Look for your build date in the top left cornor of the vin sticker in the drivers side door jam. My truck is a early 04 and says 8/03. My ICP is below the turbo on the drivers side and has the blue 03 sticker on the pass side valve cover. However it has been pretty reliable other then 1 injector and some hard use by the original owner. You have a early 04 imo.

 

He definitely must have an 04.
Don't let the ICP being under the turbo fool you.

04's
Have 2 different ICP part numbers
Have 2 different injector part numbers
Have 2 different glow plug part numbers.

The magic is all in the serial number of the 6.0 as to what parts it takes, hence my other thread asking where to find it. The engine build date of 9/22/03 is also the change over indicator.

 

I can definitely see a dealer having issues with an 04.

I called a dealer today about an injector. Told him the model year 04, truck build date 8/03, & 2003 model engine.
He asked for the last 8 digits of vin.

Then he told me that he could not tell what injector my truck takes because I need to give him the engine serial number that the vin number was not telling him anything.

unrealo4,
our trucks must have came off the line back to back. mine has had only one injector & the icp replaced.

 

The reason why they have 2 part numbers for everything is due to the change. If the ICP is under the turbo in the back you have a 03 motor pre 9/22/03. You also have the screaming turbo with only 9 vanes. If your ICP is on the passangers side valve cover by the glow plug module you have a actual 04. Built after 9/22/03 its all really very simple.

 

Lol simple enough they still installed the wrong part though!

 

I actually think this is more like a updated part. Like the ICP sensors both work fine. Just one lasts longer and won't leak oil.

Bottom line is glow plugs don't cause HG failure period!

 

The glow plugs in question are two different lengths though. The piston bowl was changed, which required the use of shorter glow plugs to prevent interference problems. If the early longer glow plugs were installed in an engine with the later pistons, you would bend/break the glow plugs, which is what it sounds like happened.

 

So simple for us but yet the parts guy at the dealer I called today couldn't figure out what injector I needed. If it told him that my truck was an 04 model with a 8/03 build date how could I possibly need an injector that wasn't used till a design change on 9/22/03, a month later.

In my post above, I meant 04 model truck year, not engine 04.

 

Is this possible, for the collision of the piston to glow plugs, to cause the aluminum head to be distorted, or flex up enough to cause the gasket to blow? If so, Someone just might owe for a few head gasket replacements and whatever else domino'd over from the mistaken glow plug install... Big bucks.

 

That's what I was thinking. Why else would the heads blow three times in three years. My turbo has never overboosted I watch it on my Insight. I would max out at 28 psi and only at WOT. My money is on the glow plugs causing it somehow, literally $$$$.

 

Because we're talking big bucks, they would fight it. Usually calling in somebody with mech. Engineering and/or metallurgy background to testify. If I were that so called person I would say (provided the .047" interference number quoted earlier is correct) that there is no way such a collision would cause HG/head flex. Furthermore, the glow plug's .047" is the weakest component in the system which means that .047 would simple shear off, distort, crack and burn off etc. but not affect the heads or HGs. Now all of that could go out the window if the aforementioned .047" turned out to be more than .047".... In order for that theory to be correct the .047" GP tip would have to be stronger than the force of the piston acting on the GP threads in the head causing the whole head to either lift/stretch the head/block bolts or cause the IRON head to distort... That's like pushing your truck down the street with a blade of grass, the grass will fail before the truck moves.

 

The heads are cast iron, not aluminum.

 

Did you have the heads milled after the first gasket job? After the second? Third? Milled heads lessened the distance from the deck to the seat of the glow plug. How much was removed in total? Might bring new meaning to ford saying "Do not resurface, scrap."

 

Very true, if too much was milled off it could cause clearance issues. But I would imagine operation of the valves would become an issue first.

 

Even if they were milled, most shops are going to take off a max of say .008". You'd have to mill the heads .008" a lot of times to make any difference and even at that you're still only looking at a broken GP not a head problem your real problem at that point would be valve clearance.