Just picked up a 17 250 with 30k on it. Looking to get a few opinions on what you guys feel are essential mods/upgrades needed to make this truck last me forever. This is going to be a 10-15 year vehicle for me. Aside from deleting emmisions equipment (Im military and could always be stationed in an emmisions complaint state), what are some things I really need to look at upgrading? For example, I known there are mixed opinions on whether the cp4.2 really needs a bypass kit vs diesel additive etc. What are your other recommendations? Much appreciated 👍

 

Read this thread here.....it will help some

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

 

Also, on a cold winter night/weekend, read this thread.

FORScan and As-Built Data - Ford Truck Enthusiasts Forums

 

Will do thanks for the link. New to this forum and it always takes a bit to get my bearings about me on a new site.

 

Being Military, you know you can register in your home state. Thus avoiding the local state requirements what ever they maybe.

Same with your drivers license too.

 

In regards to keeping the emissions systems in tact and happy, I really like the Better Diesel FBC fuel catalyst which greatly reduces soot loading and can greatly reduce regen frequency in town and on highway / interstate driving, as far as everything else goes, maintenance is key. Nobody has owned a 6.7 10-15 years yet, so it's going to be hard to tell you exactly what to do. I would suggest a way to monitor the vital engine and transmission components, there are many products to do this such as the Banks iDash and the Edge Insight monitors, etc. along with other options you can use via phone or tablet, etc. such as Forscan,and others.

 

You are correct. Ill probably end up retiring in Washington state or Colorado if we end up there next and would like to leave my options open as far as the trucks concerned. Besides, I've got a year of factory warranty left and kinda want to see how this EPA crap plays out. In the same sense it might be wise to jump while the iron is hot and some tuning support is still available.

Im avoiding California like the plague because I'd have to lose all of my guns in an "unexpected tragic boating accident" 😁

 

I just spent the weekend with a fellow who is a long haul driver. He had a borrowed a pickup to pull is horse trailer. Said it was a back truck from a friend. The friend was a Hot "Shot driver.
Said they had a 2012 with 600,000 miles and a 2015 with 400,000 miles. Now I didn't physically see these trucks. But I keep hearing stories of 6.7L with high mileage

I put 30,000 miles a year on my pickup. I usually sell them off at 100,000 to 150,000 miles. I can say I've had very little repair work on this engine on the trucks I've owned.
Exhaust sensors on my 2011, Water and oil connectors on my turbo on my 2011. EGR sensor and a steering wheel position sensor on my 2015 and nothing on my 2017 at 60,000 miles.
I run the engines stock, change the oil as prompted on the Oil Life Monitor and change all filters every other oil change.

 

I run an oil bypass filter and while I feel it's helping some, I don't believe it's absolutely necessary for engine life. But if one was to run one on a non DPF equipped truck so extended OCIs could be run, that would be a better application. Let's just say I feel I am better educated now.

I have been running FilterMags on my vehicles for 20 years now. I believe that would be a more useful product for your truck. They go on the oil filter and then slide them off to put on the new oil filter. I had them on my truck at about 1100 miles because they were on back order or else it would have been sooner. They will collect the metal wear particles smaller in size then what the oil filters are rated for.


They are curved. Front side and back side shown.







This is my factory oil filter that came on the truck. Those are the particles its holding to the side of the filter. You can run just one. The first vehicle i ran one on, my 96 F250, i ran one. The magnets are so powerful and the way it designed, it directs all the magnetic flux into the filter. It was so powerful that the pattern of the particles shaped by the magnets, set up on the other side of the filter where there was no FilterMag there. I still have that filter Housing.

I have them on my new truck, used them on 2 old 4Runners, 2 XJs and my wife's 09 Escape. I believe in the product. YMMV...

I also use an additive every tank fill up. I use K100. But opinions on additive here are like opinions on what oil to use. I live in New York where the min cetane is 40. All states vary on diesel cetane levels. You may have higher cetane fuel in your area than I do. Personally, I don't trust our ULSD fuel when it comes to lubricity value so that's another reason I use mine. K100 is also I anti gel as well as I live where it's cold. Do a search here. They are more than a few threads here in the 6.7 section on additives.

Good recommendations here on maintenance. Use Motorcraft filters. Fuel filters especially. There are other quality oil filters like Fleetguard and Donaldson as well as others. But the FL2051s is a good oil filter. I don't worry because I use the FilterMags. I change when the OLM let's me know. The fuel filter CI every other oil change is a sound practice.

