how many miles on your 6.0 smb?

[Ford_6L_E350]

Originally Posted by Zeta

I had a water pump failure and right bank injector harness failure on my '02 PSD at 60k. Wasn't so thrilled. Each time I was headed for a trip. Each time. I think it hated me.

Z

That means the 7.3's weren't bulletproof either.

Mike

[EMrider]

We have 55k on our 06.

I know the issues quite well, but our SMB has been the most trouble free vehicle our family has ever owned. Now, bring up MBenz, and I have another story to tell..........

Only had to replace the EGR valve and fix a glow plug fitting.

I carefully follow all of the steps outlined by others to keep the odds as much in my favor as possible.
R

[pjpvi]

58k on my 2005 6.0PSD.

- Engine pulled twice for bed plate gasket
- one turbo replace and one turbo rebuild
- HPOP failure (left us stranded)
- blown hi pressure turbo hose (two times now)
- shorted wiring harness caused no start once
- failed alternator (not PSD related)
- failed air conditioning compressor (not PSD related)

Running like a champ now!

Phil

[bettyford]

2006 Chevy Express with a Dura Max 60k runs like a raped ape 20 to 24 mpg super quiet and 325hp (chipped) I have only had it 6 months but have put 10k on it already, the previous owner said he never had any issue and I have all the service records.

Ron

[flyfisher]

2005 PSD with 45k miles on it. 85% of the miles are freeway, with the balance being whatever it takes to get to the lakes, rivers, or campsites. HPOP failed at 32k and was replaced under warranty (thank goodness, I think it was very expensive). Other than that, The Van's been trouble free. Of course I'm compulsive about maintaining it and driving it like I'm going to keep it forever. No long idles, let it warm up well and no charging up the pass in overdrive just because I can.

Tom

[Greggd]

Having read the post regarding the FORD coolant gelling from temperature extremes I tried to validate this problem for peace of mind and have not been able to get any information for this potential problem . I contacted three different FORD dealerships and an International Truck dealer in Reno and was told by their Service Managers that they hand not seen or heard of any bulletins to this issue .I was wondering if their might be somewhere that I could get the low down on this problem .
Greggde

[saline]

Again, still seems to be a theory but here is an excerpt from a discussion on thedieselsite.com



Quote:
Originally Posted by Gwar
Does the lack of silicate have any adverse affects??? Not to ask a dumb question but why would ford continue to use a coolant that causes serious issues with its engines???

Does the 6.0L come from the factory with the ford gold or something from international???

(QUOTE) Posted by PGreenSVT at Powerstroke.org

Can't explain away Ford's logic. International uses Fleetrite ELC. Think about it. Whats is another silicate? Sand immediately come to mind. What is sand? It's an abrasive. Besides that it turns to a gell from the heat as it goes through the egr cooler trying to carry off the heat from high egt's resulting in the sludge that clogs the oil cooler. There is a substanial body of evidence supporting this.

Not having silicates is a positive thing. It has no adverse affects. ELC coolant is good for 300k miles without any additives and extendable to 600k with an additive pack at 300k. The new Delo ELC is good for 750k miles or 8 years extendable to 1 million miles.

I think it pretty much speaks for itself.
__________________
I'm on a campaign man. That Gold cxxp is killing our trucks and people need to know. It is the cause of the biggest problems we have with the 6.0 and the bad reputation the 6.0 has. And it is pretty cheap and easy to eliminate. People should know this. So yeah, I'm beating that drum. The other drum is the need to monitor ECT and EOT before you blow your egr cooler and head gaskets.

I just did a flush with Fleetrite Restore, VC9, lots of flushing, installed a coolant filter, and switched to ELC. Im curious to see what my coolant filter will look like after the first 500 miles, I know there is still most likely some cxxp in there still as I still have the stock EGR and oil cooler at 34k miles but I doubt there will be anywhere the abount that we see out of most of the posts with opened up coolant filters.

I recently installed the DieselSite.com coolant filter kit on my 2006 6.0. The kit came complete with everything you need and also came with the new billet aluminum filter head, looks really sharp.

PGreenSVT, dude you need to change your screen name to "ELC FOR LIFE!"

But I agree I just switched to ELC also, either way it cant be any worse than the gold, for those of you that have doubts just scrape the bottom of your degas bottle, thats the same cxxp thats clogging your oil cooler. When I did my flush I pulled my degas bottle and scrubbed it with a bottle brush, that cxxp is like glue.
also read this




(QUOTE) Posted by PGreenSVT Powerstroke.org





--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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 why it happens. The Ford Gold coolant contains silicates. The 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 jell 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. Now 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)
Your uninformed Powerstroke owner is not monitoring his coolant temps and oil temps so he doesn't know whats going on and he keeps driving it this way. The problem get 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. This causes 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 cxxp out of your engine with a couple bottles of Restore. This is made specifically to clean out that silicate residue. Now refill it with a silicate free Cat EC-1 rated ELC coolant. 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 Powerstroke 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 there full range of motion. So put your foot in it regularly and let is 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 you foot in it and you will have less problems. Lay out of it and try to milk it for mileage like you would a gasser and 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 major turbo issues. Running a 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. Fords 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 can not let your oil maintenance slide like you can on a gasser. It will kill your injectors. The injectors also are known to suffer from something that we call stiction. That is when the oil side spool valve of the injects 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 a 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. 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. Well the Factory fuel pressure regulator spring is weak and looses it's 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.

So that covers the frequent complaints with the 6.0. They 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. So address the issues as you can and enjoy your truck.

[stikine]

Some real good info here, but for those of us on extended warranties, I would suggest there would be a very strong likelihood that a switch to International Fleetrite ELC coolant would void your warranty.

[Ford_6L_E350]

It may not void your warranty, but it would be a big problem if someone added Ford Gold Coolant to fillup you system.

Mike

[bitburger]

A short time ago, I purchased the expensive extended warranty for my 08.

Last weekend, my check engine light came on. The turbocharger vanes were frozen, replaced under warranty without a murmur by Ford of Kirkland.

It doesn't seem quite as expensive anymore