Hello guys, just pitching in with some info,
auto-tech, also plan on an SCT tune after you delete you egr $360, i didn't see your year but on 05,06 and 07's need a tuner to get rid of the undecirable code on your dash P0104 Incorrect Egr temp.
I went with the OEM oil cooler, it's very efficient at temp exchange, vs. the so called updated or improved that has bigger openings for the coolant to travel, I didn't investigate too much on that, but the tech who did my egr/oil cooler said in all the 6.o's he has only changed them once because must of the junk it's already picked up/filtered by the one you remove
Fumoto valves, a must have when flushing your engine, you will love the passenger side, have to remove your starter to get to it, but then a piece of cake to flush your block.
Coolant filter, I made my own with carquest filter mount #89019 and filter #89070, 3/8" hoses and home depot brass fittings, etc. $150 I installed at the heater core hose, it is the safest way. At first I was considering an inline mesh filter and also one some Jaguar owners use in their big blocks, long story short. If that inline filter ever becomes clogged and your truck it's under load, you're not going to be happy. The bypass style only filters 20% or less but it's more than enough protection for the cooling system, specialy if you have a new oil cooler and egr deleted.
Coolant, CAT ELC1 #238-8648 i bought it at a local cat heavy equipment dealer here in Bradenton ,FL bought a case (6 gal) $11.48 ea.
Something I'm working on now it's a by-pass oil filtration system, got the oil cap with 1/8" port, a billet filler tube cap i tapped 1/8" npt to return oil to crackcase, TransDap oil filter housing (my mistake on this one) it's a 3/4-16 nipple and no way in hell i can match a by-pass filter to fit, must of them are odd measurements, anyways still working on that.
Good luck on the cooling mods, your engine will apreciate it.
Nelson

 

Good info, thanks!

Tonight I decided to tackle the cooling system stuff. I tried to start with taking the block drain plugs out and installing my Fumoto drain valves. Absolutely no luck, the block plug on the driver side stripped out with minimal effort. I said screw it and didn't even bother with the passenger side one.

I decided to drain the radiator and pull the lower radiator hose along with the upper radiator hose. Pulled out the thermostat housing and pulled the thermostat out of it and reinstalled. After draining all the coolant out I put both hoses back on and threw the garden hose in the reservoir and let the truck run for 15 minutes to get all of the coolant out. After that I filled it with tap water, 2.5 bottles of CLR (had half of one at work), and let the truck run for 1.5 hours in high idle with the heat on full blast. Drained, put garden hose in reservoir, and ran it for 10 minutes to get all of the CLR and water out. Put radiator hose back on, filled it up with tap water alone and ran it for another 30 minutes. Drained and filled with distilled water and ran for another 30 minutes. Drained and filled with distilled water again for another 30 minutes. Once again drained but this time revved the truck a few times while dumping distilled water through the reservoir to push the rest of everything out. After that I installed the new thermostat and filled with Final Charge ELC. Ended up taking me about 3.5 hours total.

Curious if anyone out there had no luck with the block drains as well. I'm not sure how badly I want to try and get them out of there with them being stripped out.

 

Mine came out with normal effort. Although I am not sure what the maintenance was before I got the truck.

Possible you didn't use a metric allen bit and used an SAE?

Josh

 

Nope, it was an 8mm allen bit IIRC. All I have for hex bits are metric anyways. I'm sure if I wanted I could probably drill them out or something but I'm not sure it's even worth the effort at this point. I would love to put my Fumoto's in but if it's gonna be a PITA then I'll just skip it probably.

 

Sounds like you did a pretty good flush so I likely wouldn't worry about it.

Josh

 

That's kind of what I'm thinking. 1.5 hours with CLR, 30 minutes on tap water, 30 minutes on distilled, another 30 minutes on distilled, and of course some of the short tap water flushes in between. Also, this truck had reasonably fresh Gold coolant in it. It's for sure been changed once, so I'm sure the system wasn't terribly gunky. I'm thinking it just won't be worth the hours I'm going to spend to try and get the drain plugs out.

 

The previous owner to me definately took good care of the truck while he had it. My coolant looked to be in great shape, no rusty nastiness or grit in the buckets with the flushes.

Figured out an inline filter yet?

Josh

 

Yea, same here. The gold coolant that came out of it looked fairly clean and fresh. I'm gonna call around to the parts stores and see what I can figure out!

 

So, at this point I've decided that I'm just gonna leave the block drain plugs alone. Since the driver side stripped out so easily I'm not going to bother with the passenger side. I would love to replace them with the Fumoto's but it's just not worth the time to try and drill them out to get them out only to put the Fumoto's in. I know it's the only real way to get the engine completely drained, but after doing the flushing it seems like as long as you do multiple flushes you will be able to get everything out of there. Senior Master Tech recommends getting them out so you can blast all the water out of the block, but I'm curious how many trucks he's had them strip out on as well. I've known a ton of people that just don't bother with them though as well. If anyone is interested in a pair of Fumoto's along with a new pair of block drain plugs and o-rings PM me. Willing to let them go for a good price.

 

Went back and edited the first post to split the maintenance/upgrades into two lists. First one is NEEDED upgrades and second is OPTIONAL upgrades. I put the BPD billet aluminum water pump and radiator into the optional upgrades sections because they aren't something that's going to affect the reliability or performance of the truck. IMO, they are for the people who have had a radiator or water pump failure and are installing a new unit. I don't really see a reason to prematurely replace the radiator or water pump if they are both working fine. I myself install both of them if I needed to replace either component.

Also, at this point I think I'm going to go with the PMM coolant filter kit. It's a very clean install and IMO the best bypass filter setup. IPPR makes the full filtration setup but I don't like the idea that if the filter plugs you lose heat.

 

Bumping this for others to read!

 

Updating this a bit more. I decided to go with the DFuser coolant filter kit. Not liking the blue hoses or annodized filter housings most of the other kits use. The DFuser kit is cheaper, comes with 3 filters, and can easily be rebuilt with parts from your local hardware store. The other kits use compression fittings whereas the DFuser kit just uses hose clamps.

Also, I researched a bit more into it and it appears Ford didn't make an updated oil cooler yet although you now can get just the internals and rebuild your cooler instead of replacing the whole thing. I also found IPR Research makes an "upgraded" oil cooler, but the large downside is that it doesn't transfer heat as well and is a trade-off for the ability for the cooler to not plug up as easy. I guess I'm just still a firm believer in the stock setup and just maintaining it properly.

Also, I've read mixed ideas about what head gaskets to use. From what I've seen some people say Black Onyx gaskets and some say Motorcraft head gaskets. What's the scoop here?

 

The updated Ford cooler has one extra row of fins and has been available for a while now.

Josh

 

Do NOT use Black Onyx head gaskets.

 

Are you talking the internals or a new whole cooler? If you can get just the internals that use an extra row of fins I'd go that route unless you can get the whole cooler that has the "upgraded" internals.

I figured as much when most places offer the OEM head gaskets for more than the Black Onyx ones.