Tips & Tricks Of Extending The Life of a 6.0 Liter Ford Diesel Engine

C.J. Snyder is back with more tips & tricks to help keep a Ford 6.0 liter going strong! Be sure & check out Part I as well!

When talking about the Ford 6.0, the big issue that people have with them is the fact that the head gaskets love to blow out, and the EGR cooler loves to blow, causing plumes of white smoke to billow out of the exhaust like you’re fogging for mosquitos. Though not necessarily catastrophic, both of these issues are a big pain in the ass and cost the owners tons of money and down time.

The main cause of both of these issues are a combination of 2 things. 1; Navistar (parent company of International) cut corners wherever they could to save money and 2; proper maintenance is not performed, either privately by the customers, or by poorly trained technicians. There is one subsystem in the engine that causes more headaches for owners than either the head gaskets or EGR coolers; the High Pressure Oil System. There are many different points of failure in the system that can lead to either crank-no-start issues or hot-start issues, and I will attempt to work through them all in this write-up, as well as some fixes for them.

The first thing in the oil system I want to talk about is the High Pressure Oil Pump (HPOP), and this is confined to the 03-04 model years. In 05, International went through and redesigned many parts of the 6.0 to try and take care of all the problem spots found on the 03-04 engines, and they sort of succeeded. The HPOP on the 03-04 engines used some plastic parts on the inside that were prone to breaking apart and trashing the pump itself, and all the various other parts in the system. There really is no fix for the consumer other than to go to the aftermarket, where there are some all metal HPOP’s you can install to remedy this problem. 05-07 engines don’t seem to have this problem.
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This is the revised 1-piece STC fitting. The threaded end goes into the back of the HPOP, oil flows through the center of it, and out through the center hole of the block portion. The outer 2 holes are for the bolts that attach it to the branch tubes under the HPOP.

Next comes the Snap-To-Connect (STC) fitting, probably the most trouble prone piece in the system. From the factory, the STC fitting was 2-pieces that snapped together with an o-ring and metal flange. One side threads into the back of the HPOP, facing the rear of the engine, the other side gets bolted to a block-shaped flange that the branch tubes tie into. The problem is at the o-ring in the middle of the 2 pieces.

The constant high pressures it sees coupled with the constant vibration of the running engine means that it has a nasty habit of failing and allowing the 2-halves of the STC fitting to separate. When this happens, the high pressure oil is able to simply bleed off into the crankcase, so the injectors never see it, and this leads to a crank-no-start problem. To correct this problem, Ford came out with an STC update kit that includes a new 1-piece STC fitting to alleviate the failures caused by the 2-piece fitting. You can buy the kit at your local “stealer”-ship or at an aftermarket supplier and either do it yourself, or have a shop do it. Just make sure that it is either a stealership or an independent shop that has lots of experience working on the Ford 6.0 liter diesels.

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This is the factory Ford snap-to-connect (STC) update kit. The original STC fitting is 2-pieces and prone to failure, the updated one is 1-piece.

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This is the dummy plug (on top) and stand pipe (on bottom). The flared, tapered end attaches to the branch tubes under the HPOP. The threaded end at the other end is what threads into the oil rail to seal it to the rail and apply a press fit to the tapered end where it meets the branch tube. The oil flows up through the center of the stand pipe and out through the cross drilled holes at the other end into the oil rail. The 03-04 style is different, with a special fitting that a braided stainless steel soft line attaches to that feeds the oil to the oil rail.

Next in line is the stand pipes and dummy plugs. This is another part that was changed in 05, so I will keep the discussion to the 05-07 engines. The standpipes are what takes the high pressure oil from the branch tubes to the high pressure oil rails in the cylinder heads. The stand pipes themselves are not the problem, but the O-rings that seal them are. The problem is that the seals can’t always handle the high pressures in the system, and they tend to either twist or tear and allow the high pressure oil to bleed off into the crankcase.

