So to begin 1yr and 10mos ago I blew the heads smooth off of my beloved 6.0, I elected to pay a 'reputable' shop to diagnose and fix the problem thinking it was out of my area of expertise and it was my DD that wasn't even paid for. $7200+ later the truck is ready for pick up 'bullet proofed' with studs, and a home made EGR delete and two new heads. There is nothing on the ticket covering oil cooler or anything else. I had a bunch of little problems along the way and last week the darn thing started puking coolant out of the degas bottle. Dropped the truck off with them and they told me it was definitely a head gasket problem the heads would need to come off and be machined if they aren't cracked. They said they were suprised and had not ever had a studded 6.0L come back.

So my questions are

Do my symptoms indicate ripping the heads off (blows out coolant bottle under moderate to heavy load)

Should I replace the head studs?
Are there gaskets better than stock?
Should I replace the oil cooler?
Does the 03.5 - 04 turbo just sound cool or does it provide any kind of performance gain?

My plan of attack is to do the work my self in my shop thanks to the help of this forum, are there any mods I should do to further bullet proof, I was ill informed the first go around this time I'd love to go into this thing knowing I gave it my best shot, so with your help maybe I can throw this thing back together. I would like to be more mindful to longevity and towing mods versus go fast doo dads, this is for getting the race cars to the track not running down the track. I have thrown the DS canned tuner in the trash actually before I started having troubles but maybe it was too late or maybe they just did a poor job reparing the truck? let's say money is no object, what would you do? The truck is paid for and I cannot justify 45-55k for a 6.7L. So I figure this is worth it.

 

Get a scangauge (autozone) and look at the oil and coolant temps.

OEM head gaskets are the best as long as you aren't pushing too much power (folks have had good success to at least 500 hp AFAIK).

 

If I were doing mine and the budget wasn't an issue, I'd pull the heads and get them checked, vat the factory intake, port match intake and exhaust, and go back together with the bullet proof EGR cooler (tubes instead of the delicate finned interior), and their remote air to oil cooler with the optional thermostat control. The ARP's should be reusable. As bismic said, the factory gaskets have a good track record, short of o-ringing the heads they are the best option. Finish up with some proper tunes that aren't too aggressive and takes the trans into consideration, and a OBD based monitor (ScanGauge, Insight, or what ever) and Stand alone gauges for EGT, fuel pressure, and low pressure oil. In my opinion, that would be a jam-up rig.

 

So are there better gaskets that will do the same job as stock but also better handle more power in the future?

I have gauges in the truck, and have observed a 15 degree spread at times.

 

Rusty Axle slipped in there sorry I missed you.

If you already had the delete would you actually go back together with an upgraded EGR cooler, if so, why? I have stand alone gauges, ECT, EOT, FP, Pyro. I am definitely pulling heads, whatever I have to do will be done this time to insure this doesn't become my 30,000 mile annual service.

Also, while I'm thinking about it should I do a VC-9 coolant flush before I tear it all down, or can I wait and do it after the rebuild. My thinking is that while I have it apart I can back flush the oil cooler in case the VC-9 loads it all up.

 

Lots of different opinions on EGR delete. I admit there is no benefit except emission reduction, and even a slight hit in performance associated with dumping spent gasses back in the intake charge. Certainly if I was going to build a hotrod it would have to go. But there's input and output signals to it, and the software looks for it. Also I like the idea of the truck being "sellable" anywhere without having to scrounge up parts to put back. It just keeps the value up on the whole truck in my mind. Also, I'm not an anti-environmentalist. The Bulletproof cooler gets rid of the cooler failure worry, reduces emission, keeps your truck legal, and helps keep it's value. IMO that outweighs the performance gain on a street truck.

 

Some points have already been touched upon here. With a 15* spread I wouldnt condem the headgaskets right away, especially without any proof the Oil cooler was rebuilt. With that being said I think there is a kit you can buy from NAPA that will detect combustion gases in the overflow tank, if you have them there then the heads need to come off.

My truck was puking coolant and the Oil cooler plugged up the EGR cooler and it was all over.

I would put it back to gether with a bullett proof cooler and rebuild the oil cooler, put a power max on, and call it good.

Like I said I wouldnt suspect the Head gaskets right away because you already have the studs done.

Sarge

 

I would flush first. And replace factory cooler with bulletproof unit I mentioned above. I think we're post jumpin again .

 

Well thanks for the input guys, keep it coming!

If it wasn't gaskets what could it be, I have no EGR system at this time so I didn't even think there was another possibility. The shop that had installed everything for me actually gave me back half of my $7200 today saying they didn't want to be part of Ford's mistake anymore and that I should trade in my truck ASAP. The fact they would refund my money after this long makes me assume they know they did a poor job in the first place. If not why on earth wouldn't they try to fix it again or something. Is it possible the block needs to be checked for flatness as well or has anyone ever heard of something like that happening to a 6.0? I have no reservations yanking this thing apart but I want to know why it did it so it doesn't happen again.

 

Does your homemade EGR delete remove the EGR cooler altogether? If not, do you keep coolant out of the EGR cooler (ie is it blocked off on BOTH sides)?

Since you have gauges (I didn't see that mentioned in poast #1?), what are your oil and coolant temps at load?

 

At load usually 195-210 ECT and 200-220 oil temps during my weekly 80mile one way trips with roughly 7k pounds.

Truthfully I'm not sure how they did it, I don't honestly see the cooler over the intake manifold and I see a rubber hose that tends to leak if I don't retighten it every do often. That's why I want either a nice EGR delete kit or a bullet proof EGR cooler.

 

His EOT/ECT gauges are stand alone. Didn't mention where the senders are.

 

Yeah that's likely to be a problem with the EOT sender, it's mounted in the top of the oil filter housing. Coolant it in the side of the block

 

I would look at the Oil Cooler first and then go from there.

It is very possible though that you can still have head issues despite having studs depending on how everything was installed with regard to the studs. I wouldn't rule this out completely yet because given how I read your first post, it doesn't sound like they machined the heads the first go around. Of course there is nothing in there about checking out the oil cooler either.

As to stock gaskets, I have heard success stories upwards of 550HP. I'm at 508 right now with stock gaskets and nary a problem.

I wouldn't go the aftermarket gasket route unless you plan on doing an all out race engine. The closest gaskets to stock, but with a little more adhesion is Black Onyx and they have had some issues with those gaskets as well. Then you have your Hypermax and o-ring and all that. Problem there is installation has to be damn near perfect in order for those to work. If not, you are right back in there. Do you really want to run that chance? Unless you are building an all out race engine, I wouldn't go that route, but then again that's me.

 

I wouldn't jump to Headgaskets right away myself, how did the shop determine they were blown for sure?

Its not that often headgaskets will blow again with studs, unless they job was not done right.