I've decided to do my write up and it seems that typing all of this may take longer than the actual build did. I'm sorry I didn't take a ton of pictures, but I hope that I can give enough detail to help give those among us that are on the fence that extra motivation that they need to take this on. This was the second time I have had to pull my heads off because the first time I put in Black Onyx gaskets that blew. I read through other build threads and took little tid bits from others that helped me out greatly this time around. There is a TON of knowledge around here.


Preface: You can do it
The 6.0 Powerstroke is not a hard engine to work on. As intimidating as it may be, behind the computers and wiring harnesses, it's still a pushrod V8. It's not scary, just relax and take it one bolt at a time. There is no rush, this job can be done in a weekend if you have everything prepped and ready to go, or can take months if required. Life gets in the way. Don't get discouraged, this IS possible for you to do yourself. If you find yourself getting frustrated, walk away for a bit and come back to it, there is nothing to get worked up about. You have to believe in yourself, you have to believe in your truck, don't lose faith in her. Doing this job yourself will save you thousands, many shops are charging upwards of $7,000 to do this job these days and it will make you feel so much better having done it yourself. It is a wonderful bonding experience with your truck, you will know the inner workings of your engine and you will understand everything better having done the hands on. It will give you such a sense of pride and satisfaction when you turn that key and she roars to life after open heart surgery. YOU GOT THIS!

 

Chapter 1: Show me the money.

If your truck does not have head studs, start rolling your pennies NOW and really start monitoring the truck to figure out what else you might need. I personally will never trust a 6.0 with TTY bolts, especially if it has a factory EGR cooler. If you can't swing the bill yet and you don't have a coolant filter, GET ONE, it won't stop the possibility of blowing the gaskets, but it will keep a lot of junk out of the EGR and oil coolers and buy you a little bit of time to get some things together. There is absolutely no reason to go deep enough into the engine to replace head gaskets and install studs, then put the original EGR and oil coolers back in. So you need to decide if you are going to stay with the stock design and put in another oil/coolant heat exchanger or if you're going aftermarket with a fancy shmancy front mount oil cooler. Find out what your likely cost is going to be and add 50%. Things happen, parts break, bolts strip, drain plugs get forgotten, and you need to be able to recover your build from that without putting yourself in too much of a bind. You can expect to spend around $3,000 for your new upgraded parts and fluids, add $1,500 if you go with a remote oil cooler, another $400 if your FICM is on it's way out, another $400 if you have an injector go out, another $600 for a machine shop to check/deck/mag/pressure test your heads (my bill came to $560 and my heads were only .003” from flat). See how quick all of this starts to add up? When you look at the big picture though, with all of this work done, it turns the 6.0 into a 500,000 mile engine and if your rig is paid off, this ~$5,000 investment isn't even a full year of payments on a new truck. Personally, I'll still take my truck over a brand new one.

 

These first few are a bit dry but I feel are necessary in the preparation stages leading up to the build. Bear with me, it gets better.


Chapter 2: Plan your build, build your plan.

Start doing a lot of reading, study the forums, ask the questions. The 6.0 Bible is a great thing to have, but it doesn't have all of the answers, there are some torque specs that are not in there, and some specs that are require further research. For instance, Figure C for the oil rail is for the early model 6.0, the later generation has a completely different shape and bolt pattern. Also, the bible does not have everything, specs for the downpipe, CAC pipes and the rocker boxes were the big ones for me. I printed out pages 84-87 and lined out things that I wasn't touching such as the camshaft follower, connecting rods, etc so that I could make quicker work of finding the spec that I needed. With that, make sure you are reading the right torque spec, the EGR cooler mounting hardware has 2 specs, if you just do a quick glance and don't verify, you'll be in trouble. The port on the intake manifold where the cooler bolts up is the flange and only requires 10lb/ft, if you try to crank it to the 23lb/ft then you will be making a parts run to go get new bolts. Ask me how I know. Thankfully, that is one of the few places where the bolt will fail before the internal threads, you overtorque anything mounting to the rocker boxes and the steel bolts will win over the aluminum rocker box every time.

Have a place that you can work comfortably. If you can get it inside a garage or shop, even better, the less that you and the opened up engine are exposed to the elements, the better.

Study the engine bay and your workspace, figure out where you are going to put things and make sure that you have enough room for everything and are still able to move around. The bed of the truck is great for storage but can be a hassle going back and forth. I like to start far away and have my parts line come toward the truck so that during reassembly, everything is in order the way that it came off. You will need to keep track of the assembly order, if you take part A off before part B then 9 times out of 10, you have to install part B before part A, lining things up makes it easier for me.

