The 6.0 Powerstroke has a notoriously bad reputation. It is, believe it or not, a really great engine. Or at least it can be. While it was an engine that Ford picked up to fill the void before the newer 6.7 was ready (6.4 was also a transition engine) it was extremely innovative for its time. Which is likely why it was so popular early on. However, once the miles started racking up, the problems started to show up, too. The engine was plagued with EGR problems, oil cooler issues, turbo failures, FICM failures, head gasket issues, the list goes on and on. Now with over 20 years since its debut and tons of aftermarket support in existence, the engine is getting its second wind (maybe even its third). With the cost of new diesels pushing $70k and well beyond, buying a $15k 6.0 truck and throwing another $10k at it just makes sense. In regards to the mods necessary to make them reliable, the phrase "Bullet Proofing" has become very popular. A phrase tied directly to the company that pioneered the process early on, Bulletproof Diesel. Many of the products we’ll mention here were created by Bulletproof, and you can find most on our site. So what exactly does "bulletproofing" entail and why would you need to do every step? Let's break it all down.

NOTE: As always, we'll touch on the most common. This list is definitely not all-inclusive, as there are many other smaller issues that pop up often as well. 

 

A Quick Summary

For those looking for just the quick list of parts, we’ll summarize real quick. If you want all the details, please read on past this summary.

Heads – they can crack in the injector bores. The fix comes from a specialized sealant, or aftermarket heads.

Oil Cooler – This causes most of the 6.0’s issues. Most bearing failures, injector issues as well as EGR cooler issues are from bad oil coolers. Keeping the coolant clean is the most cost-effective way to prevent them.

EGR Cooler – They clog and crack, simply put. Go with aftermarket replacements with more robust internals, ones that ditch the stack-plate-heat-exchanger design.

Head Gaskets – The lack of clamping force from the head bolt design causes rampant failures. Replace the bolts with studs and you should be good to go.

VGT Turbo – They clog up with soot. Keep them clean and replace the unison ring with an updated and stronger one.

FICM – The 6.0 injection system’s brain. It fails in a few ways. Go with an aftermarket replacement that has redundant power supplies and better cooling (and better vibration resistance).

Water Pump – The plastic impeller fails over time. Go with the billet aluminum aftermarket replacement for increased reliability over the long haul.

The Root Of Many Issues - The Oil Cooler

The oil cooler can be tied to several fail items. The oil cooler is a stacked plate heat exchanger design. Which means, very simply, coolant and oil flow through small passageways, transferring heat along the way. These small passageways clog easily. When they clog (almost always on the coolant side) problems begin.

For the EGR, coolant clogs cause flash boiling issues within the EGR cooler itself, which lead to cracks (more on that in a bit). For the turbo and injectors, this means overheated oil. Overheated oil causes excessive wear on the bearing surfaces, leading to premature failures. This issue also impacted other items on the engine, the lifters being one of the hardest hit.

The fix for the 6.0's oil cooler woes can come in a few forms. The easiest, a coolant filtration system. Dirty coolant is just part of life with a 6.0. Sand from the block casting process lives in the passageways as does remnants from necessary supplemental coolant additives (SCA's). Keeping contaminants out of the coolant, keeps the oil cooler clear as well. Filtration kits can definitely extend the life of the oil cooler, assuming it’s in good condition in the first place.

Other more in depth solutions exist as well. Removing the factory oil cooler and replacing it with an external air-to-oil cooler (as opposed to the coolant-to-oil factory system) is a popular option. Moving the factory oil cooler to a more accessible spot is also a very popular option, as replacing it in the factory position in the valley necessitates removing the cab.

In the end, a coolant filtration kit should always be on-board, whether you’re going with the other more in depth options or not. Most are fine with a filtration system and a new factory oil cooler.

 

EGR Issues

The EGR was another innovation with the 6.0. And another system plagued by the oil cooler issues. As the cooler clogs, the EGR cooler gets starved of coolant, causing temperature spikes. When coolant finally makes it past the clog into the EGR cooler, it can flash boil. Flash boiling causes large pressure spikes from the steam, which leads to cracking. On top of the oil cooler caused issues, the EGR cooler also clogged on the exhaust side from soot and crank case vapors, throwing flow codes and putting the truck into limp mode. In the end the fix first comes from fixing the oil cooler and second from installing a better EGR cooler like those from Bulletproof Diesel and others. These coolers are stronger and utilize larger passageways, all but eliminating clogs with no negative drawbacks.

 

The VGT

The VGT turbo (variable geometry turbocharger) was also extremely innovative. So much so that it almost immediately became the go-to turbo for the rest of the competition, but the 6.0 was first. The VGT turbo offered more usable boost throughout the RPM range and is much more complex than those used before it, with many more moving parts. We'll go into its operation in detail another time. What plagued it was bearing issues from overheated oil (exacerbated by increased side load from the VGT operation), and soot-clogged vanes. The clogged vanes put extra stress on the unison ring that controls them. After enough time the vanes eventually stick, and/or the unison ring develops a groove, which hinders its ability to control the vanes. The fix, again involves fixing the oil cooler first to save the bearings, but as far as the unison ring, there are more robust replacements available that better handle the stress.

Head Gaskets

The 7.3 was a 6-bolt per cylinder design. The 6.0, a 4-bolt. This lack of clamping force, coupled with the increased low-end boost from the VGT makes head gasket failures extremely common. The fix is simple: head studs. Replace the factory torque to yield (TTY) bolts with studs, which have a significantly higher clamping force, and for most, you're good to go. For those who need a little more protection, O-ring heads are also a popular option. O-ring'd heads incorporate a stainless steel wire into the head, around the combustion chamber. The wire offers a little more clamping force on the head gasket where it matters most.

The Heads Themselves

Since we just talked head gaskets, let's dive right into cylinder head cracking issues. The factory design, over time, suffers from cracks around the injector bores. When they crack, they introduce fuel into the oil. Diluted oil kills bearings in the engine, the injectors, and the turbo too. There are two common solutions. The bores can be sealed with a specialized high-pressure sealant, or you can go aftermarket with the heads themselves. New aftermarket heads have much thicker castings around the injectors. These thicker castings have a very successful track record with very little failures reported (assuming the machining was done correctly by a quality shop).

Fuel Injection Control Module (FICM)

The 6.0’s computer, aka FICM, lives its life in a very harsh environment on top of the driver's side head. Heat and vibration take their toll on it and cause, most commonly, power supply issues. Checking your FICM for failure is fairly easy, we won’t go into it here but you can check out this article (LINK) for more info. The best long-term fix comes from aftermarket FICM’s. These FICM’s, also mainly from Bulletproof Diesel, offer upgraded power supply modules with multiple redundancies, plus upgraded cooling characteristics. They’re much more robust and are designed to keep the truck running, and running well, even if the FICM experiences a failure. OEM/Bosch FICM’s will fix the issue, but the Bulletproof units have been proven to fix it long term.

Water Pump

One of the last common failure items is the water pump. Over time, the plastic impellers used in the factory design crack, causing a lack of flow, eventually leading to overheating. The fix comes from a billet replacement found HERE. The billet aluminum impeller is significantly stronger and doesn’t crack. Simple as that.