A Ford Dealership changed head gaskets and installed ARP head studs when replacing my broken EGR cooler with F.C.D.P kit at 50k miles in August 2009. I am havin issues with it puking and regret not putting Liberator Performance O-ring heads. So now I am about to order them to hopefully solve this issue once and for all. I was adviced to reuse my ARP studs and torque them using the new blue lube to 230ft# wait 12 or more hours and Torque them again to 230ft#. I am not real sure what head gaskets to use but it seems there are better ones out there compared to OEM, any suggestions? I am not sure what to Torque the studs in the block to either.
I read about another way of torquing based on the following method and wanted people's opinons. Was said to torque all evenly to 80ft# and then Rotate each nut 90° more in order to get a consistant torque pull based on the lenth of the threads pulled in a 1/4 revolution this makes sense and would not need to factor in any amount of torque associated with friction. Does the new lube do such a great job of eliminating this factor?
I am having another dealership, I trust more, do the work this time and want to avoid any problems so I am trying to gather as much information so my mechanic can do the best job he can.

 

That sucks it has to be done again, I wonder why that would happen...

I know when I did mine it was to 210lbs, not sure if you'd wanna do 230

Dont wanna do the work your self?

 

There are a whole lot of guys out there that make big power with stock gaskets and ARP's. The two most important things while the install is performed is that the heads and block are flat, and the proper TQ procedure is followed. More than likely one or both were neglected during your previous install, although you'll never have anyone fess up to it.

Read all you can about O-ringed heads before you go that route. They have their own set of issues that can arise if they aren't installed absolutely perfectly.

Your best bet is to find someone local that has performed the install you decide to pursue, and ask for references. Let the forum know your general area and you might get some good feedback.

 

OOH OOH ! Like some of the other guys here I am learning alot about my 6.0 on this great forum but you asked one I might be able to help a little on!
First, from what I've read, the OEM gaskets are a pretty good piece and even some of the name brand aftermarket stuff works well with the head stud kit, so the first thing would be to look real hard and make sure the puking is the head gasket. A leak where the intake meets the heads around the coolant crossover could make a big mess for example. If it is at the head gasket, the heads weren't torqued properly, the block and head surfaces weren't prepped properly, or the truck overheated and the heads were a casualty of another cooling problem.
If you have your heart set on the o-ring heads, (sounds like you do ) the shop you get them from will have all the info on the soft parts to go with their product, but I doubt you will be using o-rings with any "standard" head gasket. If it uses a gasket at all, They will have provisions for the o-rings and won't look much like the gaskets that come off your truck.
The torque procedure you mentioned (50ft/lb plus a half turn or whatever) is the procedure for so called "Torque To Yield" bolts that came on the truck. Those TTY bolts are the real problem with proper head sealing on the 6.0. The first time I ran into these was on a 1985 Mercury Lynx, so they have been around awhile. The problem they solved then was bolting an aluminum head to an iron engine block. The greatly different rates of expansion and contraction between the two materials(iron block, aluminum head) would "walk" the head bolts loose over many thermal cycles (ever had a car with headers?). These bolts are a little softer and the touque procedure stretches the bolt so far it "yields", by that I mean if you measure it, torque it as described, took it out and measured it again it would be longer! That's why you cant re-use them. If you do, they will stretch even further and likely break. With these type of bolt installed -stretched like a rubber band- they will stretch and shrink lengthwise without rotational walking.
The problem comes in when the mix of metals used in the bolts doesn't stretch the right amount, at the right temperature, at the right tension. I have read speculation that a small production of the 6.0 engines were made in Indiana and the bulk of the production was in Brazil and the Brizilian bolts are the problem, either way, it is a problem for many 6.0 owners, but not all.
Now for the head studs. All bolts stretch when you tighten them but your ARP's are made of some serious stuff that can withstand much high torques with little stretching and will yield only slightly before they break. The idea here is to hold the head against the block tightly when everything is cold and even tighter as the aluminum head swells as it is heated. This bolt is designed to maintain it's stregnth and installed demensions all the way through the temps and pressures it will see as the engine warms and swells.
When Installing the studs in the block, follow mfgr's instructions but we just use a thread chasing tap (not a cutting tap) on the threads in the deck (it also allows the studs to turn easy) and use loc-tite (red). Hand tight- not bottomed out.
Using lube on the stud threads or under the nuts when torquing the heads down will significantly increase the torque. Only lube them before assembly if the instructions say to, and use the indicated lube. If any.

 

I would stay away from o-ringed heads. Great for holding big power short term, not great for longevity.

 

The ARP's, like the stock bolts, have a very specific install procedure and a specific lube that needs to be used to get it correct. Tighter isn't necessarily better. The stock head gaskets are very good when installed correctly. Like William said, if you're already blowing coolant somebody FUBAR'd the install by not checking something correctly. There are some very high HP trucks running stock gaskets and ARP's that don't use o-ring heads.

 

I have heard there are two different type of O-ring heads one that you have to use custom gaskets because it comepletely replaces the combusion ring in the head gasket with a metal ring that fits in a groove milled into the head. Then the ones that I bought from Liberator Diesel have a smaller groove milled into the head that uses a metal ring that sits up around .012" that pushes even harder on the factory compression ring in the factory head gasket to seal it off better. I have to agree that the first mentioned version is not the way to go for longevity but what about the type of setup I am going towards. I agree that it wasnt properly done the first time or that my heads or block was not flat enough. I am just not willing to risk having to do this again. If my heads were bad then I still have to replace them so why not go with a slightly better head than factory. I plan on keeping this truck as long as I can.

 

If the heads and block are flat, and the studs torqued correctly, then stock gaskets will hold big power. There's really no reason to o-ring the heads.

 

What are the negative impacts of putting the o-ring heads? What kind of failures are common?

 

we did 94 head gasket jobs with OEM gaskets and two with aftermarket gasket, the only return we have had was with one of the after market gaskets. We machine and crack check ALL head before a head gasket job and usually find that 1 of every 10 have cracked heads, especially if they got hot. Here is our Head gasket job pictorial.

6.0L Head Gasket $4995.00

let me know if you have any question or if I can help in anyway.

Dave

 

So would you recommend stock gaskets over the Black Onyx / Victor Reinz gaskets? I thought stock were good, but they were better.

 

I have heard of more failures with the VR gaskets percentage wise than the stock gaskets so far. There has been nothing to indicate, to me at least, that the VR are any kind of magic bullet. I know of trucks with major HP running stock gaskets and no fire rings. The only "plus" I see to the VR gaskets is that they are "cheaper".

 

Interesting. I wonder if the higher failure rate is due to people rebuilding with them planning to push higher horsepower.

 

Absolutely we are 100% with stock gaskets, ARP Studs and machined heads!

 

I do believe that they also have more adhesive than stock gaskets. I'm all for stock gaskets and stud combination. Far too much success with my truck to think that they aren't a good combination when installed correctly and that is very much the key to success with this.