Hey fellas!
Kinda new here, so I'll give a little intro to my truck info. I more or less "inherited" a 2004 1ton srw, cclb from my wife about a year ago. Came with the package when we got married. Now, I'm more of a cummins man because of their simplicity (own a '96 tonner), but always been a ford guy at heart. ( geez! Why don't ford put a cummins in theirs, right?) Anyhow, so I have the dreaded 6.0 with just over 104k, and I've been reading quite a bit about how to make them bulletproof. Just finished installing a egr cooler delete( kept the egr valve, fyi) and a sinister coolant filter system. Anything else I should be looking at at this point? My wife was huge on regular maintenance, as most women tend to be, so I'm fairly confident that if there were any factory updates along the way, the truck received them. Any advice would be appreciated! Should also mention that the truck is totally stock as far as mods. Hasn't been pulled but a couple thousand miles in it's entire life. No tuner so far. Thinking about getting one if it will help.

On a side note, I've personally known quite a few 6.0 owners that have had trouble with head gaskets and injector issues, and they all say to get rid of her (the truck) BEFORE the issues arise. Can't seem to convince the wife that this is the smart move. Alas, I'm seeking advice here!
Thanks!

 

I'd keep it. What's the point of getting rid of a good running truck that was kept up on maintenance?

Injectors don't just fail. This isn't an LB7 here. The two main causes of injector issues are all owner related. One is oil, if you don't stay on top of your oil changes and oil filter changes, it will cause injectors to fail faster (fired off of high pressure oil). 5k miles on oil, no more. The other side is fuel... low fuel pressure is the silent killer of a powerstroke injector. A fuel pressure gauge would be a great investment, as well as engine oil temp and engine coolant temp gauges. You can then monitor the two temps together and see when the oil cooler is starting to clog. A clogged oil cooler is typically what leads to blown EGR coolers and headgaskets.

Headgaskets are a big question.. . some stock trucks have issues, some guys run race tunes daily without issue. The biggest thing is monitoring that oil cooler like I suggested.

They're really good trucks if you know what to look for and do a few preventative things. The EGR delete and coolant filter are a great step. Next I would be doing gauges and a 4" turbo-back exhaust.

What are the plans for this truck?

 

Thanks for the reply MDUB! You appear to be the godfather on these diesels!
You sound like my wife with your keep it attitude, which I suppose makes the score 2 to 1 in favor of running it into the ground. As the Ford sits, it doesn't really get used much with me having the dodge for my dd, but I have been informed that once the cummins gives up the ghost, the wife's will be my new dd. That's where I think I might run into some issues with the 6.0. I make a lot of short trips whether it's to the couple farms everyday or the all too often trip to get parts a few miles away from the farm. Now I'm certainly not bragging, but most of the time I don't do much in the way of warming the dodge up much before or cooling it down much after said trips. One thing that is nice about the dodge is the manual tranny, so I typically don't worry too much about letting it get warmed up before I go tearing off. The Ford has the auto, which I have heard a lot of good things about, but also requires more of a warm up to prolong it's life. Maybe I should just change my habits, but whenever we're planting or harvesting, it's pretty much a race, so you can see my concern.
Anyhow, I appreciate the advice and look forward to being a more active member in the 6.0 forums!

 

The 6.0's don't like to be idled for long times either, so keep that in mind. It seems to cause more problems than it's worth. Driving any engine short distances (at least short in the sense that the engine/trans don't reach operating temps) isn't good. You gotta remember the 6.0 works off of high pressure oil, so as the motor warms up, the better it runs (thinner oil is easier to fire injectors with). I would use a good quality synthetic oil to aid it's life. If you know you're doing short trips, plugging it in to get it warmer faster isn't a bad idea either. The 5R110 is a GREAT auto trans... the best stock for stock. You really shouldn't have any issues with that. As for letting the trans warm up... well that's a tough one. Obviously warmer fluid moves better, and there are 6 solenoids in the trans that are activated to push fluid. Luckily Ford designed this trans to not hurt itself in cold weather. When it's cold it will shift from 3rd gear, to 4th gear, then to 6th, skipping 5th. It can't make a good reliable shift from 3rd to 5th when cold. It will only use 4th OR 5th, but never both. I can not physically shift from 4th to 5th at all. 4th and 5th are very close as far as ratios go, but 4th is a touch higher and will also result in a slightly higher RPM, which also aids in warm-up. It's really a SMART trans. It has 6 forward gears but only ever uses 5 of them.

 

Wow! Just leaned a lot there^ I wasn't aware that there were six gears in that tranny! Obviously I need to broaden my education with these trucks! Anyway, I must say that I'm big on plugging a diesel in during the cold months. Usually when we get to 32 or colder. Some wouldn't do it that soon, but I also agree that it generally helps the engine to warm up a little bit qiucker which is my main reason. I also find(should be common knowledge I suppose) that if for some reason it wasn't plugged in, if I cycle the plugs twice or even three times, it helps a lot to get them fired up without too much chatter or cranking. My first truck was an 89 3/4 ton with the 7.3 and I can't tell you how many starters, batteries, and glow plugs I went through in the five years it lasted me! That was the reason I switched to the cummins. Much better starting engine than the ol 7.3. Problem with these dodges(other than a crappy front end steering system) is that the bodies don't last with our salty roads in the winter. They seem, to me atleast, to rot away faster than the fords or chevy's. I'm, rambling now... Thanks again

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Forgot to mention that when I did my egr cooler delete, I took the turbo apart and cleaned it up as best I could. There did seem to be a fair amount of carbon built up on the disc and surfaces that the viens ride on. Read about that issue on a different post a while back. Put it all back together, and hasn't missed a beat yet. (maybe 100 miles or so since the cleanse)

 

You can just turn they key forward once, the glowplugs stay on even after the WTS (wait to start) light goes out on these trucks. It can stay on for as long as 120 seconds total, but never more than that. The glow plug systems on the 6.0 are far superior to those found on the 7.3's, at least in regards to reliability. If your engine oil temp is 131* or above, the glow plugs don't come on at all.

Good call on the EGR delete and turbo cleaning.

 

On my 06 6.0 PSD auto it will not move forward in cold weather until it has warmed up or if I put it into reverse for a short bit. Its been this way since it was brand new.

 

Well, I certainly feel a lot better now that I've made the couple mods that I have. Through my searching, it seems that they should help the most at this point. It is a heck of a nice truck! Not knocking that part, although if I had bought it, it wouldn't have been a longbox! It's like driving a bus around! I'll get used to it, I suppose. Anyone guess that my wife has a horse yet? LOL

 

Where do you live? I started mine up this morning it was right around 0F. I didn't plug it in either. I can move it no issue like that.

That doesn't sound right... You've owned it since brand new?

 

Yes I bought it brand new. I am staying in CT now but lived in MT when I bought it. Warm weather is not a problem unless I have a trailer hooked up. The tranny was serviced by the dealer around 100,000 miles. It is time to service tranny again as I now have 156,000+ on it. Most miles are highway miles but the miles in MT are hard miles hauling a horse trailer over the mountains.

My biggest concern now is not starting unless plugged in. I will be heading home to FL in about two weeks at which time I will be testing glow plugs and related controllers. I don't have a place to work on it a lot where I am in CT. Tested FICM which tested ok.