I have come to the conclusion that at some point this year I need to stud my vehicle. As it stands now I am not overheating, have no oil/coolant contamination (partly due to HG's being done a few years ago and EGR FCDP full delete) but spit coolant when tuned for prolonged hot runs and NOT tuned for long pulls.

I was talking to my pops today who has been a mechanic since before I was swimming around in his sack (to put it bluntly) 50 years now, and he said since all of the above are happening and it appears to be boost lifting the heads related, nothing is compromised and I would merely be "upgrading" fasteners and to replace one bolt at a time with ARP's. Best case it cures my puking, worse case I tear it apart and do it as needed. I would much rather take the 400.00+ gamble, 10 hours labor gamble which will probably work than spend wasted hours doing this job that didnt really need to be done.....

......now DSMMH did it and had great luck. I know you posted your adventure/procedure and was wondering what you thought of my situation, what your success was and if you would send me the link....

Thanks
Joe

****on a side note....where can I get a set of ARP's for the best price....shipped? Thanks for the help

 

I was in a similar boat. Ford did head gaskets 40K miles ago. Sinister EGR delete done about a year ago. Only while pulling my toy hauler (tuned or not) I would puke coolant out the degas bottle regardless of the coolant level. Degas bottle cap replaced with new updated version. No oil contamination, no oil in coolant and no signs of head gasket failure except under heavy load. Truck went in for head gaskets and ARP kit. Both heads had several spots warped .004 out and were junk.

 

That is one concern of mine, but at this point I will take the chance and replace each bolt with a stud...best case the excessive clamping torque of the ARP's cures it...worse case I tear it apart ad do it right, which in that case I already have the studs and one less thing to buy. One thing is certain....taxes , death and 6.0L puking!

 

Joe your waisting your time IMHO.DSMMH's truck wasn't puking when he did his,your gaskets are blown and won't seal to the deck or head.

 

Amen!

(got to be the quote of the day)

 

Joe,

If you've had puking than combustion gases have made it through your head gaskets into the coolant system. Even if the truck only pukes when the heads lift, the head gaskets need to be replaced.

 

I thought DSMMH's truck was puking? $h*T, that changes things.

 

It did puke at least once. Read that really long thread. and you will see that was the reason why he did the bolt change.

 

I posted a little bit in that thread. Mine had puked a couple times before but after I read DSMMH's thread I changed mine one at a time with no probs after. That was at 58,000 miles. I am now at 92,500 and still haven't had puking.

I run the SRL++ tune and run the ***** out of my truck, borderline abusive sometimes. I have towed, raced, and offroaded and no puking.

I had a couple scares with coolant loss, but I was being paranoid and it was leaking from the heater valve.

In the end it's your decision, and if it doesn't work out for you it is only time lost and nothing else. The studs are reusable, I believe Tex has reused his and he's running over 500 RWHP now with no probs.

EDIT: forgot to add that I also added the Powermax 5000 miles ago and am pushing over 30PSI and still no problems

 

O yeah, I got my studs at the following link, It was the cheapest I could find then and still looks to be at $398.

Turbos

 

Hubbler did you remove the hvac box or do the Jack thing? Any chance for a writeup from you as well?

 

Well that is my argument.....I am not overheating....EVER, am not consuming coolant EVER. That is the bind for me though....to get that far into it and it not work, but if it does I would save alot of money and time....I think it is worth the chance.

BTW hubler thanks for the feedback. Some guys are not sure if it will work, me being one of them but at the least it is just time...not a problem.

Coincidentally, how long did the job take you?

 

No, I didn't remove the HVAC box. I did remove the plastic cover on the HVAC box though (illustrated below) and it gave me just enough room to squeak out the passenger side head bolts. I really wouldn't feel comfortable doing a full write up now that it's been almost 2 years.



I started the Job on a Friday night and had the truck running by sunday night, that was by myself, no garage, using my back deck as a platform to work off of.

I unhooked the motor mounts and loostened the trans tail shaft mount and it was alot of jacking and manuevering the motor into the right position to pull the bolts. A couple different lengths of 2x4 make it nice to jack off the lip of the oil pan and to shim the block up. Sometimes you will jack the motor up and it will swing one way or the other and you have to drop it back down and try to get it to rise a half inch to the left or right.

I believe the old directions state around 245 ft. lbs for the old moly lube and the new directions state 210 ft lbs with the new lube, I think I bumped that up to 220ft. lbs. because I have a habit of over doing things. Pulling 220 ft. lbs. is no joke. The only thing I regret doing is standing on my passenger side tire pulling the torque wrench towards me, I ended up with two nice little indents from my knees in my p-side fender.

You have to look out for the incidentals, I broke two torque wrenches doing this procedure, when the one broke it swung down and snapped my ICP sensor off. Make sure of your torque specs before you start in. I use a torque wrench on everything but some of that crap you have to put back on after will be in inch lbs. and not foot lbs. which makes a huge difference.

Almost forgot, the trans lines that run into the radiator are quick disconnect. They may not look it and you may be tempted to unscrew the fitting but don't. This cost me about 3 hours of monkeying around and trying to get them in there straight while making sure the o-rings stayed in place.

 

Good tips.....thanks.

I am still debating on how to do it. The cr*ppy thing about getting that far into the top of the engine, which I have done when I did my FCDP intake EGR full delete.......is youre pretty much right there. I do have a question for those that have done the head removal.

Once you are right there (top of the motor off turbo/intake etc) how much longer (time/effort) to actually remove the heads?

Thanks
Joe

 

No kidding huh...