The tricky thing is that they tend to only do this when the engine is hot because the oil is thin. When it is cool and the oil is thick, the engine will crank up and start and run normally, but when you shut it down to run into a store or something, and come back out 10 or 20 minutes later and try and start it, the truck will just crank and crank until the batteries die or the starter burns out. The same problem happens with the dummy plugs. In case you are wondering what the dummy plugs are, they are to plug the excess holes in the oil rail.

The high pressure oil rails are able to be put on either side of the engine, so the port for the stand pipe to pass through would be in the back of the rail on one side of the engine, but when the rail gets switched to the other side of the engine, the port ends up being in the front of the rail, so International made 2-ports evenly spaced in the rail, so either port lines up with the stand pipe, but the other port needs to be plugged, so that’s why there are dummy plugs. When the O-rings on the stand pipes and dummy plugs started failing, Ford came out with some new ones that have some white Teflon rings under the O-rings to stabilize them and keep them from rolling and tearing.
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This is a picture of the 05-07 high pressure oil rail taken straight from the Ford service manual. The 2 round openings in the upper wavy part are for the stand pipe and dummy plug. The 03-04 oil rail only had the straight lower part. Regardless of the model year, the lower part is what connects to the fuel injectors.

Now we come to the high pressure oil rails themselves. Again, this is something that was changed in 05. The 03-04 oil rails were just a straight cast iron pipe that fed the oil into the top of the injectors. Ford found that because of the action of the rail filling up with oil, then draining partially due to the injectors using the oil up, then refilling, a pressure wave would develop and start bouncing back and forth from one end of the rail to the other, causing a strange knocking noise and actually depriving the injectors of a constant and smooth flow of oil. So, in 05, International added the upper “W” shaped section and all the sections that criss-cross between the 2 sections. This addition helped to increase the capacity of the oil rail to stabilize the pressure in the rail, and the shape helps to negate any pressure waves that try and develop. The only real failure point in these is the cups of the fittings that go into the injectors, but these rarely fail. You can either replace the rail, or replace the cup with some aftermarket pieces.

Ok kids, even though this doesn’t specifically have to do with the high pressure oil system, it’s time to get to the single most problematic part of the entire engine; the oil cooler. It helps cause head gasket failures, it helps cause EGR cooler failures, and it causes the truck to overheat.

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The head trouble maker of the 6.0; the oil cooler. Coolant goes in and comes out of the side with the elevated fittings, and oil goes in and out of the holes that sit flat with the housing. The oil filter housing sits on top of this, which sits in a recess in the valley of the block.

To understand why, you need to understand how the oil cooler works. Unlike other vehicles that have oil coolers that look like little radiators (called oil to air heat exchangers), the 6.0 used an oil to coolant heat exchanger. It sits under the oil filter housing in a depression of the valley of the block. It takes in engine oil and passes it through several layers of oil galleys that run the length of the cooler.
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Here’s a shot of the oil galleys of the oil cooler. The oil goes in one side, flows across the cooler, and flows out. The coolant does the same thing, in layers that separate the oil galleys, so the layers go oil-coolant-oil-coolant, and so on.

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Here’s another shot at showing the coolant galleys of the oil cooler. The heat gets transferred from the oil, through the metal separating the layers, and into the coolant, thus cooling the oil.

It also takes in coolant and passes it through several layers of coolant galleys that sit in between the oil galleys that run the length of the cooler. The layers alternate, so there is an oil layer, than a coolant layer, than oil, coolant, oil, coolant, and so forth.

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Here’s another shot showing how many layers there are in the oil cooler.

The heat gets transferred from the oil, through the metal that separates the layers, and into the coolant. The problem is that the coolant galleys tend to get clogged up; this happens for several reasons. One is that sometimes, casting sand from the block and head casting at the foundry gets left behind in the coolant galleys. Some 6.0’s have this problem, some don’t.

