Hey guys I have a 03 6.0 with 115000. I put on a 4in turbo back exhaust and ordered the sct livewire ts from innovative diesel and plan on an egr delete,new oil cooler,and coolant filter. So my question is if i would still need head studs before i run custom tunes.

 

Many of the SCT programmers (the guys and gals that write the tunes) offer custom tunes that are not harmful to your head gaskets.
I have been running the SCT SF3 with a custom tune for about 30,000 miles with no ill affects on my head gaskets. I run a tune that might be categorized as srl (street race lite). It gives me plenty of extra horsepower.
When you order a set of custom tunes, just tell the programmer that you do not have studs (also tell them all the mods that you do have) and they will give you an appropriate tune.

Oh, I just turned over 100,000 miles...truck runs great.

 

Which tunes are you getting? Did you tell Eric that you are on stock bolts? If you told him that your stock and your conservative with the go pedel, then you MIGHT never need studs. Deleting the egr will buy some insurance in the head gasket department, also tune correctly for towing, don't run a performance tune and tow heavy, good idea not to tow at all with a higher hp tune. Could cause worse problems then blown headgaskets as well. There are guys with more miles then you running stock bolts tuned myself included, all though I haven't been tuned long, at the same time there are guys that have stretched bolts and blown gaskets with no tuning. By no way am I trying to talk you out of studs, I personally plan on doing studs next time the oil cooler needs to be rebuilt but I just didn't have the extra money at the time I did it last. I would say don't do the egr delete without rebuilding the oil cooler, it's right there and not very expensive( around $200-250 or less maybe). Good luck buddy.

 

There not needed I've built a few trucks withought them I do recommend then I have studs and am running the extreme srl from gearhead and never had a problem and I tow with it constantly even in extreme srl I'm just easyer on the go pedal with a load

 

Ok thanks guys I think i will just do the egr delete with new oil cooler and save up for studs down the road. Have any of you installed an egr delete and oil cooler or know how difficult it is i wanna do it myself if possible. I was also wondering if brands make a big difference i have a couple picked out and notice prices can vary but does the quality.

 

I wish we had a sticky on how to do the EGR delete and oil cooler I"m still in the search mode and looking at 3 6 liters tomorrow

 

I just got done today doing my egr delete, not too bad to do. I guess the biggest pain in the a** was changing out the up pipe. I got my kit from the litte power shop. The coolant bypass is a hose vs metal j pipe, nice kit the bolts they send for replacing the up-pipe were a little short for the bottom where it bolts to the exhaust manifold, but all in all i'd recommend

 

Egr delete and oil cooler aren't to bad at all as long as you don't run into anything else. Just time consuming taking it all apart. Warning though I've read and experienced that a lot of people have issues with the ipr screen being damaaged shortly after doing oil cooler. I did change my ipr screen without removing intake or turbo, it wasn't easy but is possible. My suggestion would be to check it while you have everything else out and at least that may loosen up the threads and electrical connection if you do have to change it afterwords. It's on the hpop if you didn't know.