Not another 6.0 write up
 

I've decided to do my write up and it seems that typing all of this may take longer than the actual build did. I'm sorry I didn't take a ton of pictures, but I hope that I can give enough detail to help give those among us that are on the fence that extra motivation that they need to take this on. This was the second time I have had to pull my heads off because the first time I put in Black Onyx gaskets that blew. I read through other build threads and took little tid bits from others that helped me out greatly this time around. There is a TON of knowledge around here.


Preface: You can do it
The 6.0 Powerstroke is not a hard engine to work on. As intimidating as it may be, behind the computers and wiring harnesses, it's still a pushrod V8. It's not scary, just relax and take it one bolt at a time. There is no rush, this job can be done in a weekend if you have everything prepped and ready to go, or can take months if required. Life gets in the way. Don't get discouraged, this IS possible for you to do yourself. If you find yourself getting frustrated, walk away for a bit and come back to it, there is nothing to get worked up about. You have to believe in yourself, you have to believe in your truck, don't lose faith in her. Doing this job yourself will save you thousands, many shops are charging upwards of $7,000 to do this job these days and it will make you feel so much better having done it yourself. It is a wonderful bonding experience with your truck, you will know the inner workings of your engine and you will understand everything better having done the hands on. It will give you such a sense of pride and satisfaction when you turn that key and she roars to life after open heart surgery. YOU GOT THIS!

Chapter 1: Show me the money.

If your truck does not have head studs, start rolling your pennies NOW and really start monitoring the truck to figure out what else you might need. I personally will never trust a 6.0 with TTY bolts, especially if it has a factory EGR cooler. If you can't swing the bill yet and you don't have a coolant filter, GET ONE, it won't stop the possibility of blowing the gaskets, but it will keep a lot of junk out of the EGR and oil coolers and buy you a little bit of time to get some things together. There is absolutely no reason to go deep enough into the engine to replace head gaskets and install studs, then put the original EGR and oil coolers back in. So you need to decide if you are going to stay with the stock design and put in another oil/coolant heat exchanger or if you're going aftermarket with a fancy shmancy front mount oil cooler. Find out what your likely cost is going to be and add 50%. Things happen, parts break, bolts strip, drain plugs get forgotten, and you need to be able to recover your build from that without putting yourself in too much of a bind. You can expect to spend around $3,000 for your new upgraded parts and fluids, add $1,500 if you go with a remote oil cooler, another $400 if your FICM is on it's way out, another $400 if you have an injector go out, another $600 for a machine shop to check/deck/mag/pressure test your heads (my bill came to $560 and my heads were only .003” from flat). See how quick all of this starts to add up? When you look at the big picture though, with all of this work done, it turns the 6.0 into a 500,000 mile engine and if your rig is paid off, this ~$5,000 investment isn't even a full year of payments on a new truck. Personally, I'll still take my truck over a brand new one.

These first few are a bit dry but I feel are necessary in the preparation stages leading up to the build. Bear with me, it gets better.


Chapter 2: Plan your build, build your plan.

Start doing a lot of reading, study the forums, ask the questions. The 6.0 Bible is a great thing to have, but it doesn't have all of the answers, there are some torque specs that are not in there, and some specs that are require further research. For instance, Figure C for the oil rail is for the early model 6.0, the later generation has a completely different shape and bolt pattern. Also, the bible does not have everything, specs for the downpipe, CAC pipes and the rocker boxes were the big ones for me. I printed out pages 84-87 and lined out things that I wasn't touching such as the camshaft follower, connecting rods, etc so that I could make quicker work of finding the spec that I needed. With that, make sure you are reading the right torque spec, the EGR cooler mounting hardware has 2 specs, if you just do a quick glance and don't verify, you'll be in trouble. The port on the intake manifold where the cooler bolts up is the flange and only requires 10lb/ft, if you try to crank it to the 23lb/ft then you will be making a parts run to go get new bolts. Ask me how I know. Thankfully, that is one of the few places where the bolt will fail before the internal threads, you overtorque anything mounting to the rocker boxes and the steel bolts will win over the aluminum rocker box every time.

Have a place that you can work comfortably. If you can get it inside a garage or shop, even better, the less that you and the opened up engine are exposed to the elements, the better.

Study the engine bay and your workspace, figure out where you are going to put things and make sure that you have enough room for everything and are still able to move around. The bed of the truck is great for storage but can be a hassle going back and forth. I like to start far away and have my parts line come toward the truck so that during reassembly, everything is in order the way that it came off. You will need to keep track of the assembly order, if you take part A off before part B then 9 times out of 10, you have to install part B before part A, lining things up makes it easier for me.

Call around and make sure there is a machine shop near you that you do the work on your cylinder heads. Even call a couple and compare prices but keep in mind that you get what you pay for.

Don't become a hermit, make sure that you still spend time with your family. I know the feeling of just wanting to get it finished, but that doesn't mean that you can't work after you have dinner as a family, or tuck the little one in.