The sand gets carried by the coolant into the oil cooler, and it can’t make it through the small coolant galleys. The other cause of it getting clogged is the coolant itself. When Ford introduced the 6.0 engine, they also debuted a new coolant called Motorcraft gold. Suspended in the liquid was a series of dissolved additives called a “corrosion inhibitor package”. It was intended to stop electrolysis from occurring between the coolant and the cast iron of the block and heads and the aluminum of the front cover, water pump housing and oil cooler.

The problem is, if the coolant doesn’t get flushed enough, the additives fall out of suspension and end up as solids floating in the coolant. These solids end up clogging up the coolant galleys of the oil cooler. You can see what these solids look like by finding a 6.0 with blown head gaskets (shouldn’t be too hard to find, haha!)

You will see what looks like baby powder all over the degas bottle, the inside of the hood, and just about everywhere else under the hood on the drivers side. A secondary problem caused by the oil cooler getting clogged up is the EGR cooler failing. The coolant goes through the oil cooler, then the EGR cooler, so when the oil cooler clogs up, it restricts coolant flow to the EGR cooler, and allows the exhaust gasses to overheat it and bring the material of the cooler to it’s failure point, causing it to start dumping coolant into both the intake and the exhaust, and you get a whole lotta white smoke.

The best way to figure out if your oil cooler is clogged is to get a mechanic to look at the coolant temps and oil temps on a scan tool (or if you have a programmer at home like my EDGE Insight CTS, look at ECT and EOT), if the temps are more then 15 degrees apart at idle, chances are pretty good your oil cooler is clogged. The best way to avoid this is to flush your coolant every 30-40k miles. Ford says 100k on the coolant, but I call BS on that.

Standard practice for most vehicles is around 60k miles, but because of the oil cooler issue, I would go every 30-40k. Also, you can do what I did and install a coolant filtration kit. You can get them from a bunch of different places, I got mine from MKM Customs (Sinister Diesel). This will extend out your coolant flushing intervals, and save your oil cooler and EGR cooler, which will save you money. I also got my bypass oil filter kit from MKM Customs, and the 2 together under the hood look great, they just take up a bit of room.
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This is the coolant filter kit to help keep the oil cooler from clogging up with casting sand and sediment in the coolant. The hose with the blue anodized aluminum t-fitting splices into the hose that feeds the heater core. It sends the coolant through the filter, and then returns it to the engine through the hose with the brass barbed t-fitting that splices into the overflow hose that runs from the radiator to the degas bottle.

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This is the factory Ford oil cooler replace/rebuild kit. The oval shaped plastic piece with the steel mesh in it is the screen that goes on top of the inlet to the HPOP.

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The actual bypass oil filter kit in entirety. The long black bracket mounts off of 2 of the alternator bolts and goes across to the radiator, and the oil filter and coolant filter hang off of it.

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This is the oil filter that the bypass oil filter kit uses. Just for scale, this filter can hold almost 1 qt. of oil.

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The filter head (manifold). Don’t really know why I took a pic of it, but here ya go.

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The 2 photos above are just a bit of eye candy for you. This is a new water pump I got from Bullet Proof Diesel. The factory water pump uses a plastic impeller that can break. This one is all billet aluminum, with an anodized aluminum impeller, should last a hell of a lot longer than the factory one. The damned things so beautiful, I almost don’t want to hide it in the engine!

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42 comments on “Tips & Tricks Of Extending The Life of a 6.0 Liter Ford Diesel Engine

  1. i didnt know of all the troubles the 6.0 had until i blew off a clamp 900 miles from home limped into sheridan wy. they fixed it in 30 min. decide to learn more about turbos whrn i got home. loked iot up on internet. learned a lot from powerstroke help.com i just put a coolant filter on and bypass oil filter from sinister diesel. also a scanguage 2. i have 193 degree eop 186 fwt at idling . havent tried under load yet. what does yours do under load? thanks tim

