Cow
Senior Member
- Location
- Eastern Oregon
- Occupation
- Electrician
i have learned more about the 6.0 powerstroke diesel that is in my
econoline in the last few days, than i ever wanted to know.....
here is the scoop for those of you driving with this engine doing the
pushing....
there are THREE major problems with this engine.
oil cooler
EGR cooler
head studs
they are all interrelated, as when the first one goes, it triggers
a cascade to create other problems.
the root of almost all the problems is the oil cooler, under the manifold.
it's an oil to water intercooler, and plugs up with coolant sediment.
no way around it. sand from block casting is a huge culprit. you can
use coolant filters, but sooner or later, that thing is gonna get blocked.
this reduces heat transfer of the oil to the water, and reduces the water
flow to the EGR cooler, right next to it. that causes it to overheat, plug
with sediment as well, and pass on even less hotter water to cool other
things, like turbos, etc.
so, if you have over 40k miles on that motor, both those things need to be
replaced. if you are under warranty, ford will replace them with the same
parts, buying you enough time to get out of warranty. the repair of these
two things is $4,400 at the dealer. for a fix that doesn't solve anything.
mine lasted 90k miles, cause i'm fussy with service on the vehicle, but
moreover, cause i'm lucky. but not lucky enough, cause i'm out of
warranty when it went poop last wednesday.
there are a lot of people with fixes for this problem. the one i'm going
with, is from bullet proof diesel, of mesa, arizona. everything else is a
bandaid. this one solves the problem for good.
a remote oil/air cooler on the front of the radiator, with bypass oil filtering.
and a 316 stainless steel EGR cooler that can't plug up or blow out or rust.
now, the head gasket problem is not a head gasket problem, it's a cylinder
head bolt problem. the only solution that works is installing an ARP cylinder
head stud kit, which costs $500 for the stud kit. they also make an even
stronger head kit for competition motors, which is $1,300 for the kit, and
not needed.
there are aftermarket head gaskets claiming to solve the problem.
they blow out in a year, no matter what head bolts or studs you use.
use only OEM ford head gaskets.
if you fix those three things, the life of the engine should be well above
half a million miles.
so, what's it cost? for a van, right around $9,000.00 i'm waiting on the
exact estimate. probably about $7,300 for a truck, as you don't have to
remove the engine to pull the heads, but you do have to lift the body
off the frame. it's faster that way than doing the bobbing for apples
thing over the body and fenders.
so, you pay your money, and you make your choice.... but if i was
gonna pull the manifold to fix these things on a truck, i'd do the
cylinder heads at the same time. friend of mine didn't do that, spent
the $4,400 at the dealer for the same sucky parts, and six months
later, lost the head gaskets. all the labor was wasted, as it all had
to come apart *again*.
he traded it in on a dodge.
useful links:
http://www.bulletproofdiesel.com/
http://arp-bolts.com/
Guess what? My 05 6.0 with 107000 miles is in the shop now. The pickup was starting to chug a little the other morning like the fuel filters might be plugging up so I had it sent in to the dealership. It's been needing to be serviced for some other minor things I've been putting off too, so I guess now's the time.
My list of problems I gave to the dealer:
1. Cruise control doesn't work
2. Front brakes squeek
3. Fuel filters need changed?
4. Check engine light comes on
5. "Wrench" light comes on
6. Fuel gauge quits intermittently
7. Hubs don't lock in automatically using shift-on-the-fly, only work manually.
Dealer finds more, Fulthrottl nailed the first two:
8. EGR Cooler
9. Engine Oil Cooler
10. Leaking rear shocks
11. Bad tie rod end
12. Steering gear box has excessive play in it?
The dealer said the right front axle shaft has an 1.5"!!! of up/down play in it keeping the vacuum seals from working and engaging the automatic hubs. EGR and Engine coolers are just starting to plug up, there should only be a 13 degree difference, right now I have a 25 degree. I'm glad the dealer caught this for me before I wrecked the motor!
The cruise control needs an $1100 PCM to work, supposedly the circuit failed inside the brain box. A fuse would of been too easy!
The quote the dealership sent over is at $5300 so far and he hasn't even worked up the cost for the front end work yet....
The boss freaked out....
The shop bought the truck used at 85000 miles, I don't know if this one is going to pencil out. Gets 12.5 MPG, the loaner Dodge 4 door 4wd, same as my pickup except mine has an extended cab instead, gets 16.5 mpg but it isn't tooled up either though. So maybe the MPG would even out, the Dodge seems to have a lot more get up and go too!
Keep an eye on your 6.0 liter!!
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