If you can't take time off of work, then account for that, don't expect to get it done in one day. The flip side to that is don't draw it out longer than necessary, the more time that elapses between the tear down and the build up makes the visual in your head foggier and foggier of how things fit together.

Don't work too much in one session, pushing further causes fatigue and fatigue causes mistakes. It's ok to stop for the night, but make sure that you complete the task at hand, i.e. don't decide to take a break when you've only torqued 7 out of the 10 cap nuts on the studs.

Chapter 3: Buy everything

Once you've drained your kid's college fund and worked the corner for a little bit, you have a nice fat wad of cash burning a hole in your pocket. Now give the cash to your truck, it knows what it needs better than you do, just make it promise that it won't use it on drugs and alcohol. All kidding aside, make sure that you have as much as you can in advance, it makes the process go much smoother when you aren't getting frustrated waiting on stuff to show up.


The parts:
This list is for someone that is starting with a stock engine, if you already have head studs and just need to replace the gaskets then adjust accordingly. Just make sure that you replace every o-ring that you pull out of the engine. The only things that I've never heard of having a problem if reused are the valve cover gaskets.

-Head Studs
-Oil cooler and o-rings/gaskets
-Head gaskets
-Injector o-ring kits (8)
-Stand pipes
-Dummy plugs
-EGR cooler and gaskets
-Intake manifold gaskets
-STC update fitting
-IPR screen
-HPOP screen
-Thermostat
-3 Gallons of ELC coolant
-5 Gallons of oil (yes, I know these truck only have a 15qt pan, be patient)
-Coolant filter canister
-Oil filter
-Fuel filters

These things are great to get in kits. Bulletproof Diesel has everything you will need minus oil, coolant and the coolant filter in 3 kits; the Head Gasket Install Complete Kit, the Semi-Bulletproof Package and the Professional Package. They also offer the head gasket kit minus the ARPs if you already have them and just an oil cooler kit that comes with all of the seals and o-rings if you already have and upgraded EGR cooler or an EGR delete in addition to just a EGR cooler seal kit and EGR valve o-ring kit.


The tools:
For the most part, the tool requirements are pretty straight forward, modern metric. The caveat though is that it isn't “normal metric.” Whenever I work on a modern vehicle, it's a pretty safe bet that 8mm, 10mm, 12mm and 14mm will be the most used sockets/wrenches...NOT the 6.0L. Ford decided to say to hell with the system and throw in 11mm bolts, some 13mm and an occasional 15. These are the specific things that you can't do the job without. Not pictured here are the regular sockets and wrenches (because I didn't have room for the picture, basically if you have 8-18mm with deep and shallow sockets, you'll be good, oooo and a 5.5mm socket for the inner fender), screwdrivers, pliers, hoist and plastic pin pry bars. So here we go from the top.


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-Rags
-Penetrating oil (50/50 mix of ATF and acetone is my all time favorite)
-WD-40 that I wiped on the bare surfaces and cylinders to prevent flash rust
-Brake cleaner for everything (I used about 10 cans, and I'm pretty sure my rocker boxes and oil cooler housing weren't even this clean from the factory)
-Cheater bar
-Big ass pry bar to counter the water pump pulley when taking the fan off
-Magnet on a stick is a LIFE SAVER
-Shorty Torx sockets
-Allen sockets are wonderful (that one is 3/16” I believe for the top of the ARPs)
-Extra ARP lube
-Rags
-Claw
-BIG breaker bar
-Razor blade
-Light with a magnet on the back
-Glow plug connector removal tool (got that idea from another member) take a butter knife, drill a .40” hole (13/32” bit) in it and then cut the end and grind a little so that it makes a U.
-O-ring pick
-Fuel line disconnect tool
-Sharpie
-Painter's tape if you have multiple aftermarket sensors that have the same connector
-Line wrenches...NEVER apply pressure to a fuel line fitting with a regular open end wrench, you'll round it off in a heartbeat
-Something to clean your gasket surfaces...preferably air powered, you'll thank me later
-3/8” to 1/2” drive adapter
-11/16” 12 POINT socket for the ARP cap nuts
-T60 Torx for the new stand pipes and dummy plugs (it's close enough to the 12mm? hex)
-Long reach Torx (T40 or T45, pretty sure it was the 45) to get down to the injector hold down (get a “brake tool” kit at Oh-Really's for like $15, look in the brake section and remember long Torx, you'll know it when you see it). Get some rags and brake cleaner while you're there
-Wire brush for cleaning the vanes and unison ring on the turbo
-BIG FUGGIN WRENCH for the fan nut
-1/4”, 3/8” and 1/2” ratchets with extensions
-U-joint (I couldn't get a position to do the up pipe bolts from the manifolds without it)
-Torque wrenches (80-210+ ft/lb, 10-100ft/lb at a minimum, can also add a 30-150in/lb for the smaller stuff)



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-Shop vac with a long straw nozzle for cleaning the bolt holes (I made one out of the tube for an air compressor blow gun, an impact socket and a bunch of electrical tape). Make sure your shop vac can handle liquid, it's gonna get oil, brake cleaner, WD-40, coolant, all kinds of crap in there


And a few things that make life SO much better.


