My 2004 F-250 Super duty 6.0 has a bad lag starting off. It's not constant and it is worse in hot weather. Once she gets up to 10 or 15 mph she is off and running and pushing me back in the seat. What is the cause and cure ?

 

A Gillette Diesel fuel regulator spring helped mine, although it didn't remove the lag, it's better. In short, it's a 6.0, that's just how it is.

 

I have a 5 " bully dog exhaust on it now and i have the chip set at 30%. Do you have a suggestion as to what % could just keep it set on without hurting it? I pull 6 tons with it but not but 5 or 6 hours a week.

 

Dont pull with that programmer on. What are your symptoms? Any smoke? What color if you do, and any check engine light?

 

No smoke. Just a lag when starting off. The oil cooler went bad and i had to have it rebuilt with stronger head bolts. She can take the Bully Dog fine. I just don't want to run it to strong all the time. It is now set on 30%.

 

There is no such thing as stronger headbolts unless you had some custom made. I've heard of some Ford dealers telling customers they had a "better one" but I believe it was to keep guys from asking about installing ARP's and I haven't seen anything that has worked any better. The "fix" is ARP or H11 studs. The oil cooler going bad will usually lead to an EGR failure, which can also lead to headgasket issues. I'm not a fan of the bullydog stuff but if you want to run it on your truck it's your choice. Just know that it doesn't tune the transmission and just fools the PCM into sending more fuel and timing instead of actually tuning it, but I guess that's topic for another discussion.

Personally I wouldn't run it at ALL when towing, but that's just me. The transmission will thank you. Especially pulling over 10k lbs. If you want to add power and do it safely, I'd suggest an SCT X-cal 2 or 3 (2 would be used, 3 would be new) and get some custom tunes. I have a specific towing tune from Eric @ Innovative Diesel which works AWESOME. Great shifting manners and holds loads really well going both up hill and down hill, and it's roughly 70hp over stock according to Eric. It is safe to tow up to the full GVWR. He also has a mild street tune that he says is safe up to 10klbs, but anything near that weight I would definitely be watching my gauges. What do you have for gauges in the truck now? (ie, aftermarket gauges...)

The 6.0 just by nature seems to take forever to get going and is only made worse by stabbing the throttle. Just the way it is I guess. The only thing that concerns me is that you say it's intermittent. No strange noises or fluids anywhere?

 

No strange smells or fluids. I thought a bully dog was a good product? I haven't bought this one yet. My mechanic is trying to sell it to me !! I did change the transmission shift to firm and then changed it back only i don't feel the same as stock any more? Like it didn't set it back properly. If i were to research this SCT X - cal what does it stand for ? I can get this bully dog for $200 but i don't want something that will cost my (more) money. Trust me , i have spent way to much already. I was told the stock head bolts would stretch over time and stock wasn't used in the rebuild. I heard one guy on diesel bombers say getting the problems out of a 6.0 was like wiping you *** with a hula hoop. I think that is a pretty good description of my experience over the past year. Had it on a flat bed wrecker 6 times!!! Would trade if times were better? Thanks so much you sharing your knowledge. Give me a little more info on the tuner of your chose.

 

Just search the forums for SCT and you can read as much as you want.

It is one of the only actual "TRUE" programmers. Most just fool the truck into more timing and fuel and are very "generic". The SCT is also one of the only one's that can actually access your trucks TCM and tune the transmission as well. Of course, custom tuning is where it's at with these. Most others don't support custom tuning. Also if you ever upgrade later down the road with bigger injectors or turbo or anything of the sorts, you NEED the SCT anyways for custom tuning. I'm not saying the Bullydog is a bad product, it's just inferior to the SCT and it's capabilities. You can also datalog (provided you have a laptop) with your SCT and check your trucks vitals.

My buddy ran a bullydog triple dog and had all sorts of issues getting it to shift correctly. He couldn't even run his in an extreme setting because of how terrible the transmission would act up. It also read incorrect check engine light codes sometimes, which was weird.

The transmission doesn't feel like stock anymore because it basically got reflashed and needs to go back through it's learning process. Just drive it like you normally do and it will eventually come back. The stock headbolts do stretch, as soon as they're tightened to the motor. They are what is called a TTY or Torque To Yield bolt, meaning they are actually stretched when they are installed, it's in their design, but they are also weaker than studs and are a one time use only. If you look under your hood and see where the head is bolted to the motor, if you snap a pic of that someone here can tell you if it's studs or stock bolts.

Getting the problems out of the 6.0 are not that difficult, just costs money. Studs, EGR delete are good first steps. Having the heads machined flat is the biggest thing with the stud install. If they're not flat, then it's all for nothing. As far as reliability, those will both help as well (studs and EGR delete) and a fuel pressure gauge would be a good idea as well (as well as other gauges like pyro, engine coolant temp and engine oil temp) and a coolant filter. That would be a good start.

The tuner of choice for most 6.0 owners is the SCT. There are others who use different products and have good luck, but even they will tell you the SCT can just flat do more. The big choice after that is who you want to do your tuning! Some of the popular ones are Eric and Tadd at Innovative Diesel (who I use), Doug @ GoGo diesel, Matt @ gearhead

What was your truck on the wrecker for all those times? Might be a reocurring problem here that someone is just "patching" up...