Call around and make sure there is a machine shop near you that you do the work on your cylinder heads. Even call a couple and compare prices but keep in mind that you get what you pay for.

Don't become a hermit, make sure that you still spend time with your family. I know the feeling of just wanting to get it finished, but that doesn't mean that you can't work after you have dinner as a family, or tuck the little one in.

If you can't take time off of work, then account for that, don't expect to get it done in one day. The flip side to that is don't draw it out longer than necessary, the more time that elapses between the tear down and the build up makes the visual in your head foggier and foggier of how things fit together.

Don't work too much in one session, pushing further causes fatigue and fatigue causes mistakes. It's ok to stop for the night, but make sure that you complete the task at hand, i.e. don't decide to take a break when you've only torqued 7 out of the 10 cap nuts on the studs.

 

Great read so far. Looking forward to more as I am in the market for a 6.0. Waiting for a good deal on one that needs some work. I'm a diesel mechanic so this is what I do all day everyday however I still enjoying reading about others experiences and tips and tricks. There's always something new to learn. Cheers.

 

Chapter 3: Buy everything

Once you've stolen your kid's piggy bank and worked the corner for a little bit, you have a nice fat wad of cash burning a hole in your pocket. Now give the cash to your truck, it knows what it needs better than you do, just make it promise that it won't use it on drugs and alcohol. All kidding aside, make sure that you have as much as you can in advance, it makes the process go much smoother when you aren't getting frustrated waiting on stuff to show up.


The parts:
This list is for someone that is starting with a stock engine, if you already have head studs and just need to replace the gaskets then adjust accordingly. Just make sure that you replace every o-ring that you pull out of the engine. The only things that I've never heard of having a problem if reused are the valve cover gaskets.

-Head Studs
-Oil cooler and o-rings/gaskets
-Head gaskets
-Injector o-ring kits (8)
-Stand pipes
-Dummy plugs
-EGR cooler and gaskets
-Intake manifold gaskets
-STC update fitting
-IPR screen
-HPOP screen
-Thermostat
-3 Gallons of ELC coolant
-5 Gallons of oil (yes, I know these truck only have a 15qt pan, be patient)
-Coolant filter canister
-Oil filter
-Fuel filters
-If you have extra money, plan to have your heads fire-ringed
-If you have more money to throw around, buy a spare set of heads and get them to the machine shop ahead of time so that they're ready to go
-If you STILL have money left from hooking/stripping, send it to me so I can pay back my daughter's college fund

These things are great to get in kits. Bulletproof Diesel has everything you will need minus oil, coolant and the coolant filter in 3 kits; the Head Gasket Install Complete Kit, the Semi-Bulletproof Package and the Professional Package. They also offer the head gasket kit minus the ARPs if you already have them and just an oil cooler kit that comes with all of the seals and o-rings if you already have and upgraded EGR cooler or an EGR delete in addition to just a EGR cooler seal kit and EGR valve o-ring kit.


The tools:
For the most part, the tool requirements are pretty straight forward, modern metric. The caveat though is that it isn't “normal metric.” Whenever I work on a modern vehicle, it's a pretty safe bet that 8mm, 10mm, 12mm and 14mm will be the most used sockets/wrenches...NOT the 6.0L. Ford decided to say to hell with the system and throw in 11mm bolts, some 13mm and an occasional 15. These are the specific things that you can't do the job without. Not pictured here are the regular sockets and wrenches (because I didn't have room for the picture, basically if you have 8-18mm with deep and shallow sockets, you'll be good, oooo and a 5.5mm socket for the inner fender), screwdrivers, pliers, hoist and plastic pin pry bars. So here we go from the top.



-Rags
-Penetrating oil (50/50 mix of ATF and acetone is my all time favorite)
-WD-40 that I wiped on the bare surfaces and cylinders to prevent flash rust
-Brake cleaner for everything (I used about 10 cans, and I'm pretty sure my rocker boxes and oil cooler housing weren't even this clean from the factory)
-Cheater bar
-Big *** pry bar to counter the water pump pulley when taking the fan off
-Magnet on a stick is a LIFE SAVER
-Shorty Torx sockets
-Allen sockets are wonderful (that one is 3/16” I believe for the top of the ARPs)
-Extra ARP lube
-Rags
-Claw
-BIG breaker bar
-Razor blade
-Light with a magnet on the back
-Glow plug connector removal tool (got that idea from another member) take a butter knife, drill a .40” hole (13/32” bit) in it and then cut the end and grind a little so that it makes a U.
-O-ring pick
-Fuel line disconnect tool
-Sharpie
-Painter's tape if you have multiple aftermarket sensors that have the same connector
-Line wrenches...NEVER apply pressure to a fuel line fitting with a regular open end wrench, you'll round it off in a heartbeat
-Something to clean your gasket surfaces...preferably air powered, you'll thank me later
-3/8” to 1/2” drive adapter
-11/16” 12 POINT socket for the ARP cap nuts
-T60 Torx for the new stand pipes and dummy plugs (it's close enough to the 12mm? hex)
-Long reach Torx (T40 or T45, pretty sure it was the 45) to get down to the injector hold down (get a “brake tool” kit at Oh-Really's for like $15, look in the brake section and remember long Torx, you'll know it when you see it). Get some rags and brake cleaner while you're there
-Wire brush for cleaning the vanes and unison ring on the turbo
-BIG FUGGIN WRENCH for the fan nut
-1/4”, 3/8” and 1/2” ratchets with extensions
-U-joint (I couldn't get a position to do the up pipe bolts from the manifolds without it)
-Torque wrenches (80-210+ ft/lb, 10-100ft/lb at a minimum, can also add a 30-150in/lb for the smaller stuff)




