DTR - Diesel Tech Ron

As far as the degas cap goes: Clearly the heads not remaining flat is a big issue. That is not caused by the cap (or the head gaskets themselves for that matter). Cap failures CLEARLY occur as a result of over-pressure events. This is just plain common knowledge about relief devices, and industrial experience. Now - can a cap fail BEFORE it sees an over-pressure event. Of course they can, but it is very uncommon. Most people with blown head gaskets see high pressure in the degas bottle. They see that pressure quickly return after venting off the original pressure.

We had a recent discussion where a respected member disagreed with the above, mainly because localized cooling issues (flash boiling in areas was his concern) could cause distortion of the head. Sure it can. That said though, boiling is one of the best ways to remove heat because of the phase change - evaporation removes a huge amount of thermal energy. Obviously that doesn't last forever because of mineral deposition and/or running low on coolant eventually. Anyway, all the evidence points to cap issues as a result, not a cause.......IMO anyway.

 

Sounds good Bismic.

I have watched quite a few of Diesel Tech Ron's vids. (RIP obviously). Seemed like a great guy with a lot of knowledge that helped a lot of people. But like you said, nobody is immune to a mistake here and there.

I agree after watching a lot of TooManyToys' videos that the heads ARE the main problem with the 6.0 or maybe particularly the heads and head gaskets which would obviously include the cooling system. Anyway, back to the post or other posts. Have a good day.

 

Back to the original question......

I have never heard of anyone requiring or insisting on using (new) OEM TTY bolts unless they were replacing existing TTY ("stretch") bolts.

You might ask if their guarantee is still good using ARP studs (which if I am not mistaken are usable for many more times than 1 use)

I am also a little suspect of anyone not using the FOMOCO OEM "updated" oil cooler, if that's what they are suggesting.

 

Properly machined block, good heads, Motorcraft HGs, ARP studs torqued to 225 in 25 pound increments and I have zero issues pulling a boat or my tractor trailer running my hot performance tune. I wanted to see how good my rebuild job was.

 

When you say "good" heads, what specifically do you mean? Did you use the heads that came off of your motor AND were they the original heads as far as you knew or were they already replaced once and were they a reman head or did you purchase something completely different and if so, what was that? If you ended up reusing the heads that were on it, did you have some machine work done to the heads such as milling? I ask because in TMT's videos, he mentions many times how Ford states NOT to do this specifically. So, I'm just curious to hear if you did it since you seem to have good success so far. Did you just simply clean your old heads and check for flatness and what did they come out to be? Also, what kind of mileage are you at since the last head repair?

One other question, since you run your "hot performance tune" (which tuner do you use and is it a custom performance tune or one that came preloaded?) how are your EGTs when pulling up hills and roughly what speed do you travel typically? We all know that EGTs are going to climb when going uphill but I'm just curious to know how yours are. Do you ever change the tune to do a comparison and see what the differences are? How is your fuel mileage when towing?