Last Friday I started the process of putting in head studs on my 06 6.0. To make a long story short, there is alot of stuff to remove to get at the head gaskets. When all said and done there were about 40 man hours invested. The whole process was alot of work and alot of fun. I did this with the cab and the moter on/in the truck. The heads were removed and checked for flatness and checked out ok. I could not reasonably clear a 2000ths of an inch the short way accross the head. The only problem's that I ran accross where, how to clean the heads and block of excess gasket material and removing the heater box in the engine comparment. When I was done I did have an exhaust leak on the supply to the turbo, but that was taken care of.

I'm sure there are alot of things I forgot to mention but for the average Joe, head studs are not that big of deal. I had $475.00 in studs(ARP), $160 in head gaskets(ford stock), around $40 in injector o-rings, $80 in a belt, and $60 in new anti-freeze.

I put 800 miles on this week and worked the **** out of it with no over heating or coolant escaping the degas bottel. If anyone could give info on how to post pictures, I would so gladly post them. All in all I can't wait to test these gaskets with some good programming for my 10,000 lbs trailer.


(PS) I have a set of new factory head bolts for sale if anyone is looking for some. The streched out ones are on there way to Ford as a gift......

 

Congratulations - Nice to tackle a job like that and succeed!

Mark

 

I hope you literally sent the old stretched studs back to them! I have a good friend who has done that as well! funny

 

If it really was a lot of fun ................ do you want to do it again (mine is available)?

Seriously - congratulations and keep us informed with each step in your testing process!

Oh yeah - can you tell us more about how you ended up cleaning the deck and heads?

 

As far a cleaning the heads and deck surfaces I ended up using a green scotchbrite pad sprayed with a little carb cleaner. Right or wrong this was the only thing I could think of, short of using a razor blade. Once smooth I then cleaned with rubbing alcohol.

As a side note I thought I would share my mistake(a stupid one at that) on how I blew my gaskets in the first place. I have a superchips Flash paq and have the "extreme" program in the truck. I was having fun all weekend with it and then came monday morning! I hook up to my work trailer (10,000) and head down the freeway. It had all kinds of power and the trailer was towing really easy. I then hear some noises that are not normal, probably coolant escaping the degas bottle. I then remembered that I forgot to put the tow-program in the truck on sunday night. Talk about stupid!! Oh well, I always wanted to have studs in and not have to worry about it.

How many people think I would benefit from some good tow tuning from Spartan and an SCT? I might also get a "play tune" for the weekends and weekends only..

Thanks again for all of the usefull information,
Jason

 

Congrats JR,I too forgot to change tunes and joined the club.I talked with Matt about all purpose tunes and it is doable one tune for one truck.You will have to make sacrifices,not as much peak hp or torque but you will never have to change the tune.

 

Nice to hear that. I was planning on doing mines in the near future. Thanks, there is hope for me after all.

Aloha
Kaipo

 

Glad to hear the job went well. My X does not have a HG issue but I want to replace the head bolts with studs one at a time and lifting the cab or removing the engine is not an option.

A couple of questions: since I'm not going to remove the heads is there enough clearance between the heater box and head to remove the old head bolts and install the studs? Also, did you remove the radiator, IC and fan so you could stand in front of the engine to do the job? Was there enough room?

I plan to remove them, the valve covers, rocker arms and replace the bolts. Is that doable?

DSMMH

 

Allow me to chime in on this one because I have an EXCURSION as well. Lifting the body is not an option. I either have to pull the engine or find room to do this inside the engine compartment. I already own the ARP bolts (just arrived today) and need to purchase the head gaskets.

If you could post instructions with pictures, that would be fantastic.

By the way, I've owned my X from new (early 03 production) and have made no mods other than to disconnect the EGR valve. It now has over 135,000 miles on it. I have oil analysis performed after every oil change. Coolant has started showing up in the oil recently and I can't imagine where it would come from except for the head gaskets.

The EGR cooler is also leaking now and I intend to do both jobs at one time.

 

DSMMH, I will try to answer some of your questions. As far as room between the heater box and head, there is not any. It would be hard to even remove the valve cover let alone remove the head bolts. Then you would have to try to retorque them. I personally just removed the heater box. The air cond. will have to be recharged but that isn't that big of deal. The drivers side is where you will have the most problems removing and installing the studs without removing the heads. The rear two bolts would have to go thru the fire wall to remove if the head wasn't removed.

I did remove the fan but the radiater and IC stayed. I did also remove the front wheels and dropped the truck almost to the roters and stood on the wifes work out step. Doing this wasn't to bad on the back.

I am pretty computer stupid but I will try to get all the pictures that I took put in my gallery. I won't have time for a couple of days though.

Thanks for the interest and I will tell you everything I know.
Jason

 

To put the pictures from your computer into the gallery you just:

1 - go to the top of the page and in the galleries box, click "manage/create"

2 - find the gallery you want and click "edit"

3 - scroll down until you see the boxes with "brouse" next to them

4 - click "brouse" and find the pictures from your computer and then click "save"

This should get them into your gallery, if they are large size pictures, you may have to downsize them before they will go into your gallery.

 

If you just want to add pictures to a thread go to photobucket.com, make an account, it free. Then upload you pictures to your photobucket album. After that copy and paste in the thread or new thread.

 

Jason.......thanks for the info. I may need to rethink my approach.

 

I also appreciate your comments, JReinert. I am going to replace both the gaskets and the bolts (with ARP studs). Unlike DSMMH, however, I'm going to pull the heads. Your comments give me confidence that I can do this in the truck.

Essentially, I believe this can be done by working with an A/C shop to discharge (and later recharge) the A/C system. Then I can remove the heater/A/C evaporator box. I'm also buying a factory shop manual to improve my odds of success.

 

Thanks for all the help with the info on the pictures.

I HAVE PICTURES IN MY GALLERY!!!

YEE HAA