Important Things to do BEFORE ARP install

[turbo60]

It seems like more and more of us 6.0 guys are installing ARP's on our trucks. The truth is that we don't have any other choice if you want your 6.0 to run like champ without overheating, puking or loss of coolant. Here are some tips I highly recommend when you decide to install ARP studs.

1. Have your heads Magnafluxed to check for cracks. This test will expose cracks in your heads that you can't see with the naked eye. I'm glad I did this cause I had cracked heads. On another post I had mentioned that I bought 3 other sets of used heads, had every set checked, they were all cracked, until I bought a freshly rebuilt and magnafluxed heads from Diesel Tech.

2. Once you determined that the heads are not cracked, have them resurfaced. It doesn't matter if they look straight or if they've been tested with a straight edge and feeler guage. Resurfacing ensures a clean flat surface for new head gaskets.

3. Change the valve stem seals. I had only 74,000 miles on my truck but changed them anyways. Why do the job again later to find that I have bad valve stem seals.

4. While everything is out, have the oil cooler tested for clogging, replace it if necessary.

5. Pressure test the EGR cooler to make sure it's not leaking coolant. A radiator shop can do this. They can plug up one side of the coolant tube and pressurize the other end with compressed air under water. If any bubbles are present, you've got a leaking EGR and it should be replaced. I deleted my EGR cooler, runs cooler. I just didn't think putting in a new EGR cooler $500+ was good idea. Ford has not superceded the EGR cooler part number which means that it's still the same EGR cooler design as the one that has failed so many times on so many vehhicles.

6. Final note. Don't risk not doing what I just recommended, it cost a little more money and not worth pulling the heads off again to do the job twice. Everytime you pull the heads off there are gaskets that need to be replaced. You don't want to re use any gaskets. You can avoid this by doing it righ the first time.

[Hans-Aka SLick]

Good post and very good advice lets keep this one near the top of the heap for future reference. Thanks,

Hans, aka Slick....:)

[turbo60]

Seems like several members have got their ARP's installed at the dealer and their trucks are still overheating. Dealer's usually never magnaflux for cracks or resurface. They just replace new heads.

[weweld]

The other problem I have seen when getting studs installed at the dealership is they are not torquing them to the proper 245 foot pounds.

[turbo60]

Guess they don't know how to read the instructions that come with the studs. I tried the Victor Reinz head gaskets and they seem to work great. They were under $130 for the pair.