Greetings....

I just happened across this forum by accident and glad I did. I just bought a 2005 Excursion Limited with just shy of 50K on it. It's a 4x with the 6.0L PSD I hear mixed reports on.

I have begun to look at modifications after letting my local garage do a once-over, when they said I should look into a Banks Six-Gun Bundle. Then I heard about other modifications that would help assure longevity such as head studs, oil cooler, etc.

I've noticed a few posts referring to "Bullet Proofing" but haven't seen where that is defined. Can anyone point me to a thread or give me tips for bullet proofing? I've had the truck a few months and taken it on a few trips of +/-500mi without a problem. But, this is my first diesel, so any help is appreciated.

 

Now thats a LOADED Question

IDK about the Banks tunners if it a Shift on Fly tunner then stay away from it

SCT Tunners what they use here with Great Success

To start out I would get some gauges and see where you stand with it
you need to check some numbers on some things

And being an 05 you should address the STC fitting the standpipes and dummey plugs but get a ScangaugeII or something you can check the Engine out with so when you do those you can addresss the EGR/Oil Coolers if need be

 

Gauges is a MUST IMO
a coolant filter is a Great Idea to

An EGR Deleate is not nessasery but you can upgrade your EGR Cooler since the 05 got the Weaker one. But as long as you keep the Oil Cooler within SPEC the EGR Coolers dont normaly Fail so this is where the Gauges come in

Stick Around TONS of Info Here and A Great Bunch of Guys

Welcome to FTE

 

Welcome...

What will the truck be used for(grocery getter, towing, commuter)?

If you will tow, how much and how often?

What is your general budget?

 

Thank you Blade, I'll check into your suggestions...

william_04_x, this will be mainly used for longer road trips with some 4x4 driving when gone fishin'. I wont be towing and from what I can see of the reciever, the prior owner didn't either. Also, this is my toy, payback for giving up my 04 Eddie back when. So budget is whatever is needed, esp if there are known issues to address.

Thanks!

 

Welcome to FTE!

For some good information. Go to this thread and post your e-mail address. Or, e-mail me at amdriven2liv@yahoo.com and I will send you some spread sheets on these motors. It is a collection of many years of information. These have been maintained by a member named bismic.

One of the spread sheets is information on modifications that have been helpful to these motors.

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/7...wners-271.html

Bullet Proof Diesel is a good place for information also. A few of these are dependent on the laws where you live. And Federal Laws that only you can decide to do.

One thing to remember, maintenance is key! I always recommend to folks who have just purchased a new to them truck. Change fluids and start your own maintenance clock.

Use OEM filters!!! Racor is the maker for Ford on fuel and oil. NTZ makes the external tranny filter.

Here is a good place for filters.

Ford 6.0 Liter Turbo Diesel Truck Filters, Air Filters, Oil Filters, Transmission Filters And Glow Plugs - Diesel Filters,Additives,brake rotors, and brake pads for Chevy, Dodge and Ford Diesel Trucks

These engines like to be worked, so, work it!

(mine loves to go fishing. Trailer goes along for the ride!)

 

As Benny said "how to bullet proff" is a loaded question. Where do you live? We may be able to recomend a good tech in your area.

First stay away from that shop that recomended the Banks. They are horible tunners for the 6.0. If you want to tune it then go with the SCT with custom tunes. Get your tunes from either Eric at innovative diesel, or Matt at gearhead automotive performance. Do a little research on here about the Banks, Bullydog, and Edge tunner and you will find plenty of reasons not to go any where near thoes.

So onto the bullet proofing. Here is what I would recomend.
1. probably the single most important thing you can do to a 6.0, Get gauges. There are plenty of options on this one depending on your style. You can go the analog route (I would recomend isspro EV2's if you go this route). You can also get a digital gauge that will read it all. The cheapest one would be the scangauge II. The only problem with the SGII is you can't add external sensors for EGT's and Fuel pressure (those two are the main ones that you can't get through the OBDII port becasue there is no factory sender for them). So with the SGII you would still have to get 2 analog gauges. The best two digital gauges (for the purpose of seeing temps), that you can add senders too are the Edge CTS, or the Dashdaq.

2. STC fitting, Stand pipes, and dummy plugs

3. If you temps are out of specs then do a really good flush using ford VC-9, and install new oil cooler and a bullet proof diesel EGR cooler

4. Install a coolant bypass filter

5. If your fuel pressure ever dips below 45 PSI install the blue spring upgrade

6. 4" turbo back exhaust

7. ARP headstuds

8. Depending on what your ultimate goal is for the truck (ie..bigger injectors, and turbo) install a regulated fuel return while you are doing the ARP's

9. same as #8 if you have plans to go big install either the F.A.S.S sytem or a AirDog II system

That's pretty much my list of what to upgrade/install. 1 thing to note here at that no where on that list is aftermarket air intake. Don't do that. Leave the stock unit alone. Ford got that right. It will flow as much or more air than anything on the market (that is at peak HP and TQ of a stock or just tuned truck), and filter way more dirt at the same time. Also make sure you only use OEM filters all the way around. The "will fit" ones are known to cause issues. Change your oil every 5K (I and many others on here recomend using a 5W40 synthic diesel oil), change your fuel filters every 10K (a little more often than needed, but I find it easier to remember to do them every other oil change). Change your trans fluid, and external filter, every 30K. Flush the coolant system every 50K. On the coolant you have 2 choises Either stick with the Ford Gold (napa sells Zerex G05 that's the same stuff), or switch to an ELC that is cat EC-1 certified. Don't use any other type of coolant than thoes I just listed. Espeicaly stay away form the green stuff it will do harm to a diesel engine.