 

Hope you have plenty of time!
I got the truck used with 130K on it. I had a 99 with a 7.3 and it had 350K on it but an employee totaled it while pulling a piece of equipment.
I was very pleased with the truck until 145K when I went to check the fluids and found a thick paste grease in the reservoir.
I had Dale Jarrett Ford of Monroe check it. I was told it was due to two different kinds of coolant being mixed that I needed to drain all the fluid and flush it. They said it may take 6 or 7 times to get it all out. I wanted to do this myself to save money. Thing is and I told them I hadn’t mixed any fluids since I bought the truck.
I flushed it at least 10 times and in between the flushes it still had the paste in it even worse.
One day when I was trying to make it home to flush it again it heated so bad it popped the head gaskets.
I was very unhappy with Dale Jarrett Ford and took it to another mechanic. He took it down to the heads , had them worked and came back out from there. He did a road test and said it had no power at all and the more he drove it the worse it got. He did a compression test and the rings had lost tension from the heat. It had to be totally rebuilt.
He was really great and even let me use his 2007 power stroke to use for my business until it was finished.
I got it back and was very pleased.
Then two days later guess what ? Oil in the water again! It wasn’t until then we found the oil cooler had gone out causing the problems from the start. If Dale Jarrett Ford had told me that to start with it would have saved me 7K.
He replaced the oil cooler and things were fine for a week. We got above 50 degrees for a high and I hit a hill while pulling a load and the fan came on. Something it had never done unless it was 90+ degrees.
1st time on a flat bed was pulling a load into Charlotte and it just puffed white smoke and died. Had to unload my equipment and push it out of rush hour traffic. Truck on one flat bed and my equipment on another going to different places! Reason was a ejector went bad and flooded the cylinder with fuel. Had that ejector replaced.
2nd time
Two weeks later two more ejectors on the same side went out. Had all new ones put on right side of engine.
3rd Time
Starter went out.
4th time
Two ejectors on left side went out. I am thinking about setting it on fire !!
All this time as we came out of winter the heating problem got worse. Had the radiator pulled out and cleaned hoping it still had some grease in it (even though it didn’t have anything in the coolant). That wasn’t the problem. We checked the clutch , it was good.
Now the fan runs all the time even when empty. It runs so hard it sounds like it going to suck the grill in. Now it’s showing on the gauges. I have to pull over and let it cool down and then go on.
5th time
Got hot but I wouldn’t let it get in the red and blew a hose on top of the intake. I pitched a fit and didn’t even want it back until he could figure out the heating problem.
When he put a water pump on it (from ford) it had a plastic blade center in the pump. He didn’t think it would help but switched it for one with a cast iron center. It hasn’t over heated since. Why do they sale grap like that ? That could have been a $ 7K water pump had I not been really careful.
6th time
Truck and equipment again &^%$#@%
No oil pressure at idle and almost run the battery down trying to crank. Would have to keep my foot on the petal and 1200 RPM to keep oil pressure at a stop light. Stopped to collect a payment for a job and it would not start.
The ball had came out of the high pressure oil pump and it was replaced.
Everything seems fine now and haven’t had it towed in 6 weeks. This is why I got the bully Dog 5” exhaust because a read about it lowering temps. Trying out the Bully Dog tuner as well. I don’t abuse my stuff. I see videos of people doing burnouts and such and that’s not me. I believe if you have a thousand HP you only call on what you need and nothing more. I don’t have a exhaust temp gauge yet because if I keep my foot out it , it shouldn’t get to hot. When my son drives it I set it back to stock and keep the bully dog to make sure my truck is taken care of.
Sorry about the length of this post but just to much relevant info to skip anything. Also I am thankful to you for you thoughts.
I am on Facebook under Mitchell Starnes , Monroe NC

 

A few things jump out at me. Any time the headgaskets are done on these trucks the oil cooler SHOULD just be replaced or rebuilt, just good practice as it is often the root cause of the headgasket failure to begin with.

Something else that sticks out... all those injector failures. Sounds more like a fuel issue or a lack of supply of fuel, like your pump is going bad. Now you're saying that the oil pressure is weak or was... that would indicate a bad HPOP, which could also cause injector issues (since they're fired off of the high pressure oil system). I have heard of the Low pressure pumps going too. If the low pressure went bad and couldn't supply the high pressure pump.... Also the there is a spring in the fuel bowl for bypassing when pressure becomes too great. I've heard of these springs losing tension over time and it could be allowing fuel to go past too early, which would also starve injectors for fuel. If they get starved, they don't last long.

Mixing coolants in any vehicle is a bad idea. You can theoretically use any coolant type you want in these, but ONLY that, no mixing. I too have seen what it does and it is terrible! JD Howell has a post in the aftermarket section here about that happening to his truck, he flushed his 14 times before it looked somewhat clean.

Still sounds to me like whoever has been working on this isn't very familiar with 6.0's. A lot of your issues just seem compounding and could have been resolved a LONG time ago with a LOT less money... Maybe look on the bigger powerstroke forums and see if you can find a good tech or at least another guy who knows his stuff in your area.