Looks like the replacement will start 30 July. Wife will be out of town for 3 days...so no distractions.

truck is 2010 f-450 6.4L with 87K miles. I've owned it for 4K miles and when I first bought it, changed all fluids and filters with motorcraft stuff.

ordered rocker assy's for both sides, saddles, bridges, new push rods, and fuel lines. about 800 in parts so far.

On the drivers side it looks possible to pull the cover and get the job done...BUT...on the PAX side...I dont see it happening with out lifting the cab....so I am expecting to have to lift the cab a foot or so. Folks are telling me that you can gain access from the wheel wells so will look into that.


points of confusion so far...the 6.0 bible says if you pull the rockers on a 6.0, you have to change the head gaskets....BUT...I've never heard of anyone who did rocker arm work on a 6.4 change head gaskets.

related question...if I decide to pull the heads...is it true that the lifters can come out from the top? There are some youtube videos that imply you can only remove lifters by removing the engine.

I plan to lift the cab about 18 inches. I have four 6 ton jacks that act as lockable jack stands...im thinking sitting them on cinder blocks would get me in the general height to maximize the travle of the hydraulic jacks.

so Id rather hear it before I start work than after I finish...what are the "watch out for's" and "gotcha's" of replacing all the rocker arms and related.

yes I will dig up a manual and follow the book.....but would also like to hear from the been there ...done that crowd.

I would have let ford do this for me...but #1 they would not give me an estimate over the phone and said the truck had to be in the shop to estimate it...#2 I spent 90 bucks to have it towed to FORD and it sat there for 10 days with no idea when they could get to it...so I spent another 90 bucks to tow it home...the management team was indifferent to their service or lack therof.....so now this is a DIY job.

I've rebuilt engines in the past and removed and replaced aircraft engines and transmissions so I think I can handle this.


any suggestions and recomendations?

 

If you are only doing rocker arms, the cab can stay put. The PS valve cover will come off with the cab on, no problem. Remove everything on top and then pull the inner fender liner. You will be able to access all the VC bolts and get the cover out.

On the 6.0, the rocker assemblies are held down with a head bolt at each location. I guess the thinking is you remove the head bolts you need to pull the heads and do gaskets. You could, in theory, remove one bolt at a time and replace (with a new bolt) and torque to spec without issue. Or, while you are in there(on a 6.0 at least) replace the bolts with studs one at a time. This is not an issue on a 6.4.

Once the heads are removed, the lifters can come out. They WILL NOT, however, come out with the heads on.
If you do decide to remove the heads, lifting the cab will help with the removal of the turbos and related stuff. Keep in mind, the turbos are HEAVY as are the heads



There isn't much to look out for really, you don't have to remove the fuel rails. This is a plus since if you do, you would have to replace the lines from the HPFP to the fuel rails, and those are buried under and behind the turbo.Take your time, don't drop anything and keep everything fuel related CLEAN.




If you can, get yourself a topside creeper, it will make the job a lot easier on you

 

well, here's a "watch out for"

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=...27521224,d.dmo

a very specified torque proceedure that requires rotating the crank...so that means injectors or glow plugs have to come out to relieve the compression pressure.

after seeing this....I decided to use chrome moly push rods instead of stock ones.

 

added new body bushings to the parts list.

stuff should be here before next weekend which is when I want to start.

 

Sounds like you are fixing to open up a real can of worms and major time and $$$$$ here. Have you thought about cutting your losses ie get rid of this truck while it still runs and not in ten thousand pieces? It's a beautiful badass truck I understand but wonder if you can weigh your options and minimize the bleeding as in bend over take a hit and move on. Good luck hope it works out for you.

 

So far the cost of parts to replace rocker arms is 800 bucks. Book value on the truck is 36k. New one is over 70k It's an f-450 crew cab long bed 4wd 4:30 rear 19.5 alloy rims Harley Davison edition.

 

I guess I didn't really think of that one, mine was on a stand when I did all that.

 

so since I have to remove either glow plugs or injectors to do the"correct" torque proceedure....might as well do compression test of each cylinder....a roll of the dice since there might be low readings...then this excercise will take a different direction.

btw, the new cab bushings were bought since the cab will be lifted...might as well replace the bushings.

updated to do list

1. rocker arm replacement. specific torque proceedure is "a watch out for"
2. new chrome moly push rods will go in.
3. new fuel lines
4. new bridges
5. I found some references to folks who wanted to do a mod to discharge waste turbo oil into the valve covers to increase the lube of the valave train. will be searching to see if anyone actually did this. as you know, the 6.7 has a bar under the valve covers that sprays the rockers. 7.3's and 6.0's get oil saturation into the valave train via waste oil from the fuel injectors which use oil pressure to operate. videos of the 6.4 valtrain under operation does not show oil splashing from anywhere and the componets are relatively dry. need to investigate this.
6. since injectors will come out to do "correct torque proceedure", will be compression checking cylinders. bracing myself for surprises....
7. so far, it looks like head gaskets can stay...unlike the 6.0 which requires headgasket replacement if rocker arm bolts are removed.
8. since cab will be lifted...new body bushings are in the house.
9. still wondering about the state of the valaves and of course our famous lifters which have been known to fail. no metal in mag plugs so for now, looks like we are safe on the lifters. but the regen process tends to make a mess of the participating cylinders and youtube videos show the potential for a lot of latteral play.
10. I have a torque converter that needs to come out...so here I am pondering in light of the fact that the engine will be free of the tranny...should I go ahead and just pull it out and rebuild it....maybe depending on compression test.

feel free to chime in with any "watch out for's" and "gotcha's". work will start in a week to 10 days. hurting for space, but will get creative to get the job done.

I also learned there's a 200 dollar FORD tool to remove the electrical connections to the injectors....the below 13 dollar tool was demonstrated on youtube as a functional substitute. mine should be in today.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1



engine parts shipped out today

 

Are you going to have to undo all of the exhaust manifolds up-pipes turbo etc?

 

That's a good question....the folks that say you can replace the rockers by accessing the valve train via the wheel wells will say no. BUT, I'm going to have to check the cab lift proceedures becuse I cant imagine being able to lift the cab with out disconnecting the inter coolers.....so for now...I would say yes...some turbo piping will be disconnected...espcially at the intercoolers.

 

so the rocker arm assy, saddles, fuel lines and pushrods cam in. will start today and attempt the drivers side since the is a clearer path to the valve covers.


I was surprised (don't know why) how flimsy the plastic retainers were on the arms, the arm tips that push the saddle, and how small the oil holes where on the arms.

since the #6 is cuasing my wrench light at idle, this will at lease take care of that. this week end , Ill probally do the pax side.

on another forum, a tip was not to do the complete cab lift prep procedure....it is claimed that you can lift one side of the cab at a time once the bolts are loosened with out having to disconnect a lot of piping and harnesses. supposedly, an extra 4-6 inches of height makes a worled of difference.

back seat has to come out on my crew cab to loosen body mount bolts.

as mentioned, new body mount bushings are going in as part of the this repair. might as well replace them sicne the cab will be lifted.

 

Good luck I'd lend a hand if I could but I'm in Texas. I think you are gonna hear from some muscles that you didn't even know you had after some of the contortions required.

 

I did some prep work yesterday.

I made some blocks with 3/16th in grooves in them to use with my 4 hydrualic jack stands that lock. I'll be able to lift the body an easy 6 inches.

this weekend will dive into it til it gets done or I see something that I dont like.

 

I hope it's going well!

 

well, we had 2 days of rain so now work on the truck since this is a driveway job.