Well it's been awhile. I came on this site hoping that professional diesel mechanics would share some advice with me. To recap---- I have a 6L 2006 crew cab. I mostly use it to pull a 5th wheel. It only has 57K miles. Check engine light kept coming on so I took it to 2 different Dealers. They were unable to really explain problem. They wanted to clean turbo. Yes I know that they will rust and stick if left to sit to long. Remember, each trip is I took is always close to 2K miles with the truck really working the turbo. So, after all the horror stories and pictures too, I had the egr delete done with all the rest. The parts used were all OEM where possible. !st trip, on the way home, the cooler develops a crack. Motor didn't overheat. yea. Have them refix truck. Now 2nd trip. wrench light comes on and stores no codes. By the way, also had to purchase a SCT , I'm sure you guys know what that is. Used to turn off egr light. On the way home, Blew new head gaskets. Now I have had truck returned to factory specs. Total spent on all this great advice. About 9K. By the way. Did you guys know that when you change the stretch bolts , it is suggested that you re torque them every year at a cost of 3k or so. Can't reach them without dis-assembly. Anyway, While I'm not a diesel mechanic I know way to much about this motor now. I would like to point out at this time, there was one person on this site who said just drive it. To that person I will always be grateful even though I didn't listen. I know stuff breaks. I have always done my own vehicle repairs. Just not a diesel mechanic. SO bottom line. 29 responses Over 1000 readers. Remember--- the manufacturer knows best. If you have this truck, just keep a couple of hose clamps and a egr under your seat and you will be fine. I'm sure this will ruffle some feathers, but this is my real world experience and I don't need a new hobby. I just need a dependable truck.

 

If you had a wrench light, it has a stored code - not sure who is telling you differently. The competency of the mechanics that did all the work is a key component. A brand new OEM oil cooler rupturing sounds pretty crazy. Not that it can't happen, but the odds have to be pretty darn low.

Overboosting can cause head gaskets to lift, so ignoring a wrench light can add to the problems - sometimes drastically. It even sounds like you didn't get the right components in the original work - for example the head studs - they are completely re-usable and were clearly not the reason for blowing the head gaskets again. Who would just throw those away?? I would really want to see a parts list after all that - and look closely at what brand of parts (especially the oil cooler, studs, and the gaskets).

Lastly - I just don't know what to say about annual torquing of TTY head bolts. Someone is feeding you BS

 

Not sure if it's common, my SCT X4 doesn't retrieve any codes so I wouldn't count on that. My PHP gryphon does and of coarse fords ide gets them all.

 

SCT tuners certainly aren't designed to be code readers. Even the scangauge (good at reading engine parameters), isn't all that great at retrieving codes.

 

Well you just basically got screwed. As far as AFTERMARKET oil cooler the only one that is aftermarket you will see recommended here is the bulletproof air to oil cooler which won't put oil in the coolant. Oem will be the only one recommended for normal replacement. Although I suppose it can happen with an oem but I world suspect subpar work. What were your temp splits during your trip?

 

so you had the headgaskets done and didnt put studs in?

 

I'm not sure who fed you this line of BS, but I'd run like hell from them. Sorry you had a bad experience, but I think you got raped for $9K myself.

 

This is the internet, many different people trying to help and share their experience but in the end, it's your truck and your dime. There is a wealth of info here but sorting through it all can take some effort. I hate you've had problems with the truck, they pull hard and ARE dependable when they are right.

To recap----
You got 3 replies suggesting an STC Fitting replacement, a common failing part that could leave you and the family on the side of the road.

5 people suggested you get some type of monitoring device to keep an eye on the engine. You bought an SCT (tuner) to turn off the EGR light, no mention if you actually used its limited monitoring feature.

You were referred to the Tech folder to back up some of what was being said.

It was suggested the truck simply be completely serviced with all new fluids and included the suggestion to use Motorcraft filters.

The blue spring update (a Ford part) was suggested by two people.

A coolant filter was suggested by 4 people.

And finally, 4 people suggested the full bulletproofing, that's 4 people out of 29 responses.

Some other observations- the condition of the oil cooler can be easily determined by monitoring the oil and coolant temps under specific conditions. Replacing parts that are a few hundred bucks apiece just for the piece of mind that it's a new part is going to be expensive.The BDP external oil to air cooler is a nice piece but the factory set-up works just fine for most of us. As Bismic posted above, if you had a light, you'll have a code as long as the batteries haven't been disconnected or the PCM memory was wiped by some sort of fault. It sounds like the shop you were using didn't have the proper diagnostic equipment or what the did have wasn't updated. As far as re-torquing the factory TTY head bolts (if that was what you were saying) nope, someone's trying to get back in your wallet again. You mentioned being a mechanic, surely you've ran across these fasteners, torque values are given as an angle and they are not reusable. Years ago head gaskets had a re-torque requirement and some older applications may still have them but modern manufacturing materials have eliminated that to a large degree (an ffor sure on a 6.0) While I would agree somewhat that the "manufacturer know best" if that was totally accurate, there would be no use for aftermarket solutions like beefier EGR coolers, full metal radiators, water pumps etc. they do drop the ball sometimes. Most of the time the factory part is superior, but to admonish forum members on the subject after your experience is not particularly helpful.

