Good afternoon,
likely a tale as old as time…
Bought a used 2005 F350 DRW King ranch to haul our heavy Arctic Fox 1150 around in. Side note- should have looked at class 4 or maybe 5 to get some headroom, to account for everything already on the camper and what I would like to do with it…
anyways, brought my SC2 to monitor EOT/ECT deltas while doing the test drive at the dealer and look for codes. Deltas were good unloaded. Bought it.
Loaded camper and deltas are still good. Even going up grades here in Southern California they never get more than 12deg apart. Had to add a switch to kick on the fan earlier though to keep things from getting too hot. But it worked.
Truck pukes coolant out of degas. Seems to want no coolant in the reservoir in order not to puke. Truck already has studs and the BPD EGR cooler.
Reached out to one of BPDs preferred vendors in the area. He stated likely blown head gaskets. Thought about trading it in without fixing, fixing then trading in, etc. but 1; don’t want to Put bad gugu out by trying to unload it on someone knowing it’s not right.2 prices are obviously insane right now on ensuring and I know I’ll end up with a higher truck note than what it’s worth anyways.
I did a new turbo system and injectors on my 2000 7.3. Still working through some bugs on that one but I managed to wrench everything apart and together at least.
Is doing head gaskets myself something I might be able to tackle? I know I likely need at minimum a large torque wrench and engine hoist. I would like to send the heads out to get checked as I suspect them as the truck already has ARP studs and at least from my forum reading it appears the most likely way the gaskets blew again is something is off with the heads, be it a crack or not flat or something.
So I ask the collective group; pay someone else, diy or walk away and take a bath on trade in on something newer/more HD?

 

First - make sure the cap isn't the issue. Pressure test it at 15 psi.

Probably unlikely, but you never know ................

You can do the pressure test by installing a "tee" in one of the small vapor hoses that are connected to the degas bottle.

 

Thank you! Forgot to add that was one of the first things I tried. I also bought a new degas bottle just to realize the truck already has what appeared to be the same design. I had read the original version could be a contributor to the symptom.

 

You talked about your temperature "deltas", but what are the actual temperatures?

I guess for now I will assume (as you appear to have) that a new degas bottle and cap would seal appropriately. I hate assuming though.

 

Sir.
Good point.
Once I added a switch to turn the engine fan on at will, temps for both the EOT and ECT are around 200-205deg...even when hauling that Arctic Fox 1150, loaded for camping and with the family, up and down 4000' grades in Southern California. It makes no sense in my (inexperienced) mind. Before I added that fan, coming back from Phoenix back to San Diego with the camper, coolant would get to 220 or so, and engine oil would get to around 230 before the fan would kick on and bring it back down. Adding the fan switch seemed to have helped a lot so far!

 

The best way to determine if you have head gasket issues is to:
- drive the truck and get everything up to temperature.
- then read the pressure on the degas bottle
- then vent off the pressure in the degas bottle
- then drive some more (with some spirited accelerations)
- measure the pressure on the degas bottle

If the last pressure reading on the degas bottle is much over 5-7 psig, then you most likely have head gasket issues.

Note - this test does not work if you have a leak in the coolant system.

 

The degas bottle does not like to start out above the cold fill line or it will overflow (puke) when running at normal hot temp. There are youtube videos on testing 6,0 head gaskets and doing repairs. The best are by dieseltech Ron.

 

Do a test drive and monitor coolant pressure. This is how it should NOT be.


If you see this and your EGR cooler is already deleted you have a head or head gasket issue. I would not do the repair cab on, remove the engine and do it properly.

 

He already has a BPD EGR cooler. Although it can happen that one of them fails, it is unlikely IMO.

 

Sell it.
You’ll thank me later.

 

How many miles are on the truck? How well do you like it? Is the truck is excellent condition otherwise? These are things to consider. If the head gaskets are bad, the cost to repair as you noted is going to be less than a new truck. Is the truck tuned at all?

 

Why not? I've read it is possible to do head gaskets with the engine still in its normal place.

 

Thanks for all the inputs! It’s not just that the truck spits coolant out of the degas when filled above the min line, it spits it out so much that there is no coolant in the degas reservoir at all!
truck has 187k on it. We like it; king ranch, dually, 4x4. I liked when I first looked at it that it had studs already and the BPD EGR. But maybe I bought someone else’s problem, even though I tried going into it with open eyes and ears.
Hauls the camper well, though in hindsight I’m pushing the weight limits already and maybe should have looked at an even heavier duty truck. Put in timbrens and have front and rear Hellwig sway bars on the way.
truck prices are just really high right now and to get something more heavy duty and likely a 6.7 something, I imagine I would be financing more than what it would cost to fix this again. And then I would be looking at being more concerned with the emissions systems. A new 7.3 could do it in dually fashion. But I imagine that price starts with a six followed by zeroes…..

 

I was in the same boat with my truck. I ended up with a new 2021 RAM 3500 4X4 SRW. I paid sticker, total was close to $70K. I could not even find any Fords or Chevys to even test drive.

 

I would not want to do the repairs without pulling the engine or lifting the cab, and there's no way I would consider tearing into it myself without a nice ship to work in. Might want to budget for new heads, as yours might not be able to be machined back to the proper tolerances. We're starting to figure out that the 6.0 head gasket issue isn't insufficient clamping force as much as not enough clamping points to keep the heads flat on the block.