Greetings from Franklin Indiana

[stevei55]

My son pointed me to this forum so here we are. My wife and I have been involved with horses forever and we use our trucks to pull horse trailers. We currently have a 2004 F350 Dually with the 6.0, 4" exhaust from the turbo back. The truck is a 6-speed manual transmission as I just cannot get past an automatic for this kind of hauling. I have considered trying the Allison, if and when it becomes offered in the Super Duty trucks but until then it is manual all the way. I have also put a Prowler fuel management chip on the truck and the differences are significant. We currently pull a 40' goose 4-horse with living quarters and the truck simply does not know it is back there.

My initial drive to join is that I have noticed in the last couple of months that I am loosing Anti-freeze but I cannot find the leak, nor do I smell it inside the cab and my oil is still oil and not baby s**t from water leak into the oil from a head or coolers. I have heard something about an ERG or EGR valve? That can fail and allow coolant to dump out the exhaust?? So I need to get this found out and how to remedy. I am literally a few weeks away from my 5 years on my engine/drive train warranty running out in March/09.

Thanks and look forward to my continued education.

Thanks.

ski

[Granny]

Welcome to the site! Yes, the EGR coolers are a problem on the 6.0Ls. I personally have not heard of that chip that you are running, but I would remove it prior to taking it in to have your issue looked at, in case they try to void your warranty. Do you have any gauges on your truck? Also have you noticed any leakage around your degas bottle? Just a few things to think about, but I would get in and get it looked at prior to your warranty going out and again, welcome to the org! Good luck in your quest for knowledge, just let us know how we can help.

[stevei55]

Granny, thanks for the post. This prowler chip is in front of engine programming, so I have not touched anything original with the 6.0. I have the ability to disable it as well, which I normally do if the truck goes in for service and programming checkup. Excuse my ignorance but I see a lot of references to "studs", am I to assume these are head bolts? And a stud update/upgrade is related to head leaks because the factory head bolts don't cut it? Just curious. Thanks again.

[Matt P]

Welcome to the Org! If you want check out our Indiana/Illinois chapter

[07OUTLAW]

And yes, "studs" is refering to aftermarket head studs (usually ARP, sometimes H11's) And yes, installing head studs will greatly decreaase the risk of the heads lifting and blowing the gaskets (which is caused by the stock (crappy) head bolts stretching)

[dhanna6powerstroke]

Originally Posted by stevei55

I have considered trying the Allison

Welcome to the ORG. Like Matt P said, check out the Illiana Chapter. If you ever go with an auto, the Torque Shift that is behind the 6.0 is better and can hold more than an Allison. There will be some that disagree but there will be a lot that will back me up too. Good luck with the truck.

[ABOBB]

Welcome to Powerstroke.org

[stevei55]

Originally Posted by ABOBB

Welcome to Powerstroke.org

Cool, thanks 07OUTLAW for the bit of education on the studs! Will have to look into this soon.

dhanna6powerstroke, I have been told the same thing by others, especially the dealers when I bought this truck. They tried long and hard to tell me that the auto was better than the standard, but I continue to be "old school" and like the ability to climb through the gears to manage my load. Does not mean I will never have an auto with my diesel, but the old dog, new tricks

Hey, Matt P, do you guys have a web address? Not sure where to go snooping for your chapter.

Thanks all for the welcome, pretty cool. Appreciate the help.

I just found a technical service bulliten (TSB) TSB 07-14-05 referring to degas bottle blow off if over filled and/or the restrictor is clogged? Am going to have my son, who is a mechanic run a pressure test as described, then go from there to see why I am loosing coolant but cannot find the puddle. Then off to this EGR debate I am seeing. Hmmmmmm.

[mudrunninpig]

welcome to the org

[jose5]

Sometimes back I got my truck sprayed on with Spray on bedliner of Qwikliner.It took only few seconds to set & the quality of finish is aeesome.I will definitely on recommends qwikliner bedliners.