6.0L Power Stroke Engine and DrivetrainDiscussion of the 6.0L Power Stroke diesel engine and drivetrain in the 2003-Up Super Duties and Excursions. No gas engine discussion allowed except on transmissions and drivetrain that pertain to all models. Please confine discussion of topics in this forum to those items that are specific to the 6.0L Power Stroke engine.
Other day I was hot rodding my truck onto the freeway when my heat cut out.. First thing I did when I got home was pop the hood and look at the degas bottle and sure enough, Puked the whole bottle out.
Went to the auto parts store the next day and bought a new degas cap, figured for 8 bucks what could it hurt. Next thing I did was head up to granger and got the parts to make my own hero kit, and sure enough If I do 3 pulls ill go from 0 psi to over 15psi in the cooling system.
So, I need head gaskets no doubt, I want to do everything right and buy all the nice parts, but that requires me to save up some.. How long can I drive the truck like this?
I've been checking the degas bottle daily and the coolant level seems unchanged as long as I'm easy on it, I'm also checking oil daily to make sure no coolant is getting down in there.. No overheating issues and my heat has come back, no issues with that since.
What damage would I be doing if I drove the truck lets say 3 months like this? Roughly 5000 miles?
Might also consider pulling egr. v. & see if dry down inside. Have you noticed any loss of power? Bad h.g. would surely cause loss of compression=loss of power. Happened on mine when gasket let go at (right side)# 5 & 7.
Maybe you'll get opins/updates on what if any damage driving as is? Apparently only pukes when you really get on go pedal. Good luck!
The odds fo damage is 50/50 You may have nothing go wrong or you may not make it to the end of the block.
You could go the whole time frame with no issue or while driveing at 60 mph loose the gasket dump a load of coolant in a cylinder, hydrolock the cylinder, bust a rod and pass it thru the block and you do not even have a rebuildable core to trade in.
Your call
Note while unemployed I babyed one for almost a year until I could fix it.
Another time it lasted 2 days.
To clarify, the test I did was "T" a pressure guage into the return line on the Degas bottle to see if my cooling system was building pressure as a direct result of a heavy throttle imput. What I did was release all pressure in the system and took it out for a drive, when I would mash the throttle and do a 30-60 mph pull the guage would jump at 5-7psi intervals after I let off, Im assuming this is a byproduct of cylinder pressure seeping past the headgasket and entering the cooling system.
Right now im experiancing no Ill effects, no loss of coolant, no smoking on startup or anything like that, but obviously that doesnt mean I'm not doing damage. I've blown headgaskets on gassers and the symptoms of those were more then obvious, but at the same time the repair is much cheaper so it was no issue..
Hydrolocking would be an absolute nightmare, and if thats a real possibility then buying a beater is in order, I just would hate to put money towards a vehicle I dont want when I could be putting it towards my truck.
Not sure if that's a valid test- I don't know what temperature change is required in a 6.0 to go from 0 to 15 psi. Could be just the heat from acceleration run expanding the coolant. Does the system hold the 15 psi? My bet would be on EGR cooler not head gaskets.
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'05 Ford F250 6.0 CC LB 4x4
'10 BMW X5 Diesel
'08 BMW 535xi
'85 Porsche 911 Carrera
'66 Porcshe 911 long term project
'76 Jeep CJ7 current project
Egr is deleted, it's not a temp change that changes the pressure, because the truck was already at operating temp, and the pressure was completely released when I put the gauge on. if I load the motor up then let off, pressure in the cooling system jumps. The truck has always puked a little if I drove it real hard, this time was just more extreme so I've been taking it easy. I'm just looking to see if I'm really playing with fire here.
I mean if parking it and finding something else for the time being is my best bet, then I guess that's what I'll have to do! Damn truck I knew it was too problem free to be true..
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