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-Zip gun
-Did I mention rags?
-Mag trays
-Hairspray for reassembling the CAC pipes, helps prevent blow outs
-Head lift bracket, mine didn't come with the stand offs so I used the old intake gaskets, broke the excess off and used them to space off the bracket so that it wouldn't be tweaked by the rocker box

I have one of those little round finger ratchets but only used it once, I didn't see it useful enough to really recommend it. Your mileage may vary. I don't think I forgot anything but if I did and I remember, I'll make a note of it in future posts.

Chapter 4: Clean it

A garden hose with a jet nozzle will be do fine but if you have a small pressure washer keep the pressure down, too powerful an you risk the stream cutting things. Open the hood, grab your favorite degreaser and go to town, let it sit for a little while, then blast it. Pressure washer guys, make sure you keep it a couple feet away so that you don't force water into the connections. If you are having hard start issues and suspect your FICM, do your wash down first just in case that little gasket has an issue sealing, and let everything dry completely before you pop the screws. You get any water down in there, it's doneskies. If your neighbors will likely execute you for doing a wash down in your driveway, go to a car wash that has an engine degreaser option and clean it there, but if you have a FICM issue then you will need to wait a while after you get home so that the engine can cool off enough to do your voltage check. Starting with a remotely clean engine sure reduces risking leaves and other junk making their way where they shouldn't be. It also helps you narrow down any possible leaks when you get done.

Now we're starting to get somewhere fun

Chapter 5: Coolant Flush

You do not want the risk pumping any sediment, casting sand, gel chunks, etc. through your brand new oil cooler and clogging it up. So pump all of that crap into the one that you will be throwing away. Make sure that this is as thorough as possible, it is going to take you about 40 gallons of distilled water if you do both Restore and Restore+. Restore+ is the same as VC-9 but cheaper. The Restore helps rid the engine of silicates and the VC-9/Restore+ get rid of iron deposits and scale. DO NOT let these chemicals stay inside the engine for very long and make sure they are completely flushed. Save yourself some time and headache and remove the thermostat during the first drain so that you don't have wait for it to open with every step. Also, bite the bullet, make a mess (once) and install valves in place of the block drains, they make it much easier to do the flushes and get the chemicals out, draining the block with each flush means less flushes. There are many write ups about how to do a coolant flush, so I won't beat a dead horse. I will say that my full flushing process filled 9 Homer buckets and took all of about 3 hours total. I used high idle for about 15 minutes with each step, did the Restore+ first and only flushed once between the Restore+ and Restore and then just flushed until I only had about 3 gallons of distilled left for the top off after the rebuild. Wait to drain the last flush until you have the truck in the position that you will be doing the work, in your garage, barn, driveway, etc. If you choose to drive your rig with an empty cooling system then do so at your own risk, I don't like the idea of chancing an overheated cylinder wall.

Chapter 6: Bend her over

Once you scout out and decide on your ideal location to do work, it's time to get the truck into position and start getting down to business. Make sure that you choose a location that is comfortable to work in, preferably out of the elements, and where the truck will not be in the way as this is going to be its resting place for the entire process. Get it low. Round up a few jack stands, 4 to be exact, jack up the truck, pull the tires off and put the axles on the jack stands. I put mine on the lowest position which turned out lightly problematic trying to get the legs of the hoist in at the right angle to clear the front diff as well as the driver side steering knuckle, up one maybe 2 notches would have been better. I don't like doing a whole lot of work inside the engine bay of a stock height truck when it's on the tires, so I'm not about to do it on a lifted truck. I then laid one of my tires under the front bumper and used it as a platform until I got enough out of the way to climb inside and then used it as a step while climbing in/out. This is when you will drain the last flush out of the radiator and the oil if you choose. I did not drain the oil and you'll hear all about that coming up. Unless it's time to do a transmission change, don't bother pulling the plug. You will lose a little bit when you disconnect the cooler lines so have some rags ready, but it's negligible, less than half a quart is what my ZF6 pissed, 5R110 may have a bit more come out, I don't know.

Chapter 7: Time to strip

I took the hood off and HIGHLY recommend it, it's one less thing to bump your head on and having it off allows SO much more light down into the engine bay. You don't take the risk of ramming the engine hoist into it when removing/installing the heads either. I also took of the hinge struts because I didn't want to risk anything damaging them.

Get your passenger side inner fender out of the way. HAND TOOLS ONLY GUYS!!! There are a couple 5.5mm bolts holding it to the outer fender, 4 (I think) plastic push pins, 3 nuts for the vacuum reservoir then just push it in and up until the edge pops out from behind the fender, then down and out. Easy day.

Disconnect and remove the bat-trees. BAM, 2 more parts shelves, you're welcome. Make sure your windows are up if outside. Do not place them on concrete, it will kill them fast. Get a couple 2x4s that are 3' or so long to put them on.