    • Sorry it’s taken me so long to get back on here, life has been insanely busy lately. On my truck, when it’s come up to temperature, I typically see about 186-190 ECT and 184-190 EOT at idle. Of course, the longer you let the truck sit there and idle, the more the temps are going to drop. As far as under load, I rarely see more than 196 out of ECT or EOT, but that’s because I run some custom tuning from IDP and the damned thing’s so fast, I can’t be under load for very long. Good call doing the coolant filter and bypass oil filter. The coolant filter should be changed for the first time after 1 month, then 3 months, then annually. When you change the coolant filter for the first time, dump it out into an empty container of some kind, I’m betting you see all kinds of shit floating in it. The bypass oil filter should be changed every other oil change if I remember correctly.

    • Thank you. I love the 6.0, they just take some love to get them to where they’re reliable. I have about $9K in my engine alone, but about $3K of that is go-fast goodies, and I just can’t stop myself from spending more on it. Up next this spring is wheels and tires, mine are almost bald. Too many smoky burnouts thanks to my IDP Extreme Race tune.

  2. Any ideas on why my 06 6.0 is getting fuel in the oil? And I mean a lot of fuel. I put 3 gallons of fresh oil in at a change & 6 gallons come out in about 4 days

    • Sorry it’s taken me so long to reply, I haven’t had a chance to check for a long time. Is the truck running rough? If you have an injector or 2 stuck open, they could be dumping fuel into the cylinders, having it leak down past the pistons and into the crankcase.

  3. If the oil cooler isn’t clogged, can it still cause a head gasket failure due to very small amount of oil seeping into coolant. The problem was discovered due to coolant pushing out radiator cap.
    Ps. Cap was brand new OEM.

    • True enough. Having the oil cooler clog up is certainly not the only cause of a 6.0 blowing head gaskets, but it is a leading contributor. Another cause is the EGR cooler failing on it’s own and allowing exhaust to enter the cooling system. This raises the cooling system pressure and blows the head gaskets, as well as puking out of the coolant bottle cap. BTW, about 95% of all the coolant bottle caps that Ford made for these trucks are junk, whether they be used or new. Don’t know why, but the overwhelming majority of them just don’t hold the pressure they’re supposed to.

  4. My 06 6.0 just turned off 2 weeks ago. Out of the blue engine cut off and wouldn’t restart. I brought to ford service center in port richey fl. They explained that the oil cooler was bad and needed to be replaced. So after $2100.00 I learned that I should have taken it somewhere else. If God forbid your oil cooler goes out make sure you can also get an egr delete which factory service centers won’t do due to epaulets regulations. So I had oil cooler replaced without egr delete. Within One Week My truck would start rough and later that same day truck would not start. I brought back to for and had to have both high pressure oil port plugs replaced. My question is does anyone know what will be next to break? I want to have this truck last I just don’t want to break down anymore. Thanks

    • It’s not a matter of “what will break next”, it’s more a matter of “what are the weak links that could break”. Since you had the oil cooler replaced, I would say that is good to go for a while. If you truly want the truck to last you for a long time, I would recommend the following; get ARP 2200 head studs installed, delete the EGR system, get a free flowing exhaust like a 4″ turbo-back system that deletes the cat, do a thorough coolant system flush and refill with Fleetguard ELC-1 coolant, install a coolant filter kit and a bypass oil filter kit, get some custom tunes written by Innovative Diesel onto an SCT X-Cal 3 tuner, and install an EDGE Insight CTS with an EGT probe plumbed into the drivers side exhaust manifold, a fuel pressure sensor plumbed into the secondary fuel filter cap, and do yourself a favor and use the EDGE license plate frame with rearview camera built in. The places to get the majority of the things you need are River City Diesel and MKM Customs. Good luck!

  5. On our 06′. 6 liter diesel F 250 we end up having the upgraded EGR cooler, upgraded oil cooler, upgraded head gasket replaced. Previously had the upgraded high pressure oil pump replaced. Has 145 thousand miles should we expect any other problems with this engine? I left a message earlier about the leaking oil cooler.

