Fuel in Degas bottle/ Cracked head

[WyoXbow]

I have a 2004 f350 6.0. 177,000 miles. I have had diesels but new to the Powerstroke. I have diesel in coolant the degas bottle. The degas bottle is expanding. I'm not losing coolant just making. It is diesel for sure. No fuel or coolant in oil. No white smoke indicating coolant out exhaust. Truck will not start cold unless plugged in below 30 degrees. This tells me that I have injectors failing. I took the truck to a local diesel mechanic. He tells me that I have a cracked head. Well I have been reading a lot of articles. A friend owns a local machine shop. He does the majority of head work around here. He sees all the heads from the local Ford dealership. He says of the 6.0 heads sent to him that only a small percentage are cracked. That it could be injector cups since they are steel on the 6.0. In talking with him I feel that it would be a more likely chance that it is the injector cups. I would like to know a test I could perform that I can determine myself which problem I have.

[sinner6.0L]

it is not injector cups. it can't be injector cups if you see where the cup is in the head related to the fuel passage. there are a lot of topics on this already and a lot of people insisting it's cups. nowhere in the TSB does it say anything about replacing injector cups for fuel in the coolant

Ford's way of performing this test is; drain your coolant, pull all your injectors out, and pressurize the cooling system with 10psi air pressure. spray soapy water into the injector bores and watch the area above the cup (facing the glowplug) for bubbles

[craftkr]

I have the same thing... cracked heads... it sucks!

[BlownCooler]

cracked heads sounds good to me

[craftkr]

Originally Posted by BlownCooler

cracked heads sounds good to me

Either your very optimistic, and or you have allot of sarcasm I didn't pick up on.... Either way it is what it is.... can't say I am looking forward to shelling out the money to fix it... but whats the alternative, let the truck sit forever? I think not.

[Larson24]

well i have the same problem is there anywhere to get cheaper heads than from the dealer??

[artsamm]

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[craftkr]

Originally Posted by Larson24

well i have the same problem is there anywhere to get cheaper heads than from the dealer??

I did a couple searches via Google the other night and found 2-3 sites. The one's that are cheaper will be re manufactured heads, and you can find some made with new castings but they will run around the same as OEM/ford.

I've kicked around the idea of picking up a used set rather cheap, however you need to verify if you have the "pre commonized" or "commonized" heads. You need to get the casting number off the head (under the valve cover) or you can tell by the the dowel pins/rods (I think it's push rods, they where 18 mm in pre but go to 20mm in the commonized). Don't quote me on it, I read it some TSB, but it's on my work computer so I can post it up tomorrow. However you basically need to take off the valve covers and identify what heads you need. And from what I could tell in the TSB you can have two different heads on a engine. Again, I am no professional mechanic, but do some research on it. You can pick up used heads cheap, but I am worried about what am I really getting? Will my degas bottle be making fuel in 15k more miles?

I've had quotes from shops from 5k - 8,600..... I don't have the facilities to do them myself or I would, so I am at the mercy of bringing it to a shop. However I've got one picked out and plan on dropping the truck off after the new year.

From what research I've done, if you have a 6.0 and you have fuel migrating into your coolant it's pretty much a cracked head(s).

I hope this helps you, I've seen heads for $300 (pair) used, and then up to around $1200 (1) from the dealer. Just depends on your budget and what you want. My quotes also included changing the oil cooler, etc. So they have some additional parts cost in there. But I figured what the hell, since it's apart better to do it now.

Good luck to ya, I'll post as much info as I can that might help you out.