..... a man says "I don't know what bulletproofing means" and then states a strong opinion. this place kills me.
the 6.0 is the weak one in the bunch. the 6.4 addressed all the shortfalls of the 6.0, but suffered the indignity of being the first wave/generation of EPA requirements of exhaust treatment. the designers @ IH made a helluva engine with the 6.4, and the EPA requiring the bolt-on's on the engine is at the root of every fault.
the piazioelectric injectors allow for up to seven distinct injection events per cycle and operate holding back fuel pressures of up to 30kpsi... that's thirty thousand psi. crazy. the sequential turbo's are a thing to behold- one providing pressure down low and another volume up top- one almost transparent in one stage and the other pushing, and transitioning with the magic of variable grade geometry until it's relived the other- allowing torque off the line and holding not far off peak for over a thousand RPM's.
the issue's start and end with emissions. the coolant (ford gold) was intended to be a catch all coolant- but isn't capable of holding up under the temperature of the exhaust gas recirculation coolers, which use the coolant to chill the exhaust gas temperatures- it flashes and chemically alters, collecting in gobs combined with left over sand from casting, and clogs the fluid to fluid (coolant to oil) cooler.... answer: flush the hell out of the system and replace with Cat EC1 (or other CAT approved 'red' long life coolant).... also on the table is to lose the EGR cooler, too. Adding a coolant filter is smart, as well, to catch casting sand and to slow-release nutrients into the coolant over their 50k mile life-cycles (the filters LC).
the ccv, a diesel example of a pcv- spits directly into the turbo's face, which cause a myriad of issues- IH's vent to atmosphere. the oil cokes (o2'less burn, similar chemical reaction) and is evidenced by a hard crusty jet black layer on hard parts... this causes imbalance in the blades which lead to ruptured seals which can cause a runaway diesel situation as the engine starts to run off of engine oil instead of diesel oil... bad... solution: reroute to atmosphere, or a collection can and back to intake... either works.
if you don't do that ^ you also stand to ingest oil into the downpipes, which causes hot spots which burn through the walls of the pipes ultimately- losing boost. not good...
if you don't do that ^ and you survive the downpipe leak, the next thing the ccv causes is valve seals and seats to crack/wear. this causes an internal oil leak if you're not fortunate which speeds up :
catalyst and diesel particulate filter (dpf) clogging. the innards of the DPF is a tightly casted honeycomb with barely visible passages through it- causes ridiculous back-pressure on the engine, which causes excessive heat on valve seats, fights valve events, excessive heat in EGR function, and allows for far greater crankcase pressures, which causes more blow-by for the CCV- see how that viscous cycle works?......... reroute the friggin' CCV why don't ya? make one out of hose and PCV or go buy one from your local IH dealer.
DPF/regeneration cycle... some clown decided it a grand idea to capture particulates in the DPF instead of blowing them out... which isn't a bad idea, but it wasn't as required (no soot/smoke in properly tuned 6.4PSD) when these things can have five to seven distinct injection events per cycle at a silly high pressure- they just aren't NEAR as dirty... but... anyway, working with the notion of the ******'s crowd's fascination of "rolling coal" THIS HAS TO BE STOPPED!!!! THE PLANET!!!"- so... it's captured in the DPF via those tight passages mentioned earlier and.... when it gets full (as evidenced by temperature probes/pyro's) the friggin' thing washes the cylinders with raw diesel on the exhaust stroke, pushing it into the DPF and friggin' IGNITING it.... under the premise of "burning it out"..... seriously... burn it now or later, what's the difference?... this caused a myriad of problems.... :
the regen cycle washing cylinders on the exhaust stroke slips past rings and fills the crankcase with diesel.. diesel burns right nicely under compression, but it doesn't lubricate worth a dang- so.... engines were worn at the rapid rate by having too much oil+diesel in them, overfilled because the addition of diesel and therefor frothing (air lubricates/cools worse than diesel if you can imagine that... duh.. )... caused excessive crank case pressure (causing more blow-by back to ccv)... and the pressure created by the DPF in addition to the excessive temperatures caused during the regen cycle which also heats the EGR- what in the hades were they thinking??? tulip'd valves, burned seats, worn rockers, gouged camshafts, intakes absolutely nasty allowing lessor and lessor clean air in....... solution: remove DPF.
a bulletproof on a 6.0 is a different animal.. it requires head studs (6.0 used less and smaller bolts for head block marriage than the 6.4)... it also suffers from oil coolers... it also suffers from EGR.. but it DIDN'T suffer from the DPF/Regen cycle. on a 6.4, the CCV, the EGR, the DPF and a flush of gold coolant swap to red is all that is demanded for a 'bulletproof'.
sounds like a lot? yes.... but these are diesels, NOT gassers.. these things are made to WORK, not play. they demand clean fuel (the ULSD 15ppm fuel process from LSD 500ppm fuel also removed lubricants when that sulfur went bye-bye, which necessitates lubricity be added back into the fuel in the form of treatment- rec Standydine Lubricity or Performance formula) to replace it. These things are incredibly powerful, but are different from a gasser... you may be able to let your gasser sit for a year, swap batteries put some fresh fuel in it and you're good... your diesel will not forgive you... you may get by with never changing a gassers fuel filter- you better change your diesels every 10k miles at a min. you may get by with 50k mile oil changes on your gasser- your diesel will let you know after 10k miles there is a major problem if you don't change your oil.... they DEMAND- no option DEMAND maintenance.... but if you stay on it? more than twice the life than your average gasser and power like you didn't know possible.
my 6.4 is a helluva machine... with some exhaust work (new pipe) from the downpipe back, which cost $350 and literally half an hour of work, a tuner which cost $900 and ten minutes of work, my truck went from 350hp/650#tq to 500hp and 900+#tq... a few more tweaks for about a grand and a few hours- Im sitting at 617rwhp and 1187rwtq. I don't need it- but it's there if/when i do.. it's 12k# of truck that will move from 0-60 in five seconds flat and a 1/4 mile in shades over 13 seconds @ 107mph. it never has less than 1200# of weight in it (which includes 110gallons of fuel) and has tickles 19mpg on 2400mile trips i put it on several times a year. i'd bag it and test it against any truck with full emissions and expect it to do as good (better if you make the emissioned truck go through a regen cycle). it has 132k miles on it and enjoys an aux transmission filter, a coolant filter, and a 2uc bypass oil filter (extending oil change intervals to 15k miles if i ever took blackstone's advice- i change at 10k for peace of mind). I installed an airdog spin on filter/pump, and change fuel filters there every 10k miles, and the one up top on same interval (but offset by 5k miles).
i can set the cruise at 90mph with a 12k# trailer and 1500# on board and blast tractor trailers, other trucks and most cars off the road on grades- and it hardly breaks a sweat.
the oil analysis (if you want a diesel, get used to analyzing the oil) tells me my engine is healthy. the same for the transmission oil... simple maintenance. it'll make someone happy for another 300k miles before the window starts to close on hard parts.
6.4 is a fine engine... no... it's a FANTASTIC engine (caveat: perform surgery on EGR/DPF/CCV). you now know what you need to know about it.
mine's for sell. I wanna build a 5.4mod and play with this expedition. for tinkerers, or those who enjoy twirling wrenches like me- the diesel is a constant effort to maintain, and i love it....... but this truck is done- I can't do anything else within reason to it (could for power, but it's got enough- it was built with longevity in mind).. my one toy at a time rule prevails- dump SuperDuty=build Expedition.
go over to powerstroke dot org if you want... i'm a mod over there under same handle.... I'll roll out the red carpet for you.