 

Sandpit,

I feel bad for u I really do BUT to slightly attack people that U asked for advice isn't really fair.
Everything they told u holds true....Maintenance, Monitoring & OEM Parts (in certain areas of course)

I do however 100% agree with the ol' adage "if it ain't broke don't fix it"
That doesn't mean u can ignore "maintenance" & "preventive maintenance" issues though

I will also throw this out there....
I have a 2006 @ 127k currently which for the last 4 years has been running a slew of A/M Performance Parts including the dreaded Tuner, while still using the OE TTY Head-Bolts (insert ol adage here) & my situation is very similar to yours in that my truck gets very little use, unless we are vacationing & pulling the 5'er.

To recap...
I have ran mine Tuned for 4 years on OE Head-Bolts (even while towing) & while I don't baby my truck, I also do not rag the **** out of it. I also do ALOT of preventive maintenance but will NOT tear a motor down to replace Head-Bolts if it isn't currently needed & (knock on wood) I've had NO issues so far with my Truck.

Good luck w/your Truck in the future

 

My intent was not to Attack anyone. However, if you are not a mechanic, I highly recommend staying with factory set up. As for the tty bolts, I had them replaced. Then I had the factory ones put back as well. As far as the BS, I can only restate what the Dealership told me. They put there best 06L guy on the truck and it was my instructions to put it back to factory spec.They have 9 diesel mechanics on staff and most have over 10 years experience. It was 3k to have mods made and 6k to put back. Truck runs just like it did when I bought it. I'm sure some mods work great, as for me, I wanted to tell my actual experience with the modifications. Dealer rates are high. I have always changed the oil and fuel filters right on time and with OEM parts. Also had trans flushed at 25k. Now have a 2 year no BS warranty I hope. Thanks for all your input and Happy Trails.

 

still the re-torquing once a year for 3K is 100% BS

just saying.

 

Care to provide the name of the shop?

 

Wow, $3k every year to retorque head bolts!!! Sounds unscrupulous. I'll use the term since nobody else wanted to say it. I am hanging on to this story because we have hot been told the whole story so far. What brand of studs? What brand of oil cooler?
Leaving us hanging, makes us suspicious that the parts were a bargain for the mechanic, not you. The 6.0 is great engine, you just got ripped off.

 

What I got from his/her last 2 posts was that they read alot of recommended modifications and went on those recommendations to later find out in his/her case it was unnecessary so they returned to stock. There was some other info in there about the TTY head bolts being re torqued that we all know better but he was just saying what he was told.
Just saying that's how I read it. I don't think there is any harm meant. He/she is just stating they could of saved money staying stock and just running it like one had suggested.

 

The responses have not been all that bad (especially w/ the implied blame on the advice) and clearly they were expected (last comment in red above). In fact, the responses contain valid questions, more than they do "accusations".

In the end, this site is about passing on good advice. The OP feels that head studs and egr deletes are bad advice. That is fair enough and a valid post. However, many people have had major problems that were solved with that work - so they advocate it. No problem with that either. The rest of the advice (given by most to the OP) was far from opinion (or bad advice), it was just plain sound advice. ie - STC fitting (Ford recommended upgrade), dummy plugs (Ford recommended upgrade), proper coolant (Internationals choice of coolant is ELC), coolant filter (International installed coolant filters), blue spring upgrade (Ford recommended part), gauges (these are a crucial upgrade - period) - all are extremely good things to install.

To me the real message is to choose your shop wisely.

Lots of questions to get to the real issues here, and many of us have a great curiosity for details. IMO it would be helpful to know the answer to the questions below and to know the name of the shop / shops involved:
- why wasn't the turbo cleaned?
- why did the new oil cooler fail (and was it even OEM)?
- why wasn't the cooler failure completely covered by warranty?
- why wasn't the head gasket failure covered by warranty?
- what happened to the ARP studs (if they were ARP studs) - they are re-usable and worth some money? Did the shop keep them?
- What shop would recommend annual re-torquing of head studs (or was it bolts that he was referring to)?
- Who is saying that the manufacturer knows best when so many people have had cooler failures and blown head gaskets on stock trucks?

I guess I should conclude with some unsolicited sound advice - get an electronic gauge system of some sort. It is important to keep an occasional eye on oil temps (and the coolant/oil differential), as well as boost. If you do not maintain the coolant properly, you risk plugging an oil cooler and that will most likely cause a failure in the weak OEM EGR cooler. Lastly, adding a fuel pressure gauge might help extend the life of the injectors as well.