Upgrades and Aftermarket - 6.0L EngineUpgrading and adding aftermarket equipment to your 2003-Up Super Duty or Excursion with 6.0L Power Stroke diesel engine. Please confine discussion of topics in this forum to those items that are specific to the 6.0L Power Stroke engine.
I have an 04 6.0L PSD with magnaflow exhaust, airaid intake, airdaid throttle boday spacer, and the hypertech max energy tuner, Im running just for increased MPG. I will not be towing anything, do I need ARP head studs, or even gauges? Can you let me know your thoughts from your experience? Thanks!
Some folks have problems with gaskets and bolts with tuners and some do not. You are not making a wise decision if you are running a tune just to save a couple bucks on diesel. It will cost you money in the long term.
To answer your other question: Yes, get some gages at least and just plan on replacing the headgaskets and bolts. I would also consider putting the stock air filter back on. I stopped running K&N filters a long time ago after I had several oil analysis' come back dirty.
__________________ 2004 F250 CC FX4 / 46g Transfer Flow / ARP Studs
you have a big diesel truck...
you do not tow with this big diesel truck...
you are paying 4.50/gal...
you do not need this big diesel truck...
pros:
your truck looks good, but you look like an idiot.. buy a civic dummy =)"
Hey n00b420 you are on the wrong site, here try priuschat.com
When some pimple faced kid wearing a wife beater driving a lowered primered honda with a bazooka tailpipe coming toward me on 395 hits my 8,000 lb. truck head on because he was trying to pass on a double yellow, I won't feel like an "idiot" at all. He'll be dead and I'll just be looking for a new bumper!
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97 7.3 CC 2wd Dually 140,000 mi. stock except for
DIY Intake
Transmission Just Rebuilt, Tugger Kit, Billet Converter, Steel Gear Sets, Larger Cooler
The general feeling I've been getting around here, is that 50 or 60 extra horsepower doesn't need supporting mods like tranny upgrades and head studs.
You should get guages anytime you mess with the programming.
Head studs have alot to do with the amount of boost you are running, which you can't determine without a boost gauge. Get gauges keep an eye on boost, egt and tranny temp. That way you'll know if your tune is too aggressive before it causes problems.
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97 7.3 CC 2wd Dually 140,000 mi. stock except for
DIY Intake
Transmission Just Rebuilt, Tugger Kit, Billet Converter, Steel Gear Sets, Larger Cooler
The general feeling I've been getting around here, is that 50 or 60 extra horsepower doesn't need supporting mods like tranny upgrades and head studs.
You should get guages anytime you mess with the programming.
Head studs have alot to do with the amount of boost you are running, which you can't determine without a boost gauge. Get gauges keep an eye on boost, egt and tranny temp. That way you'll know if your tune is too aggressive before it causes problems.
good idea, im running a hypertech in stage 3 right now.. be pulling a 38' 15klb cargo trailer daily with it...
the only reason it is in stage 3 is the guy at the shop said hypertech says it will not hurt anything at all...
not true?
also once i do get gauges, at what point does the boost become to high? 40psi?
Basically he's saying you're lucky the gaskets haven't blown yet. My Dad's '05 had 60k on it when his went, and it hasn't been worked that hard. My '05 has 133k with the originals and it's been worked very hard. It's hit or miss if you're stock, and seems to be more hit if you're tuned.
If you are adding a tune, put gauges on. I own an "04" and its had the headgaskets replaced twice, ARP's installed the last time, EGR value replaced twice, EGR cooler once and no, I didn't stay at the Holiday Inn... 60k on the truck and it sits in the driveway 95% of the time. Oh by the way, no tuner on it. Is it a "lemon", probably.
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04,F250,XLT,FX4,CC,6.0,3.73 LS,True Blue, DPPI Turbo back, Born On Date Nov. 03.
While guages are nice, and important if you are modified to monitor your egt, I dont recall anybody having issues with melted pistons. You are mostly monitoring egts to keep the temps lower than the melting poit of your aluminum pistons. Too high of inlet temps also might damage a turbo. There is no guage to measure cylinder pressures (I'm not talking about boost pressure) or head bolt stretch.
I'm not one to leave anything stock, but in the case of these 6.0s they just dont seem to do well when modded. You can get away with a little hot rodding when empty but when towing it just seems to put them over the edge. Mine has head studs now and maybe it could run a tune and be OK but I'm not going to chance it. I just want it to be reliable enough to get the boat to the water and the quads to the woods.
160k miles on my blue 04 6.0, im taking it in tomorrow to have the egr and 2 injectors replaced.
my 04 red 6.0 has 57k miles on it, and i just put a hypertech on it.
Even empty i dont hot rod very much, maybe on a on ramp to the highway but never over 25-2600rpm
towing even with the hypertech i let the truck smooth up to speed, never push it and force it.
im hoping to have some good luck, i was even thinking of putting a hypertech on my blue one but the 160k miles on it kinda scares me to push more power through it.
Your 160k truck will be fine with a chip. The only thing you would have to worry about is head gaskets, which may be an issue anyway if they're still stock.
7.3 CC 2wd Dually 140,000 mi. stock except for
Linear Mode
