New Superduty Owner, the good the bad and the ugly.

[BLD]

Hello all,

I finally traded my F-150 for a 2004 F-250 XLT CC FX4. I've had it for one week and for the most part I love it. The price was right, and it's more truck than I was even looking for. It's a lifted longbed sitting on some plain 17" wheels and 37" BFG All Terrain TA tires (love those tires, quiet but great traction). It has 57,000 miles and more power than I need...at the moment. As far as I can tell everything is stock except the lift which looks like about a 3 or 4" block under each of the four leaf springs. It looks great and rides smooth for it's size.

Today I took it in for an oil change, tire rotation, inspection and OASIS report. I found out in the OASIS report that it had some warranty work done earlier this year. An IDM issue? The report did state that the FICM was replaced and programmed during the repair. It looks like the issue was related to it cranking but not starting. During the service today they also found a small oil leak at the pan under the crankshaft. They say it will cost $3000+ to fix because they have to pull the engine and flip it over to repair the problem. The good news is that I haven't seen a drop of oil in my driveway yet, and the original owner had an extended warranty that expires next february. If I can get ahold of him and get him to transfer the warranty then I'll be covered.

The other 2 issues I have are related to the wheels and the drivers seat. Unfortunatley the wheels do not have enough offset, so when I turn the wheel all the way the tires rub a little on the front leaf springs behind the axle. The short term fix is to get some spacers until I get the money to buy the right wheels with the right amount of offset. Any advice on what to avoid when using spacers as a temporary fix?

My biggest issue is the drivers seat. It is flat on the left side and is very uncomfortable to sit in. I'm big and heavy and don't enjoy how the seat has me leaning to one side while driving. Where can I find a factory replacement for a decent cost? Pick & Pull in my area doesn't have any Superduties newer than 1992, and I'm not in a position to shell out a ton of money on a new drivers seat/front row.

So far my list of future upgrades includes upgraded mirrors (like the 2006 trucks have), upgraded sound system (when I find a spot to hide a subwoofer or two), a billet grill, and a better set of 17" rims. When they fail I plan on replacing the oil cooler and EGR cooler with the Bulletproof Diesel products. I'm in CA so I can't delete the EGR cooler (even though my neighbor has passed smog on his '06 Cummin's with a 4.5" straight pipe?!?). Other than that I don't plan on going wild with this truck. I just want to have a reliable rig to tow our boat, go to the snow, and maybe play in the mud a little

Here's a mediocre picture of the beast. When I get a chance I'll take some better pics.



Thanks Powerstroke.org for all the good info so far. Let me know if there's anything you all can help me with in polishing up this "little" gem of mine.

[GregsSD]

Originally Posted by BLD

Hello all,

I finally traded my F-150 for a 2004 F-250 XLT CC FX4. As far as I can tell everything is stock except the lift which looks like about a 3 or 4" block under each of the four leaf springs.

Thanks Powerstroke.org for all the good info so far. Let me know if there's anything you all can help me with in polishing up this "little" gem of mine.

Looks like a nice truck!
But one thing stands out as a safety issue, lift blocks are ok for the rear of a truck but not for the front! There is too much stress from braking and steering on the front axle and any blocks under the leaf springs can break or be shot out which would cause a loss of control.

Just want to make sure this doesn't cause you some major issues in the future.

[BLD]

Thanks for the heads up. Nice truck, and great picture of it! I've never heard of issues of involving blocks on a solid front axle with leaf springs. My last rig with that setup was a '78 Dodge Ramcharger with over 200,000 miles with that configuration. We had a ton of fun destroying that truck in Neveda City (Red Dog Rd) and at Praire City!

I'll definitely look into that. What would you recommend in lieu of the blocks for the front end lift? I always thought a solid front axle with leaf springs was pretty much bullet proof, and that a block lift wouldn't harm it at all. I don't have much chash to shell out right now, but if it's a safety concern I'll be putting it to the top of my to do list.

Thanks.

[PGreenSVT]

Blocks on the front axle is a definite no no. I'm surprised it passed inspection that way. If you bought it from a small dealer the inspection was probably bogus. If you just bought it I would go have a real inspection station check it out then take it back to the dealer you bought it from and make them fix it. This is very unsafe.

The proper way to lift the front is with drop shackles or new springs.

Now as far as waiting for the oil cooler and egr cooler to fail you need to rethink that. You don't want to wait for them to fail. The Bulletproof Diesel upgraded egr cooler is a great way to go if you can't delete as in your case. There is no need to change the oem oil cooler to the BPD oil cooler though. The oem oil cooler works fine.

You need to get a good monitoring solution like the the Edge Insight that you can monitor the coolant temp and the oil temp with. If under normal cruising your oil temp exceeds the coolant temp by more than 15* your oil cooler is clogging and needs to be rebuild BEFORE you blow the egr cooler. The clogged oil cooler is what causes blown egr coolers and blown head gaskets. None of this has to happen. It is the silicates in the Ford Gold coolant that clogs the oil cooler and cause the down stream damage. Flush that crap out of the cooling system and replace it with silicate free ELC coolant from Cat, Rotella,Zerex, etc. and you can prevent that from happening and make your truck much more reliable. Don't wait for it to fail. Fix it so it doesn't fail. There are tons of threads about this. Educate yourself on what it takes to deal with the quirks that the 6.0 has and you'll have a great, powerful, reliable 6.0.

