Also, if my head gaskets are toast, I’m unsure of how to move forward. I’m 5 hours from home and am with the family and my camper. Oh boy...starting to question my Excursion buying decision now

 

To me I don't see a 'milkshake' in that picture. If you had coolant/oil mix it would look like chocolate milkshake. Only white residue is dried coolant. It vented out of the degas bottle cap once the pressure exceeded 16psi. If you have that chocolately stuff then you have an oil cooler failure as well.

I'm not familiar with that tuner, but haven't researched tuners lately. Are you running this tune while towing? Is it a performance or towing tune? Is the truck studded? I know a lot of dealers will just re-do the gaskets with new TTY bolts. I think sometimes the bulletproof term is thrown around too often, as having a dealer replace gaskets without decking the heads or doing studs is far from what I'd call bulletproof and a sure bet you'll be doing the head gaskets again in short order.

Just to clear things up what is the oil bypass you speak of? I see PSP is a BPD preferred installed so if you have the BPD remote oil cooler than that's a really really good thing, if you can get the gaskets worked out then you'll be doing really well.

If there's a Ford dealer nearby you can pick up a new degas cap just to be sure yours isn't venting prematurely. Most people aren't that lucky but it's cheap to try.

That's a tough one, I'm not real sure where to go with that one.

 

Bottom line is your coolant system should never have enough pressure to blow coolant out that violently. Coolant pressure should be 8–10psi tops in a healthy system and that is just from thermal expansion. If your oil cooler ruptured you sure don’t want to run it. Take a sample out of your oil pan. Coolant will fall to the bottom and you should be able to catch half a clear water bottle to see what’s in your oil.

 

Looks like some oil splatter too. Find out where that’s coming from.

 

fwiw, its not just decking the heads, ford put 3 new sets on mine before finally buying the vehicle back. the Block also needs to be flat.

I nursed a blown head gasket 200 miles home on a road trip but I wasnt towing.

my advise if you decide to try and drive it home is to not start it again until you are ready to depart as every time you turn it off you risk hydrolocking the motor.

Id think the terrain and temps would dictate your chances but if it was me I would have gallons of water in jugs, dont tighten or maybe even install the degas cap.
drive as easy as possible, stopping to top off water regularly. without the system presurized your boiling point will be lower so working the motor hard will be the key to keeping temps below boiling.

or have it towed to a Reputable shop and rent a car to get home. I had to do that twice as well. 6.0s SUCK

 

Kind of does but kind of hard to tell, but after looking closer I can see the stock oil filter cap so he doesn't have the BPD remoted oil cooler so yeah oil cooler failure is still on the table.

You're correct about the block, it sounds like he's from Houston so he's got some really good shops that are well known for being great with the 6.0. Power Stroke Magic and Power Stroke Enginuities won't make the mistakes a Ford dealer will when it comes to this kind of repair.

You make some good points about limping it with bad head gaskets, but man that'd be a nerve wracking drive while pulling a trailer.

 

it was nerve wracking when not towing.

mine was across remote rural part of the state and no services and patchy cell servise, so factor in the what ifs of that as well.

and just to be clear, once you start it I would not turn it off until you reach your destination. my first 2 headgaskets hydrolocked the motor after it sat over night. like yours I started it up after discovery and it ran but obviously once its locked up it was done.

 

FWIW, if your degas cap is toast, it’ll leak for sure. Put a new one on and test to see if you get any leaks. In any case, if it were me, I’d be tearing it down and verifying what’s going on.

 

If 6.0s suck don’t bother replying on threads about 6.0s, there are plenty of guys on here that can help without talking ****. Stick to bashing all suspension systems that aren’t set up like yours. Yeah we know Pro Comp springs are the best, rear sway bars are dumb and anything else is junk if you don’t promote it.

 

if you struggle taking advise only from those that agree with you feel free to ignore my posts, however i shall continue to post on subjects I know what i am talking about

edit, for the record. “pro comp springs are the best” your words not mine. I’d say they are adequate, its just that they happen to be the correct spring rate and travel for what most people want to do with their Ex. I run Eibach and Deavers but few people ask about building a linked suspension so I dont promote it because it isnt what they are looking for.

 

He has pertinent and hard-earned experience with this specific problem. The fact that he has some hard-earned bitterness along with it does not detract from his expertise.

And since nobody has a suspension system set up like his, he would be doing a whole lot more "bashing" than we see.

 

I think you have an issue somewhere in the middle of the engine. Look at the pattern. It is lighter on the degas and heavier in the middle. If there is a harbor freight near by pick up a cooling system pressure tester, or try to rent one from a parts store nearby. Top off the cooling system and pressurize it. Check the area on the radiator that you suspect, all hose clamps, hoses etc. I had a front main seal go bad on my truck and it tossed oil all over the place. It looked like it was coming from one area, and was the opposite end. You can also build a pressure tester and road test the truck.

 

Update: We’ll, I had some hard decisions to make. We live in the Dallas area and our oldest son and his wife were with us in their camper being hauled by his Ram 2500 Diesel. One option was to use his truck to haul our camper home, grab my Titan then head back to rent a trailer and haul the Ex home returning his truck so he could haul his camper home. 6 hours between home and campsite meant for a loooonnnggg day/night. The Titan can haul the camper but struggles greatly. In the end, I decided to just say a prayer and head home. If I only got 20 miles, well, it would be 40 less on a round trip

I kept RPM’s below 2K, left early in the morning for less heat of the day, had our son follow behind, multiple gallons of water on hand, close monitor of all gauges, and stopped every 50 miles to view degas reservoir. A little leaking on pavement at fuel fill-up 10 miles out. Re-topped reservoir and proceeded with extreme caution. Never taxed the Ex except for one uphill section on the interstate. Never lost anymore coolant. Got home after 8 hours of white knuckle driving. I kept looking at the trip odometer and saying to myself “well, if it fails now I’ve shaved x miles off my round trip”. Got home late yesterday with the reservoir still full! Temp gauge never climbed above the temp icon. Trans temp definitely stayed much lower than when we normally tow.

The tear-down to isolate the problem begins in the morning. Will definitely pressure test the coolant system first. Hoping and praying for a high pressure leak at the lower part of the radiator which would push the “stream” into the fan causing the coolant to be everywhere. Also, loving the Ex as much as I do and having a pretty good towing tune on it, I have to admit that I may have been pushing her harder than I should while towing. Is it possible that I still have the dreaded head gasket failure or oil cooler failure that only manifests under extreme duress?

thanks for all the comments and information. I highly value this group.

 

A few more pics to go along with the story...