Next it's time to get all the tubing out of the way. The easiest way I found was to loosen up the band clamp that is midway up the intake duct and take everything up stream out as one unit. Be mindful of the sensors. Next, pull the upper hose that goes into the turbo, followed by the intercooler pipes and the radiator hoses. Remove the degas bottle and tuck the large hoses off to the driver side and hook them so that they stay out of the way, the small hoses can be taken completely out.

Now let's get that fan out of there. No, you do not want to try this job with it in place and you sure as hell don't want to have to try pulling it once the belt is off. Take off the upper shroud that connects the main shroud to the radiator so that you have some room to wiggle the radiator out. There are 4 bolts, 2 that plug into the front of the intake manifold and 2 near the balancer. With these removed, you are able to pull the inner shroud forward enough to get to the fan nut. This is where the big pry bar and your big fuggin wrench come into play, it is normal thread so don't try twisting it toward the driver side. So much more room for activities.

Belt, tensioner and all of the idler pulleys are the next things to get out of the way as well as the wiring harness. You don't really need to label anything on the harness considering that the injector plugs are really the only things that can get mixed up, but even those are difficult because each one will only reach one spot. I tucked my harness down around the front of the engine.

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Chapter 8: Stay organized.

Now that you're starting to build up your pile-o-parts, you need to have a system to keep your sanity. If you're a baggie builder, put that bag of bolts with the part that they go to. If you're a hole plugger, know that there will be times that you cannot put those bolts back in, make sure that you know exactly where those bolts are. You know better than anyone what works for you, whichever way works better for you, make sure that you keep the hardware with the parts. You can do both, I do, but make sure that you understand it so that you aren't freaking out when you pick up the part and there aren't bolts in the holes. Get yourself a ton of those aluminum baking pans, I got mine at Costco like 30 for $6.99. They work great for keeping parts together as well as keeping oil from running all over your bench/floor when you're taking things apart. I like to put things back exactly how I take them apart so I also use cardboard for a ton of things, pushrods, bolts for the oil rail, manifold bolts, valve cover bolts. The great part is you can take a sharpie and draw the rough shape of the part, then stab the bolts in where they go. This is a life saver when it comes to reinstalling the intake manifold and the valve covers so that you know where to put the bolts and where to put the studs.

Keep your tools together, there's nothing worse than finding out that you lost a tool somewhere in the engine. I'm not saying you have to put the wrench or socket back in the toolbox after every time you use it, but do a daily cleanup. When you are finishing up for the day, gather all of your tools, wipe them of oil and grease, put them away in the tool box, pick up any trash and parts wrappers from the day. One, it helps calm you down. Two, it's good practice. Three, it makes you less likely to try to push and get that other head done tonight. Four, it keeps your work area clean so you can see what's going on and where your stuff is, and you aren't tripping on anything.

With the majority of items, it is not critical which bolt goes where or which injector plugs what hole. I prefer to put it back together exactly how it came apart. With the exception of the head gaskets and FICM, the truck was running great so I made sure that #1 injector went back on #1 cylinder all of the push rods went back in their original holes, etc. You do not by any means have to do it this way but I like to. The cooking pans were the perfect size to have 4 injectors with their hold down sitting side by side, made it easy to differentiate the left bank from the right as well as determine #2 from # 8.

Chapter 9: Open up some room

Before you get too far in, you're going to want to get some things out of the way so that you have a little more room to work. First thing is the easiest, move the upper harness. Once the degas bottle is removed, just pull out the plastic pins, flip the plastic piece up and put a screwdriver down the cowl vent to hold it up and out of the way. Next thing is a bit more time consuming, you need to take half of the condenser housing for the A/C off. There are a handful of little metal washers that hold the heat shield on and then about 10 small screws (8mm I believe) and half of the cover for the canister. You won't be able to get the passenger valve cover off with it in place, let alone the head. This doesn't have to be done immediately, but must be done before you start working on getting that head ready to come out.


Chapter 10: Look at the order

You will see things that clearly have to come out in a specific order. Intake has to come out before the heads, turbo has to come out before the intake, oil/fuel filters have to come out before the turbo. If you still have an EGR valve, take it out before you pull the intake so that you can use the manifold to pry against with a couple bars. It's super easy, unbolt the valve and twist it so that the tabs are exposed, then get a bar on either side and apply equal pressure and it'll slip right out. I'm not going to walk you through step by step on taking things off, I will say try to pull things off as units. So don't take all of the lines off of the fuel filter housing, only take off what is necessary, I did loosen the fittings though so that the hard lines could move a little and not bind up.

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Now once you get the turbo, intake, EGR, etc. out of the way, it's time to pull the oil cooler. STOP!

Trivia time, how much of the 15qts of oil are stored in the oil cooler housing?

The answer is ALL OF IT, at least it seems that way. Go get your shop vac and an asston of rags, it will make a MESS. It doesn't help that it fills to the top of the housing a couple inches above the gasket. Here is where those trays come in handy, they are the perfect size for the oil cooler components.