-Shop vac with a long straw nozzle for cleaning the bolt holes (I made one out of the tube for an air compressor blow gun, an impact socket and a bunch of electrical tape). Make sure your shop vac can handle liquid, it's gonna get oil, brake cleaner, WD-40, coolant, all kinds of crap in there


And a few things that make life SO much better.



-Zip gun
-Did I mention rags?
-Mag trays
-Hairspray for reassembling the CAC pipes, helps prevent blow outs
-Head lift bracket, mine didn't come with the stand offs so I used the old intake gaskets, broke the excess off and used them to space off the bracket so that it wouldn't be tweaked by the rocker box

I have one of those little round finger ratchets but only used it once, I didn't see it useful enough to really recommend it. Your mileage may vary. I don't think I forgot anything but if I did and I remember, I'll make a note of it in future posts.

 

Great thread Bronson. It's good seeing a 6.0 build thread on the regular Super Duty subforum rather than the 6.0 section where most of the guys post this sort of thing. I think there's a lot of new guys who don't realize the Super Duty subforum is generic in that it covers all Super Duty powertrains, not specifically the diesels. This will hopefully open their eyes to what a great platform the 6.0 can be.
I don't exactly agree with your decisions on how your spending money, but it's your build, more power to you!

 

How do you mean?

Genuinely curious since my fiance is looking at an Excursion that is bone stock and if she gets it I will likely being doing studs and gaskets as soon as we can afford it

 

There's lots and lots of happy owners still running TTY bolts. Same goes for those who aren't running BPD products too. I do think you've made a wise recommendation about fire ringing the heads when the time comes due, but I would only go with a company who is highly recommended, not just any old machine shop.

 

Valid points. I stand by BPD because of my experience with them (stellar), not trying to imply that they are the only option, there are other reputable distributors and if someone shops around and pieces their "build" together bit by bit then there is money to be saved. I like the one stop shopping aspect for everything as well as the options, they were the only place I could find that had a full head gasket install kit where I didn't have to buy studs or TTYs. I've seen a couple trucks be the exception to the rule but they aren't easy to come by here in Commiefornia. CA requires EGR and the way I see it, the difference between an EGR/oil cooler repair (yes, they should always be done together unless you already have an upgraded EGR) and adding a head gasket job is negligible since you already have the top end torn down. If the head gaskets are blown and you're going in to repair them, I see it useless to go in that far and put TTYs back in.

 

Chapter 4: Clean it

A garden hose with a jet nozzle will be do fine but if you have a small pressure washer keep the pressure down, too powerful an you risk the stream cutting things. Open the hood, grab your favorite degreaser and go to town, let it sit for a little while, then blast it. Pressure washer guys, make sure you keep it a couple feet away so that you don't force water into the connections. If you are having hard start issues and suspect your FICM, do your wash down first just in case that little gasket has an issue sealing, and let everything dry completely before you pop the screws. You get any water down in there, it's doneskies. If your neighbors will likely execute you for doing a wash down in your driveway, go to a car wash that has an engine degreaser option and clean it there, but if you have a FICM issue then you will need to wait a while after you get home so that the engine can cool off enough to do your voltage check. Starting with a remotely clean engine sure reduces risking leaves and other junk making their way where they shouldn't be. It also helps you narrow down any possible leaks when you get done.

