Why would you want to do this? I can tell you why!

Long story short, very short!

We travel in December and January for our business, Minnesota to Atlanta to Dallas to Vegas to Idaho and back to Mn. Truck is An 05 Excursion w/6.0 with 75'000 miles on it (not all that many miles), bought the truck new so I know all of the history on it.

We left Mn truck ran just fine, no codes, I run an Edge Insight for information, the plan was to do the STC fiting and standpipes and plugs when we got home because i can do all the work myself in the comforts of my own heated shop. Truck ran fine all the way to Vegas, day before we left Vegas the truck acted funnying, no power (very slugish) when engine was cold and hard starts when engine was warm. Found ford dealership in Vegas, got the STC fitting update kit so i could fix it if I had to on the road, the more i thought about it the more i did't want to be doing the repair on the side of the road for 4-5 hours at 2 in the morning in Utah or Idaho. Well i ended up having the truck fixed at Friendy Ford in Vegas to the tune of about 1000.00 bucks.
Now i know everyone doesn't travel all the time putting that kind of mileage on but sometimes thinks come up and you have to travel, you just have to ask yourself, "Do I trust this truck to make it that far" I did, the point is with the STC fitting is you get very little warning signs of failure!
JMO on why you should do your STC fitting and stand tubes.

Keep on Truckin

 

Ok I understand early 2004 does not have STC fitting. But does it have standpipes?

 

Yes, but different then late '04 up.

 

Hi,
New owner of a 2006 F350 4X4 6.0L with 145K miles
How hard of a job is to change these?
The dealership I got the truck at did a lot of things
but I did not see any thing about stand pipes
BTW I am an aircraft mechanic
Thanks

 

Since I don't know you, or mechanical skills (aircraft dosen't nessarly translate to automotive) it would be hard to say how "easy" it is.

Personaly I find it very easy to do standpipes/dummy plugs. There's really not much to it. Take the valve covers off, and there right there on top of the oil rails. I would say it takes me about 2-3 hours to do both sides. Being your first time it might take you anywhere form 2-8 hours. Hard to say, but it is pretty simple.

 

Thanks Texans,
That was what I was looking for. I am very interested in doing most if not all my own work
As far as skills go. I have done more than my share of gas engines both auto and aviation including some turbines in there too. This will be my first diesel.
I am finding a lot of information by reading things here.

Thanks Everyone

 

Guess my question is how hard is it to get to the valve covers?? What does the dealer usually get for a stand-pipe dummy plug job?

 

Do you have a picture of the driver's side rail showing the plug and the ccv tube. Thanks

 

I just did this job this past Sunday. I've never worked on diesels but have done many gas engine repairs before so it was a little intimidating but it turned out not to be that bad. I started at 10am and was taking it for test drive by 6:30 that evening. I know it took me way longer than a shop but I just kept at it and I took my time, used my laptop in the garage to reference things like torque specs, pictures etc.

My Scangauge is showing signs my oil cooler is not flowing at it's full potential so I know that is my future along with the STC. I plan on doing those myself too. So far the only upgrade the previous owners did I've found on this truck is a remanufactured FICM in 2013.