Well at 58,000 my EGR cooler blew for the second time since I have owned it so I decided to pull the motor and do ALL of the upgrades possible. EGR Cooler delete
Rebuilt Oil Cooler
Fuel regulator blue spring
Intercooler pressure tested and cleaned
Intake tanked
CCV reroute
Heads resurfaced .005 off, valve grind and seals
Injectors tested and new orings
Intake, EGR, carrier gaskets
ARP studs
Victor Reintz head gaskets
Turbo oil feed tube update
Turbo drain tube update
T-stat
Upper and lower radiator hose
STC fitting update
8 glow plugs
New water pump
New radiator
Turbo recondition
High Idle mod.
IRP valve
2 updated stand pipes
2 Dummy rail plugs
Degas bottle cap
HCFM drain plug
CAC boots
New map sensor
Oil change and fuel filters
Switched to Mobil 1 Turbo Diesel Truck 5w40
Fleetrite ELC

Did studs with victor rientz gaskets as at the time (2010) people were down on OEM gaskets and higher on these. Well now at 94,000 miles I have a blown head gasket. Going back to OEM gaskets as that is what everyone is suggesting now. Can't believe I get to do this again. Will have the heads checked again beings they are coming off and the injectors all tested again. Pulling the motor today or starting tomorrow, no hurry as I bought a new Jeep for a toy so I have another daily driver. Does anyone have any suggestions to anything else I should be changing or doing beings the motor will be out? Oh and I will clean the turbo also. Thanks.

 

What kind of tunes and how hard are you on it?

 

Grant, I am not that hard on it. I tow very very seldom and its only a 4 place snowmobile trailer. I do run a street lite tune from Eric I believe. Sometimes I run stock. It doesnt even have 40,000 on it since the head studs and gaskets in almost 5 years.

 

What a shame, looks like you did your homework and did all the right stuff and got bit by the headgaskets. I got nothing to add to the list. Good luck, hope the results are better this time around and Nice looking truck!

 

Thanks rusty Axlerod,
I tried to do everything right beings we were pulling the engine. I got a ton of help from the guys here on what to do. I appreciate everyone here and just thought I would lean on the community again to see what I am missing and if there is something that would help. Half the dam job is taking all of the stuff off to get to the engine.

 

I was gonna mention a fuel pressure gauge....then I read your Signature line. Lots of work to get back down to those headgaskets. Too bad the folks from VR couldn't chip in on that...

 

With arps can't you take the heads off in the truck? Can you double nut the studs and unscrew them and remove the back ones when you pull the head out?

 

Elrain,
I have read that one guy put in head studs without removing the cab or engine but I need to replace the gasket so the heads need to come out and with the studs you cant lift the head off so we need to pull the cab or the engine and have found we can pull the motor as easy as anything. It's just monkey wrenching, no hurry on the project as I have another rig to drive.

 

Pulling the engine isn't that bad - if I was you I'd probably do the same thing. Now to the gaskets... being that it was 2010, were these the Black Onyx gaskets? VR has upgraded the gaskets now and calls them Black Diamonds. From the research I did, and talking to my machinist, who has installed lots of them, they seem to be the same as the OEM gaskets. I'm gonna find out I guess, I installed them on my engine build.
There was some noise about Felpro making a 6.0 gasket, not sure if it's reality or not.

 

You know, logically I understand even if your a company who makes good stuff it's possible to have a product issue. It's how you handle it that matters. Black Onyx was a problem product and VR addressed it with silence as far as I can tell. I'd have a hard time rationalizing paying them For the next version even if it's made of rainbows and unicorn farts.

 

John,

Yes you are correct it was the black onyx VR gaskets. I am with Rusty on this one unless someone can show me that they are the greatest thing and much better then the OEM ones. I didnt have a problem on the head gaskets before but I decided to go all out and change to head studs and VR gaskets so this is a hard pill to swallow when doing this again and I took it down that far to fix something that wasnt broke.

 

From what I can tell, the Black Diamonds are no better than OEM, in fact I think they are the same - except for the color of the sealant. I just used them because I felt they were equal, a lot of signs point to VR making the OEM gaskets for Ford, but nobody is talking on that deal. And it saved me a lot of money - around 500 bucks. Now if they don't stand up, I will be the first one on here telling everybody so. I don't recommend them to anybody, but I don't tell anybody to stay away from them either.
My rebuild gasket kit was VR, I voiced my concern about the gaskets, the guy said they use them all the time and have had no comebacks - he said he always talks his customers into studs.
Summer towing season is coming up, they will be getting tested then.
And I don't blame you, I wouldn't use VR again either if that happened to me! Can't go wrong with OEM. And I'm anxiously awaiting the verdict on the Felpros.

 

Thanks John for your input. Yes its a hard pill to swallow with the VR gaskets. I am going with the OEM and hope to have better luck with them. I need to order them, hope to get a kit that has all of the gaskets together. Last time I bought them all separately.

 

The one thing I would add to your list since you are removing the engine would be a fresh set of lifters and the new push rods which are slightly shorter than the original ones, the reason I suggest this is due to the few guys we have seen come through here with low LPO system pressure caused by damage to the LPO pump from ingesting the needle bearings from a failed lifter.

 

Thanks Mustang, I am having my heads looked at so I will have him swap out those parts for the new ones. This is why I love this forum as people have great info. Thanks again.