets of 80 for a grand total of 240 ft lbs where does this spec come into play? I bought them about 6 months ago.

 

All the trucks I have done (including my own) using Hypermax 500's or OEM gaskets, have been torqued to 240-245 lbs, using the 'original' ARP lubricant.

All have been done with cab off, not one at a time.

Knocking on wood, but never a stud or HG failure.