I just purchased an 04 6.0 with 127k on it. Truck physically I sincerest shape and I thought I did my due diligence pre purchase. Well apparently I was wrong. Here is the situation and symptoms and any feedback is much appreciated. Truck is stock with the exception that the previous owner put a homemade egr delete on it.

I drove the truck for about 500 miles and no problems, however I noticed a small leak on the hose used for the egr delete. I headed to the shop witha full degress bottle and everything seeming ok. About a mile from the shop, the upper radiator hose split and blew. The shop replaced and filled with coolant and proceeded to pressure test the system. Readings came back around 16-18 psi. Analysis was head gaskets and studs needed to be replaced and recommended oil cooler and BP egr cooler too.

So I wanted to mull this option over, mind you I have had the truck for less than 1 week. I head home. About 5 miles into the trip, temp spikes and I shut it down immediately and get it towed the rest of the way.

Let me preface, the shop I dealt with has been very helpful and trustworthy but seeing as this is about another 4-5k in repairs to a new to me truck, I am doing due diligence. Do these symptoms and scenarios match the recommendation? Are there any other issues that could cause this that I can troubleshoot 1 by 1 before I just BP it? Only codes spit were 2 glow plugs needing replaced and an egr valve issue (guessing due to the delete).

Any thoughts and recommendations are appreciated.

 

If there is pressure getting into the system it is the headstuds but it leaves coolant tracks around the rad cap on the degass bottle. Sounds like a couple of things going on here. First i would check what the pressure in the rad system under full load and check the readings. That would be a good place to start. Second i would put a proper egr delete on the system.With the egr delete you need a tuner to get rid of the egr code.
Like the garage says, check and see what the eot to the ect and that will let you know if they are working properly.
If it is the heads gone then get your cheque book out, this not a cheap thing to do. If you do the the heads dont cheap out. Get the good stuff too fix the problem.
This is my two cents

 

I picked up the edge insight to give me a better idea. Under normal driving conditions, the eog and ect got up to 222 just driving around the neighborhood. For the most part they stayed pretty close to each other but occasionally the eot would go up 10 degrees higher than the ect.

I definitely have a leak in the delete, so a manufactured delete is on order.

How do I test the pressure in the coolant system? I tried getting a gauge from autozone but I couldn't get it to read anything.

 

Tee into the small line going to the degas bottle. With the the tee hooked in then run a long line to get to the outside on the wiper blade area and hook a gauge onto the end. The gauge should go up to 30 psi. Now take the truck for a drive and put the truck under load like a long hill at wot. See what the pressure is reading. If more then the rad cap 15 psi and upwards like 23 psi then you official have a head problem.
Hope this helps