Powerstroke 6.0 Oil Cooler Replacement

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A fellow delivery business owner contacted me for assistance. He said had a refrigerated truck that was mixing oil and coolant. Most unfortunately, he told me the engine was a "Ford. The Diesel. 6.0! Good, no?".

No.

At first, I turned him down. I know enough about Powerstroke 6.0's to know I wouldn't want to touch them with a 10 foot pole. Sounded to me like a blown headgasket, and I did not want to listen to bunch of complaining that I can't separate a truck in half and replace half the engine for $10 and a box of FunDip. I didn't want to sentence any of my guys to that nightmare either.

A few days later, he contacts me again to tell me that all of the other shops he contacted gave him 5-figure estimates to fix the truck. In the meantime, he was bleeding cash renting a truck at a prince's ransom. He was desperate and needed help. I agreed to perform a diagnosis. Nothing more, and nothing less. I sent one of my trucks to pick up his truck, and proceeded to diagnose the issue.

It took all of about 25 minutes to note a distinct gap between Engine Oil Temperature and Engine Coolant Temperature. Presence of rust, as well as oil in the cooling system. I called him up to get a history of the truck. "It was like that when I got it. Flushed a lot of rust out of the system!". OK. Now it starts making sense. Definitely a plugged oil cooler. He was fortunate that someone had enough sense to do an EGR delete, otherwise the EGR would have self-destructed and taken the engine along with it.

After much consideration, conversation with my guys, and deciding I would assist them with that turdpile myself, I recommended a Ford OEM oil cooler, IPR, and IPC replacement, as well as replacement of the pigtail at both sensors, since they are known culprits. I also recommended the installation of a coolant filter and Rotella ELC NF as well, since no amount of flushing was ever going to completely eliminate garbage from that cooling system.

For those not familar with this engine, the oil cooler is a liquid/liquid type that is bolted into a cavity in the center of the valley between the cylinder heads. Engine must be stripped basically down to a long block in order to get at this thing. Inside of the cavity is a cheap screen filter that does not rival the quality of one of those bad window-unit AC filters. The idea is to keep nasty crud out of the IPR. If the IPR gets crud in it, the engine will cease to operate. Common problem when oil cooler replacement has just been performed. What if this happens? You must remove almost everything again to remove and clean this thing, because it is located under the turbocharger. This might have to be done multiple times, as crud may continue to contaminate the IPR.

This engine was about as bad as it gets. Valley screen was missing two of its panels entirely. IPR's protective screen, mounted on its nose looked like a meteor had cratered it. The valley was loaded with crud, which was a bad sign. Had a feeling this job was going to have to be done twice. Given that the screen was missing two windows, lots of crud had gone all over the engine. Common sense would lead you to believe that the main oil filter would absorb this trash, but that will be proven wrong. Everything that could be done was done to remove as much crud from the engine as possible. Valley was cleaned to surgical perfection, passageway under the valley screen was cleaned as well, and the filter head and housing went into a nice chemical bath. Heated, fresh engine oil was poured down through the engine to flush out anything that might be hiding in the oil pan.

The entire process, and 5 hours of flushing the cooling system finally restored the engine to its former inglory. The truck was delivered back into service with the warning that another visit may be necessary.

Naturally, the truck started having problems shortly after. Picked up the truck again, drained oil hot, and tore down everything again.

This time, the cheap valley screen held up, but was loaded with new trash. The new IPR's screen was meteor-impacted again. The valley and channel under the valley screen had black crud under it. Nice. So the IPR was replaced for a second time, the valley and channel were cleaned again, filter housing cleaned again, and all of the gaskets were replaced.

This time, the cat did not come back. That truck has put 4,000 miles on the road in the past 3 weeks with no problem. Let's hope it stays that way.

Impacted (second) IPR:



Filthy (2nd) valley screen:



I will never understand what kind of drugs International was sliding under the doors of the 50 engineers they had locked in 50 separate rooms that they starved into designing this engine. Though in their defense, this engine likely had a problem due to someone's neglect or abuse.
 