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Chapter 11: Plug it

Now that you're starting to get more and more off of this engine, you're opening up more and more holes in this pig. SHOVE RAGS IN EVERYTHING!!! I once learned the hard way that if you have a hole that a bolt doesn't go in and you don't want a bolt in it, put a rag in it, spending 5 minutes stuffing all of the openings will save you hours trying to get whatever dropped into the intake port or water jacket.

Attachment 31390

Now the moment you've all been waiting for. Deep breath.

Chapter 12: Get the fuggin heads off

Front load your day with motrin/ibuprofen and LOTS of water. Up until now there hasn't been a whole lot of heavy lifting but now you're going to need it. Take it before you start so that it's already working before you start really working yourself.

Disconnect your up pipes from the manifolds and remove the heat shield and any sensors from the exhaust and get the up pipes out, I wish I would've, had to wiggle the head a little to get clear of the socket joint. The passenger side is easiest through the fenderwell, driver side will need to go from underneath. You can only get the top bolts by reaching over the engine. Keep the manifolds bolted to the heads, they make for makeshift handles to help guide the head around once you lift it.

The valve covers make great trays to put everything else in. Don't damage or throw out the valve cover gaskets, I am not aware of any kit that comes with new ones. Next things out are the stand pipes and dummy plugs. When you do the oil rails, make sure that you pull them straight out and be ready for them, they're heavier than they look. I propped mine up on the rocker box so that the oil could drain out. The stand pipes will likely separate and you will have to go chasing the other halves with a pair of needle nose pliers and they don't give up easily. Up next is the injectors, pull LIGHTLY from the back side of the plug and use a flat head screwdriver to depress the clips, one on the top and one on the bottom that both are split down the middle so technically 4 clips each. You will also need the long reach Torx to get to the injector hold down bolt, set them aside for later cleanup. After the injectors, I did the glow plugs, the knife tool worked wonders and got all but one of the plugs out without damage, one of them broke and I had to go to town with needle nose pliers, the glow plugs themselves came out easy. Budget for new harnesses, but don't buy them unless you need them, your heads will be at the shop for a few days and give time for shipping.

Attachment 31387

Break your TTYs or stud cap nuts loose with the breaker bar AND the cheater pipe. I removed the rocker bolts first before the cap nuts on the studs so that the pressure from the lifters/valves wouldn't potentially stretch those little guys. If you already have ARPs then you're looking at close to 400lb of static torque. Grab 2 more of your aluminum trays and start getting the rockers out. I stacked them in like this.

Attachment 31388

I know, I'm a 21st century Picasso, autographs are for sale.

Moving on. I marked the valve bridges for where they sat in the head, but did not mark the orientation, we'll see if that bites me in the ass later. :humm: Push rods came out in order from front to back and went into cardboard in the same order and same orientation, none of mine had the copper tip on either end. I know it “may” just be the screws I have rolling around in my head but I feel that the parts will create unique wear patterns so the push rods, lifters and rocker arms kinda become a match for each other. Just like a motorcycles chain and sprocket set. Who wants to drive me to the loonie bin? :cp:

You should know by now how you will be attaching your hoist to the heads, I used a lift bracket I got from eBay but it didn't have the risers on it which caused me to reverse it for the passenger side, made it lift out almost vertical which wasn't such a bad thing. Since doing the job cab-on, I had to zip tie the lower studs. I zipped #2 to #3 and #4 to #5 (counting from the front) so that they would pinch in. This near vertical hoisting allowed them to drop clear of the A/C box and slide right out. For the driver side I clipped the old intake gaskets (see pic in tools section) and stacked them on top of each other which gave the bracket enough of a stand off to not be against the rocker box, that one lifted out almost perfectly. On the driver head, studs #4 and #5 need to be zip tied together.

Attachment 31389

Set the heads down on a couple 2x4s and continue to strip them down, get the manifolds off, take the rocker boxes off but leave the fuel bolts in the back. This will help you differentiate the left head from the right when you go to reassemble. I don't know of any reason that the machine shop would need that to be removed. Now be good and lay down some tarps/moving blankets in the back of the Mrs. car so that you don't get oil all over the place and get those puppies to the shop. I dropped mine off for a check and deck, mag, pressure test and clean up. They ended up doing a .003” grind, valve seat grind and hardened seat installation. 6.0s are known for developing minor cracks in the valve seats, they can be taken care of by a deeper grind and installing new seats, cracks elsewhere are something to raise concerns. All in all I walked out for just shy of $600 plus new keepers.

Chapter 13: Clean up, clean up, everybody everywhere.

While your heads are at the shop, it's time to clean house. First things first, do a quick inspection, make sure that all of your lifters have the the keeper pin still on top of them.

Attachment 31382

Next up is to stuff rags everywhere, you are going to be cleaning things up and don't want that junk ending up where it shouldn't. Get your air buffer and go to town on the block deck but don't use any serious abrasives and keep the tool moving, you don't want to gouge the surface. If you don't have an air buffer then you can expect to spend a good long time cleaning, it's better to spend $30 at Horror Fright, trust me. If you are doing any work on your HPOP, do that before you clean the cylinders and bolt holes, it's gonna drip oil when you pull it out.

