Hey y’all! I’m new to the forum, not new to the world of wrenching(do it for a living). I would like some input on any upgrades i might be missing out on, or addressing common failures, while doing this big job! Any input is appreciated.

Backround time: I bought my truck about a year ago ‘06 F250 6.0 with 240k on her. Almost mint condition, for $9k off of the original owner that is a friend of mine. Had an oil and coolant leak from the OE oil cooler gasket. Ended up doing a full bullet proof oil cooler kit, water pump, blue spring, t-stat, stc update, fan clutch, bank 1 glow plugs and harness, fuel filters, complete fluid changes on all systems, a/c complete, BPD EGR cooler, and some other smaller things I can’t think of at the moment.

Any-who a year later and 10k miles more I have fuel in the coolant. So now I know I’m doing head studs, heads, gaskets, and actually resealing the entire engine including lower crankcase seals. She was leaking oil at a decent rate, so figured I might as well get ***** deep in a 40+ job. Thankfully I have a twin post lift at work that I used to take the cab off. So I dug in, have new ford heads, I’ve been through 3 pairs and all need to be resurfaced. Yay! ARP studs, OEM gaskets for the whole engine, exhaust manifolds are ceramic powder coated, up pipes will be wrapped, turbo will be rebuilt with new unison ring, all new OE injectors, new cup seals, turbo drain tube, and the down pipe will also be wrapped.

I’m highly considering doing lifters now while I’m here because I keep reading about cams and engines being killed due to them.... should I replace them? Also what is with all the talk of the “upgraded” pushrods? Why would I use them? And what might the part numbers be?

There is a high probability that i am missing some of the upgrades and parts I am replacing, but hey, let’s start with this! Thank y’all for any and all input!!

 

Your in that deep and may as well do the lifters and pushrods.
The new ones should be the only ones you can find.

One thing you may of missed is the 2008 transmission pan and filter.
That filter does a better job of filtering the trans fluid.

 

This would be a good time to drill the exhaust manifolds for EGT probes - or at least one of them (IMO there is a benefit in seeing temps on both sides). Also, worth considering the coolant return from the back of the heads. A return regulated fuel system is nice, but probably not a critical item for stock or slightly more than stock hp. Lastly - since the cab is coming off, it might be worth doing the cab bushings. I know mine are shot at 200k miles.

https://www.strictlydiesel.com/p-270...eturn-kit.aspx

 

The cab support bushings is a very good idea.
My truck with only 94K miles on the clock has a lot of
"lot Rot" from how ever the PO stored it. Nothing like
failed bushing moving and making a loud bag around corners.

 

Man, 3 pairs of new Ford heads and all need to resurfaced? That should get some discussion.

The new shorter pushrods are all that is available new from Ford at this time. I’ve never seen a TSB about why, but a lot of speculation. While my history of engines is elsewhere then a 6.0, I’ve never felt comfortable with any of the reasons.

I’ve in a tear down due to hydraulically collapsed lifter at 75k, but all the others are fine and no show any signs of roller wear or flat spotting of the rollers. I’ve got OE replacements for all, but there are other options out there depending on your viewpoint. One such adds a direct oiling of the roller if you’re concerned of roller failure. If you don’t have any excess roller clearance, the direct oiling probably isn’t in the crosshairs.

The aftermarket belief of cam/lifter killing is the ramp of the cam lobes, so there are aftermarket grinds to deal with the concern, and the belief that the shorter pushrods deal with it too. Which would make sense as shorter pushrods mean more cam rotation before going solid, altering the pressure on the cam lobe early on since it reduces the duration of valve being opened. I used to do that with 289 HiPo’s solid lifter motors, altering lash to alter cam timing. Noisey but effective, learned from what the Shelby crew did.

With a 2006 you have the later version of the cam as it was the early production 6.0s that had the most aggressive grind from the factory from my understanding, so the ramp may not be that much of an issue anyway and I’m just babbling. But if those lifters have 240k miles of roller bearing wear, I would replace them as it seems in another 30k you’ll be where issues typically arise.

 

One other thing to consider while it's apart and accessible: cam and crank sensor o-rings might not be in the gasket kit you got; they're common leakers, and now's the easy time to do them.

 

If your gonna take it that far, get a 6.4 cam and wake it up a little.

 

Get the heads o ringed also. That is the best way to keep from having a head gasket failure, along with arp head studs.

 

I worked at a machine shop starting at 16 and after high school went full time there for 6 years. I mainly specialized in cylinder head work and we would buy quite a few new cylinder heads from Dodge and Chevy Ford and they were almost always warped or twisted in some degree.
I called Dodge on one set that I took over 0.030 to get flat and brand new. The rep told me that they all did it and the longer that they sat on a shelf somewhere the worse they become.
Said the castings are no different then a wood post, they warp and twist exactly in the same manner and are worse when they have temperature swings along with direct sun and humidity.

So if you are working on a engine don't drag it out any longer than necessary because heads will and do twist and warp all by themselves. Seen crankshafts do the same exact thing.
I had a brass hammer just for beating crankshafts back to true again. Metals are also organic fellas.

 

 

You know a while your in there thing. You could do the prep work for
the Regulated Return. That is for the fuel system and not the cooling.
to prep it you could remove the 2 head gallery plugs and instal the correct
AN fittings and run the tie line and just cap it off.

The gallery plugs are not that fun to get at with the engine in place and cab on.

One thing to not forget is a good assembly lube.

 

Great suggestion Sean. Seems like after any major project there are always a few things that make you think back and you "wish you had done it when it was easy"!

 

If you had fuel in the coolant,,,,,,,

 

If you decide on the regulated return or the coolant lines kits.....MAKE THEM YOURSELF. Use all Stainless JIC and buy an aeromotive pressure regulator, You'll save hundreds of $$$$$$


After buying a simple RR I thought to myself.....this was a stupid purchase



You can source everything you need on the net

 

I would absolutely buy the pushrods for the truck and replacing the lifters is a item that has some flexibility. I see 240K on the engine which brings everything much closer to the end of its usefulness mileage left yet.

BPD Water Pump
Absolutely SS O-Ringed cylinder heads. A MUST DO ITEM
Pushrod set

STC updated fitting that is almost surely in the engine.
But I think I would look at replacing it again since you now have around 250K miles on the engine
D plugs and standpipes again possibly.

The Teflon washers are awesome but I am assuming they wear away little at a time and cant last forever like a Toyota.


@joe blow I am with you on the dumping good money into badi am also a huge JIC fan 37* degree fittings are just Gods answer to the perfect sealing mechanical hose connections
I have not seen anything with these levels of sealing at those hoses without even requiring very much torque on the fitting.
Theres lots of small ticket items to address while in there.




I just want to say how important it is to have the cylinder heads o-ringed on the engine. If you do not have O-rings installed the engine will have leaking head gaskets sooner then later depending on what is going on HP wise with your engine. But its a must do item that is very rudimentary with the engines and will give the engine reliability up to the 800HP range when they are used. 80HP is what you can safely do without the O-rings in the engine.