2004 visit to diesel shop
 

Well, gents I visited a local Diesel only pickup shop today to inquire about a chip installation. The gentleman at the counter asked me,:is your 6.0 totally stock"? I said yes and to which he stated,"I would not do anything to your engine unlless you make some serious modifications, otherwise you will certainly have problems"!!! The 2003 and 2004 engines had problems we all know, but this guy was dead serious! They have a program at their shop that will translate the 6.o into a bullet proof engine that they will put a guarantee of two years, so he told me!!

the price for the total transformation is only $6795.00

remanufactured heads with correct surface finish, magna fluxed for cracks, pressure tested
cylinder head gasket kit, latest MLS gasket set from Ford
ARP head studs
Turbo olil drain pipe new larger one
Ford Gold premium coolant
oil change with delo 400
motorcraft fuel filters
new engine oil cooler
coolant filter
egr cooler delete kit

Seems like a lot of money and I imagine the heads alone are quite pricy. He stated the finish on the factory heads is rough and not compatible with mating of the two surfaces with the new gaskets available.

He told me that with this upgrade, my 6.o would be bullit proof and then I could do some chip modifications. I think these guys do a great business and are very reptuable. It is Monroe Washington

Any thoughts on this?

Let me hear it:-X10

He's basically right. I'm not really going to get in to that. Plenty of threads on it. Do a search.

As for the price of that kit. Is that installed? What is the price without the heads? If your headgaskets are good now your heads are more than likely perfect so you'd be throwing money away to replace them, and depending on how bad they are you can flatten them without replacing.

Basically this is all you need in my opinion

remanufactured heads with correct surface finish, magna fluxed for cracks, pressure tested- not necessary IMO, I don't know why the older heads wouldn't match up with the new gasket.
cylinder head gasket kit, latest MLS gasket set from <nobr style="color: darkgreen; font-weight: normal; font-size: 100%;" id="itxt_nobr_4_0">Fordhttp://images.intellitxt.com/ast/adTypes/2_bing.gif</nobr>
ARP head studs
Turbo olil drain pipe new larger one - somewhat overkill IMO
Ford Gold premium coolant - Do this yourself
oil change with delo 400 - Do this yourself
motorcraft fuel filters - Do this yourself
new engine oil cooler - Ask how much they would charge to just rebuild it, you don't really need to replace it as long as your ECT/EOT temps are within spec
coolant filter - Do this yourself
egr cooler delete kit

I do not like the reman head part for that price, those are used heads and a one shot deal. The valve guides could almost be worn out and as far as I know, no one has a kit or has been fixing them.

6.0 heads are being done now. Theres a shop in arlington that is doing them. guy says he does 20-30 sets a week right now.

but why buy new reman heads if you can have yours redone if needed.
anyway take this for all its worth and remember Im a dealer tech always have been.
YOU ARE GETTING BENT OVER AND DRIVEN HOME ON THAT DEAL.

IMO I have done more heads then I care to think about, most of them are reuseable. check the deck, make sure the valves seal and check the guides for wear. none of which is hard to do.

You can get remaned heads from Fla. too. New guides, valves w/ 3 angle valve job surfaced and spec's. 400 each plus shipping.

Only 6795.00. You can get a 6.0 Black Mamba for that or a little less.

oil cooler $200. egr delete $250-600. mls head gaskets (better than stock ford ones) $100-150. arp studs $389-450. the turbo updated drain is a good idea. if you buy all the parts though your going to be in for 700-1200 bucks. ive got the parts in my living room. (trying to decide if i want to trade into a newer truck or tear into the one i have) floor. labor ive seen running $1000 (ford tech doing it on the side) to upwards of 3,000. this is assuming you dont have to replace the heads. i would think that replacing the heads is not that common. you will most likely be able to resurface yours. now depending on what they warranty it might be worth it to you but i would guess if done properly the 1st time you wont be back in there. might look into a coolant filter as well

heads
 

when you say Arlington do you mean Washington or Virginia. My 04 only has 65000 on it, runs just fine. I went to the shop to see about a chip and I got the song instead. These guys do only pickup diesels, they have been in business for a long time but when he told me 6795, I just about craped my pants. I just want to keep the engine in tip top shape, egr delete, perhaps new oil cooler, coolant filter. I already put on the straight exhaust pipe, engine feels like it breathes much better.

If you live in Washington give me a call

425 785 8225

Sorry Arlington is in Texas.

I had my heads inspected at a machine shop (Magna fluxed checking for cracks etc...) There were several cracks between the glowplug port and the closest valve seats. I would personally have my heads checked every time I had them off but that me... It cost ~ $100 to have both heads cleaned and inspected.

The shop wanted $800 per head to repair them so I bought a set of rebuilt heads from them that place out of Arlington TX (Cylinder Heads International) I think... They cost $450 each. So far so good although it has only been 2000 miles :-X20

While we are on the subject of installing reman heads....


Here are the questions:

A) Are you not better off to simply buy a reman short or long block?

Prices are about the same ($5,000 to $6,000 before shipping).


B) There is inherently some risk in using a reman head --- you are trusting the magnaflux to do a proper job.

A true, through inspection need far better techniques, like high resolution x-ray, etc. that almost no small shop uses.


C) There is also the question of where the remans come from --- if they come from a highly stressed application (that broke them) it is probable that there are latent defects that will turn up.

Only the biggest and the best shops in the business have that technical capability to thoroughly inspect their cores, and when they place a really long warranty (longer than 2 years) an incentive to junk the cores that are doubtful.


D) All things equal, if you had your engine from scratch, it is the devil you know --- and if you had abused it, you also know.

There is also some possibility that if your head and block are slightly warped, they have "mated" to each other with use --- so the micro-tolerances (beyond spec) are less critical.

E) That is why I wonder, if you are going that route --- why not just get a brand new head (if available)?

F) The alternative is to buy an engine off a wrecked vehicle with a known usage profile (e.g. low mileage truck in an accident) and then, clean and rebuild it with top grade upgrades yourself, and swap the whole engine.



I think back in the days when people had access to a large supply of big blocks to build custom engines, the best deal in town is a very well seasoned (used many heat-cool cycles) block that while it may have a lot of mileage, was lowly stressed.

e.g. a delivery truck that ran a "route" for years that petered out from mileage and everything else on the truck breaking.


These blocks are really good for rebuilding because they are unlikely to be overstressed, have latent defects that do not turn up, and yet, have been "seasoned" in.


Now, the only way you are going to get one of these kind of blocks is to know the previous owner of the vehicles, the actual usage, and so on.

A 6.0 diesel grocery delivery truck that did urban / suburban rounds 7 days a week, lightly loaded... is the ticket.


That is the core I would buy and then send it out to a top shop to rebuild.