Calling All Ford 6.0 PSD Owners!!!

[Silverfoxrae]

Back again... I recently had a problem with the Excursion. First, I was told I needed to replace the turbo, which I did, but continued to have the same intermittent problems. I eventually had to change shops because the one shop wasn't interested in trying to figure things out, even though the water in fuel light kept coming on. Turns out that I had a very bad fuel contamination issue. I am lucky that I didn't blow my injectors. Now I am paranoid, and re-reading what I can and learning more about what to do- proactively. Hopefully I can stay ahead of the problems, and run well on my 2004 6.0 :-)

Rae

[DavidsonOverlander]

Finally got the by-pass coolant and oil filters installed.

I welded a bracket and bolted it onto the alternator mount. The bracket shown in the photo is not the final version. It seemed a little too flexible, so I added another piece to stiffen it. This can be seen in the first picture.

It took a lot of experimenting to get both filters to fit and allow room to change the filters. Having the bracket angle back toward the driver's side made a big difference.

One of the challenges was figuring out if there was enough vertical space between the filter mount and the hood. The crushed pop can shows the clearance.

[Happycampers]

Originally Posted by DavidsonOverlander

Hi Marvin,

How did your upgrades go? Did you install all this yourself, or have someone else do it? Feel free to drop in anytime you're going through Milton. I'd like to see what you've done with your truck.

I can't afford everything you're doing right now, but I'm starting with the coolant filter and would like to do something about the EGR.

Grant

Hi Grant, Sorry I didn't see your post. All the work is done and cost around $5000.00 I had it done at a Ford dealer in New York that was recommended on the Bullet Proof site. They didn't take the cab off just the fenders and rad. support. It is a 30 hour job by the book. Everything is good now, I still have to get the 4 inch exhaust and cat done.

To the Dodge boys posting on here. That Cummins engine is a real good engine, it is just to bad they had to put it in a Dodge.

Marvin

[Happycampers]

Grant, I forgot, if you want to do anything with your EGR cooler replace it with a Bullet Proof one they won't plug and it is better than deleting them.

Marvin

[Mike S]

I have owned two Ford diesel trucks - 1986 6.9L and my current 2001 7.3L PS. No problems at all.

I heard so many horror stories about the 6.0L trucks that I searched out a low mileage 7.3L. Nice truck that does 19 MPG driving and 12-13 towing my AS.

[Happycampers]

I believe like Stingray said at the beginning of this thread that the 6.0 is a good engine. It is just that Ford has known all of its proublems and didn't do anything about it. International put the coolant filters on all of their trucks to filter the sand, a real simple and easy fix. I didn't know that you had to get an extended warranty before 60,000 miles. I bought it with 30,000 miles and checked on the warranty at about 65,000 and they wouldn't sell me one. When I started having these proublems I had about 400 miles over the warranty, I took all my receipts to the dealer here and told them that they knew they had a problem with this engine and they should do something. He called Ford and they said they would pay half the cost so I said ok can I use the parts I want to at my expense and they said no deal, all Ford parts or no deal. So I left and took care of it myself.

Marvin

[r carl]

This is yet another recall ford got out of...

[DavidsonOverlander]

Originally Posted by Happycampers

Grant, I forgot, if you want to do anything with your EGR cooler replace it with a Bullet Proof one they won't plug and it is better than deleting them.
Marvin

Thanks. That will probably be my next purchase, but not likely until Spring. I was hesitant to delete it in case it made a difference on the Drive Clean test.

[Paul Mayeux]

Originally Posted by DavidsonOverlander

Thanks xonvldz.

For those of you who haven't already visited this site, there are some interesting videos at Powerstrokehelp.com. I haven't watched them all yet, but from the ones I have seen I'm getting a better understanding of how this engine works and it's strengths and weaknesses.

Another good resource is the coffee table books at FordDoctorsdts.com

Not a bad video. Makes me happy that I bought an 2007. I'm sitting on 110,000 miles in three years now, 80% of which is towing, and I have yet to take it in for any repairs.

Oddly enough, I was afraid to buy a 6.0 but a close friend that is general manager of the local Dodge dealer advised me to buy the 6.0 over one of his because of all the problems they were having getting the 6.7 Cummins to run right at that point in time. He is close friends with the other dealer managers for Ford and GM and they all share their horror stories.

Of course he reminds me now on a regular basis that they have finally ironed the bugs out...

[xonvldz]

now that my truck is over 80000 miles it seems to be getting broken in.just towed back from fort wilderness in orlando keeping the diesel wound up and trying to avoid bogging the motor.with some miles before i started for home i drove 1140 miles on 74 gallons of diesel.my truck is completely stock and all i am using is stanadyne performance formula on every tank.i think the success with these trucks is to keep up on the maintenance and run them as often as you can.these diesels love to work.

