stock head bolts

[brscott38]

I was wandering how many miles you guys have gone on stock bolts? Who has gone the longest before problems?

[colo_dually]

You can run over 200K, as long as you aren't beating on the truck, and monitoring the oil cooler for rebuilds. Main reasons headbolts stretch, high boost levels, high performance tunes, and mostly bad oil coolers causing EGR cooler failures.

I simply wasn't the first time, EGR cooler failure put mine in the shop at 66K. Had I known then, what I didn't back then, it wouldn't have happened.

[brscott38]

it seems there is not many trucks over 150k that are not studded and im aproaching that mark. Still no problems just about do for an oil cooler just waiting for cooler weather. my deltas are around 12*

[legionxxii]

I have 222k miles non studded i run extreme race as my dd and just tossed on PHPs FICM tuner and running the Atlas 80 on it. I also take my truck to the track and do 12lb 4wd boosted launches

[colo_dually]

Most of those folks running stock programming and headbolts, and not having issues aren't the kind to be around the forums much.

[PGreenSVT]

There are trucks out there with 3 and 400K on stock head bolts. The biggest problem with the 6.0 is owners not knowing how to take care of them. If you rupture the egr cooler and start dumping coolant into the cylinders even H11's will stretch. The key is monitoring your engine so you can deal with problems before they cascade into catastrophic failure. If you want to run over 420hp or so I would strongly advise studs though.

[dporter]

I have 545,000km on my block. 204,000 heads done with stock gaskets and bolts. Now have 340,000 on these bolts total stock. original egr cooler as well.

[Heathrm]

I have 143,000 on stock bolts and gaskets right now. Quickly approaching the 150,000 mile threshold. I am relatively new to diesel's and the Org. Do your research and listen to the "Org Vet's," and you will be good to go. I spent several months on here, before I bought my truck, just doing research into what I needed to do to make my truck relaible for what I need. Knowledge and preventative maintenance are key to these trucks! That and a couple mods any you will be set.

The mods I did for reliability were EGR delete, coolant filter, oil bypass filter, CTS (monitoring). I have had a couple of hick ups since then, but nothing out of the ordinary for a higher milage vehicle (ball joints, brakes, etc).

Good luck. I hope I make it over 250,000 on my stock bolts, but only time will tell!!!

[ZMANN]

50 k then poof

[Galaxie]

I have studs. I did them before I really understood what took out the head bolts.

1. Steam from bad EGR cooler (starting from bad oil usually)
2. Bigger boost/fuel
3. Being an idot with the truck e.g. towing 15k on kill mode

I would NEVER hesitate to run a 6.0 with stock head bolts as long as coolers are healty or upgraded.