Well I have been stuck in Bellevue WA for a week now while the local dealer feeds me excuses about the latest delay in replacing the high pressure fuel pump gasket on my 6.4.
I got rid of my 04 6.0 after numerous ERG valves EGR coolers Turbo chargers and the last one was they found a bolt in one of the cylinders after removing the left head. (There since engine original assembly)So I bought another Ford because the new engine is supposed to be so much better.
How do I get myself into these situations?

 

I have a hard time believing that there was a bolt in a cylinder that was there from when it was built. If there was it would have made a heck of a racket and would have busted the valves out within seconds. Then pieces of bolt and valve would have migrated to surrounding cylinders and causes damage to the valves there, probably breaking more. Lastly the munched up pieces would have headed out the exhaust...through the turbo...destroying it. All of this would have taken less than 30 seconds, in which case the truck would have needed a tow to get it off of the assembly line to the parking lot. Needless to say, you would never had made it off of the lot for your test drive if there was a bolt in one of the cylinders.

 

Were you in for a fuel leak or a driviability issue. The gasket there changing had sharp edges and was cutting the engine wiring harness causing electrical issues. This information was in a TSB i was just courious what your issue was?

 

66stang
Now you know something new about how long an engine can run with a bolt in a cylinder, a little over 70,000 miles. The cylinder has several dings but the valves actually looked pretty good. The bolt still had some threads left. The combustion chamber showed no sign of damage.
sanddemon
The engine just quit with no warning. The Ford tech said a wire inside of the gasket shorted and caused the problem. One of those 50 cent parts that cost $1000.00+ in labor repairs. Cab off and all that stuff.

 

I still have a hard time believing that it would be possible. But if it is true I want to know what they made the heads and valves out of that could take that beating and show no damage. I have seen the inside of a head that had loose metal floating around...not pretty at all. And it had to make a lot of noise...it should have sounded like a jackhammer beating on the engine. I can't understand how anyone could fire up an engine and let it run with something like that loose. BTW the head that I saw ran for about 5-10 seconds from the time that 1 valve broke to being shut down and had 2 additional broken valves and 3 additional cylinders and combustion chambers with damage as well as the turbo being shredded. However, on the beleivable side of this, if there was a loose bolt floating around there would have been issues with exhaust components breaking as you described.

As for waiting for a week for a gasket, that shouldn't happen. It can't take longer than overnight to get a gasket if they don't have one in stock. They are feeding you a line and I would ask them to show me the documentation of where the part is and how it is being procured.

 

They actual replace the housing cover and the gasket but agreed that is a long wait.

 

Back on the road again. I'm writing this from Dawson Creek BC, the beginning of the Alaska Hwy. Today will be the third day of driving since Ford decided to put my truck back together. Is runs fine so far. (fingers crossed, it's pretty primitive out here. Dawson Creek is the last bit of civilization until Whitehorse Yukon and that is almost 1000 miles.)
For those who can't believe ,my 6.0 bolt in the cylinder adventure, I'm sorry you can't believe what you have not personally experienced but there is more in the world than one person's viewpoint. Maybe if talked to Mike at Simi Valley Ford it would help expand you limited knowledge of engines.

 

I am still on the same trip as when I posted in Bellevue WA while waiting 9 days for Ford to replace the high pressure fuel pump gasket. Now I am in Anchorage AK waiting for a new radiator to arrive so it can replace the one that was leaking in WA but the dealer didn't want to address the problem when the cab was off so now I am waiting again.
I posted this information on another thread but I hope that by posting twice more people will see another example of Ford quality. I also hope someone from Ford might read this and post their thoughts.