Haven't been here that long, but long enough and I know about engines and stuff. Like a good member, search before asking, read, read, read and read some more. Still have a couple questions that in my mind not fully understood why. Is it just opinion with no real basis to determine it works or doesn't. Anybody shed a little more than that on these subjects?

1) I use synthetic oil, changed at regular intervals. Will I still get stiction? And if so, why am I spending all this money to buy synthetic oil if it doesn't prevent it? I realize that it may be better oil, it's not lasting any longer and then read that RevX or Archoil are good to add to all dino or synthetic... which is it?

2) I read don't drive truck until temps are 120 degrees and no WOT until 160... right behind a tread that say's idling is bad. You can't have both, either start it an drive, no WOT until its warm, that's not a problem, it's warm by the time I get to the end of the neighborhood. But the wait until 120 temp morning starts and letting it idle until under 400 EGT when I come home? They idle diesel engines all night long at the truck stop, we used to leave the dozer idle for days.

3) If EGT are such a big deal, then why isn't Ford adding that as a gauge? Is there something in place to limit that temp to prevent damage? Is it worth the worry, do I need a gauge? If I get a gauge, do I pull over and wait for temps to drop, ease off the throttle, what?

4) Get gauges now! I have a SGII hooked up all the time. I have Torque on my phone, have Torque on a 7" pad, have a tuner that reads codes and has gauges... what am I looking for or just watching and waiting for the inevitable? I know that an ounce of prevention is worth it's weight in gold, but all this $$ I've spent in buying gauges actually preventing anything from happening or just telling me what to fix? They are pretty cool to watch!

5) If I turn the truck to 4x4 high before coming to a full stop and the hubs engage like their supposed to, when I stop at the light, will the hubs disengage? Do I have to be rolling to auto engage? Is their an upper limit or a lower limit to 4x4 hi? Like be rolling faster than 5mph to engage and don't drive above 50mph. I pulled a stuck Chevy a few days ago, 4x4 auto didn't work and I was rolling about 3-5mph when turning the switch, had to get out and turn the hubs to lock. Am I auto hub broke?

last question.. I have the SLR+ tunes from Matt. I can't seem to get past first gear after I mash the peddle. Truck goes sideways about 50' and before it shifts, I have to let off. Anybody else have this problem?

Good morning everybody.

 

My answers (opinion) in red....I don't expect anyone to believe my BS

 

These are my opinions on the subjects.

 

The Internet is a great place to learn but the flip of the coin is there is also a lot of worthless information as well. It's up to you and I and everyone else to decide what is the good and bad. Homework as you have done, and looking at where the info is coming from. FTE is the most reliable and informative forum out there hands down. A lot of the things you stated are from different forums I am sure. So ultimately it's up to you what you want to do, and learn from experience and also your mistakes.

 

I'll play too FWIW I didn't read any of the other replies, just for fun.



1) I use synthetic oil, changed at regular intervals. Will I still get stiction? And if so, why am I spending all this money to buy synthetic oil if it doesn't prevent it? I realize that it may be better oil, it's not lasting any longer and then read that RevX or Archoil are good to add to all dino or synthetic... which is it?

Synthetic or regular oil, changed at regular intervals, is far more important for the HPOP function that stiction. Stiction will happen with age, it's a varnishing of the oil valve in the top of the injector. Clean oil of any type will help keep stiction at bay, but the real reason for synthetic is easier cold starts, and the real reason for the regular interval is viscosity loss due to shearing of the oil molecules by the HPOP.

2) I read don't drive truck until temps are 120 degrees and no WOT until 160... right behind a tread that say's idling is bad. You can't have both, either start it an drive, no WOT until its warm, that's not a problem, it's warm by the time I get to the end of the neighborhood. But the wait until 120 temp morning starts and letting it idle until under 400 EGT when I come home? They idle diesel engines all night long at the truck stop, we used to leave the dozer idle for days.

Idling is bad for the 6.0 due to the variable geometry turbo, it's movable vanes are prone to sticking from soot produced by long idle periods. The engineers who design the engines repeatedly say that it's perfectly fine to drive the engine 30 seconds or a minute after it is started from cold. I personally wait for the glow plugs to go out (read the voltage on my meter on my dash) and in the winter I will wait until the coolant is warm enough to defrost the windshield - but that's for safety and a clear windshield, not the engine

3) If EGT are such a big deal, then why isn't Ford adding that as a gauge? Is there something in place to limit that temp to prevent damage? Is it worth the worry, do I need a gauge? If I get a gauge, do I pull over and wait for temps to drop, ease off the throttle, what?

EGT isn't an issue unless you have some hotter tunes on the engine. With a stock tune EGT's don't reach unacceptable levels. If you tune the engine then you might want to get a gauge. If the EGT is too high, just back off the throttle.