When doing the HPOP, remove the ICR, then the cover. Grab your magnet NOW and have it sitting against the HPOP mounting bolts and STC rail bolts. There is almost nothing between those bolts and the black abyss where the camshaft lives, if you drop one, you're gonna need a lot of luck and faith on your side. I already had the updated STC so didn't need to remove the pump, but did remove the cover so that I could get it cleaned up and sparkling again.

Attachment 31383

Also while you have everything out of the way. If you haven't already done so, it's time to dimple your firewall with a ball peen hammer and a very awkward swing angle. Grab a stud, nut, 11/16” socket, ratchet, sharpie and scissors. Thread the stud in, put the nut on only a couple threads, then put the ratchet and socket on as far as you can, cut the heat shield enough to clear everything, then mark the firewall where you need to pound it. Remove the stud and wail on the sheet metal (don't worry, there isn't anything dangerously close on the backside). Repeat until you can get the ratchet in easily.

Attachment 31384

Then I grabbed the vacuum and sucked anything that had gotten down in the bolt holes, while holding the vacuum at the top of the hole, stuck the brake cleaner straw in the bolt hole and gave it a nice long shot, angling it every way I could. I did the same with WD-40 to give threads a light lube and rust protection. Spray a little WD-40 in each of the cylinders, wipe up the puddles and any gunk and then watch the pistons and rotate the crank, as each piston reaches BDC, wipe that one down with a clean lint free cloth, finish with the dowel pin (between the bolts) at the 6 o'clock position like this.

Attachment 31385

It's good insurance for when you reassemble the heads in case the lifters sprung up so that you don't run a valve into a piston when you torque everything down. I gave a wipe with acetone on everything and then a light oil wipe to prevent flash rust from moisture in the air (it was raining nonstop here when I did mine) then shoved rags in.

I gave the same treatment that I did on the HPOP cover to the oil cooler housing and rocker boxes. Lots and lots of brake cleaner, a small brass brush to get in the nooks and crannies, and a fan. You want to get those fumes out of your workspace fast, especially if you are working on the ground, they will gather down low and displace oxygen. No bueno. but the end result is sexy sexy.

Attachment 31386

I didn't take pictures when I cleaned up my injectors and glow plugs. I know, I'm a horrible person. Basically, use a razor blade to get under the crush washer and pry it up a little, then grab your glow plug harness knife to slip underneath and slide it off. I used some super fine steel wool with a little bit of oil to clean the tips. Replace all of your o-rings, yes, even the blue one on the plug, you already paid for it when you got your seal kit, no sense in not doing it.

If this is the first time your turbo has been off the truck, it's ideal timing to clean out the vanes. Cleaning out the turbine is super easy, and in reality, kinda hard to screw up. The hardest part in my eyes is getting all the vanes lined back up when reinstalling the unison ring and making sure that it is clocked correctly for the actuator. If you regularly open your truck up then you shouldn't have to deal with much coke build up, just soot. Soot cleans right up by running the vanes on a wire brush. Coke buildup may require the use of the air buffer.

Chapter 14: You've torn her down, now it's time to build her up


Once you get your heads back from the machine shop all nice and shmexy. No, I didn't fire-ring, hope I don't regret that decision.

Attachment 31380

Put your rocker boxes and the manifolds on the heads, then put on your lift bracket, chains, whatever floats your boat. Make sure to put new o-rings on the boxes. I didn't spring for manifold gaskets but you can if you want, the 6.0 didn't come with them from the factory and I haven't had any issues in 2 tear downs.

It's time for the lube job, if you didn't buy extra lube then you are way behind. The anemic little packet that ARP sends with their studs does not even remotely resemble enough to coat the threads and washers. Apparently their definition of “liberally apply” differs from everyone else's. Get it in there real nice and deep like, rub it around, put it on your lips, fuggit get weird...I mean what?

You will need to “capture” the lower head studs the same way that they came out, the passenger side zip tie #2 to #3 and #4 to #5, then #4 to #5 on the driver side. Give the decks a wipe with acetone to clean off the WD-40 coat as well as anything that accumulated during the teardown. Put your new gaskets and dowel pins on the block and get the head hooked up to the cherry picker. Do not think that you can do this yourself, go get a helper THAT KNOWS HOW TO RUN A HOIST. You want to be the one moving the head around and getting it lined up. Don't leave it in someone else's hands to make sure that YOUR brand new gaskets don't get bumped or tweaked. As soon as the full weight of the head is on the block, clip the zip ties and run those studs down so that the dowel pins aren't the only things holding the weight from sliding and get the lifting gear out of the way. Put the rest of the studs in and run them down until they seat, do NOT apply any torque. I used my 3/16” hex socket on a 1/4” ratchet to prevent carpal tunnel while making sure to not over tighten.