[noreen&sal]

I have a 2000 F250 7.3. love it. but I am scared of the tranny. .....................Sal

[StingrayL82]

Wow, great feedback from my original post; I'm glad I could help.

I spend a lot of time on the Diesel Stop website, getting great information from the guys there. One of the things I've learned is that, while the information from the powerstrokehelp.com guy may have been good at one time, parts of it are outdated, so I would be hesitant to follow all of his advice.

I did get some great info from a guy on Powerstroke.org, via the Diesel Stop. Here is what he wrote:

"Here is the deal with the 6.0: Any good tuner (person writing your tunes) is not going to give you a tune that is going to tear up your truck. There are trucks all over the place running 400-420 rwhp with 750-800 rwtq all day long without problems.

Yes, the 6.0 is known to blow head gaskets. This is how it happens: The Ford Gold coolant contains silicates. These silicates are not able to handle high EGT's generated by a good load or relatively high boost, when run through the EGR cooler. They break down into a gel-like sludge and fall out of suspension. This crud gets caught up in the tiny coolant passageways of the oil cooler. As the cooler clogs up, it restricts coolant flow to the EGR cooler; the EGR cooler doesn't have enough coolant to carry off the heat generated by high EGT's; the limited amount of coolant in the EGR cooler flash boils, causing high pressure in the cooling system, and the truck pukes coolant from the degas bottle due to the pressure…it has to go somewhere. The Power Stroke owner is not monitoring coolant temps and oil temps, so he/she doesn't know what’s going on, and he/she keeps driving it this way. The problem gets worse; the pressure causes the EGR cooler to rupture. Now the EGR cooler is leaking coolant into the intake manifold, which then runs into the cylinders. Again, the high combustion temps cause the coolant to vaporize, causing unacceptably high cylinder pressure; the TTY head bolts stretch due to the additional pressure and there go your head gaskets.

Ok now you know the problem. Here's the cure: Get a good engine monitoring solution like the Edge Insight, so that you can monitor your ECT and EOT. If those temps get more than 15* apart, at normal cruising when at normal operating temperature, your oil cooler is clogging up. Rebuild it now, to prevent all that down-stream damage from occurring. Flush that Ford Gold coolant crap out of your engine with a couple bottles of Fleetrite Restore. This is made specifically to clean out that silicate residue. Now refill it with a silicate free Cat EC-1 rated ELC coolant and add a coolant filter; Dieselsite sells a kit, which you can install yourself quite easily. This removes the silicates that clog the oil cooler from the equation. If you live in an area where you don't have smog inspections delete the EGR system. If you can't delete it replace the EGR cooler with the cooler manufactured by Bulletproof Diesel. This is vastly superior to the Ford OEM EGR cooler and it will not fail on you. If you find that you need to replace head gaskets replace the TTY head bolts with ARP studs and use black onyx (Victor Reinz) head gaskets. If you have to replace the EGR cooler always replace the oil cooler. That is the source of the problem.

Now that you have addressed the common problems that scare the hell out of people, get an SCT tuner (i like the X3) and install some custom tunes and drive the heck out of it. DO NOT baby it. The Power Stroke hates this and will rebel with turbo issues.

Turbo issues are also common repair points with the 6.0. People like to complain that it's because the VGT turbos are pieces of junk. This is not so. The VGT vanes in the turbo need to be exercised regularly. This means making them go through their full range of motion. So put your foot in it regularly and let it see some full boost runs. That will keep your VGT vanes from getting all sooted up and freezing up because of the soot. Again, that is what happens when you baby it. Put your foot in it and you will have fewer problems. If you keep your foot off of it and try to milk it for mileage like you would a gasser, you're going to have turbo issues. Don't let it sit either. That is also the kiss of death to the turbo. The unison ring rusts up and again you have turbo problems. So now that you know you need to give your turbo a regular work out to keep it happy, give it a proper cool down as well. Just whipping into your parking place and shutting it down will lead to coking the bearings and, again, you will have major turbo issues. Running good synthetic oil will help here immensely because it handles heat so much better and resists coking. But always let your turbo have time to cool down. This is one of the reasons you need a Pyrometer (EGT gauge), Let the EGT come down to 350* before shutting your truck off. This only takes a couple of minutes, especially if you take it easy on it for the last couple minutes of your trip. If this is too much hassle for you get a turbo timer that will automatically delay shutdown when you turn off the key to allow the turbo to cool down.