As to other fluids, I dropped the 8 quarts of Mercon LV trans fluid, dropped the pan, cleaned the donut magnet of the break in particles, added my own high temp rare earth magnets to the bottom of the trans pan, added new Mercon LV at 31k miles. I also drained and refilled the transfer case at the same time. I could probably just do a fluid change at 60k miles but time will tell what I do because I may want to see how much particles the magnets I added have collected. The idea behind doing this every 30k miles, is that the additive package is being maintained and will never be deleted. That Ford tech on YouTube says to do fluid change and filter change at 30k. Then I believe he said to go another 60k and then fluid change and filter change. If I don't do a filter change at 60k with the fluid change, I will just do filter change with next fluid change at 90k. I also plan on doing the transfer case every 30k as well.

My next major mod would be an air fuel separation unit like the AirDog and AFE. Those are the two I was considering. Again, not saying one of these are necessary, but for someone like us who will keep these trucks as a long term vehicle, I believe one of these will help to prolong the fuel system components by completely ridding the fuel of air. This will aid in the durability of the fuel injectors and the HPFP by allowing the fuel to function as it supposed to which is lubricant for the pump and injectors. Any air, no matter how small an amount, will be detrimental to the life of these components at the high pressures that these components see in our modern engines. If I was getting rid if my truck at 125 150k miles, I wouldn't bother. Again, others will disagree with me but I'm just throwing this out for information only. I've also read that guys have said that the mpg MAY go up slightly, the truck idles better and seems to run smoother with one of these set ups installed.

At one point, my engine will have a S&S DPK because IF it happens, it won't take out the injectors.

Another point to bring up since you will stay emissions compliant, the best way to keep the DPF happy is some highway driving at speed and to allow the regens to complete on a highway run. Some city driving is okay but all the time in stop and go traffic will allow the DPF to fill up completely quicker. Distance between regens will be shorter with all stop and go driving. A regen will not be as effective in the city as one on a non stop highway run. Manual regens will be needed more for city drivers than others who have more highway miles and hills to climb. JMHO...

Another thing to consider would be having a spare set of fuel filters and a spare fuel filter housing. You can find the Motorcraft fuel filter set on Amazon and also at dieselfiltersonline.com.

If I think of anything else, don't worry, I won't be shy...


I wonder how the fuel system components managed? Any idea there horse of any R&R on the fuel systems in those trucks?

 

Never seen thos FilterMags thats really slick. In the past ive epoxied large magnets to the bottom of oil and trans pans. Every time I'd open them up there were always particles near the magnet. Your method seems like it'd be more effective. Might not make a huge difference but it definitely wont hurt.

I've started running K100 through every tank and plan on a fuel air separater as well. The fuel pressure these things run at is crazy and it seems as if any discrepancy in the fuel system will manifest into some other issue. The Jet engines I wrench on at work utilize fuel pressure to run various other components on the engine and if something is out of wack you may be looking in circles to identify the actual issue.

I've ran through the menu on the dash looking to find info on the DPF and when a regen might occur along with the manual regen i keep reading about. Is that something that needs to be enabled through forscan?

 

forscan can enable the ghost screen right after where the oil tiemp and trans temp are displayed.

It is a soot % screen.

 

Have you noticed any changes in engine characteristics running their additive? Idle , mpg change..etc.

 

I forgot to mention that the FilterMags collect particles down to 1 micron in size. To hold them against the outer wall of the oil filter with the main flow of oil during engine operation, they have to be very strong magnets. And they are. They make one helluva "SNAP" when they get close to the filter when placing it on. It's really tough to slide it off the filter after 7k miles also. Because you sure ain't pulling it off.

Anyways, if you're pulling out all the metal in the average clearance size in the engine, you are preventing future wear because all that's left will fit through those clearances and not create more wear.

FilterMag Consumer Products | How it works

Anyways, how'd you find out about K100?

As for regens, you might want to consider buying an iDash or Edge to monitor PIDS so you'll know when you're in Regen. Or use the Torque Pro or FORScan app on your phone, tablet or an old phone. I hear the new gens don't flash a message like my truck when in REGEN. But they are easy to miss as the message only flashes for a brief second or so. Then you can monitor ECT, EGTs, fuel pressure, OLM, and a lot more. Your choice on what to go with.

 

You lost your in a boating accident aswell.

 

here is a related thread we have on the idash if you are interested in this as a monitor:

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...nks-idash.html