Attachment 31381

Now you need to get your valve bridges in, like I said before, I marked the location of each but not the orientation so I put them all with the elongated hole pointing toward the exhaust manifold, we'll see. Put your pushrods in and give them a little twist, push and wiggle to make sure that they are fully seated down on the lifter and not hung up on the ridge or anything, bent rods may ensue otherwise. When you put your rockers back on, inspect them to make sure that the little ball bearing and its keeper are in good shape. I only snugged up the bolts until they met the plate, I don't like the idea of using those little bolts to compress valve springs, to me it's just asking to pull the aluminum threads out. Getting the washers in can take about 10 minutes because you'll spend more than 5 minutes just mesmerized at how perfect they are. Your fingers are going to get dirty, deal with it. Make sure each washer has a nice layer of lube on both sides and slide them all on the studs, then put some lube on the undersides of the cap nuts.

I went through and completed the first torque sequence at 70lb-ft and then torqued the rocker fulcrums to their 23lb-ft. After that I went through the sequence of getting the studs to 140lb and finally 210lb-ft. I did not use an adapter for the torque wrench at all and was able to get most of them from where I was standing in between the water pump and intercooler. The key is consistency, do NOT jerk the torque wrench, use long smooth fluid pulls until it clicks/beeps/whatever. Don't fret if you run out of room before you reach your setting, many times it will click as soon as you reset, no biggie. Sometimes it's better to push instead of pull such as the driver side, if you are pulling then you will have to basically be standing on top of the engine, crouched down and in a prime position to curl your back and hurt yourself. Keep your shoulders back, back arched rearward and do as much of the work as you can with your legs, you have 2 exposed frame rails to leverage against, use them. When you are finished, wipe up and of the excess thread lube that squeezed out. Stick your fingers in some fresh oil and put on the injector o-rings so that they won't pinch and shred, also put some on the top rings for the rail.

For the oil rails, make sure that all of the nipples are pointing straight out, put the rail in evenly and then push on the front and back simultaneously to keep it from rocking one side in first. Put the bolts in and torque them down. Again, apply a light oil film to the o-rings (are you starting to see a pattern here?) of the stand pipes and dummy plugs and slip them in and torque to spec. Clean the valve cover gasket nicely and then button up the heads.

Fill the HPOP housing up through the top fill plug, she doesn't take much, but you don't want that baby turning dry during your first crank. Put your new HPOP screen in and put some oil in the cooler valley but not a lot, too much and it'll overflow when you put the cooler in. This is where having that extra gallon of oil is needed because the cooler doesn't drain during your usual 15qt oil change. Reinstall your oil cooler housing.

Now it's basically reassembly the way it came apart, not rocket surgery. This is the home stretch, just take your time and think about it. In the heat of the moment, you can think “I'll just put this on too and then torque everything at once so that I'm not running back and forth, STOP, this thinking opens up something getting missed. Torque each component as it is installed that way there is no way that you miss something. The intake manifold bolts should go back in where they came out, the difference between a bolt and a stud determines where your wirings harnesses fit. There isn't much slack in the harnesses to deviate from the factory location, so this is where those pictures and/or drawings you should've done before disassembly come in handy. Just breathe and don't rush it.

I used some hairspray that I stole from the Mrs. on the inside of the intercooler boots to prevent blow outs, doing great so far and have had her up to 36psi.

Chapter 15: Kick the tires and light the fire

Now that you have everything put back together, with brand new filters I hope, it's time to fill all the fluids and triple check your wiring. For the oil, add in your usual 15qts for now, you will have to judge the dipstick after you start it in order to get it right where it needs to be depending on how full the oil cooler valley is. As for the coolant, remember what I said about taking your time to make sure everything is right and not get ahead of yourself because you can see the light at the end of the tunnel?...yeeaaaa, about that.

Attachment 31378

If you're like me, then it's also time to close the block drains and clean up all the brand new coolant off the garage floor. Be careful when you are moving around cleaning it up, ELC concentrate is slicker than elephant snot. If you didn't dump 2 gallons of coolant on the ground then add ONLY 3 gallons of ELC and top off with distilled water in order to get your 50/50 mix. Again, just like the oil, you will have to finalize the level once the truck is running and coolant fills all of the water jackets and the heater core.

Ok. Now you're positive that everything is plumbed correctly and filled enough for the initial start up, hook up your batteries and prime the systems. Cycle the key on until the fuel pump stops clicking 5 times to get fuel pressure to the injectors. Next up is the oil system, there are a couple ways to do this, you can A) pull the fuse for the FICM in the fuse panel on the driver fender (pretty sure it is #5 or 6, a square 50A) and turn the engine over with the key

Attachment 31379

or B) touch the starter wire to the positive side of the passenger battery (it's a fairly heavy gauge wire with a push connection)

[IMG]http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c189/highonspeed/Mobile%20Uploads/20170220_224810_zps7uesqilq.jpg[/IMG

Give 3-5 cranks for about 10 seconds each and then let it sit for 30-60 seconds so that you don't overheat the starter, this will get the oil pumped through the rails to reduce cranking time for the real deal. I cycled the fuel pump a couple more times just to be sure.