    • If you haven’t already, you may begin having problems with injectors failing. 150-200k seems to be about the most you can expect out of 6.0 injectors (this is subjective and every truck is unique, yours may last a lot longer). Oil leaks will become more prevalent and rockers may start making noise (these sound like the “chirp, chirp” of a squeaking serpentine belt, but 6.4’s are more known for this). For the sake of reliability (and bearing in mind, this is contingent on if you are subject to emissions testing) I would remove the whole EGR system with a kit from RCD that deletes the EGR cooler and valve, and supplies you with a new up-pipe that does not have a port for the EGR cooler, and a block off plate for the port where the EGR valve goes into the intake manifold. This will cause a Check Engine Light (CEL), and you will need a programmer (SCT is the best for a 6.0). Since you have the programmer, you might as well get some custom tunes written to get some more power and MPG, but you’re going to need studs, and you should get a bigger exhaust, and away we go spending shitloads of money on our trucks again lol.

  6. ’04 f350 6.0 recently started having hot start issues. Research has led me to believe the stc fitting is screwed. Here I found your posting and there’s some different things it could be. The dummy plugs and stand pipe? The issues arise more on the ’05’s? Or is this something I should look into as well? Truck starts just fine after it sits over night but as soon as she is warm I can’t shut her off and I hate to let her idle all day but currently have no choice she is my work truck. And a beast at that. Truck was used when I bought it but the egr had already been deleted head studs have been done. I don’t know about any tunes. She is a runnin mother shut your mouth still at 250k but I keep running into issues with her

    • Your issues sound like textbook High Pressure Oil system problems. Because you have an 04, your truck doesn’t have the standpipes or dummy plugs shown in the above article. The 03 and 04 model year trucks do have a standpipe, but it is of a different design, and rarely fail (that I’ve seen). More often than not with the early model year trucks, the HPOP’s themselves fail, I talk about that in the article. The IPR valve built into the pump can also fail, as well as the STC fitting. Best way to be certain would be to take it to a dealership and get them to throw a scan tool on. They’ll charge you a 1hr diag. fee (usually about 100 bucks), but it will save you a lot of time and headaches trying to figure it out for yourself. Oh, and even though you can get a diag. done at a bunch of different places, go to a dealership for this. The IDS scan tool they use will let them manually take control of the IPR valve so they can test it and see if that’s your problem, as well as do other tests to fine tune where the problem is.

  7. 2005 f 350 118,000 miles with sct livewire.
    oil and coolant delta is 13 degrees at 1900 rpms, for 30 minutes.
    im planning on egr delete, oil cooler change and sct fitting. I have factory head studs. Given the info, am im wasting my time doing the above mentioned and not doing the head studs at the same time? Oh when i change the oil cooler im also switching to elc coolant.
    Thank you

    • My personal belief is NOT doing head studs to a 6.0 is a waste of time, especially if it is tuned, like yours is. It’s absolutely possible to do head studs in your driveway without pulling the engine or the cab, I did mine in 4 days over the course of the Memorial Day weekend last year. That said, if you are doing head studs, you will have done enough disassembly to warrant replacing/upgrading other components in the engine, it all just depends on how much time and money you are willing to spend. What you are talking about doing is better than nothing. When you replace the oil cooler and switch to the ELC coolant, it’s still a good idea to throw a coolant filter on, just to make damn sure that oil cooler stays healthy. I would get the one from MKM Customs, along with their bypass oil filter setup. Remember, the injectors are actuated by oil, so the cleaner you keep the oil, the happier your VERY expensive injectors stay.

  8. I have a 2004 f250. 6.0. A few years back started my first problem, replaced system with bullet system. All good until recently having turbo replaced and new tuner placed. Then one day I start it up like always and I go 10 ft… Truck dies and keeps cranking but won’t start. Took to shop and I have been told to replace engine due to metal I engine and high pressure oil pin “something.” I have put a lot in this truck and it only has 130000 miles. Without taking apart engine can they really see if there is metal? And could it just be the high pressure oil issue you talk about? I’m just not sure putting money into this engine like I have is worth it. I keep getting told it’s a good engine once the coolant/oil system is rerouted. Where could metal come from… It’s been over 3 yes since head gaskets blew.

