Ford's spec for flatness sucks, as well as their method of testing for flatness.

 

If you have a decent knowledge of your engine and are a good wrench, i would Do the head gaskets yourself. Remove the heads and take them to a machine shop to be decked i'd check your block for flatness. Replace the gaskets. Put the decked heads on. Your ARPs back in and do your oil cooler while in there. Button her up and know that everyting's done right now

 

Thanks MUDSTROKIN and Mdub707 for the input. I'll do the work myself, but I've never gone in to a Diesel engine before. Logic tells me the toughest part is really up top and all the junk that needs to be removed. Aside from pulling the cab off, is there any other way to get better access for working and taking things apart? With regards to the heads; if they are warped, what is the max. allowable tolerance for metal removal to true them? As for the block, a straight edge/scale and a feeler gauge I assume would be the logical approach.

 

The farthest down i've been is to the HPOP, Just take your time and pay attention and you should be fine. make sure you have everything your gonna need before you start. i would also recommend replacing your old coolant with an elc coolant while your at it. it will protect your new oil cooler from clogging up. .004 is as far as you can go on the heads i believe i'm not positive though.

 

Thanks again. The next day or so, I'll begin my trek into the unknown. I'll probably order the Sinister kit which is egr delete and oil cooler replacement with gaskets. I'm going to inspect the oil cooler and egr cooler for any signs of blockage, damage, cracking, etc... If visual signs indicate failure then I may go with those fixes first. If the problem still exists after those initial fixes then I'll tear everything apart and go for the heads and gaskets.

 

Good luck to ya

 

Heads max equates to about .008" allowable to take off. The spec actually calls for a minimum thickness of the head, but it works out to .008". If they have to take more, they're paper weights. Follow ARP's instructions VERY WELL for stud install and use their new lube, the ultra torque. It will make the job easier and last longer. DO NOT overtighten them to something ridiculous like I've seen suggested elsewhere, you will physically damage the stud.

Get an oil cooler rebuild kit, there is no point in NOT doing it if you are already that far in.

If you're doing it with the cab on, you will have to either cut the TTY bolt that holds the head down, or dent in the firewall. This will be the bolt on the drivers side closest to the fender and the firewall. I would do the dent approach myself so you're not getting cut metal shavings flying everywhere when the top of your engine is off.

It's not that difficult honestly, just very time consuming. Once you get most of the crap out of the way, it's a basic V8.

Also another thing to be careful of... when you do take the heads out (Helps to have a friend aid you with this, as they're something like 100lbs a piece), make sure you don't set them down on the bench valves down, you will wreck the ends of the glow plugs. Put them on their sides.

Oh and take pics and report on progress!!!!

 

Mdub707 thanks for the input. I already have ARP's installed so the TTY Bolt your referring to is it independent of the ARP studs?

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Got another first for ya'll. Fired up fine this morning and I let it idle for 15-20 mins. When I got in to shut it off I noticed Check Gauge light and temp. gauge at about 3/4 from top and the fan kicked on. Immediately the gauge began coming back down. I drove it a few miles up the road and I noticed it cycling up to about 3/4 hot then 10 secs. later come back down. What did I do, **** off the engine or is this symptomatic of oil cooler/egr failure. Never done this before.

 

You're low on coolant. Mine did this all the time when I was pushing tons of coolant out. It got so bad I lost heat in the cab. Add some coolant and see if it goes away. BTW the factory gauge is useless, it doesn't actually go up and down with temp, it just has like 5 stages it can hit, so if it went up to 3/4 mark, it was between a large range of temps. It's kind of ridiculous. Even as bad as mine was, I still never had it go up that high. The fan is noisy and you can tell when that's on, usually if it's kicking on you're just low on coolant. With my coolant topped off, I couldn't get my fan to kick on towing a 5klb camper uphill in the dead of summer flat footing it with my aggressive tow tune. EGT's started climbing pretty good when I flat footed it, but I hit 70+mph goign up hill and let off because of speed reasons. Fan never kicked on the whole trip.

ARP's are a stud, stock we have bolts, more commonly referred to as TTY bolts or Torque-to-yield, meaning as they're tightened down on the head, they are actually stretched out to the point where they actually yield a little bit. The idea is that they will allow the head to flex under extreme heat, but this also means the gasket go's pop. Studs can hold more clamping force and are easier to tighten down.

The company I work for actually makes and sells hydrualic nut tensioners for studs. Basically you thread a coupling on a stud, apply hydrualic force, it stretches the stud out to a predetermined length, and you hand tighten a nut on. Release the hydraulic tension and wha-la you have the standard nut now set to a torque value, without actually applying those crazy twisting forces. I wish we made stuff small enough for our applications haha. We even make studs here. I think some of our small stuff is 2" in diameter up to something like a 6" diameter stud.

 

Yepper it was low on coolant and I kind of knew that, but I was still surprised that the temp gauge went up like that and Check Gage light illuminated. I just ordered the "Basic 06 Powerstroke Solution". EGR delete with Oil Cooler. It'll be here on the 11th. Might have to hook up a couple hose pipes to the coolant jug if I ride around very much til I get the parts. Between now and then, I really need to decide on the headgaskets and checking the heads. This much coolant loss really bothers me. I'm beginning to think those hydrostatic locks I've been experiencing indeed maybe coolant now getting into the cylinders. However, if it were then I would see moisture coming out the exhaust, which I don't.