Hey guys i called swamps diesel a few days ago and they gave me a quote for 1300 do to studs in my truck. They said they do it with the cab on and dont touch the gaskets. My trucks is not puking and hasnt yet. Knock on wood. So its the risk of just putting studs in without replacing the gaskets? Thanks for the help guys
The gasket isn't really the problem--as I understand it, the stretching of the stock studs causes the HG to blow. Changing the studs takes care of that problem. Are you doing anything about the EGR?
I wouldn't do the studs this way just for the main reason that my truck didn't puke a drop in 99,000 miles, but when I pulled the cab and the heads to have them checked, the heads were warpped pretty bad. I would just save up another grand and pull the cab to do the gaskets and studs correctly. Just my $.02
Brad, just because it isn't puking right this minute, does not mean that tomorrow or the end of next week or month it wont start (god forbid) and say if you got the studs installed Friday and it started puking Saturday (for illustration purposes only) you just wasted $850 bucks give or take, depending on what they charge for the actual studs.
Take the advice above, save the 1300 bucks and do it right the first time.
Better to have it done right the first time. It only cost 2800-3k for it to be done right with the heads being fluxed/decked and new gasket. Just save up for it. I dont believe in doing things half *** but thats just me.
If you go through the effort to do the studs, get the heads decked and replace the gasket. The gasket has been refined over the years and the factory machining of the heads is worse than awful.
A stock 6.0 head gasket is a five layer laminate with teflon sealing beads around the combustion chamber, and the areas through which coolant passes or is held. I have heard the gasket crackle by removing only one head bolt. this means the seal has been broken. you might be able to smash it back together by the sheer torque of a stud, (an ARP torques to 245 lb ft), but I would never trust it. I would not even consider this to be a viable repair for any engine platform, gas or diesel. it's just plain:crazy:, lol
If you have the heads off for any reason you should change the gaskets, I don't care how much the cost!
I thought you weren't supposed to deck 6.0 heads because the valve clearances. If they're warped I thought you were supposed to replace them.
I asked this same questions to a guy at TSD. This is how he explained it to me. I will c/p his email below.
"The only time piston to valve clearance is an issue is if too much material is taken off the heads, which we check all clearances to make sure they are still in spec. If not then valves will have to be recessed further back, but i have yet to need to do that with our method of surfacing. But to be sure, we check anyways. The reason a lot of people are scared of resurfacing the heads, is they do not understand the workings of a mls gasket and do not realize that a 6.0 has hydraulic lifters and valve adjustments will not be necessary within a certain spec (like setting valve lash on a cummins). As long as the valve recession into the head is within spec, there will be no piston contact. If a head is so far warped that it needs this, youre going to need a full head rebuild anyways in my experience.
I have had brand new heads from ford, in the box and all, be .005 and .006 out of flat, due to the way ford measures the heads. This is NOT going to seal a mls gasket like a 6.0 uses, and we have tried with both arp studs and a-1 studs and still had leakage. We have had no leakage with our surfacing of the heads and arp or a-1 studs."
GOS performance is in Montana I think I have never been there myself nor do I know the quality of their work.
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