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This last week was a thrash but the Ex is now fully bulletproofed! It had a BulletProof Diesel EGR cooler installed previously so it was "semi-bulletproofed" already when I bought it.
I packed up the kids and wife and dog and went to my parent's house outside Charlottesville, VA on Tuesday night to use my dad's shop to do this job as it was the only place that was big enough to park the Ex inside and use the lift. I decided to do this body-off instead of doing it body-on and I'm glad I did. Having the body out of the way made access 100x better and saved my back from being even more sore. It was a hell of a learning experience working on my first diesel but was fun.
The parts list is above more or less but in short:
- New Kill Devil Diesel o-ringed heads
- New Mahle HG's and full top end gasket kit
- ARP studs
- New Delphi lifters in front half of engine. Didn’t pull trans/rear cover to do the rears but they all looked really good.
- Rudy’s chromoly 6.4 pushrods
- Dieselsite stand pipes and dummy plugs
- KDD Up-pipe
- IPR Stainless HPOP screen
- New S&B body mounts
- Lots of other smaller stuff replaced.
The job went relatively smoothly but ran into some issues. One of the brake lines for the FL corner twisted off at the distribution block which I was able to source locally from the dealer. I later discovered that the other 2 lines (FR and Rear) are both discontinued from Ford so I was lucky to break the one I did I guess. Then I broke a rocker arm clip which I was able to source but had to go to Richmond to get. Luckily, my parts guy (Dad) was kind enough to make the trip so I didn't have to take 3+ hours off.
Besides those two things, the head cleaned up nicely but there were signs there was a HG leak previously so it's a good thing I did this job now. After I got it back together, I pulled the FICM relay and did some cranking until I saw oil pressure register on the gauge and some ICP pressure and it fired off shortly after. I had some hard starts after letting it idle in the driveway for a few minutes so I went and drove it hard for ~5 mins and then it started right up after that so I think there was just some air left in the HPO system. Overall, it was a resounding success! No lights, no codes, no issues on the 3.5hr drive home. I call that a huge win!
I also bought an Airlift vacuum coolant tool which is my new favorite tool. Works so well!
My wife's first day back to work from maternity leave was today so I was up against the clock to get the job done, tested, and get us all back home. Between balancing my day job and some child duty, I was able to get it wrapped up yesterday afternoon.
Some pics!
I packed up the kids and wife and dog and went to my parent's house outside Charlottesville, VA on Tuesday night to use my dad's shop to do this job as it was the only place that was big enough to park the Ex inside and use the lift. I decided to do this body-off instead of doing it body-on and I'm glad I did. Having the body out of the way made access 100x better and saved my back from being even more sore. It was a hell of a learning experience working on my first diesel but was fun.
The parts list is above more or less but in short:
- New Kill Devil Diesel o-ringed heads
- New Mahle HG's and full top end gasket kit
- ARP studs
- New Delphi lifters in front half of engine. Didn’t pull trans/rear cover to do the rears but they all looked really good.
- Rudy’s chromoly 6.4 pushrods
- Dieselsite stand pipes and dummy plugs
- KDD Up-pipe
- IPR Stainless HPOP screen
- New S&B body mounts
- Lots of other smaller stuff replaced.
The job went relatively smoothly but ran into some issues. One of the brake lines for the FL corner twisted off at the distribution block which I was able to source locally from the dealer. I later discovered that the other 2 lines (FR and Rear) are both discontinued from Ford so I was lucky to break the one I did I guess. Then I broke a rocker arm clip which I was able to source but had to go to Richmond to get. Luckily, my parts guy (Dad) was kind enough to make the trip so I didn't have to take 3+ hours off.
Besides those two things, the head cleaned up nicely but there were signs there was a HG leak previously so it's a good thing I did this job now. After I got it back together, I pulled the FICM relay and did some cranking until I saw oil pressure register on the gauge and some ICP pressure and it fired off shortly after. I had some hard starts after letting it idle in the driveway for a few minutes so I went and drove it hard for ~5 mins and then it started right up after that so I think there was just some air left in the HPO system. Overall, it was a resounding success! No lights, no codes, no issues on the 3.5hr drive home. I call that a huge win!
I also bought an Airlift vacuum coolant tool which is my new favorite tool. Works so well!
My wife's first day back to work from maternity leave was today so I was up against the clock to get the job done, tested, and get us all back home. Between balancing my day job and some child duty, I was able to get it wrapped up yesterday afternoon.
Some pics!
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