Been looking for info but might not be searching correctly. I've got an 6.0 that I just had worked on. Bought the truck used a couple weeks ago, HPOP took a crap on me and and injector. It is all stock, although I could have been chipped before I had it. My question is my mechanic found it is having some blow-by and oil residue in the intake system. How worried should I be that I'm gonna have a catastrophic failure soon. It is not driven hard or anything like that. And if it does crap on me, what would be the best cummins to swap in? It's just a f250.

 

Oil inside the intercooler boots and piping is 100% normal... the crank case vents right into the intake in front of the turbo, so you'll likely see oil all over inside there. It looks worse than it is.

Haven't seen too many diesels that didn't have some sort of blow by, especially when they're not fully warmed up. When they're cold and don't have the heat to burn the fuel properly, the rings also aren't sealed very well when it's not up to full operating temp.

How many miles on it? Anything else you can tell us about it? Just keep reading around here you'll pick up on things. I would start with a coolant filter for sure (dieselsite sells them or Sinister, they're the same thing, same price, just different colors basically) I would also check out the oil cooler health. Monitor engine oil temp against engine coolant temp, shouldn't spread more than 15* apart. If it's plugged, it will need a rebuild (under $300). Also make sure you're using ONLY OEM Ford/motorcraft/international oil and fuel filters, NO EXCEPTIONS. If you have an oil filter that comes with it's own cap, lose it in the trash and get the Ford one. A good oil of your choice as well (a lot of us use Rotella products, either the standard 15w-40 or the synthetic 5w-40). You should also verify the health of your batteries (load test) and your FICM, you can find the FICM test procedure at the top of the 6.0 page.

Welcome to DB!

Now post a picture of that truck!

 

Thanks Mdub. I understand that almost all diesels have blow-by. I work on old school EMD engines. And the cummins marine generator units we use have crazy blow-by built in to them. Wasn't too sure how bad the six liter was when it came to it. It's got a little over 170,000 on it. And being serviced at the ford stealership. Definatly gonna put synthetic oil in when I get back home. Think they just used standard.
I'll get some pics posted when i get off the boat.
On another note, I'm planning on installing gauges. And an act tuner, just to get better mpg. But what guages to do? I know Eot, and coolant temp and tran temp and fuel pressure. Any others? Gonna make my own guage pod so I can do however many I need. What would Yall do?

 

Honestly, if I had to do it all over again, with all the products out there now... I'd probably go with the SCT livewire TS. Gauges/tuner all in one. Plus, still an SCT so you can hold custom tunes.

If you prefer stand alone gauges (I still do), EOT, ECT, fuel pressure are the main three first, then a pyro (EGT) if you're running a tuner. trans temp would be pretty far down the list unless you tow really heavy all the time. The 5R110 is very stout and mine ALWAYS just runs like 80-90* above ambient air temp, no matter what. That includes when I'm towing my 5k lb camper and hot rodding it. Trans NEVER gets hot on mine.