What HP tune were you running?

 

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This might be one of the first times I've heard of this happening to a normally driven tuned truck with the mods you've done.

Never would have guessed a HG issue would pop up like that .

 

My 6.0 puked one time, stock on highway cruising along......at 23k.....never did it again?

 

Be sure to stud it when you do HG. They are hard to find right now though, apparently.

 

Talked to a few places already, apparently 6.4 head gaskets and studs sales are taking off big time lately, as 6.4's are coming off warranty.

I guess this is a larger issue than it might have seemed.

 

Thats what I thought/ hoped happened to mine, I still think something funny happened, and the ECM or PCM gave it way too much timing. I see no other way it could blow at the magnitude it did, and the next day still hold fine for several WOT run afterwards.

 

I never would guess this issue would have occured in this manner, it just doesn't make ANY sense.

The truck ran awesome, and I never even beat on it much.

 

Spartan 275. The latest one.

It is a powerful tune, but is also very nice as a daily driver tune.

Runs no DPF, no EGR, boost is 3-10 lbs highway, and EGT's stay nice also. Timing looks like it is fairly close to stock, definitely not an engine suicide power sled pull tune.

 

After watching countless people run tunes on these trucks, and beat the living crap out of them, I assumed I would be able to enjoy a reasonable bit of performance and not worry much.
As I said before, this thing never got beat too hard at all, other than the WOT runs trying to get the transmission to relearn.

I have my EGT alarm at 1500 deg, and asides from the trans relearns, it's never gone off.

 

D'oh...yes, a hyperextended thermostat would puke, NOT blow headgaskets. Duh.

There's a bunch of posts about water pump cavitation in just this forum alone (in addition to other PS-related sites). Blasting out voluminous amounts of coolant is symptomatic of the issue...

I've been looking at doing a full EGR, watergate, headstud and some other odds and ends to my truck to make it as bulletproof as possible. Any Ford dealer can pull the cab and heads (which should be checked and decked if necessary, which is NOT inexpensive) replace the headgaskets and throw studs on without question. I'm not running much hotter tunes than you are (IDP Xtreme Street, Gearhead Street and Hot Street) but out of an abundance of caution, I'm going to overbuild it and be fairly comfortable with running even hotter tunes on occasion...

There are several extremely reputable and experienced 6.4-focused shops that can do this, like Street Diesel Performance in CT, Maryland Diesel Performance or Elite Diesel in CO just for starters. In addition to their shop rate likely being half (the estimate I just received from one shop was $95/hour, as opposed to Ford wanting $220/hour for non-warranty work). With a cab-off, work, cab back on job pushing 30 hours...do the math! Saving a buttload of money and/or use it for some additional upgrades while you're in there!

When I built my '04 6.0 Excursion I had my dealer do the upgrades since they were more than happy to do so at a non-warranty shop rate. It cost a MINT and while it was nice to have them do it, I could have saved several a couple of thousand with an independent shop. The main reason why I did go with the dealer in that case is because I was a personal friend with their master diesel tech and I wanted to keep his lift occupied. Since he's not there anymore, not so much. This is also going back some time before diesel speed shops started becoming more prolific.

I have at least 3 (if not more) diesel speed shops within a day's drive of me. That's not particularly convenient, but since my truck is currently driveable and without issues, it's not unreasonable. I couldn't imagine limping my truck there or white-knuckling it there with my eyes glued to the gauges...never mind having it towed/flatbedded there, that would completely eliminate any potential savings.

I HATE the EGR system on these trucks. If you're not subject to an emission inspection and are going cab off, I'd say it's a mandatory mod. Block-off plates and tuning it out are one thing, but nothing beats a full delete (with wastegate if desired/necessary). I'm looking as much forward to that as I am getting headstuds put on...just seeing pictures of the sludge in the EGR valve/intake tract area gives me the heebie-jeebies!

It doesn't matter than "X" amount of people AREN'T having problems doing the same thing that you are, only that you are right now, and that just sucks. I don't think anyone would shout "yeah, I blew my headgaskets, now I get to upgrade!" and look forward to writing that check ($5-7K). Sorry...

 

The EGR system is brutal. I said it before, why not take exhaust AFTER the DPF ????? nice and clean... cooler...

 

Do you guys see any possibility of engine oil vapour somehow going into the intake in a concentrated stream.. and causing ignition before the diesel fuel?

I'm just thinking thats one of the few imaginable ways you could get excessive cylinder pressures without massive throttle input ?!?!?

 

I did a write-up on a CCV mod and downpipe HERE.

The GARBAGE that this system captures is unbelievable. You can see how gnarly the stock CAC pipe tube gets in one of the pictures. I can only imagine over time how much more fouled the entire intake tract can get.

I don't think that crankcase vapor could end up causing a pre-ignition situation however...but I could be wrong.

It's AMAZING that these motors can run at all with all the garbage that the EPA piles on top of, between the CCV, EGR and DPF (causing fuel dilution issues in particular) even on the severe maintenance schedule it's amazing these motors can break 6-digits without a catastrophic engine failure. They just get more and more slowly choked to death. Have you seen some of the sludge pics from guys who have done complete teardowns? It's like the "Saw" movie version of diesel horror.

I LOVE power, but engine longevity is so much more important. It's just a shame that deleting all that garbage voids your warranty and (potentially) gets you in trouble come inspection time.

Who wouldn't kill for a 7.3 but with CR fuel injection! Those would the days...

 

Just the 6.4 without all the junk on it would be stellar enough for me

 

VERY true...that's my plan! It's just a shame that all the EPA junk has significantly compromised the integrity and longevity of the current generation of diesel engines...which is the main reason why a lot of people bought them to begin with! Unbelievable...

It's gonna cost me around $7+K (on the motor alone; parts and labor only, not including anything else) to get my truck "bulletproofed" (famous last words!) on top of the money I've already spent and I'm only willing to do that since I bought the truck brand new (leftover) and plan on driving it well into the Zombie Apocalypse...

And I wonder why people think I'm nuts to do this on a truck that stickered @ $61K when I bought it.