 

Studs, Egr delete, coolant filter, OEM filters, SCT w/ custom tunes, and 5w40 synthetic oil. Truck will be ready to roll.

 

Make sure you have the right cap on your oil filter housing.

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...-look-for.html

Then get gauges as mentioned before by others.
A Scangauge II or Edge CS or CTS plugs right into the OBD port on the truck and can read almost all that the truck computer sees. Scangauge is lower price and can be programmed to read a lot of extra stuff. Trade off is that you can't add other equipment to it and the display is very 1980's.
Edge has a more modern look and you can add other gauges by attaching their additional senders, even a camera on the CTS version for rearview. It's downside is it's cost, especially when you go to add the other senders.
Edge also doesn't have some of the PID's that scangauge does, but they are constantly rolling out software upgrades so they may catch up.

Get setup with the gauges to watch:
Coolant temp.
Oil temp.
Battery volts.
FICM voltage.
Fuel pressure.
They are the main 5.

Welcome to FTE.

 

I first got a scangauge,
Replace coolant to Red ELC Cat rated,
Found spread ECT and EOT, backflushed the oil cooler for days..., no problem since 3000 miles, cross my finger
Coolant filter, replaced filter 3 times, once every 1000 miles, lots of crap on first 1000, very good after 3 filter
Replaced 2 batteries
Replaced EGR valve under warranty
Replaced IPR under warranty
Cleaned turbo under warranty
STC fitting,
Blue spring,
Cleaned and replace IPR screen,
Cleaned EBP and tube, was almost plugged
Cleaned Turbo, got a kit to replace brass journal bearing in turbo,
Replaced unisson ring
Cleaned EGR once in a while,
Bought a Bullet Proof radiator, mine was leaking after flush, I guess I used to much Cleaner and destroyed the seal between plastic top and radiator.
Replace pig tail on ICP
Replaced MAP sensor
Moog Ball joint
Moog tie rod end
Replace Hub seal, 4x4
Replaced 4x4 vacuum -
Hope I am good for a few months now

 

Saw it mentioned earlier in the thread about the STC fitting, but I thought all 05 Ex's still had the 03-04 style HPOP's?

 

Wanted to post a quick reply to all who have written in... I'm sitting here laughing out loud at the flood of responses, this is awesome! I am in central CA between Fresno and Bakersfield. I've heard good reports on zylstraauto.com, although I have yet to visit them. I won't mention the mechanic I went to, there's something going on over there and it's not like it was. Thank you for all the comments and I'll review more on Monday.

Again, many thanks.

 

What the heck is all this stuff? STC fittings, stand pipe, and dummy plug. Ipr, and Ipr screen, EBP, ICP and all these other dang abreviations. I need a stinking reference guide for all this crap. You know, I'm looking at all these items to address and thinking "Holy Crap, I've never seen so many things that need attention cause they're prone to failure!"

 

I just bought an '06 F350 6.0 Powerstroke with 155,000 and had to replace the oil and EGR coolers before I made it home. (They saw me coming...) From what every mechanic I've talked to tells me, the 6.0 is a pile of junk moneypit. Wish I would have checked with them before I bought the truck.

I had an '89 with the natural aspirated 7.2 and got 355,000 out of it before I had any problems. My, how things have changed...

 

STC = snap to connect fitting, it's part of the high pressure oil (HPO) system. and on 05-07 it was a bad design that does fail. There is an updated part. Some people never have this problem. My self have 2 - 6.0's and have never had to do the STC on either one.

Stand pipe and dummy plugs are in the oil rails under the valve covers, also part of the HPO system. Again the o-rings can go out and cause hard hot starts. There is also an updated part for these. Again neither of my trucks have had these fail. My 06 does have the updated ones though cause I changed them when I did head studs.

IPR = injection pressure regulator, Also part of the HPO system. The main cause of them failing is debree in the oil system pluging the IPR screen.

EBP = exhaust back pressure sensor. There are not too many of these that fail. Some times people have to pull the tube out of the exhaust mannifold (driver side) and clean it

ICP = Injection control pressure sensor, it's what tells the IPR how much pressure there is so it can adjust to get the dessired pressures

it's not that all this stuff is a "will fail and leave you stranded" type of things. They are just the common failures for these trucks. Every make and model have common failure points. Spend some time on the Chevy and Dodge forums, and you will see list of what's common to fail on those. The 6.0 has a bad rep for no good reason. The main problem with the 6.0 is the 7.3. Those trucks took alot of neglect and abuse. So too many people buy these trucks with the mind set of the 7.3, and you simply can't do that. The modern diesel engines require lots of maintance. Between owners not being informed on how to properly maintance these trucks, and Techs that don't know what there looking at, the 6.0 got an unjust bad rep. Can't tell you how many I work on that can be directly related to either the owner not taking care of the truck like he should, or pervious shop not knowing what they were doing. Lot's of people spend tons of unneed repairs, because they simply don't know how to properly diagnoise the problem. So they just throw parts at it.

Comming on here with a post like this, for your first post, wont generate alot of help. The guys that know these trucks Love them, and don't really like uninformed people coming on here and trashing them.

All I will say is you need to find some better mechanic's to talk to that really know these trucks if you don't plan to do your own maintance.

One more thing to compare a modern Emmisions compliant diesel to an 89 is just Stupid. I would like to see that 89 even come close to the power and torque these trucks have. Let alone even come close to the MPG and meet the emmission standards while doing that.