I get a minimum of 5 calls a week here in Orlando, asking about 6.0 and 6.4 Ford diesel cylinder heads. When all the smoke clears, the real question they ask is, “Why should I buy your Ford diesel cylinder heads?” If we spend enough time searching the internet we can find dozens of websites, hundreds of articles, TSB’s, horror stories, even lawsuits surrounding these Ford cylinder heads.

The last thing I am trying to do is slam Ford diesel cylinder heads and diesel trucks. I had one when I was towing a “Super Gas” car and loved it. Mileage was good, all kinds of power, never let me down. When the car went, so did the truck, no more towing.

You can pretty well lump the calls I get into 2 categories:

  1. 150,000 miles or less (lowest 61,000), or
  2. over 150,000 miles (the record is 450,000 miles, never been off).

I understand how surprised you are when you pull the Ford diesel cylinder heads, or have them pulled, at relatively low mileage, and find out the cylinder heads are cracked. To the best of my knowledge, and that of my lead machinist David (started with me in 1994), we have never seen a pair with 100,000 miles or more that weren’t cracked. Since most cylinder heads have not cracked far enough yet to get to the water jacket, you’d have no way of knowing. Now you have a dilemma: do I put these cylinder heads back on as Ford says (acceptable micro-fractures) or not? If I’m going to keep the truck, seriously?

As a cylinder head repair shop here in Orlando, we decide every day which is the best way to build a good cylinder head that will give the customer the most bang for his or her hard earned dollars and provide great service life. We’ve modified, and will continue to modify our program wherever necessary, to improve the performance and durability of our product. We send out 2 to 5 pairs a week and haven’t had a warranty issue since we started heavy in the 6.0 and 6.4’s Ford diesel cylinder heads in August of 2011. Not to say we can’t. I like to think we do a good job when things go well, but a great job if they don’t.

Another frequently asked question is about new cylinder heads. I know of 4 suppliers, 3 of which are Chinese and one in Mexico. So far I only have personal experience with one. We bought 6 new late model (commonized) 6.0 Ford diesel cylinder heads when we couldn’t find enough cores:

  1. The first cylinder head failed pressure test
  2. The tubes on the remaining cylinder heads were rough, corrosion, preservative, don’t know. When we pulled the tubes out to change them, the new Ford O.E. tubes (all we use) would not fit in the head, .018” smaller where the tube presses in the bottom of the cylinder head. I’m waiting on a quote for 1000 of the Chinese tubes; somebody’s going to need them sooner or later.
  3. Checked the seat inserts 19-22ra (Rockwell Hardness). The seats we install are 35 to 40ra.

To be fair, I have a customer in Pennsylvania that only calls me here in Orlando when his supplier of new cylinder heads is out. He obviously has good luck with them but how do you know?

Check out our Ford diesel cylinder heads articles below and you’ll see why our cylinder heads are the better than what you get overseas: