6.0 Myths truths and in between, Discuss.

[JoeDaddy]

This is pertaining to aftermarket and stock so I figured it best to put here. This thread is to let those that are truly in "The Know" (not I) speak. No opinions, just facts please.

What is needed to have a long lasting dependable 6.0?

We hear constantly to Bullet proof, Studs, EGR delete, Replacing/moving the oil cooler, ELC coolant, coolant filter and so on. But are these really needed. I get conflicting opinions, some say if you're going to leave it stock just ditch the EGR and rock out! thus this thread.

Go!

 

[littleredstroker]

I have a friend who tows campers cross country. I am 99% sure he just has egr delete, maybe an exhaust and intake. I know its not "bulletporoofed" hes got some pretty high miles on er all towing and does just fine

 

[Cold Roller]

This thread is to let those that are truly in "The Know" (not I) speak.

riest: Everyone is in the know; don't you know!oke: For anyone that ever did a mod, there will be an opinion or the gospel.

So what do I know... I never had a gasket failure and I did run hot tunes on 2 different trucks on stock bolts, however, I did change to ARPs and have not had any failures, yet.

I never had a bad oil cooler. Never had an EGR or EGR cooler failure. I did have a flash-boil issue on one truck when I was beating on it real hard. Very soon after that, I did do the EGR cooler delete on that truck as a precaution. I did the same delete on a previous truck when there had been many reports of cooler failures, but no one really knew why.

The average hot-rodder would be very happy with just a hot tune and NOTHING else. The more you go over modest tuning, the more it costs and the more other parts break. Torque converters or head gaskets go first and transmissions follow. I drove my latest truck for 2 years with higher HP mods. The first year saw no real issues except a potential T/C slip. After another year of larger mods it started to grind. I just dropped $5G ($6G after I pay the tax and get it into Canada) for a new transmission and T/C. So do the math, I have 2 sets of larger injectors, a new HPOP (cause I thought the old one was weak), 2 turbos, ARPs, EGR delete, CAI, 4" T/B exhaust, Ported intake, a tuner, a monitor, an AE (just in case), a 6.7 fuel system, the new T/C and trans (cause the trans would have probably gone south soon), and I still need bigger HP oil! Perhaps I should have just stayed close to stock and save my pennies for a pretty new one!

There are many that have way more sunk into their trucks than I do, but it is fairly obvious that some of the upgrades are from watching those that went first break something and sit back and watch the results before doing the same. Others are from the jump on the band-wagon scenario. The only thing that is constant for any vehicle is, the cost goes up exponentially to the power gains!:hammer:

 

[semperfidooordie]

Good info. Subbd

 

[stereodesigner]

In my oppinion, just from my experience if you delete egr stud the truck and watch your temps. It makes a world difference on these motors we have had 3 over 200k miles and friends that have a few 6.0s....mine is working up to 300k miles now no problems

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk 2

 

[Dave]

Joe if youre just leaving it stock. Ditch the EGR, Get an Edge CTS or something for monitoring the usual and your ECT and EOT deltas, Switch to ELC and get a coolant filter.

Worry about the rest if and when the time comes.

 

[JoeDaddy]

I ask this question because I spent awhile talking to guys who beat on them. I've had several customers now that show up in 400k+ 6.0's with nothing done to them. Not even egr! What they all have in common was the flogged them mercilessly and never installed tunes.

I'm a big fan of eliminating a potential problem....egr namely. But thats only because its a design flaw to begin with. If a guy is going to stay stock does it really help to "bullet proof"?

 

[morepower02]

Joe. You already know my take on owning a couple since new. Drive then like like you would any thing else. Do the routine maintenance and forget it. Most of the scare tactics to sell parts to "bullet proof" are just that.

 

[ford rules]

I dont really agree with that^
There are parts on the 6.0 that are a know failure point, STC, dummy plugs, standpipes, egr, FICMS, and injectors. These are the biggest failure points i see.

Those who are saying that they have over 200k-300k and even 400k are flat out lying if they say they have never had anything done to the truck. I see all those parts start to fail around the 80-100,000 mile mark.

In my opinion fix the know failure points before they fail and leave you stranded, then you will be on the bandwagon of the 6.0 is a POS.
It all comes back to the owner IMO of how the truck will last.

 

[morepower02]

I replaced the Ficm on one at 120k and 4 injectors on the other at 190k. I fail to see how any bullet proofing would have saved them.

