I've got the oil and I'll see if the shop can do the analysis. Looks like a bunch of soot and blow-by. No metal, just from visual and finger check of the pan.

 

I think Mahle may be oem. My experience with them is I run Mahle graphite coated pistons in my 8500rpm VW drag bug and never had issues. I know it's way different application but the company has a good reputation in the motorsports world.

 

Rear of the engine always gets stuff from the intake first, debris, coolant, etc. My guess is that the guy who had the truck drove it quite a while with a blown EGR cooler which eventually led to blown head gaskets as most often happens. When the HG blew, he probably kept dumping water in it and drove it to where it severely overheated a few times which is why you have some discoloring.
I'd bet that both heads are cracked. You are definitely looking at a complete rebuild on the long block. If you are going to do it, use all new parts, it's not worth trying to save a few hundred bucks trying to re-use parts. Our web site has all of our prices on it if you decide not to do it yourself.

 

Sounds accurate to what I'm looking at. Although I haven't pressure checked the egr cooler, it's getting deleted and the heads will get magged today. Fingers crossed, but it is probably time for new heads. In the meantime, I'm wondering if anyone offers a decent rebuild kit for the diyer? And suggestions for anything else to look out for on an overheated engine?

 

Little update
Got the engine to the machine shop.
Discovered a bent valve with markings on the head indicating debris had gotten in there. Possibly a broken off glow plug tip. The heads themselves don't seem to have cracks with a quick magnet check. Either way they're getting rebuilt and magged.
We're boring the block .020 over, new pistons, and crank is getting magged and polished. Figured since I'd have it down this far I'd get the cam ground, so it's getting that. Also doing the bearings and seals.
Will try my best to keep you guys updated on the process with photos in the near future of it coming together.

 

This is all unfortunate, but fascinating. Especially so when it's not my dime! Keep updating, we're watching...

 

And the shop told you they will check the lobe hardness of the cam after it's been ground?
I only ask since I used to machine engine parts, among them cranks for outboard boat engines, 2 stroke.
The correct rockwell hardness was paramount, however in that case we would pregrind, weld up with a special radius and journal wire, and regrind to standard. Not the same I realize, just want you to be sure you are installing a cam that won't have a premature failure.

 

Navistarnut,
That's actually a great piece of advice. I'd spoken to a few other cam pros locally and they had instructed me to measure lobe thickness and cam run out to be sure I wasn't out of tolerance and hasn't ground through the heat treatment. I'll be keeping a watchful eye on the process and will report back as soon as he gets to the cam. So far he's reputable with all the engine builders locally. Worst case, I'll confront him with data and encourage him to get me a new one.

 

While on the topic of cams, has anyone ever heard about a discrepancy on the lobe causing premature lifter wear?? I was talking to a guy at the cam shop across the border and he says that Ford allegedly left a 'blip' on the cam lobes that be was able to detect with a cam doctor. He's speculating that they did it to help with future parts and repairs sales. I'm no specialist but he's been building cams as a living so I can't argue with him about the blip, but I do take his argument with a grain of salt. That would be extremely ethically irresponsible of them and could potentially lead to a law suit.

 

That's a new conspiracy theory to me. Never heard that one. If that was done and caused that then it would be way more common, and it's not.

 

Although I respect the man, it may have been a sales pitch to get my cam ground at his shop.

 

What a job you have done so far. This may help, its long but has a lot of info.

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...oval-pics.html

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Put a 6.4 cam in it,I heard wonderful things about it.

 

The 6.4 cam is the same cam that's in the 6.0 engine.

The cam shop that you spoke with that talked about a defect built into the stock camshaft was telling you the truth. One of the lobes is not perfect which causes the lifter to bounce on the back side of it. I don't believe that Ford put it there intentionally, it's probably because the cam is made in Mexico or some other poor quality situation. It's hard to find good quality parts now days.

 

That sounds reasonable. I hope getting it ground will take out the bump on the lobe. Do you possibly have photos of the cam lobe where it's bouncing?