Before I purchased my 2005 Excursion, I test drove a 2003. Both are 6l diesels but the 2003 was from a dealer, and the 2005 was not. That being said, the 2003 was squeeky clean under the hood... The 2005 is not.

A pic to show what I'm working with here.


I guess my basic question is: does this look normal? It's all stock as far as I can tell, but I was wondering about the oil on the CAC boots is normal. They don't seem to have any obvious holes in them. Is the build up of "nasty" an indication of anything other than just not being clean?

Looking into replacing the plastic cold side pipe with a metal one, but is that really a big deal, since the cooler itself has plastic tanks?





This is our road trip vehicle, so long trips over the Cascades and the Rockies to the in-law's, and long distance towing of our 30 foot airstream trailer (max GVW 7200 lbs).

I know there are many systems that need to be looked through in this truck, but I'm trying to start at the most obvious.

 

How many miles? My o5 eb with 105k and is a lot cleaner than that photo.

 

It's kinda nasty, but not that unusual. Hose it down with some WD-40 and follow with some soapy water- easy on the rinse. Don't pressure wash in there though. Those boots are on their last leg. Time for new ones for reliability. Not terribly expensive or hard to install. Riff-Raff Diesel has some nice aftermarket one that come with new clamps. You just need the two on the passenger side (cold side) tube. When these things fail they can pop very loudly, I thought I got shot . The top one by the turbo can come completely loose and the tube will hit the underside of the hood and possibly make a dent in the hood.

The plastic tube on the driver side isn't an issue until it leaks . Inspect it for cracks on the corrugated section under the air cleaner/filter assembly from time to time or if you hear a hissing noise under acceleration or it doesn't boost up like it used to. If it does crack, spend the $$ for the metal one then.

 

This truck has 140,000 miles, and seems to run great. I've never had a PSD before. All I really have to compare it with, is my 1984 ford diesel. Obviously these two trucks are nothing alike, other than they are called diesel trucks. So just new CAC boots it is, no underlying issue, that's nice.

 

It seems like the boots collect more oil when you fill the truck with the spec'd amount of oil. At 15 quarts a refill mine would get nasty, dropping to 13.5qts I don't really see nearly as much in them anymore. Everything on my truck seems generally clean other than a touch of oil when I pull the intake horn and the tubes, so I don't care about rerouting the CCV to get rid of all the oil in the CAC system.

5W40 on a 5k change interval, 13.5qts a refill, Riff Raff boots and clamps, and zero worries on my part anymore.

Pull the boots, clean them as best you can, install Riff Raff boots, and use your old stock ones as roadside spares if you ever manage to mangle a Riff Raff boot or break one of their replacement clamps. Their replacements are awesome compared to the stock ones.

 

I see one thing you should put on the To Do list.
Can anyone guess what it is??
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Hint Turbo.
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The oil feed for the turbo is the old style with the flexible line.

Other than that just a bit dirty.

Enjoy the truck

Sean

 

These are the same boots that I am replacing on my 6.0. I'm getting them from Riff Raff diesel. They don't come with new clamps, they are extra. Can I use the stock clamps that are there now or do I really need to buy new ones? Just trying to keep from spending $$ that I don't need to.

 

Thank you so much for that input. How high on the list should that be. I was goin pg to do the boots and then coolent filter. Is the turbo line more important than either of those?

 

I think because so many are still running with the old style it
is low on the list. I still have to do mine.

Sean

 

Cool, thanks for the input

 

It's like so many things - in my opinion - add it to the list, and if/when you have to replace your Oil Pressure sender replace the oil feed tube at the same time.
That's when I replace mine last year with 120k on my 6L.

 

Wait until you have a reason to remove the turbo, because you will want to do the updated oil drain tube to keep the oil flowing freely.

 

I just cleaned my turbo and replaced the drain and supply tubes. Looks like the drain was already updated, but since I bought a new one already I figured I'd just install it.

Is there any history of failures resulting from NOT upgrading these parts? I've heard of coking, but have yet to read a single post about it.

 

I thought that the drain was updated sometime in the 05 model year.
Can someone verify that ?

Sean

 

Buy new clamps. The stock clamps have a way of breaking when they're re-used. Mostly from over-torquing, but the cost of new clamps(about $30 for all of them) isn't anything compared to being stranded on the side of the road because one let loose. Save the old clamps and boots for spares. I always have a hot side turbo clamp in the glove box.

The new stuff looks good too.