Originally Posted By: Kira
Utterly super-duper post. Thanks.

Real quick, what's an IPC and IPR (sorry, no diesel experience here). Kira
Believe it's an ICP (Injection Control Pressure) sensor & an IPR (Injection Pressure Regulator). I've had people ask me about 6.0 PSD/Navistar powered trucks, my advice is always RUN, don't walk, away-they're one of the flimsiest diesel engines ever made, only the infamous Olds 350 was worse.
 
i know of 2 of those perpetual nightmare trucks in my circle of friends.they taught me to avoid them like the plague.
the only service i will do on them is ficm repairs,clusters,and hvac controls.
most engine work requires removal of the body/cab!
ever seen a piston cracked completely across its top?
i have!
 
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A friend of mine does nothing but 6.0 and 6.4 ford's. He has 2 lifts and 2 cabs up every week. He has 2 taken apart and 21 sitting in line! Yes 21 trucks and they keep coming.
 
The machine shop I worked at while finishing my mechanical engineering degree is flooded with the Ford/IH/Navistar 6.0/6.4 engines. They have about 20 sitting waiting to be done and get about 10/week. All need major work. Valve jobs, bore and hone, main bearing saddles need line honed. They have a few shops who work on nothing but these engines due to the high failure rate. They see the 6.0/6.4 engines and heads 100:1 over the 7.3 and about 200:1 over a Duramax or Cummins.
 
Originally Posted By: bullwinkle
Originally Posted By: Kira
Utterly super-duper post. Thanks.

Real quick, what's an IPC and IPR (sorry, no diesel experience here). Kira
Believe it's an ICP (Injection Control Pressure) sensor & an IPR (Injection Pressure Regulator). I've had people ask me about 6.0 PSD/Navistar powered trucks, my advice is always RUN, don't walk, away-they're one of the flimsiest diesel engines ever made, only the infamous Olds 350 was worse.


My apologies. Getting into a Powerstroke 6.0 is like living in Khatmandu for 6 months. You just start speaking the language without even realizing nobody understands you.


All in all, I'm glad I don't have any of these trucks in my fleet. If I worshiped the devil, I'd open an arm just to handle these things.
 
You are a brave, brave man for taking that on! My buddy works at an International dealer and of course the VT365 was fitted to many a school bus, delivery truck, ambulance, patient transport....etc. While the failure rate and problem rate in these applications seems to be nowhere near as bad as in the pickup trucks, they are definitely exciting when they happen, often due to the depth of disassembly involved in tackling anything as you've noted.

Somewhat OT, but he's been seeing lots of exciting stuff with Cummins lately and their sourcing of parts for China. There was an ISX in there with a reman head that dropped a valve last week, head came straight from Cummins, the valve snapped clear off, clean break, right at the base. Lots of Chinese parts in the head, which Cummins appears, anecdotally, to be having issues with. Not sure if the cheapening is poor QC from Cummins or what, but there definitely appears to some sort of correlation.
 
Dunno what it is, but I seem to hear a lot of complaints from large-frame Cummins owners. They must be sprinkling the fairy dust on the ISB/QSB series alone.
 
I'd love to find a 6.0 with problems that I can pick up for cheap. I'd do the head studs and EGR delete myself, cab on. I like a challenge. Everyone says to steer clear but once "bulletproofed" theyre fine trucks
 
Originally Posted By: mobilaltima
I'd love to find a 6.0 with problems that I can pick up for cheap. I'd do the head studs and EGR delete myself, cab on. I like a challenge. Everyone says to steer clear but once "bulletproofed" theyre fine trucks


You don't have to pull the cab. You can take the grill and front end off and pull the engine out that way. That is how the techs at my work do it now, less comebacks for rattles from the cab being off, especially when the owners don't want to pay for body bushings.

I would buy one in a heartbeat and properly Bulletproof it. But then again, when a tech comes for parts on a 6.0 I don't have to open the catalog, just walk around the department grabbing everything off the shelf.
 
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