I recently purchased a 06 6.0 from a f-250 that has had head bolts, egr delete, and other mods done. I have a 04 exursion which I love and want to drive forever. My engine has 190k miles and really never had anything done to it other than superchips tuner, Magna flow 4" to turbo and AFE intake. I can tell my 04 is going to need some attention before long so my plan was to swap out the engines but I reading some things that have me concerned that these year models might not swap out. Does anybody know if it is possible to swap these engines out? If so is there anything in particular I need to do to make this work? Any advice would be appreciated.

 

What indications do you have that your 04 is needing some attention? 200K on a Power Stroke isn't anything to be concerned about. Unless you got a SCREAMING deal on this 06, I'd suggest that "bullet proofing" your 04 would be cheaper.

However, if you are commited to this plan of action, only external bolt ons like intake elbow and things like that are the only things that would be year specific. I'm using an 06 FICM in my 03. In short, the 6.0 long block (block and heads) is the same from 03-07. Whatever needs to be changed can be robbed from the 04.

 

The only thing to look for on your 04 compared to the 06 is where the ICP sensor is located, if it is on your passenger side valve cover of your 04 it should be a straight swap, otherwise you might need to extend the harnes for it. As for the intake elbo just keep the stock one on the 06 because it is better anyway and eliminates the stupid butterfly for the EGR.

 

Truck has been losing power. Lots of smoke at cold start, quit going down road had to be towed(turned out to be bad HPO regulator and/or sensor. Coolant reservior blowing coolant. Lots of trouble codes, low s/t charger pressure, etc. I thought the head gaskets were going but after some investigation on this sight I believe the coolant issue is the egr cooler. I also read where low voltage could affect the FICM and cause the smoking, rough running at start problem I was having. Had my batteries checked and sure enough one was bad. This is my daily driver and I cant afford to be without for extended amount of time. Time consuming to do myself but was able to find motor with all the bullet proofing done for around $6K, this was cheaper than shops were going to charge to do mine. I am also wanting to step up the HP a little more and not having the Head studs done makes me feel like I would building a time bomb. This way I can swap engines, put the 04 on a stand and build it as a hobby the way I want and swap later. As I said I plan on keeping this thing forever, I may get another vehicle but I dont ever want to get rid of my Excursion. As you know they don't make them anymore and I don't see anything comparable on the horizon. Grown men driving Suburbans tuck their heads in shame like they were driving a mini van when I pull up next to them. Thanks for the input, I just hope the new engine is everything it is supposed to be.
Motor supposedly has studs, bulletproof oil cooler, egr delete, sct fitting on HPOP, Banks intercooler, Banks intake, 155 injectors. It also comes with a Banks 6 gun tuner, not sure if I really want to use tuner, been using Superchips and been happy with it but probably behind on tuning. I am considering upgrading turbo not sure what would be good with this configuration. Any ideas?

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Thanks for the info...this will probably save alot of frustration.

 

I get a little worried for you when you start the description of the new engine with "supposedly has". What do you KNOW about the engine? First off, have you bought it yet? Does it have studs or does it not? Do you know how to tell? Are you planning on doing this swap yourself? I ask because if you cant look at the motor and tell if it has studs or not, you are probably going to be over your head in a swap. If you have not bought the engine yet....I would step back for a minute and find out what has been done to it, why is it for sale? What would your goals be with the 04 engine? $6000.00 is a pretty good start, especially if you can do the work yourself. I may be offbase here but I hear you saying you need the truck on the road. So spend $6000.00 for a engine with "supposed" mods, then swap engines, then spend more money to do up the 04 engine to swap back into the truck. Compared to spend the money to do the 04 in the first place. I dont think you would be saving any time to go this route. Money wise, if you havn't spent the six grand....I guess my worry is what if after $6000.00 and swapping the engines, the 06 isnt what it was "supposed" to be? It could be a huge money pit. Just sayin.