4) Get gauges now! I have a SGII hooked up all the time. I have Torque on my phone, have Torque on a 7" pad, have a tuner that reads codes and has gauges... what am I looking for or just watching and waiting for the inevitable? I know that an ounce of prevention is worth it's weight in gold, but all this $$ I've spent in buying gauges actually preventing anything from happening or just telling me what to fix? They are pretty cool to watch!

You need the "gauges" (I use the SGII) to monitor coolant and oil temperature more than anything else. If you get a difference of more than 15 degrees under standard conditions then you know that your oil cooler is getting clogged. If your oil temp goes high and doesn't fall quickly when load is taken away, same thing. I also use it for fuel level and to monitor the FICM output voltage. If the FICM voltage falls below 45 volts at any time it can damage the injectors. The rest of the SGII gauges are fun, and can be very helpful with diagnostics, but aren't really worth of constant monitoring. One gauge that is pretty important is fuel pressure above 50 psi, SGII doesn't do that one so I have an Autometer gauge in a pod for that, beside my voltmeter. No, the gauges don't actually do anything inside the engine to fix it before it breaks. They just tell you what it's doing. I bet you already knew that, right?

5) If I turn the truck to 4x4 high before coming to a full stop and the hubs engage like their supposed to, when I stop at the light, will the hubs disengage? Do I have to be rolling to auto engage? Is their an upper limit or a lower limit to 4x4 hi? Like be rolling faster than 5mph to engage and don't drive above 50mph. I pulled a stuck Chevy a few days ago, 4x4 auto didn't work and I was rolling about 3-5mph when turning the switch, had to get out and turn the hubs to lock. Am I auto hub broke?

You should be rolling at least 2 - 3 mph when you engage 4wd High. You can engage at any legal speed, but I tend not to do it over around 50 mph. Possibly because if I need 4wd the road conditions suck so I'm not going all that fast. They engage with pulse of vacuum, and disengage with another pulse of vacuum, so they should stay engaged when you stop at a light. Since they use the vacuum from the vacuum pump to operate, lack of vacuum, sticking mechanism, lack of use can all contribute to them not working right.

last question.. I have the SLR+ tunes from Matt. I can't seem to get past first gear after I mash the peddle. Truck goes sideways about 50' and before it shifts, I have to let off. Anybody else have this problem?

Try it in 4wd High, that should stop the sideways action...

Good morning everybody.[/quote]

Respectfully tendered....

Brian

 

In a way, yes you're waiting for the inevitable because every mile you drive is one less the truck has left in it. It's going to blow up eventually.

So towards that end, some people get hung up on watching gauges constantly and trying to pick up on everything right when it happens. I say forget that, it's a car and not an airplane so it's not like I die if a CEL comes on randomly. Once a month or so I plug the box in and watch it on the drive to and from work (90 miles for me, wahooooo), and I might leave it in for a few days, but then it gets unplugged again. I can't remove the fuel pressure and EGT gauges since they're installed in the dash cover, but I still do a pretty good job of ignoring them daily. Leave the box in until you're comfortable with about what everything you want to watch runs at normally, then compare every so often and make sure you aren't trending away from your baseline. Write things down so you have a hard data point to compare to in the future.

The only time I 100% pay attention to them while driving is towing something fairly significant, because that's when I can do things that will cause immediate issues, ie overheating or slagging the turbo with high EGTs.

 

Do not tell my truck or wife that please! The truck likes to run, either pulling a 25' camper or driving down the boardwalk with the radio cranking some good tunes and if we get next to a guy in a muscle car or Hemi...
wife like's me to flex the muscle! Nothing like seeing the look on the guys face or his chick looking at us.. like she's in the wrong rig!

 

I generally wait for the glow plugs to turn off before engaging the A/C or (at night) the headlights to keep the voltage for the FICM safe, and then I go. In the "winter" here in FL, no different. Luckily I have 20/25 MPH roads for the first couple of miles before the interstate.

In "cold" weather (I've been in NC when it was 28*) Just idling didn't really raise the temps very much - you really want the "high-idle" MOD to speed things up and prevent "wet-stacking" (Google is your friend).

I've heard (when cold) keep the RPMs below 2k (remember high-idle is 1200) to give the engine time to warm properly - which driving gently does way faster than idling - and you are getting somewhere. g

Today (mid 90s) before I started, my oil/coolant temps were 109 and the Trans was 105. I still let the GP turn off (took about 45 seconds) and once the voltage got above 13.2 I put it in gear and drove.

 

Dido , couldn't have said it better , In the cooler months I like the tranny fluid warm make's for a better shift ,and it really don't take that much longer soot wont build that fast, if you use a fuel additive on every fill