    • The metal could come from any number of sources. They can look for it by pulling the dipstick and examining the oil that way, or draining the oil and looking for metal in it. Engine oil with metal in it looks like metallic paint, there’s no mistaking it. Most of the time, one sees metal in the oil from bearings within the engine failing, but since you had the turbo replaced (I think, it was kind of hard to understand your question the way you typed some incomplete words), the metal could have come from bearings in the turbo failing and getting pushed into the engine, where it scarred the cylinder walls and piston rings, and everything wound up in the crankcase where it became suspended in the oil for the techs to find. Regardless of where it came from, a very small amount of metal in the oil is OK, lots is a BAD sign. if there’s a lot of metal in your oil, it’s new engine time.

  9. 07 f250 ran like a striped assed ape until oct 2014. dies suddenly with no restart. took to a ford dealership and $1600 later i have a new ipr and cleaned oil screens. it runs fine for two months and then same thing. then they change a cam sensor and batteries and a glow plug. another $700. two weeks later same problem. tbey tell me the fuel pump is bad. i contact air dog and they send me a new pump. still same problem. they tell me my hpop is bad. i spend another $2500 on that. two months later same problem. suggestions

    • Jay – My father in-law had a very similar issue that turned out to be his fan clutch. The fan clutch was sending voltage to his transmission. This caused his truck not to start. So, I might have that looked at…

  10. Without knowing more details about what’s going on with the truck, there isn’t much I can really tell you. The dealership should be pulling trouble codes out of the PCM, which should help them narrow down the problem. Is the truck building oil pressure in the high pressure oil system? If not, the problem is there. Is there a code for low voltage from the FICM (the computer that runs the injectors)? If so, that could be your problem. You can test this at home with a voltmeter/multi-meter. Google “Ford 6.0 FICM testing”. There are 2 different types of FICM used, make sure you are looking up the right one. The problem with trying to internet diag is; I really can’t help without knowing more details, I can only suggest possibilities.

  11. C. J. Snyder – I’m looking at a 2005 Ford Super Duty F-250 Lariat 4×4 165k miles for $15k (I can talk them down possibly) that HAS had head work done already (This is according to the dealership.) What else must I ask before making this purchase? Is it worth my time? There hasn’t been a gooseneck or a 5th hookup installed or used.

    Thanks,
    M.

    • The price for the mileage is a little high, but not by much. The best thing you can do is climb under the truck with a good strong flashlight and go over ever inch of it with a fine tooth comb. Expect to find some minor oil leaks, but anything major is a red flag. Also, I would recommend you go on to you tube and search “powerstrokehelp”. The guy who puts the videos up runs a Ford diesel shop, he has a series of videos on buying a used Ford diesel, I think it’s a 4-part series. Good luck.

      • I second, third, fourth on what Chris said about the powerstrokehelp video’s on YouTube. You’ll learn so much about these trucks by watching those. He has engines completely torn down that he’ll show you. He goes over all the strengths and weaknesses in each design (7.3, 6.0, 6.4, 6.7, etc) and gives you tips & tricks for dealing with them & eeking the most life out of your truck. Combine that with the awesome tech tips Chris gives here & you’ve got a match made in heaven for keeping these rigs alive. Best of luck!

        • Thank for introducing me to Bill. So, I ended up finding an 04 F350 4×4 on 37×13.50R17s with 150k miles on it for 12k. I watched all of Bills videos, he’s very informative. This truck is pretty good for the most part. It’s going to be a good little hobby truck. There is a little shudder from 45-55 when the truck gears down and I feather the pedal. I’m thinking it is in the fuel delivery system. Possibly a bad fuel pump? It starts fine and doesn’t change when warmed up, so I don’t think it’s sticktion. If I goose it a little then it returns to normal and drives fine.

