I truely do not know the specs for cylinder wall clearance on the motor.

 

From what i understood, there needed to be more clearance than in previous engines, because of the high EGT's for extended periods of time.

What does evervyone think then.... was my failure just random and have no explaination, or could there be some weird issue that caused this. ?\

I feel like there has to be some weird issue.

 

She's 100% stock now, and pukes just as bad as before.

 

Once the headgaskets are toast (as you've determined) I think it's gonna puke regardless of whether it's stock or tuned (it's just more likely to do it when it's tuned for obvious reasons)...

If the cab's coming off and you're outta warranty, go for broke! ARPs with OEM headgaskets, a FULL EGR delete, wastegate (downpipe too if you don't have it already), etc. and never have to worry about it again!

Most dealers are cool with installing other than OEM parts, they just won't warranty them (why would they anyway?). Sounds like you're comfy with your dealer, so time to have a talk...

Good luck, we're pulling for ya!

 

Actually it pukes a lot easier on stock, than with tunes. I spent all afternoon fugding around with it switching between different tunes. I honestly wish I had the time and equipment to do some real investigating on it. It seems like there is a lot of interesting things that could be learned about this motor, but I just don't have the means.

There are a few 6.4's I know of that started puking on tunes and would not do it with the stock tune, which I find entertaining and weird. Mine seems to be the only one that has blown without a load driving down the highway.

There is a dealer that is cool with it, I had to put all the stock stuff back. Actually, every dealer I called was cool with it, the one I picked was purely because they have crappy sales people, but good mechanics. They were'nt my original dealer, but the way they took care of me when I was busy in the winter deserves credit. I even brought the diesel fleet mechanic a bottle of bacardi 151 when they rushed my truck for me. People don't realise how bad a work truck needs to get going again, this isn't sunday driving.

I was thinking of high end studs, but I don't know if I need a wastegate.... I don't race or run her too hard.

The EGR, I really want to tear it out, but I think I might just block it off..... just makes it too crappy for anyone who might buy it later and run into issues.
I was going to buy a new truck , and let my ol lady drive thins one, but she's got her eyes on a 2011 mustang 5.0 ..... so I need to think about the future, I need a truck 5 years old or newer for work, so thins thing's days are numbered.

 

That's the problem with a full delete of the EGR; if your state's inspection laws change, you move, or when you go to sell it it could really turn off a prospective buyer. The only reason why I'm doing the wastegate is because I'm going to run hotter tunes and want to make sure my drive pressure is in check.

Just fresh gaskets and studs are gonna be good enough, but like I mentioned previously, they need to make sure the heads don't need to be decked or you could have this happen all over again and that would really blow goats!

I feel very fortunate that I got my '10 brand new as a leftover and bought it brand new so I'm (ir-)responsible for every mile on this truck. I really was entertaining a brandy new 6.7 but I can't bring myself to buy a year one vehicle...and I'm glad I didn't.

Being friends/friendly with the actual guy turning the wrench is a HUGE plus, and keeping him and the service writer happy are always a good idea.

 

I've enjoyed reading every post in here, this is an interesting thread. I do have some unpopular opinions though.

First of all you tuned the truck to produce nearly double the power the engine was designed to make. Of course the Spartan 275 has a great reputation for not harming things but to make that much more power your cylinder pressures would be quite a bit higher than they would under stock tune. Lifting head gaskets with stock trucks are rare, but its not that uncommon for tuned trucks. My guess is that something in either your gaskets or head bolts wasn't quite up to the spec that most other engines are and your increased cylinder pressures did it in. So yeah, I blame the tune for this one. The engine was never designed to do what you were making it do and the truck couldn't handle it. And of course the best part is that from what I can gather you're going to have Ford cover this under warranty. Not a warranty issue IMHO, but an abuse one. Just my opinion though, do what makes you happy as long as you can sleep at night.

And also, the only warmup required for any engine including these ones is to moderate power output until things come up to temperature. Back when I drove commercial trucks I had an '07 KW which I turned in with 563,000 miles on it. As a company truck it was driven hard for most of its life with little regard to engine life. This includes numerous times starting the engine and driving away, sometimes as heavy as 79,900 lbs GVW. Oil changes every 40,000 miles and the engine still ran like a top. Show me a single person who wore out their pistons, rings, or cylinder walls by driving away without warming up.

 

I can certainly see why you would assume a tune would destroy things, it is entirely possible.
I guess I feel like my failure is a little different as I was driving at legal highway speed on flat ground, and blew the HG's in a manner excessive to what I've seen happen to trucks that were racing with big tires, or up hills etc.

That is why I also think there is another underlying issue here, generally HG's just don't grenade that bad without getting pushed really hard. When it happened, I thought I was just driving over a really dusty patch of road, I've seen a guy with a 6.4 blow his gaskets on the spartan 310 tune, and he was racing up a hill for 2 miles holding her to the floor. His degas wouldn't even puke with a stock tune. Not even blown, just stretched a little.

My HG failure is much much worse, for no real explanation.

Also, heres something to add to the conversation.... I bought the truck used, and ever since I've had it, coolant has always been disappearing. I've had to to ford multiple times and they replaced o-rings and did pressure testing, and I'd always drive for a bit, and have to add more coolant.

Maybe my HG's or bolts were stretched before I even got it ?

 

That's possible. Also possible is that you stretched the head bolts one of those times you were on the go pedal with your tune. Maybe once that happened it just took a little time for the gasket to lift.

 

Well anything is possible, but due to the composition of these head gaskets, I'd say it is very unlikely for an event that I experienced to happen at all....

the world keeps turning, and I wish I knew what truly happened, oh well.

 

I wouldn't say either one of those statements is unpopular, unless being realistic is unpopular!

No...you're on the money, just sucks when stuff breaks...even when you're almost doubling the stock power level!

 

I think the tune probably accelerated any issue,

however I do not think the tune was the reason she tanked ripping down the highway.

 

Well, the truck got looked at, pressure tested 2x over, road tested by the mechanic and an assistant, no pressurisation of the coolant system.
Loaded the spartan 350 tune, ripped on her, no pressurisation of the cooling system.
I am at a loss for words, I have zero clue what is going on with this thing.

Everything has been checked, everything seems to be working, except for coolant randomly deciding when it's going to blow out. When it happened, I was tuned, so there was no exhaust flow for an EGR flash boil.... One day you can throw anything at the truck, and she pukes no matter what. Next day, you can't get it to puke no matter what you try.

Does this sound like a head gasket problem? I've never personally blown them before, but from what I've seen, heard etc, this is not usually how things go.

 

Very strange indeed. Usually when a headgasket goes it just gets worse period.

I hate to say it but drive the darn thing.

Do alot of oil anaylsis.

 

Strange isn't the word. Make sure you have plenty of coolant handy and don't beat on it (which you don't normally do anyway), just drive it. An oil analysis is an excellent idea too (that's why those Fumoto valves are so handy!).

The dealership/techs don't have a clue either?