My headgaskets were done cab on. I asked a friend who owns an auto repair shop for over 40 years. He suggested I leave well enough alone also. The cab lift dont concern me, its the 5000 miscl. Nuts, bolts, wires etc and removing the motor that scares me.

 

So you are afraid of letting the guy working on your truck do his job and would rather live with a slobbering motor?

 

I went through this with a 98 f150.....what a mess I had. Everything was messed up, truck was all scratched, wires were all over. Nothing was right after so I traded it in.

 

Had i known the bedplete was leaking and not the rear main i may have passed on having the truck torn down that far. But in the end i plan to keep this truck a long time and i was pleased with the way the truck went back together.

If you havent already you should spend a little time talking to the tech that will do the repair, to get a feel if your comfortable with him doing the repair or not.

 

I guess I look at this differently.... I think every 6.0 deserves its day in the sun. By running around with stock tty bolts, its inevitable that someday, somewhere, the op will be opening his hood to check his oil, hopefully not on a trip or in a situation that he really needs his truck to perform, and see the coolant bottle covered
with coolant. paying to remove the heads is alot cheaper than paying for the entire job. I remember when my truck didn't have studs,,,,,, all I ever wished for was to get them in. I remember the feeling I would get every time I opened the hood and looked at the coolant bottle without
studs, I guess to each his own. Maybe the op doesnt plan to keep the truck til the cows come home,,,haha,,, like most of us. I hope there is no offense taken by this (i remember you (mistercmk), helping me immensely). I would bet that if the op is planning on keeping the truck, someday he will wish he would have gotten the studs in. btw, 1 more double vote on fixing the bedplate leak.

 

The scary part is its the same dealership, and the service manager advised me he would leave it

 

The dealership doesn't want to pay for warranty work. What a shocker!

I wouldn't worry about the job too much. I pulled the engine out of our 04 to do head gaskets and put it back in and the truck has no new scratches that I've seen and all wires are back where they belong.

To pull the engine they need to undo under 20 connections between various hoses and plugs then undo the bolts and lift the sucker out. Not really a big deal in my opinion but from what you've displayed here you'll find SOMETHING wrong with it after they work on it whether they did it perfectly or not so I'll just tell you what you want to hear. Don't have it done.

 

How many guys on here actually looked goid behind the starter and bellhosing, above the oil pan for dampness? From what im seeing and hearing is every single one seeps.

As for the headgaskets, dealership said if I use arp headstuds they will not honor any warranty at all even the headgaskets they just did. Crazy, I agree. I ordered a coolant filter kit today. Wish I knew that when I bought it new

 

I guess it all depends on how you feel about the ability of the tech to put your truck back together correctly.

The dealer my truck came from has a large base of fleet and corp. diesel trucks on the lot and service dept. and the diesel techs are great and this is all they do.
There are 3 or 4 other Ford dealers in the area that don't seem to do much in diesel trucks. I wouldn't be comfortable with these dealers doing this repair.

 

I do know if I get it done im replacing the oil cooler and upgrading the egr cooler while the motor is out.

 

I had a small oil leak that turned out to be the bedplate. While fixing that they also found out the head gaskets were bad. They replaced the oil cooler and turbo too. I was also worried about my cab being pulled as I had six aftermarket gauges hooked up. But everything went great. They even put in ARP studs for an extra five hundred. I'm happy that my bedplate sprung the leak as it sure worked out for me.

 

ok made an appt for the oil and coolant issue next week. If it turns into something big im doing the bed plate as well. Service manager quite to my surprise!!

Anyway, talked to a couple of the diesel mechanics in the back, both advised they wouldnt do the bedplate....theres a vote of confidence!

I did ask about the EGR cooler, oil cooler, arp headstuds, etc they are fixing a truck now with leaking headgaskets, ford voided the warranty because the owner used arp studs last time. They are covering $0 of the repair!!! They also said if the EGR cooler for instance needs a replace and I use aftermarket they need the old cooler back to ford and a new one must be installed or Ford wont pay the dealership for any labor work? Is that true??? So Im stuck with the same defective, sub par junk parts that will fail time and time again??

one more question? I thought the dealership needed to use DISTILLED water in the radiator flush? They had the garden hose hooked up to a truck inside.

 

Sounds like you need to find a new dealer.

 

Wait... I thought you were out of warranty now? Who givs a crap what they want after warranty? Also, Find a good Diesel shop. They will be about the same as the ford labor but, only work on Diesels day in and day out... They will help you figure out which parts need to upgraded. Take their info, do your own research (remember they are in the sales industry too) and have them work on your rig (or pick up a wrench yourself... JMHO

 

I just read this thread from start to finish, and the mechanical issues aside, it sounds to me like you don't have much confidence in this dealership.

Spend a good amount of time researching other dealerships or shops in your area. Try posting in your local chapter for recommendations.

Confidence and then follow through performance can be worth a massive amount of peace of mind. Without it, your decision making process is skewed, even if they were capable of doing a good job, your gut will never let you feel right about it.

If you plan on keeping this truck for a very long time, like most of us here, then your search for a good shop should never end. The shop I bring my truck to now is 2 hours and 88 miles from my house (just under the AAA 100 mile tow limit ) On my way there I drive past a performance diesel shop [that's what he calls himself anyway] which is 14 miles from my house and about 7 dealerships!

But I go where I know I can let them totally dismantle my truck and put it together with peace of mind.