Hey all. Been awhile.

Here's my story. I have an 06 engine and cab that I'm swapping into my 04 dually that the engine just dropped a lifter in at 305k miles. I am in the process of doing the top end of the 06 motor and getting the heads gone through. Thinking of getting them oringed and using Felpro headgaskets and buying new head studs. I would like to do bigger injectors and a bigger turbo but do not know what's needed as I tow around 10-15k lbs religiously on mostly flat grounds. There are times I pull up to the GCWR of the truck and gooseneck. I don't want to go too big and melt some pistons. So what are my options? Have around 7k to throw at this thing.

 

Do people o ring heads and use head gaskets?
they would have to be special gaskets ?

 

I just recently rebuilt the top end of my 03 6.0 with 230k on it. After pricing everything out it was actually more economical to replace the heads with O-Ringed heads from Kill Devil Diesel as they are new castings and they really know their stuff, you also get all new valve train and can have them ported for a little more money. I used Mahle gaskets on everything. Only issue Ive had is the ICP sensor failing (03 model). I have only put 1000 miles on the rebuild though. I cant answer your question on injectors and turbo as mine are stock.

Also to the other poster, oringed heads use standard oem head gaskets, Fire ringed heads (racing applications) use a special modified head gasket, the o-ring(ing) done on heads just applies more pressure to the oem head gaskets when torqued.

 

Ported heads are a waste of money unless you are trying to run high horsepower at the track and pair them with a ported intake manifold and a plethora of other upgrades to squeeze out every bit of power. This comes straight from a conversation I had with Charlie Fish, the owner of KC Turbos. He also stated that if you get o-ringed heads the wire protrusion has to be correct if you use FelPro head gaskets. He runs KDD o-ringed heads with FelPros on several trucks and they have held up. If the protrusion of the wire o-ring is too much they will cookie cutter the sealing surface around the combustion chambers and end up eventually blowing out. I know some guys on here are running o-rings and Fel-Pros but they are either running KDD heads which have the correct wire protrusion or they are running someone else’s heads and got lucky. I should have gone with KDD heads but I’m stuck with UCF o-ringed heads and this time I’m using Motorcraft head gaskets because they are proven with the heads I have. I had Mahle head gaskets with them before and they sealed up fine for 5200 miles then the injector cups began leaking diesel into my cooling system so I have a “new” set on the way right now.

 

Dump the 6.0, put a 6.7 in it................if you're interested in ft lbs later.