Listen to the engine when it's turning over, it should have a smooth sound. If it has a stutter step then you have a problem.

Now get everything back where it's supposed to go, and take a deep breath, time to see if you can call yourself a shade tree diesel mechanic. It all comes down to this. Will the beast roar to life. Turn the key and hold it for NO MORE than 15 seconds. It'll take a few tries and you don't want the starter getting hot. Make sure the area is well ventilated because when that time finally happens and she breathes fire, there is going to be all kinds of smoke from oil, coolant and grease that spilled or were on your hands when you handled the downpipe, exhaust manifolds, turbo, up-pipes, etc. so don't freak out too much if you start seeing smoke coming out.

Let it idle for a few minutes and look everywhere for leaks, underneath, down under the intake manifold, fuel lines, coolant lines, everywhere. It needs to get up to temp to open the thermostat and help the coolant fill all passages. After a few minutes at temp, shut her down and top off the fluids, it'll need to sit for a little bit to let the oil drain back to the pan so that you don't mistakenly bring the level up to full while you still have a couple quarts still draining down from the heads.

Do your victory dance!!!

If you have the daylight to spare, go for a test drive. We aren't talking freeway yet folks, just around the neighborhood or a light drive around town. You need to keep it in a lower gear to get the RPMs up. The oil pump flows 18.5 GPM and the water pump 74.7 GPM at 3300RPM, having this high flow will help burp out any air bubbles. I only took mine to about 28-2900 and only for about 10 seconds at a time because I hate the thought of singing a diesel that high on the tach. When you get back, check for leaks and retorque the band clamps on the up-pipes, EGR cooler, and downpipe now that they have settled a bit...may want to let them cool a bit so that you don't leave any skin stuck to the hot stuff

Remember what I said about budgeting for all of your parts plus some extra? This is exactly why, things happen that are out of our control, parts that were working perfectly fine may go tits up during the job and you need to be ready. If I only had the exact dollar amount to cover the parts necessary for the head gasket job then my truck would likely still be sitting in the garage on jackstands.


Chapter 16: Chasing ghosts


During my first start up, it clearly had a gnarly misfire, but being late I didn't do my test drive. The next morning I went back into it to try to figure out what was going on and when I started the engine, there was a ton of haze coming out the exhaust and is was getting a soft code for “P0266- Cylinder 2 Contribution/Balance.” Initial consensus from the forums concluded possible bent push rods so I ripped the valve cover back off and started getting into the push rods even though I was skeptical because I didn't even have the slightest resistance when I barred the engine over. First one and was good so slid it back in and got that stud torqued back down before I broke the next nut loose, those two were also perfect. On to the injectors.

Needless to say I was dumbfounded, all 8 cylinders were running perfect before the teardown and the only thing that I had done other than the o-rings was wipe off the tips to make sure all the holes were clear and everything checked out fine.

So I started doing some troubleshooting. I unplugged #2 first and the smoke went away so I knew I was fingering the right hole then took a trip down to the stealership for some short notice o-ring kits, picked up 4 total. My plan was to swap #2 and #4, put her back together and fire it off, if the problem followed then I'd know that it was a problem with the injector, if it stayed on #2 then it was something with the wiring or computer.

When I pulled them out, this is what I found.

Attachment 31374

The washer on the left is from #2 and #4 on the right, both got a good crush on them so the injector was in there nice and secure but both of them had less than a full hour of run time on them. Now here is the weird part, when I got the new seals on and put #2 in #4 and #4 in #2, put the valve cover on, plugged everything in and hit the key, she purred like a kitten.

On to the next issue. I plugged in my bluetooth OBDII and started the Torque app for the first time and took her for her maiden voyage. Well chit, FICM is at 45.5V and I have a coolant leak, looks like my 3 year old soldering job on my stock FICM wasn't a permanent fix. Time to park her again, good thing I hadn't put the hood back on yet. Got a BPD power supply on order as soon as I got home, pulled the old unit, and started looking for the coolant drip. Turns out it was the connection where the transmission cooler lines go into radiator, just needed to snug them up a bit more. Turns out I thought that the plastique was more fragile than it is and didn't put enough rotation on it. Another issue solved.

Attachment 31375

New sexiness showed up a couple days later, slapped it back together and got it back in the truck. Let's try this again...49.5V YEA BUDDY. Hood goes back on and I can actually drive it around confidently

But wait, there's more (Billy Mays moment). Up pops a nasty growling noise that I initially thought was just ZF-6 growl but ended up being the downpipe rubbing on the firewall. I've had my exhaust dump out the right side just behind the cab for the last 6 years without a single issue, and now it has broken 3 hangers in 2 months. Can't be something that got put back together wrong because nothing got taken apart. The exhaust stayed exactly where it was mounted during the teardown with jack stands under the downpipe to take the pressure off the flange. So for now I'm just running straight downpipe until I get this thing figured out. I took the u-bolt clamp and hanger off of my straight pipe and put it on the downpipe so that all of the pressure wasn't on the turbo.