I wouldn't pull the motor until I inspected the lobes that I could see. And at that point, if all viewable lobes looked good, then I would go to the next decision level, trust the hidden four or not. And that decision for me would be the known operational and maintenance history.

The images I have above could scare the crap out of anyone, but it's a low occurrence failure. It tends to be high mileage, long idle time, poor maintenance issues. Or some damn fool left debris in your motor. There will always be an outlier. My point, inspect for it, and that's not looking at the lifter to visually see how it's doing.

To do the cam requires removing. the oil pan, tray, and bedplate. Then removing or lifting the crankshaft for clearance to pull the cam, Pulling the seal ring on the crank has been done, but not recommended at its part of the balance, and any movement off center alters the concentricity. Someone doing it and declaring not a problem isn't necessarily your luck. I thought about it as I would use a dial indicator that reads in 0.0001" graduations, but ........

 

Jack I saw your video of pressing the cam gear. I supposed a machine shop would need to perform that task with the proper tools to check tolerances after installation of the new cam? I may be buying a cam and lifters all together if mine are looking rough as mine is the problem child early 2003 with the original 188k cam, lifters, pistons and crank. Then it’s wondering how far to go from there and just have the block machined, pistons ringed, rods checked, bearings etc...
What are your cam recommendations? KC Turbos has some decently priced lifter, push rods and Colt cam kits.

 

its $200 difference to pull the motor to get at all the lifters and make my mechanics life a little easier. He is doing me a solid by only charging me $200 more. So if I am that far and he inspects the lobes/lifters and sees no issues, she will get buttoned back up with new lifters -up. If issues are found she will end up getting rebuilt, Im not doing this again if I dont have to, and its still cheaper than a new truck, and there is no suck thing as a new Excursion..lol

Thank you all a LOT for the intel and opinions. I hope to not do this again for a very long time(it is kinda fun though). Im used to throwing money around... I own a boat...

 

Those kits look good.

The cam will just press on until it hits the shoulder, the only thing you could screw up is the alignment square groove to the dowel and not pressing it on all the way. I had pressed on a lot of parts at work, hammered on the farm in the early days. I was nervous approaching this, but could not find a shop either willing or available. You need a press; it's not a big deal with the proper check of dowel alignment. I pressed on the original gear onto the Colt cam without recording it. What you see in the video is me buying a gear and plate and using my old cam so I could show how to do it. That's why there is no Locktite.

For me, I would have gone with a Stage 1 cam, but at the time they were all reground. With the Stage 2 cam that I got, I've checked the piston to valve clearance and I'm nervous about that. Geoff said 0.030" one time and 0.035" the other. I was asking how much piston protrusion and how much valve recession, but he wouldn't bite. For this application with a locked gear drive, those values should be given by the grinder. While doing the checking is when I got frustrated about the crankshaft grind, so swapped the crank, something I would rather not have had to do. At the time I asked David if he could get me his motor's numbers while he had it apart, and he went out of his way to do that. I also wne to another site and got a rebuilders data, but they build to a 0.025" piston protrusion. Out spec is 0.035", normal production seems to be 0.032"

So I made a reference chart for target numbers for the Colt S2..... back in the spring.

Today, KDD and DD does what I was asking for, tells you the piston protrusion and valve recession you need. If you understand how OCD I get, I wanted a hard number from Colt. I'll be releasing a video about doing that work, you'll be well finished based on my speed of production. For my driving, today I would be buying Stage 1 since they now do billet, I don't do high rpm. And don't think it hasn't crossed my mind to yank it apart a third time .....

 

Well, then you're used to expense.

If I had to do heads after this experience, I would pull the motor anyway.

 

I uploaded the 'work in progress' video for checking piston to valve clearance. It will disappear at midnight.

This is the long version as I've got the three different methods I used to check this, which means mounting the heads on the block with toss away Felpro gaskets. The actual video may only have the best method. No narrative added it's not a talkie, but you should figure it out. And I have some proofing to do on the spellin'.

Ah hell, I don't even explain things well when I do have a narrative.....

 

Still not tired of your videos, Jack...with or without narration.

 

All I've ever read about Black Diamond head gaskets is bad, bad, bad. Are they now back in favor again?

 

i think you may be confusing Black Diamond with Black Onyx. Mahle - Black diamond are the SAME gaskets as OEM outside of the sealant color, both are made by Victor Reinz.

 

It's not just the sealant color, its the sealant type. The OE gaskets use a silicone higher temperature sealant. That is contract specific to International (supplied to Ford) and probably won't be released ever. The aftermarket companies use different versions of other polymers. Not that the characteristics of silicone are needed, but the higher temperature product was designed for retention with minimal blowby. The problem is, 6.0 heads when they go don't produce minimal blowby for very long. Poor machining like on my rebuild had minimal blowby for a long time, the heads did not distort that much.

 

I would save your money on the S&B air intake, original filter from Donaldson is adequate. For those of you running around investigating cam shaft profiles, install a early build 2003 and call it a day.

 

Motorcraft, Mahle and Victor Reinz are the same head gasket, Ford is blue and the other two are black.

 

I was under the impression that the early 2003 (I own one) cam is prone to wear on the rear lobes? Please elaborate, I am interested.
I went with S&B because my larger turbo, injectors and tune pull too much air and kept collapsing my filter minder even after buying a new Donaldson element. Not enough flow and some guys plan on more power in the future.

 

Lifters are prone to fail, not the cam itself. From what the original poster has listed, or what I have seen, he is not running bigger injectors or turbo so the stock Donaldson will be sufficient. It's only money.....

 

Only reason I am going S&B is because the truck currently has an Airaid system that has an oiled filter, so Im changing it out to a dry system.

so you are saying since mine is an early 2003 6.0 that my cam should be good?