Motorcraft primary fuel filter
Motorcraft secondary fuel filter
Motorcraft fuel pressure regulator
Motorcraft updated fuel pressure regulator blue spring kit
Power Service Diesel Kleen during summer months (gray bottle)
Power Service Diesel Fuel Supplement during winter months (white bottle)
Motorcraft updated LCF truck HFCM drain plug
Motorcraft 6.4 fuel rail banjo bolts
FICMRepair.com 2-year repair and upgraded with Atlas 40 tune
Gauge to monitor fuel pressure

Optional:
BPD or Swamp's upgraded FICM
Install aftermarket metal fuel filter cap (Sinister or BPD)
Regulated fuel return setup (Sinister)
Fuel tank sump kit (Sinister)
Install aftermarket fuel air separator (AirDog)
Upgraded fuel injectors?

Everyone on here by now knows the importance of OEM filters, the blue spring kit, the upgraded HFCM drain plug, and using some sort of diesel additive. I myself run Power Service because its readily available. As far as the FICM goes I will be having Ed do mine as he has been proven and can do tunes at the same time. I will be using the Atlas 40 tune to keep the truck "flexible" between a tow truck and hobby truck. The 6.4 banjo bolts seem to be a good upgrade as well since they can flow better than the 6.0 ones and they're cheap.

Now the optional stuff. Swamp and BPD both offer a 53 and 58 volt FICM and some people like the idea, but IMO it's just putting added strain on the system that was designed to run on a 48 volt setup. It may cause the injectors to work faster, but to me that also means more injector wear. The 48 volt setup has been shown to work perfect as long as the FICM continues to work as designed plus there's no way to read above 53 volts anyways. BPD has a nice case for their FICM and offers the redundant power supplies, but you have no way to tell if the power supply has failed, so it's just as good as an OEM FICM setup is IMO. The metal fuel cap can be used if you need an auxiliary port but besides that it's just bling and is pricey. The regulated fuel return, upgraded injectors and nozzle, and fuel tank sump kit seem to be more for those guys running an upgraded fuel system as I haven't seen any real reliability or fuel mileage gains from them. It seems like a stock fuel system with the blue spring kit and good filters is able to keep up with whatever the stock turbo can do. It seems that if you're going larger than stock turbo you will want to upgrade the fuel system as a whole.

Anything else?

 

-deleted- I should have looked at your other thread 1st...

Good work!

 

Been doing a bit more research on the fuel system. It seems that you could run an upgraded fuel system on a stock turbo and possibly achieve a bit more power but to actually take advantage of the upgraded pump, regulated return, and bigger injectors you'd need to upgrade the turbo as well. There doesn't seem to be any reliability or fuel mileage gains in the fuel tank sump, regulated return, upgraded injectors, or upgraded pump though. Also, regarding the FICM tunes - from what I'm still reading the Atlas 40 seems to be the best compromise between a truck that pulls and a truck that's a toy.

 

do you know if the OEM HFCM has ever been updated/improved ? Or is just a thorough cleaning periodically enough (of course with new filters)?

 

Good post.

One comment though - I have never seen any proven benefit to the 6.4L banjo bolts.

 

I hear the same thing regarding the larger banjos.

However, regarding the HFCM, here are the part numbers for the motorcraft LCF type drain plug.
I think adding this little feature to your 6.0 is worth it.
It helps keep a guy from smelling like diesel for a couple days.

• Ford part number: 6E7Z-9C082-A
• International part number: 2589259C91

 

No, the OEM HFCM has never been changed. The only upgrade for it would be the updated plug listed above. I have it on my truck now and it's much nicer than having to get the allen key out to drain it.

I've heard the same about the 6.4 banjo bolts. I figured if I'm already in there I may as well install them since they're cheap. It seems like it should be an upgrade over the 6.0 banjo bolts anyways.

 

So, I am debating getting the Gryphon FICM programmer at this point. It allows you to change the tunes on the FICM and also roll back ECM/TCM strategies as well. The programmer is only 250 dollars on top of the 150 that Ed charges to put one single program onto the FICM during his repair, so for me I think its worth it for all 4 FICM tunes. My only question at this point is what they charge to do the strategy rollbacks. I would think if you buy the programmer from them they wouldn't charge you do to it but who knows. I've got the newest strategy and have read it may be beneficial to roll mine back.

 

So Cody, how the heck do I find out if I have the latest strategy? Go to the nimrod local dealer and ask them to check for $100? I'm being serious here, so others chime in. Should I be asking if someone has AE near me or what?!

I always asked the dealers, when I had warranty work done to NOT flash the truck -- I didn't want the buzz injector or Heat-up (over work the FICM) update, but I have no clue if they did what they wanted or did what I asked...

I need to get some edge-um-ication here...

 

Yes, you would either have to go to the dealer, find someone with AE, or get an SCT Tuner. I'd honestly recommend getting an SCT anyways because of all the tunes and options it gives you to play with along with data logging and CEL read/erase. Super useful tool for the money it costs.

 

I just bought a bluetooth obdII/CAN BUS plug in and it came with some free s/w. I checked that the bluetooth device worked w/ the free version of Torque on my Droid, but it's taken me a week to figure what the heck was wrong with my laptop's bluetooth (it was a reman unit).

So I got the laptop working last night but I don't have my truck with me so I'm going to check out this software (Scanmaster something or other) against a Toyota (don't laugh).

I've completely hijacked your thread now but I'll go post in my original thread on budget monitoring stuff. I'd like to see if I can just find s/w either for the droid or preferably for the Win7 laptop that can read/reset codes and maybe even command devices (ala AE), but in particular read the Ford specific CAN BUS inputs (is that a PID file?). I see in the Scanmaster where it has a command sending section... Thanks for your time and I'll be back w/ more Qs soon...

 

To actually do any real diagnostic stuff you'd need fairly expensive software on your laptop to do it. I simply just use Torque to monitor the truck and read/clear codes, but now I've got the SCT Tuner which will allow me to datalog as well.

Just curious if anyone here has used the Gryphon FICM tuner. I know the Atlas 40 is generally the go-to FICM tune, but I'm debating spending the extra 250 dollars to get all 4 programs plus the ability to roll back the ECM/TCM to earlier strategies to achieve more power.

 

Has anyone on here had an 05-07 truck with the most recent flash and rolled back the PCM and FICM? Just curious if it's worth the money.

 

Found out the FICM is in fact dying/dead along with cylinder 4 and 7 injectors. Going to have Ed rebuild the FICM with the premium service and replace the injectors with Ford reman units. Considered doing upgraded injectors but since I will be towing with this I feel it may not be a good idea. Thinking I'll just get the Gryphon FICM tuner so I can also roll back my PCM as well.

 

Did a bit more research concerning injector size.

Apparently it just comes down to how closely you want to monitor your EGT's and where you're gonna be towing. From what I've seen the recommended largest injector size if you're going to tow anything heavy is 155cc with a Powermax or similar turbo, but this requires close monitoring of the EGT's, especially when running through hills. My thoughts are to keep the truck as tow and daily driver friendly as possible so that I don't have to stare at the pyrometer and constantly shift it up and down or worry that someone with less experience will melt the truck towing with it.

Also, the price to do upgraded injectors isn't just in the injectors themselves, it involves an upgraded lift pump, regulated return, and turbo to match. All this together gets to be very pricey and it seems if you're not looking to pull a sled or drag race it's not needed. Upgraded injectors are approximately 1500, lift pump is around 700, regulated return is around 700, and Powermax turbo is around 1200. For me the 4100 (or more) dollars isn't worth it as these parts all go hand in hand with each other.