Hope everyone had a great and safe holiday,

So the saga continues, while watching the pressure the other day cap was blowing off around 13.5-14psai so yesterday after work i picked up a new degas cap. didnt have time to do the test as cheezit suggested TSB 09-08-03 in order to prepaire for snow storm but did pickup a new bottle of test fluid for my combustion leak tester, got truck hot, put tester on degas container and drew air from degas bottle thru tester and fluid did not chage color,a shade lighter blue due to the aeration, for combustion gas in coolant it should turn yellow, or greenish yellow. Just to test took it with in 3 feet from exhaust pipe, pumped it a few time and test fluid turned yellow :-) Hoping this is a sign that head might be good. Ran lastnight with plow on it and ran this morning while cleaning driveway and drive to work and so far top of degas bottle is clean and dry.

#2 Planned on running it back and fourth to work and around a few days to see what happens and watch coolant level, But on my way to work with plow on truck had loss of power, black smoke, surging, and that intake flutter like when you back off the gas quick under a load with alot off boost, nothiced something was wrong when driving at a constat speed on highway and could hear turbo spooling up and down but boost guage look ok for load applied, got to toll booth, gas it leave and tons of black smoke, lacked powed and surging turbo, than picked up and ran fine, seemed like evertime i got on it, it acted up for a min. NO CEL came on

What could this be now, luckly i was close to work,
Have full EGR delete, ECT and EOT started to rise jus above 190*, fuel pressure was around 60psi, and had boost. Maybe ICP????
2004 F250 with 148.456miles
I do have a weak injector, been having a little bit of a stumble when ideling, and stumble missfire when cold (under 180*)and driving.

I have auto enginuity and plan to look at it if and when i make it home, FICM was replaced 5-6 years ago but will check FICM voltage, ICP, HPOP pressure, anything else too look at, could always be the famous 03 wiring??

 

Another thing on my mind I can't place is since I have been losing heat in truck at idle, truck seems to run alittle cooler than normal, issapro guage "i know for reference only" but usually 190 or just above and now always runs180-185* sometimes under load can come close or hit 190. I can't figure how a head gasket failure or waterpump failure would lower temps, or just a coincidence and sensor has corrosion on it.
After running truck lastnight and guages read 185-190 at idle it blew cool air and even housing for coolant filter was barely warm, if heater core was plugged should have had more flow thru coolant filter.
If I pull tube from water pump to heater core could I get bore camera down it to check pump or do I have to tear it apart.
Thanks.
Peter

Reading cheezit older post on surging going to try unplug ebp sensors on way home to figure out new problem.

 

I would slowly vent the degas bottle after it has warmed up - doing it slowly is safe, but use a heavy toweld around it to make sure. Then drive it with a few hard accelerations. If the degas pressure rises more than a few psi, then you are likely to have head gasket issues since there should be relatively little additional pressure build after the coolant has fully expended.

 

Ok did some testing tonight, got truck to about 191* using ECT on my autoenginuity. Vented degas cap, installed a 0-30 psi liquid filled guage on T heading to coolant filter and also installed my Stant coolant system pressure tester with adaptor on degas bottle.

using autoenginuity i set idle to 1250 rpm's, pressure started to rise on both guages, i used the autoenginuity to close the vanes of the turbo producing approx 5lb of boost and pressure seemed to rise quicker" could be me". then opened vanes dropping boost and could just be me but guages seemed to slow down the rate of rise.

I shut down engine when pressure reached 20 psi, went in to eat, approx and 1.5 hours or more later i checked guages and they read 15, 5 psi drop in over an hour and a half but with about 40* coolant temp drop and i cant rule out any small leaks in the coolant tester or other hoses, Started motor while standing at exhaust pipe expecting if the 5psi forced coolant into a cylinder i would see something, but no smoke at all.

Is their any chance this pressure is coming from intake or a non combustion area, ran liquid combustion leak tester again and fluid still didn't change color showing combustion in coolant. Maybe its not picking it up cause its a small leak or something but getting confusing, left both guages on truck about 15 psi and will see what happens in AM.

How else can i narrow this down to decide if a tear down is necessary, thinking if i leave guages on coolant system and force air in each cylinder thru glow plug compression tester to see if air pressure builds in coolant system, i then might be able to locate source off problem.

Might be reaching too far but dont want to tear it down again, Approx 3 years ago tore it down and did studs and black onyx gaskets as a preventative measure and prior to running a tuner thinking i did something good. Dam i was wrong

 

It sure seems like head gaskets to me and the BO gaskets are concerning.

I don't know what to say about the combustion tester - I have heard they are unreliable, but have no first hand experience.

 

Looks like im going to end up pulling it apart, check heads and do ford gaskets with arp studs, tops of current studs are pretty rusty, prob should replace them, What did you use for torque spec.

I want to say thanks for all the advice.

 

210 ft-lbs IIRC and lots of the ARP lube. Lots of people seem to want to over-torque them.

 

Thats why i questioned it, i see alot of people saying stick with 240ft-lbs.

 

http://arpinstructions.com/instructions/250-4202.pdf

ARP has also posted this:

ALERT: Ford 6.0L Diesel Head Stud Customers
ARP is aware of forum postings recommending torquing our Ford 6.0L head studs to 270 ft-lbs.
We DO NOT recommend this. This will YIELD your studs.
Please follow the instructions that came with the kit!

 

ive said it abunch. plenty of first hand experance. the best method is using a 5gas but in a non im-240 state they are hard to find.

for what its worth my studs are in @240ftlb

 

For the hell of it i placed the combustion tester on degas bottle but instead of using squeeze buld to draw air in i left it on degas bottle till pressure built up and forced thru the test fluid. Fluid turned from blue to a yellowish green as stated in instructions for diesel's

Ok so now im gearing up for my next cab off head gasket job, first in november of 2010.
Pondering a few ideas and could use some input.

1) Should i just change oil cooler again seeing how ill be right their and guess for the price it couldnt hurt?
2) ICP sensor is in a horiable spot, should i change that as well, was changed once by dealer cause orgional one leaked, prob got 75,000 miles on current one, Factory IPR as well. when running oil pressures look good on autoenginuity.(comparing desired vs actuall readings)
3) ARP studs from 2010 show rust, some heavy on top threads, should i clean and reuse or replace for more accurate torque values.
4) Factory water pump with 148,860 miles on truck, should i upgrade to the larger 05 style while everythig is accessiable.

Thanks Guys

 

i would flush the cooling system prior to tear down and replace the oil cooler with the heads.
the rest of the stuff what ever make you

to intall the 05+ pump you need a 05+ front cover and lower hose