Congrats on the new truck.

[BLD]

Thanks for the advice. I was wrong about having blocks under the front leafs. I took another look under it today and noticed that it was lifted properly in the front.

As far as the oil and EGR cooler issues, I'll look into flushing and changing out the coolant for some ELC, and look into a way to monitor the various fluid temps. If the oil cooler is the root of the problem, and the reason that the EGR blows, wouldn't it be a good idea to replace it with the BPD part while the truck is already torn apart? To me it makes sense to have all of it done together including a porper flush and ELC fill. I've been quoted about $3800 to have the BPD oil and EGR coolers installed. I'm working on saving up the money to do this.

Thanks again.

[BLD]

PGreenSVT, I've been doing a lot of reading, and I see that you are pretty big on doing the semi-bulletproof package instead of doing the bulletproof oil cooler. For my purpose I'm towing a small boat (under 5,000 lbs) and even when we upgrade it'll probably only be slightly over 5k at the most. Do you feel that it would be better for me to replace my oil cooler with a new OEM oil cooler when I uprgade my EGR cooler and flush/change to ECL? The whole purpose I bought a diesel is so that I could keep the same truck for several hundered thousand miles. With only 57k on it now, and me averaging about 15k a year, that's a long time I plan on keeping this beast. With the right offset wheels, a new drivers seat, and the EGR issue handled do you think this truck will get me there with minimal high dollar repairs?

One of my neighbors is a mechanic and I may talk to him about helping me do the work. If I go the semi bulletproof route and buy the accesory package (about $300) I'm looking at about a $2600 savings. That sound good no matter how you slice it.

Thanks

[Pthompson]

Runnin blocks is a big no no on the front... U bolts have higher stresses after added blocks. Especially since 60-70 percent of you braking is done with the front of your truck. Honestly proly get away with it if your not towin anything. Just not to safe otherwise. I would sho for a shackle kit or just buy the lifted springs to match. Just keep in mind that your rears are probably stock. You recomend pullin the front blocks out and put to stock. 1) it will look dumb 2) It will be a lot safer 3) You can get an acurate measure as to how much you need (all spring lift) to leavel out your truck. If you have some dough give alcan leafs a call (Alcan Spring - Manufactures Fine Custom Leaf Springs). They will custom build and warranty your leafs to what your most common function will be; be it comfortability, offroad, towing, etc. Just givem a ring a ding. Very helpful dudes over there. They built my Yota leafs. Pricey but worth the monies.

GL,
Paul

[Pthompson]

On the drivers seat issue.. if you have a sagging side in your seat check out this...Swap the drivers to passenger side. IE-driver left side cushion swap to passenger right side and viola! Now the VIP/ important person in the truck is comfy...(driver) ;D

[PGreenSVT]

Originally Posted by BLD

PGreenSVT, I've been doing a lot of reading, and I see that you are pretty big on doing the semi-bulletproof package instead of doing the bulletproof oil cooler. For my purpose I'm towing a small boat (under 5,000 lbs) and even when we upgrade it'll probably only be slightly over 5k at the most. Do you feel that it would be better for me to replace my oil cooler with a new OEM oil cooler when I uprgade my EGR cooler and flush/change to ECL? The whole purpose I bought a diesel is so that I could keep the same truck for several hundered thousand miles. With only 57k on it now, and me averaging about 15k a year, that's a long time I plan on keeping this beast. With the right offset wheels, a new drivers seat, and the EGR issue handled do you think this truck will get me there with minimal high dollar repairs?

One of my neighbors is a mechanic and I may talk to him about helping me do the work. If I go the semi bulletproof route and buy the accesory package (about $300) I'm looking at about a $2600 savings. That sound good no matter how you slice it.

Thanks

I think the BPD oil cooler and remote filter are great if you go the whole distance and add a oil cooler bypass thermostat and thermostat controlled fans on the cooler. But I'm admittedly anal about stuff like this. I think the oem cooler is fine for most people in most circumstances. Unless you can explain to me exactly why you NEED to change (and there are valid reasons why this might make sense) then you probably are fine with the oem setup.

If you rebuild the cooler with the oem heat exchanger and switch to ELC it shouldn't clog up on you again. I also believe the ELC is superior in preventing cavitation, and any pin hole leaks that would cause, which will also help with the effectiveness of the oem cooler . And you are right on the cost difference. I have plenty of other areas to spend that money that will provide more benefit IN MY CASE. You have to decide whether you need to go to the external cooler or just eliminating any possibility of cross contamination of oil/coolant for peace of mind is worth that additional cost at this point in time.

[Huckleberry]

Originally Posted by PGreenSVT

If you rebuild the cooler with the oem heat exchanger and switch to ELC it shouldn't clog up on you again.

How do you "rebuild" one of these oil coolers? The few I have replaced you cannot take them apart????

Welocome to the diesel side BLD!