 

I bought the engine on e-bay however I have not paid for it. I am planning to go to the sellers place and look at the engine and his facility. He states that he has bought alot of these engines as well as other components off of insurance wrecks. I will not do the swap, I do not have the resources or the time. I am not a mechanic but I have alot of experience
building things as well as a background in engineering. From what I can tell there is a video to show you how to do everything on the internet somewhere. Anyway that is the reason I cannot do the repairs myself, however I can build one overtime on a stand and pay to have the swap made. The seller has stated that he does these swaps everyday and I am considering having him do the swap eventhough he is 10 hours away. I am going to talk to him about a package deal and how he will stand behind it. At the end of the day I am taking someone word for what is inside the engine but I think seeing the seller and talking in person as well as seeing the facility will help sell it. I will not pay if I smell a rat, I would offer a little money for his trouble. The $6k seems like a good price for everything that is listed, I think the only things I won't be able to see are the studs and the oil pump, the rest will be visable. In reading your post it seems that I should be able to tell if the studs have been changed. I would appreciate any guidance you might have as to what to look for. As far as me building the 04, I would be doing that for myself as much as anything. I would enjoy the challenge, I like to have a project going that involves working with my hands. I am also planning to get the vin # that is from the vehicle the motor came out of to pull a car fax, I know this won't prove alot but it will give me alot of information that I can ask questions about to find out how honest the guy is being with me. If anyone knows of anything good that would be reasonable to have checked or to ask that can be done with the engine out let me know.

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Just googled it and found out that I need to look for the 10 point head instead of the hex head and that will ID the studs. Is this accurate?

 

You can tell studs because they have a nut on top, not a bolt head,

 

I cant tell where you are, do you have friends that are gearheads? I am the guy that doesn't trust anyone and I dont like most people in general, so excuse my way of being suspicious of people trying to sell you something. If you have maintained your engine, done the oil changes on time, used good oil, changed fuel filters and used motorcraft filters ect. I doubt there is any thing you need to do inside your engine. You know the history of that engine. If you go with the plan of buying this other engine, find someone that has some knowledge of these engines to take with you if you dont feel confident you can tell if the mods that are claimed are actually done. Engines from insurance wrecks and junk yards can be a grab-bag sort of thing. I live in Upstate New York, alot of areas around here got flooded this past year. When a flood vehicle is sold it is supposed to be disclosed, flood vehicle parts...not so much. It is hard for anyone to look at an engine on a pallet and know how well it was maintained, how many miles are on it or how badly it was abused by a teenage son. You would be amazed what a steam cleaner can do for the looks of a used engine. Have you got any labor quotes to do the swap? I would advise to look hard at the numbers to go both ways, and be very cautious buying a used engine especially from a recycler. Right now you are doing the best thing you can do, ask questions and educate yourself. Nobody was born knowing everything.

 

After a little more investigation turns out the seller is a Ford Master Technician. His family owns a Ford Dealership. He has stated that he would warranty the motor and do the swap if I bring it to him. He said he built the motor in a truck that had a salvage title that he repaired. He has driven it for a few years and decided to sell the truck. Because it was a salvage title he would not get any more for it with the motor so he put one of the stock motors in and sold the built-up motor seperately for more money, makes since.
I will be going to the facility and I feel like it is legit. He wouldn't want me up there raising hell in the family business over a private transaction and I explained that to him. We will see. Thanks for the help, I will let you know how it goes.

 

Without reading most of these posts, whoever you're buying the new motor from sounds like he's full of shat. No one puts larger injectors in and runs a banks programmer. You need an SCT to really control the new tunes. Why would he even waste his money on an intercooler on such a stock truck. Stock turbo too?

The new one sounds like more of a ticking time bomb than the one you're driving.

Test your FICM, replace BOTH of your batteries, do a few small upgrades and it should be pretty solid. When you're ready to add more power, do the studs at that point. It will be far less of a headache and way less money to just build the one you have.

I'd also throw a superchips in the garbage myself. They'll cause more problems than anything. Ever see the star pattern on the top of the pistons from one of those... yikes. Cylinder pressures are through the roof, just asking for headgasket issues.

My vote goes to keep what you got and build it. Most of your current issues sound like simple fixes, just take an afternoon to do some diagnosing and pinpoint what needs to be done. A coolant flush, a new oil cooler (rebuild), a coolant filter, an EGR delete, new batteries and a good working FICM would give you a pretty solid foundation...