Andy Christensen

Thank you all for the reply. I am by no means a 6.0 expert but have started to see a few of them this past year. We are a big school district with a large fleet of busses that have the 466 DT Internationals in them and started seeing cavitation on the sleeves even with additive. Somehow these busses found their way to our shop. At the same time, several years ago we took some students to the University of Nebraska Tractor Testing Lab where they were working on experiments creating cavitation. They concluded that cavitation is amplified by various factors. The first and formost was the ability of the water to form a vapor or bubles due to bends, temp differences or oscillations/vibrations. These bubles would lack surface tension to water and would adhere to sleeves in cylinders and then the force of the piston would cause a resonance on the sleeve which would transfer to the bubble and would rapidly collapse thus imploding on the cylinder. Another factor would be rapid change in pressure such as the EGR of the 6.0. It looks as though the EGR design could create a rapid change in presure creating these voids or bubles and the resonation of the valves will cause imploding. To help alleviate the formation of the so called bubbles, an additive of nitrite, borate and ? helped dissipate the bubbles and put the proper pH back to the antifreeze by adding an additive. I do agree changing antifreeze is crucial but it only prevents so much cavitation. I do believe water in a high compression engine with diesel fuel will produce a pronounced effect under compression and power stroke of the piston due to the vapor abilities of water. After looking at the heads of a 6.0 and the bolts I see a couple of issues. it does not look as though there are enough head bolts for the surface area of the head and in addition the possibly there is not enough torque or gripping power of the bolts (hence upgrading to a stronger head bolt for the 6.0). Could a small amount of water in the cylinder create enough of a vapor pressure effect to possibly stretch a bolt that was not really designed for that engine?

Thank you. I would have guessed that was the cure but needed to ask. Area grower/farmer had an 04' and had some serious cavitation from the EGR resulting in seepage of antifreeze into the cylinders and consequently warping of gasket. Not sure what caused his 04' to have an increased effect but the effects were pronounced. He did not want the same to happen to his 05 & 06' and had inquired about this with me. Was not looking for sympathy or help, just adivice and sorry if I had offended.

We just had a call from an area grower wanting to do an EGR delete on his 06' and 05' 6.0 powerstroke. We have done them on the 03' without any after effects. However, I think we may have an issue with the 05-06' throwing codes after the delete. Is there an upgrade for these 05' to prevent codes being thrown after an EGR delete? Thank you

Thank you for the support. Your information was very helpful.

We have a 2005 6.0 come into the shop today with a pretty severe oil leak. Have traced the leak to a possibility of the HPOP cover. Have a couple of students going to get on that tomorrow. My question is, could they remove the HPOP without removing the intake? I have heard that it could be done with small hands for the bolts underneath intake. Is that possible? Thanks. Andy