          • I don’t think it’s a fuel pump, you would be noticing a skip/misfire and lack of power any time you are on the throttle, regardless of speed. If I had to guess, it could be some slop in the steering that shows up at highway speeds, engine mounts that are worn out, or (more likely) those big ol’ tires are a bit out of balance. If you smack a pothole, sometimes that impact is enough to sling a wheel weight off and throw the wheel and tire out of balance. If it was a small amount of weight (half an ounce or so), it would only give a small amount of shudder which would be more noticeable at highway speeds.

          • Thanks for the info Chris. On some days I do notice a little rough idle (but only for a minute, while other days it’s a smooth start. It may have a little sticktion on the oil side. I haven’t cleaned the oil side yet with archoil or seafoam. I do notice a little sluggishness when taking off but that could be the tires. I didn’t really think that it was the steering but I guess it could be. I only notice it when the rpms drop below 2k though. Mainly when the rpms hit 1500k and I attempt to feather the fuel, it begins to shudder. If I goose it and get the rpms about 1800-2000k, then it Pushes through the shudder and runs smooth again.

  12. Something else you can try to help narrow down where the problem may lie is to test your FICM to see if it is weak. There are videos online that show how to check the FICM with a voltmeter, I know that if the FICM is sending weak voltage (less than 48 volts in stock trim) to the injectors, then that can cause hard starts/misfires, especially in the cold, and it may cause a misfire that can present as a shudder. Of course, it could also be a stiction issue on the oil side of the injectors. If the fuel filters are plugged, they can rob the injectors of fuel and cause a skip in the engine that would feel like a shudder. Hell, it could even be something in the trans. A shudder can come from the lockup clutch in the torque converter slipping for whatever reason, and when you goose the throttle, the PCM gives the command to unlock the converter, the RPM’s go up and the shudder goes away. I’ve personally experienced this on an 03 F150 I owned before my 6.0. Honestly, it could be any number of things, these are just a few possibilities.

  13. Just bought and 04 6.0 and the check engine light came on yesterday also when I go to accelerate on an on ramp or anything of the sort it doesn’t seem to wanna get up and go, it just steadily/slowly increases speed. I was told the head studs and gaskets were replaced by the previous owner, none of my stock dash gages seem to be out of normal range and I don’t hear any abnormal sounds, and haven’t seen any black or white smoke either. No trouble starting hot or cold.

    • Could be an EGR valve problem. I remember from working at the dealership that 6.0’s would come in with a CEL on but would run alright, and the EGR valve was all plugged up with rocks of carbon. It could also be a VGT problem. I think that if the VGT vanes are stuck due to rust or carbon, or if the VGT solenoid is screwed up, it could throw a code and trigger the CEL. If the VGT vanes are stuck open, the turbo will take forever to spool up, and the truck will have no low end grunt.

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  15. 07 6.0 f250 no start when eot exceeds 130 degrees Fahrenheit..I have rplaced hpop/IPR and lpop starts fine as long as oil temp is under 130 Fahrenheit … I also have a SCT x4 flash tune that has helped me read values .hopefully what i typed made any sense .

    • So when the EOT is above around 130 degrees, it will crank but not start? Sounds like a high pressure oil leak. Since you replaced the HPOP and IPR valve, and the new HPOP probably came with a new STC fitting, I would look at the dummy plugs and standpipes. They are about the only thing left in the system to fail and leak, unless the injector feed cups in the high pressure rail have failed and are leaking, but that is a bit of a rarity.

  16. I’m a Ford Truck Lover and want to make my F-1 new again with some repairs!
    If I box it for add strength, hang a Ford 8.8 rear fill with 3.55:1 gears in place using a triangulated four-link and Panhard bar from Thorbros combined with ‘bags from Slam Specialties and Monroe tube shocks, do you think that could works?