Injectors – Ford’s injection system (HEUI) fires the injectors with high-pressure oil, to the tune of 4,000psi, at Wide Open Throttle. Maintenance is critical here, so you cannot let your oil changes slide like you can on a gasser; it will kill your injectors. The injectors are also known to suffer from something that we call stiction. That is when the oil side spool valve of the injectors hangs up or sticks when cold until the truck warms up. I believe this is caused by varnish buildup that is common to dino oils, especially those containing paraffin. Using good synthetic oil will take care of that, because it actually cleans the engine as it lubricates. If you do find yourself with some injector stiction, add a couple of bottles of Rev-X to your oil; Innovative Diesel carries it. It has cleared up 99.9% of the trucks it has been used on. 2 bottles run around $70. A new injector is about $250-$290. Be anal about keeping your oil clean and fresh and changing your fuel filters regularly. The other thing that kills injectors is low fuel pressure. The fuel pressure needs to stay above 45psi at all times and is typically set around 52 psi from the factory. The factory fuel pressure regulator spring is weak and loses its tension over time and can't maintain adequate fuel pressure. There is an updated rebuild kit that uses a better, stronger spring. Installing this spring will bring your fuel pressure up to about 62 psi and solve that. Get a fuel pressure gauge; it's important.

That covers the frequent complaints with the 6.0, which are all well known at this point as are the solutions. Does it suck we have to fix Ford's blunders? Heck yes it does. But, again, we know how and once done you will have a very reliable robust truck that is well worth the effort. Address the issues as you can and enjoy your truck. It is a dynamite vehicle. I love mine."

The bottom line is don't believe everything you read or hear; do your research, come to your own conclusions and then pull the trigger on the repairs/modifications you want to make to your 6.0 to make it more reliable/safer.

[Dave Park]

In this post, they mention the Edge Insight, which is an older model of the Edge CTS I mentioned just today in this thread. It is a really god way to add digital gauges for all sorts of readings that normally do not display on the dash gauges.

[StingrayL82]

Great write-up on your other post, Dave! The only think I will say about aftermarket intake filters for 6.0 owners is DON'T DO IT!!!!! The stock Donaldson is the best around and that fact has been proven over and over again, so much so that their filter is now being copied by an aftermarket company for other brand vehicles.

SCT also makes digital gauges, with their TSX and Livewire models, both of which can also carry tunes for your truck.

I'm going to follow my own advice and get gauges in my truck, as soon as I get back from Maryland, in February...should have done it a long time ago, but procrastination and lack of money are my enemies.

[Dave Park]

I looked at the SCT gear, and only went for the Edge CTS because of the custom mode where I could set custom shift points for the transmission, so given a trailer of a certain weight, I can force or prevent downshifting depending on the terrain.

[Dover]

Well, after almost 5 years of worry, pain (think wallet), and fear of the unknown, I've decided to just shoot my 2006 PSD. After a less ( much less)than steller towing experience while attending this years Can Opener, in Destin, Fla, I've had one problem after another, gone to arbitration with Ford Motor (they lost), and it's been impossible to think of future travel when the truck still has so many issues that seemingly aren't going to be resolved, at least by the diesel mechanics that are in my area. I like the F-250 build, body and ride, alas the engine is a killer. So after many days of research and test drives, I decided to try the new 2011 6.2 liter gas engine in the 250. There is an amazing difference ( at least from my 6.0 ride), and the future of my travels ( and retirement) looks much better. I'll keep you posted on it's ability to tow my 06' Classic.

Terry

[JFScheck]

Please - keep us updated and pictures if you get a new TV...

[pmclemore]

Terry, my brother-in-law was suffering with his PSD. I sent him most of the text from the OP from this thread and this got his truck diagnosed and fixed along with $1,000 or so in savings as Ford agreed to participate in the repair cost.

....just in case you want to try again.

Pat

[StingrayL82]

Originally Posted by pmclemore

Terry, my brother-in-law was suffering with his PSD. I sent him most of the text from the OP from this thread and this got his truck diagnosed and fixed along with $1,000 or so in savings as Ford agreed to participate in the repair cost.

....just in case you want to try again.

Pat

Pat,

Glad to see that my post came in handy. These ARE good trucks...all we have to do is make them 100% reliable. Should we have to? Absolutely not, but I would rather spend a little extra money in the short term than a whole wad of cash on a new engine, or even truck for that matter, in the long run.

[pmclemore]

Well, my b-i-l thinks I did him a great favor and he is much better off. Thanks for that.

If we ever find ourselves camping together, I'll cover the bar bill.

Pat