I have a 2006 F250 SD FX4. I recently installed the K/N open air induction system and the 4 inch off road exhaust system. Since I have made these changes I have noticed that when pulling my boat, livestock trlr or 5th wheel my truck will overheat when pulling a hill.

When I am traveling at road speed and I get into a hill here in Oklahoma the truck will kick down into pull/passing gear. If I stay in this gear for too long the truck will start climbing in temperature (naturally). It seems as though the fan isn't kicking in soon enough. By the time the fan engages the truck is usually already close to boiling point.

I have always caught it in time and was able to stop the truck from overheating completely. But its strange that I only started having this problem after making the aftermarket upgrades. I have checked all the fuses for the temperature control and fan. They are good. Installation was done according to the specs that were sent for the products. Question is--what else could be causing this problem. The truck never overheats when pulling anything as long as we arent engaging the passing/pulling gear.

 

Get rid of the intake. The factory air filter is actually the best one on the market for 6.0s that don't have engine hardware mods. There's a half dozen threads a month on this in the 6.0L forum, it's pretty well covered that factory is the best bet for intakes.

Are you relying on the dashboard idiot lights for your over-temp warning? You should go pick up a gauge set (the ScanGaugeII is ~$160 at Autozone, it works and is easier and faster than installing a full analog gauge set for diagnostic work) and pull some actual engine coolant and oil temp numbers. The coolant temp gauge on the dash should sit right at about 1/3, and if it moves up, you're already into the 215*+ range, and need to slow down in a hurry.
Here's the recommended temp readings, but also an explanation about each temp and why it can change: https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/9...-pressure.html

Are you puking coolant out of the degas bottle under the hood? Not just a little crud under the cap, but white crusty mess all over the place?

Overheating can be a lot of stuff, from a bad fan clutch or clogged rad/ heater core, to a blocked oil cooler causing a cascade failure ending in blown head gaskets.

 

^^^what he said +1.

What have you done to the truck in the way of mods? Tuner or chip? Unplugged EGR. Is the intake really the ONLY thing you have done?

To reiterate what texastech said, an engine monitor like the Scangauge is priceless when you have an issue like this.

Most '06 will still be under warranty on the engine, which is 5yr/100k miles. You might just be able to take it in and have the dealer take a look. But that intake might be a problem for you.

 

I bought the truck used in October 09. It only has 64K miles on it. So I should have warranty. Yes the Intake and exhaust is all I have done to the engine. Would the intake really cause it to overheat? Darn what a waste of money, if so.

 

No, I don't believe the intake or the exhaust will cause overheating. But Ford will point at anything possible to deny a warranty claim - sometimes. Depends largely on your dealer. As long as you have the cat, your exhaust is unlikely to be an issue WRT warranty.

The stock intake is so good however that there is no good reason to ever change it, and aftermarket intakes will almost certainly void any warranty on turbo issues. And you will have turbo issue, eventually.

Most common reasons for overheating are IMHO:
Failing fan clutch
Failing oil cooler
Overboosting (could be related to the intake)
Failed head gaskets (but only if combined with coolant loss)

 

OK, well I did keep the old system so I can easly change it back. Next week I will be taking the 5th wheel out into the hills for some camping. So that will be a good test drive for it. On the exhaust I did delete the CAT when I replaced the exhaust. There was no sort of sensors on it so I figured that it wouldn't hurt to relieve any pressure coming off the turbo.

 

You will be at the mercy of the dealer on that issue. Some care, some don't. Maybe OK dealers are less concerned about emissions than some states, I can't say.

 

So this didn't start happening til after the exhaust mod...Your new exhaust is a 4" system, basically the same size at the stock exhaust, could the new exhaust have a restriction in it somewhere that caused a jump in EGT compared to the stock setup? If the oil cooler was slowly killing the EGR cooler, suddenly increased EGT could make the process jump ahead, cause the coolant to boil, it pushes up into the degas bottle, and systemwide coolant temp jumps up.

Or it could be that the oil cooler finally decided to die on it's own, and it's a coincidence that it happened when you changed everything.

No way to know what the aftermarket exhaust did without a pyro, and no way to know if the oil cooler is going out without ECT and EOT gauges.

 

So you stated that the Scangauge would be the best bet on determining correct EOT and ECT! Guess I will start there. My Oil Temp never seems to rise with the factor gauges just the ccoolant temp goes up

 

What are you using to read oil temp?

 

I have nothing that reads oil temps. I am referring to the Tranny temp. All my gauges are factory. I have water temp, tranny oil temp, oil pressure and fuel gauge. Thats all I have. Where is the oil cooler located?

 

The oil cooler is located in the engine valley, below the oil filter canister.

You probably want to visit the 6.0 forum. Lots of recent threads on this stuff.

You are right at the point where oil cooler and egr cooler issues are "normal" for this engine.

 

Trans temp doesn't really mean a lot for this issue. That just tells you if you're about to roast the trans or not, has nothing to do with engine oil temp... plus the trans temp meter is another idiot light that doesn't really tell you a whole lot. Any OBDII gauge set (like the ScanGaugeII, DashDaq, or Edge Insight) will read engine oil temp (EOT), which is half of what you need to figure out if the oil cooler is going out.

Crash course: Buy an OBDII gague (like the scangauge, I have the insight CTS, they do basically the same thing). Read ECT and EOT. If they're more than 15-20* apart just driving around, that's means the oil cooler is going out.


You might want to consider investing is a different unit that the ScanGauge. It sounds like you tow often and heavy, so a nicer digital gauge set might be worth the investment for you. A few models can be expanded to show EGT (exhaust temp), meaning you'll have more cab room to add a few other gauges you'll be wanting eventually. The 6.0 Forum is FULL of threads about different gauges and why they're necessary, especially to guys who tow a lot.