    • Umm…I mean no disrespect, but you do realize this is an article about Ford 6.0 diesels on a biodiesel blog, right? Your project idea, cool as it may be, is kinda in the wrong place.

  17. Chris,
    I have a 03 – F250. Just had to have the oil cooler replaced along with 2 injectors – coolent system cleaned and flushed – had lots of oil in coolent. All of these repairs done by Ford. Pulled out of lot running great on a 300 mile trip home and made it 120 miles and it all but quit. started missing badly and no power. Not losing coolent and no white smoke so I think the EGR cooler is OK. 48 VDC in FICM both key on and runningat 1500 RPM. I have something going on with fuel pump / pressure and I am workin that one (might be presure relief valve or pump -blue spring has been done) , but I seem to be losing oil. Does not blow blue smoke, but could I be sucking thru injectors? Cannot find any obvious leaks.
    Thoughts?

    • The fuel pump could be the source of your misfire/lack of power. No white smoke tells me that you’re not dumping fuel (raw fuel presents as white smoke, like burning coolant but a totally different smell), so I don’t think your other injectors are bad (assuming they fail open and start dumping fuel), and your turbo is probably functioning properly (no white or black smoke). 03-04 model year 6.0’s had problems with injector wiring harness chafing. There were places where the harness would chafe against bolt heads and screws and other places and wear through the harness, exposing the wires and allowing them to short out to one another. Also, it could just be that the technician that worked on your truck left a plug loose, and the vibrations from driving knocked it all the way out. As far as loosing oil, it’s gotta be going somewhere. If you’re not leaking it, it must be getting burned, but if you’re not seeing any blue smoke, the only other thing I can think of is maybe the turbo seals are leaking. Try checking for any liquid oil coming out the exhaust (I had this issue with the turbo on my truck, part of the reason why I now have a PowerMax turbo). Also, try pulling the intake assy. off of the section of tubing leading to the turbo, and check for oil. A little bit is OK, a lot means that you are puking oil through your CCV system and into the engine. If it has time to get heated up in the intake stream, it might be burning clean enough that it doesn’t leave a blue haze out of the exhaust.

  18. Hi Chris, I have a 04 Excursion that will run at idle forever, however when you drive it for 30 – 45 mins it shuts down. Sometimes it drops to idle and it takes a min before you can step on throttle and sometimes it just shuts off and I half to put it in neutral and turn key again. Just got it back from shop and they found some grounds were loose and changed can and crank sensors and found no chafing in wiring harness and checked every sensor supposedly and found nothing wrong. Its being towed back to my house tomorrow b/c they said they can’t fix it , a friend said it could be oil drain plugs on fuel rail. It has 103k , nothing has been done to oil system , head gaskets or egr although I did clean the egr when it first happened. Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated, most complaints I’ve read on internet are hard start / no start not my problem of shutting down. Thank you.

    • The only thing you didn’t mention is fuel, so I wonder if your fuel pump is getting weak, or the pressure regulator on the secondary fuel filter housing might be failing. There are a couple of place online you can get a secondary fuel filter cap with an 1/8″NPT fitting so you can hook up a fuel pressure gauge and see if the pump is maintaining pressure. You might try either replacing the stock pressure regulator spring and poppet valve, or do the “blue spring upgrade” to eliminate a failure point. It could also be a small leak in the H.P. oil system. At idle, these trucks don’t really build any temperature, so idling won’t put a lot of heat into the oil. Driving it will, and when you come back down to idle, when the oil pumps aren’t spinning that fast, the H.P. oil system could leak down enough to cause it to stall. Although, if you can put it in neutral and start it right back up again, this is doubtful.

      • Thank you for reply, I will check the fuel pressure this weekend. I forgot to mention that when it stalls or shuts off all kinds of codes show up with the CEL, don’t know if that means anything but they are random each time. Sorry I forgot that in original post, I’ll let you guys know what I find with fuel. Again thank you very much!