 

[sootie]

I'm with him^^^

we have one 05 6oh that has been tuned since the week after it was purchased new in 05 and mostly we have done items that would not have been helped by bulletproofing. it now has 250k miles plus.

under warranty between 60-85k:

head gaskets (replaced with stock head bolts),
ficm (bad dignostics-didnt need one),
alternator,
starter,
one ball joint,


after warranty:
hpop,
(installed new oil cooler, egr delete and CAI at that time) @ 110k
alternator, x3
ficm (really did need it, replaced with an upgraded one) @ 150k
injectors, stc fittings & other oil updates @ 190k
upipes,
turbo, both @ 210k

aside from that-just brakes, tires and oil changes.

 

[lx_2nv]

I have read things like a coolant flush (ELC), filter and a tune that turns off the EGR is all you need. My ex just blew a head gasket at 185K miles with stock bolts. I am going to go ahead and spend the extra money to stud them.

 

[Luke@MillerPerformance]

It all comes back to the EGR as far as head gaskets go. A Sinister or Bulletproof EGR cooler helps, a delete is the best option.

I've been running my current setup for a few months now, driving like a stole it, towing heavy stuff, all the things that should cause the stock bolts to fail. Haven't had a problem yet. I have studs sitting on the shelf just don't have time to get them in. Already toasted a trans, dyno'd 527hp on a tune for the stock turbo.

I won't sell an EGR/Oil Cooler job with out a coolant filter and EC-1 Coolant. When the oil gets hot, the heads crack. I have a truck in the shop right now with ARPs and cracked heads. Owner got it hot multiple times, has 300K miles. Cooling system is full of junk after its 5th oil cooler that Ford installed.

The problem with "bulletproofing" is there seems to be an idea that afterwards you can turn your SCT to kill and do whatever you want. Just not true. It has a tow tune for a reason.

 

[Countryboy07]

Early 2003 6.0 with 207,xxx miles on it now. Have had to replace HPOP, Injectors (had a couple bad ones, replaced with lower mile stockers), and FICM. Did an EGR delete and a Loony Tune from Viv and is running great! Used as truck should be used, shes not pretty anymore, but still gets the job done.

 

[04cr450]

you mean late 03

 

[jdc753]

I am far from one in the know, but my experience with my truck having put 150k on it myself over the last 6 years of ownership. Got the truck in 07 with 49k on it, right now its got 193k and climbing, about 130k of that is with Xtreme Race daily driven and occasional light towing. Most the truck has really seen is 10k with the utility or dump trailer. Gets put to the floor 4k RPM shifts at least once a day, always merging onto the highway around 80mph, otherwise calmly driving winding out the shifts only to 2100rpm or so.

I am NOT a maintenance freak, I treat the truck like I would any other, it gets the oil changed when I get around to it, somewhere around 10k, and nothing fancy, valvoline 15w40 or motocraft 15w40. Fuel filters get done on occasion probably once a year or so. Coolant got flushed once back about 100k ago, trans same thing, flushed once at 93k.

Repair history

55k - Had the EGR valve plug up on me around
93k - 6 injectors replaced under warranty to fix cold start issues
113k - Studded/deleted with an oil cooler (temps were 30°+ delta) and all the little updates, dummy plugs, STC fitting, turbo drain. Heads were cracked, and replaced. Had been running hot tune for approximately 30k at this point
125k - FICM was resoldered

Since then sitting has been its greatest enemy, but no major repairs, brakes, oil/filter changes, and had a oil pressure sensor go out, oh and the bed rot off the truck.


All in all I consider it decent since it's race tuned daily and I wouldn't consider it babied, drove it 1,000 miles down to TS and then 1,000 miles back getting about 17mpg.




My fathers 7.3 has 150k on it, just recently got an Oil pan and a CPS and UVCH's done, work truck its entire life. He bought a 6.0 on the cheap when the oil pan rotted out, and basically started using that for 90% of his work/driving, I think it has around 130k on it now (07 truck) its getting an FICM right now, and had a set of injectors, bone stock, bout the same maintenance schedule as mine.

 

[Stroked777]

As far as a keeping a 6.0 happy is to beat on it. I bought on 04 with 35k and owned it til 97k. It had a 10 inch lift and 40 inch tires and was not studded and was stock everything else to my knowledge. I best the piss out of it and never had an issue besides leaking up pipes and a icp sensor going bad. Other than that I never had a issue. Now my friends dad's 6.0 is an 07 and has under 30k on it. Barely drives it and if he does it's only a few miles, he's been through a few turbos and I had to replace the ficm at 29k. Sitting will kill these 6.0s. I always said pretend your truck is Rihanna and you are Chris brown and beat the chit out of the truck

 

[Mdub707]

Joe if youre just leaving it stock. Ditch the EGR, Get an Edge CTS or something for monitoring the usual and your ECT and EOT deltas, Switch to ELC and get a coolant filter.

