[07adams88]

Hello everyone, I recently bought my first diesel; an 06 f250 6.0.

The good:
It came with ARP studs, EGR delete, SCT live wire, kc jet fire stage 2, 30% 155? Injectors WDI I believe and s&b cold air intake. These I was able to verify, not sure about anything else.

The troubles:
At first, I noticed my coolant temp and oil temp were 35+ degrees difference. No biggie warranty service covered parts and labor for an upgraded cooler, new thermostat and I paid for a coolant flush, oil change and some new tunes.

First weekend I got it back I decided to pull the camper to a pretty close by camping spot (~30 miles) blew boots 3 times hot side ICx1 Turbox2. After the third time I started to get boost surging like crazy. Tinkered with it most of the camping trip and settled on VGT solenoid.

R^2 Vgt solenoid and clean EBP sensor, everything is back to good. Two days later I hop in to go to work, struggle to build boost, roll coal baby! Lol. Pull over, work the Vgt a bit and good to go

fast forward to last weekend, I hear a noticeable boost leak at 25+ lbs of boost. Leave a stop sign pop cold side charge pipe. Put it back on and drive like a grandma the rest of the day.

Conclusion:
Monday I ordered new charge pipes (sinister diesel), boots, clamps, intake elbow and inter cooler(CSF). Hopefully this weekend I can pull the turbo to clean the VGTs assuming they’re caked from the boots blowing, and install these new components.

Am I on the right track here with my trouble shooting?

Should I be worried about something else causing the boots to blow?

Is stock exhaust my next bottleneck for low spool times? Can I just dummy my cat and muffler or do I need to go 4” turbo back?

or am I looking in the wrong area completely?

I don’t suspect HPOP as I’m not having injector issues.

Sorry if this is crazy, I’m typing it on my phone. I’ll try to edit if needed on my computer later. Thank you in advance for your time.

 

[MtnTallPaul]

Welcome to the 6.0 family!

Your CAC boot issues sound familiar.

Perhaps this story might be helpful.

My daily drive to work includes about a 1800 ft climb in 3 miles. I don't drive it gently.

One day, the lower hot side CAC boot separated from the tube a few hundred yards from the top of the climb. I limped to work and later in the day put things back together.

On principle, I ordered a replacement CAC boot on eBay. Gates brand can't be that bad, right?

Weeks later, pulling a roughly 4500 lb camper down I 40 in western NC, the new lower boot separated from the CAC tube again.

On the shoulder with semis blasting by, I put it back together. Trying to merge into traffic, it blew again.

Lather, rinse, repeat three times.

The last time it blew, there was an exit a mile away, and it was downhill to the exit. I limped to the exit and pulled into a truck stop.

This time, I completely pulled the CAC tube and lower boot. I discovered that the t-bolt on the clamp where the CAC tube attaches to the lower boot was galled. With the clamp removed, it was difficult to tighten the clamp beyond a certain point. A little WD-40 and working the nut back and forth improved things considerably.

I put things back together, and it has held since. But I do now carry a collection of clamps to use in case of a similar failure.

Apparently the galling was making me think the clamp was adequately tight, when in fact it was not.

A few notes:
1. Many use hairspray on the CAC tube and boot to help things stay together. That feels kinda like cheating to me, so I haven't yet tried it, as I haven't had to.

2. Things were made easier by having tools in the truck, including those needed to easily reconnect a CAC boot. Also a Harbor Freight folding step made it much easier to see things and easily access them.

I hope this helps.

Your mileage may vary.

Offer not good after curfew in sectors R and N.

 

[TheLinconlGreen]

I would guess your vgt wiring harness is also toast. Common problem.

 

[07adams88]

@MtnTallPaul
Lol, the first thing I told my wife after the weekend was “I’m getting a scaffold to put around this damn thing!” Everything was hot and my back and knees were killing me.

I double checked clamp conditions and replaced two. I guess I am mostly worried about overboost and consequences. I do not want to go bankrupt as it was already a feat to convince the wife I needed a diesel for our 8k lb camper now I’m justifying parts left and right.

I put a 290 piece tool set in the truck for the future.

@TheLinconlGreen
I had pondered the idea of the Vgt harness, I may grab one with the metal clip instead of the plastics.

 

[kbnw15]

I would continue to monitor those EOTs. Most "upgraded" coolers are junk. The only ones to consider are OEM and Bulletproof. But that has nothing to do with your boost situations lol.

 

[07adams88]

I would continue to monitor those EOTs. Most "upgraded" coolers are junk. The only ones to consider are OEM and Bulletproof. But that has nothing to do with your boost situations lol.

I got and oem+ one from PPE via XDP. Supposed to be OEM with bigger ports to lessen clogging. Temps have been great since!

 

[bismic]

Bigger ports means less heat exchange area. It will not cool any better, in fact it will be less. You need flow for sure, but if you sacrifice the heat exchange area, you will have problems. It has been tried before.

We recommend OEM because it has been optimized already and it is now better quality than the aftermarket (with the exception of the BPD products). All this "trial and error" stuff has been done already. That is why the recommendations are what they are from the experienced forum members.

If you don't tow heavy or live in excessively hot areas, you may be OK.

 

[07adams88]

@bismic
Check and check. I live in Idaho and my camper is about 8k. Like I said, my temps were fine and I believe it was around a 96 degree day. I have done my research and was confident enough my choice would work. I am not in the market for one as it has already been replaced, so I’m not disregarding anyones recommendations. I keep those gauges up and watch them whether I’m towing or not so any deficiencies will be caught. It’s not really the main concern of this thread as to whether I bought the right oil cooler; if it gives me problems down the road I will handle that accordingly. Appreciate the concern but I’d like to focus on other issues.

Seems like I irritated you and I’m not sure why, but have a nice day. Thank you.

 

[bismic]

No concern, just sharing what has already been learned.

Who knows, this one may be an improved version of the original, but it will not improve on the current Motorcraft design. There just is not enough room to improve as long as you stay coolant-to-oil in the OEM location.

 

[07adams88]

Pulled intake, charge pipes and intercooler after work today and decided I better pull the turbo for cleaning while I had access. Well….. 1 broken turbine blade with no signs of impact on any other blade. The unison ring and variable stators were pretty coked up with soot and the marks look like it was sticking pretty bad. Cleaning and ordering a balanced rebuild kit tomorrow. Praying for a light at the end of this tunnel because I really wanna love this truck lol. Luckily this thing is easier to work on than a t-56(c-130) engine!