 

Now we're starting to get somewhere fun

Chapter 5: Coolant Flush

You do not want the risk pumping any sediment, casting sand, gel chunks, etc. through your brand new oil cooler and clogging it up. So pump all of that crap into the one that you will be throwing away. Make sure that this is as thorough as possible, it is going to take you about 40 gallons of distilled water if you do both Restore and Restore+. Restore+ is the same as VC-9 but cheaper. The Restore helps rid the engine of silicates and the VC-9/Restore+ get rid of iron deposits and scale. DO NOT let these chemicals stay inside the engine for very long and make sure they are completely flushed. Save yourself some time and headache and remove the thermostat during the first drain so that you don't have wait for it to open with every step. Also, bite the bullet, make a mess (once) and install valves in place of the block drains, they make it much easier to do the flushes and get the chemicals out, draining the block with each flush means less flushes. There are many write ups about how to do a coolant flush, so I won't beat a dead horse. I will say that my full flushing process filled 9 Homer buckets and took all of about 3 hours total. I used high idle for about 15 minutes with each step, did the Restore+ first and only flushed once between the Restore+ and Restore and then just flushed until I only had about 3 gallons of distilled left for the top off after the rebuild. Wait to drain the last flush until you have the truck in the position that you will be doing the work, in your garage, barn, driveway, etc. If you choose to drive your rig with an empty cooling system then do so at your own risk, I don't like the idea of chancing an overheated cylinder wall.

 

I'm with you Brandon. The only thing i can say that I've heard bad about BPD is pricing. Their EGR is one thing that if I needed it, I would get for sure. The water pump is "a work of art" according to others.
The OEM oil cooler is good and there's no reason to purchase anything else unless other factors come in to play. OEM gaskets, filters and sensors are topnotch. As more experience is gained, it's become evident that replacing the TTY bolts with headstuds, isn't enough to ensure long term reliability. At a bare minimum, heads and block need to be checked for flatness, not just with a straight edge either. The latest news suggests that fire ringed heads done properly, will get you there. There's other little suggestions too. Updated STC, dummy plugs and pushrods for example.
Keep up the great work!

 

I agree with the o-ringing the cylinder heads when doing a 6.0 engine. There are literally thousands of posts on these forums about repeat head gasket failure. The combination of 4 bolts per cylinder and the length of the head bolts is where the weakness comes in at.
Even when everything is done properly the head gaskets will fail again over time more often then not.
Fire ringing the heads is the Silver Bullet so to speak with these 6 liter engines. My engine was done almost 3 years ago now and cooling system pressure has remained exactly the same since work was done.

As far as the ARP head studs go they are worth every single cent !!
Same goes for the cylinder head Fire Ringing. Those 040 SS rings are priceless.

I will go as far as saying anyone that installs TTY bolts on these engines is a fool.
I'll go even farther...... a big DumDum Lolly Pop wrapper might as well be pulled over their heads so everyone knows how dumb they are.

The head gasket failures are what have made the 6.0 famous for all the worst reasons.
But in all truthfulness the original design from International would have not had these head gasket issues. The VT-365 was originally platformed as a 215 HP engine that would pass the upcoming EPA emission standards.
Where things ALL went bad was when Isuzu's new EPA engine boasted 315 HP. Ford was in no way going to be down 100 HP then the Chevrolet/GMC trucks. So Ford demanded a tune that could compete and the 6.0 with the stroke of the pen was doomed.
There was no time for more R&D so Ford pushed their mostly untested 2003 Diesel engine into mass production.
They of coarse were oozing with confidence coming from the awesome success of the 7.3.
That same confidence also blinded them and set into motion the biggest disaster they ever went through.
Ok back to how to make these trucks butt kickers. Just had to throw in my two cents worth.
Carry On

 

Great write up - keep it coming.

 

Chapter 6: Bend her over

Once you scout out and decide on your ideal location to do work, it's time to get the truck into position and start getting down to business. Make sure that you choose a location that is comfortable to work in, preferably out of the elements, and where the truck will not be in the way as this is going to be its resting place for the entire process. Get it low. Round up a few jack stands, 4 to be exact, jack up the truck, pull the tires off and put the axles on the jack stands. I put mine on the lowest position which turned out lightly problematic trying to get the legs of the hoist in at the right angle to clear the front diff as well as the driver side steering knuckle, up one maybe 2 notches would have been better. I don't like doing a whole lot of work inside the engine bay of a stock height truck when it's on the tires, so I'm not about to do it on a lifted truck. I then laid one of my tires under the front bumper and used it as a platform until I got enough out of the way to climb inside and then used it as a step while climbing in/out. This is when you will drain the last flush out of the radiator and the oil if you choose. I did not drain the oil and you'll hear all about that coming up. Unless it's time to do a transmission change, don't bother pulling the plug. You will lose a little bit when you disconnect the cooler lines so have some rags ready, but it's negligible, less than half a quart is what my ZF6 pissed, 5R110 may have a bit more come out, I don't know.