Worry about the rest if and when the time comes.

Yes, aside from high pressure oil updates, this is pretty much all I would do. Though, I stuck with the Ford Gold just to say I did. Never needed an oil cooler on this truck at all, but I did one anyway.

I ask this question because I spent awhile talking to guys who beat on them. I've had several customers now that show up in 400k+ 6.0's with nothing done to them. Not even egr! What they all have in common was the flogged them mercilessly and never installed tunes.

I'm a big fan of eliminating a potential problem....egr namely. But thats only because its a design flaw to begin with. If a guy is going to stay stock does it really help to "bullet proof"?

Again, for what you do with these trucks and knowing you like reliable... do what Dave said.

I dont really agree with that^
There are parts on the 6.0 that are a know failure point, STC, dummy plugs, standpipes, egr, FICMS, and injectors. These are the biggest failure points i see.

Those who are saying that they have over 200k-300k and even 400k are flat out lying if they say they have never had anything done to the truck. I see all those parts start to fail around the 80-100,000 mile mark.

In my opinion fix the know failure points before they fail and leave you stranded, then you will be on the bandwagon of the 6.0 is a POS.
It all comes back to the owner IMO of how the truck will last.

My buddy had an 05 with 275k miles on it before we tore it down for headgaskets. It had an Edge programmer on it since like 12k miles, and it had never been on anything smaller than a 37" tire it's whole life. It just started having injector stiction a hair before 300k so we swapped two of them, and he also went to an SCT around this time. It blew gaskets not long after and we studded it and everything. It was running strong past 300k though after that. Ran on Rotella 15w-40 it's whole life. It was a freak.

I am far from one in the know, but my experience with my truck having put 150k on it myself over the last 6 years of ownership. Got the truck in 07 with 49k on it, right now its got 193k and climbing, about 130k of that is with Xtreme Race daily driven and occasional light towing. Most the truck has really seen is 10k with the utility or dump trailer. Gets put to the floor 4k RPM shifts at least once a day, always merging onto the highway around 80mph, otherwise calmly driving winding out the shifts only to 2100rpm or so.

I am NOT a maintenance freak, I treat the truck like I would any other, it gets the oil changed when I get around to it, somewhere around 10k, and nothing fancy, valvoline 15w40 or motocraft 15w40. Fuel filters get done on occasion probably once a year or so. Coolant got flushed once back about 100k ago, trans same thing, flushed once at 93k.

Repair history

55k - Had the EGR valve plug up on me around
93k - 6 injectors replaced under warranty to fix cold start issues
113k - Studded/deleted with an oil cooler (temps were 30°+ delta) and all the little updates, dummy plugs, STC fitting, turbo drain. Heads were cracked, and replaced. Had been running hot tune for approximately 30k at this point
125k - FICM was resoldered

Since then sitting has been its greatest enemy, but no major repairs, brakes, oil/filter changes, and had a oil pressure sensor go out, oh and the bed rot off the truck.


All in all I consider it decent since it's race tuned daily and I wouldn't consider it babied, drove it 1,000 miles down to TS and then 1,000 miles back getting about 17mpg.

My truck has been the opposite of this, I kept up on maintenance and mine seemed to break every time I turned around. I expected most of it, as most of it was relatively self induced. Breaking down was never really the trouble with owning a 6.0, it was what came after. Several dealerships with "certified tech's" that couldn't diagnose anything and never could seem to fix issues. Once I dove in and learned everything myself life got a lot simpler.

As far as a keeping a 6.0 happy is to beat on it. I bought on 04 with 35k and owned it til 97k. It had a 10 inch lift and 40 inch tires and was not studded and was stock everything else to my knowledge. I best the piss out of it and never had an issue besides leaking up pipes and a icp sensor going bad. Other than that I never had a issue. Now my friends dad's 6.0 is an 07 and has under 30k on it. Barely drives it and if he does it's only a few miles, he's been through a few turbos and I had to replace the ficm at 29k. Sitting will kill these 6.0s. I always said pretend your truck is Rihanna and you are Chris brown and beat the chit out of the truck

LOL Exactly, letting them sit seems to be the worst thing for them.

 

[Strokin89]

When you say letting a 6.0 sit how long do you mean? We had an 03 Dually that had sat around a lot and to my knowledge it's still running great only mods were a mbrp 4" and I think it had a super chips on it awhile.


2005 F250 6.0 powerstroke, 6 speed manual, egr delete, arp head studs, new oil cooler, aftermarket coolant filter, custom intake, 4" down pipe into dual 6" stacks, 8" lift, TSD super panty dropper tune.