Putting On Armor
In last month’s issue, we talked about the work Bullet Proof Diesel has done with the EGR coolers on 6.0Ls to make them more reliable. They have a fantastic reputation in the industry because of the way they’ve been able to make the 6.0 into a viable platform again. A large part of that is due to their improved EGR cooler design, but other components such as their improved fuel injection control module and oil cooler are also vital to the operation. We’ve known the guys down there for a while, so once Brad found out about what they’d be able to do for him, he was over the moon. He bought the truck and started the ball rolling on getting it the Bullet Proof treatment. In fact, this new truck is the same color, same year, same everything as the old truck, apart from the old one having cloth seats.
The first step to getting the job done was merely getting the truck to Bullet Proof’s facility in Mesa, AZ. One 14-hour drive and multiple stops later, we pulled in on a beautiful (and hot) July morning to get started. The first order of business? More driving. This time, though, they had their diagnostic tool hooked up to the truck to gather a baseline of data.
After a few loops of the neighborhood as well as a short jaunt on the freeway, they made one quick stop to wash the engine bay and the underside of the truck. Once back in the shop, they got to work. Unfortunately for us, the rest of the day would get taken up with preparing the truck. Juan Posada, one of Bullet Proof’s shop techs, took point on the whole process and immediately started the process of detaching the cab. Lifting the cab is a pretty standard procedure for getting at all the internals on most Ford models, and Juan knew that he’d need the elbow room to adequately maneuver.
Before we headed down to Arizona, Brad had warned us that the truck had been experiencing some weird issues upon startup, such as an abundance of white smoke and uneasy idling. Now, I’m not saying that the bird’s nest we found in the engine was the culprit, but I’m not [not] saying that, either. But seriously, we knew that the issues that were troubling the truck would get sorted out in short order.
When we arrived back at the shop the next day, Juan had already made good progress on the truck. Part of Bullet Proof’s process when they fix up a truck such as ours is to remove as many engine components as is feasible and give them a good cleaning. The most notable example of this on our truck was the stock turbo—which was extremely dirty from almost 15 years of use—though the intake manifolds and other parts got a deep cleaning as well.