Definitely get gauges. Studs are up to you. It might hold, it might not. Some blow stock. Obviously a programmer will certainly increase the chances of blowing gaskets etc. What other mods are on the truck now? Coolant filter? EGR delete?

If you have the money to throw at it to do studs, run whatever you want. You can wait til it starts pushing coolant to do the studs if you want, and you may find you don't need to do it. A lot will depend on what tune you're running, and how your driving habits are. Don't tow stuff on an extreme tune, wait til she's up to temp to beat on her, just use your head.

 

The only thing the truck has is a turbo back exhaust system ... And so I can put the programmer on and be able to watch before the gasket blows? Like there will be a warning before it goes

 

No. The warning will be white smoke coming out the exhaust, except it's not a warning, it's too late. The gauges are to prevent other failures.

fuel pressure is a good gauge, it will tell you if you have adequate fuel to your injectors. Without it, injectors starve and it is HARD on them. A tune will just drain fuel faster so that's why that would be important.

EOT and ECT (oil and coolant temp gauges) will tell you when the oil cooler is becoming clogged, which IS a big leading cause in blowing EGR coolers and headgaskets. Even if you had the EGR cooler deleted, and you were watching these gauges, it still doesn't mean you'll be able to prevent headgasket failure. That will just happen and then it's too late. Unfortunately not any really good way to "know" ahead of time if they'll pop. Myself, I'd just plan on them popping if you have a heavy right foot and a hot tune loaded. It seems to work for me all the time.

 

Just make sure you get a headbolt safe tune. It sounds like your a little apprehensive, so go with a street tune then maybe a hot street tune. I have an 03 and I have been running a race tune for several years and about 80000mi. on the stock headbolts and the original EGR and oil cooler. My plan was to fix stuff as I broke it. I got guages and still havnt put them in yet, ignorance is bliss! I dont recomend anyone use my thinking as I am not really that brite in the first place. Do get some guages, do get some custom tunes and do use some common sense and a "little" restraint, doing boosted launch holeshots every time you take off is not in the restraint catagory. These trucks do like to be romped from time to time though, it keeps the turbo clean.

 

So just take it easy for the most part I guess ha

 

Use your head. I've blown gaskets on almost every tune I've got minus my tow tune . I actually intentionally run an "easier" tune to prevent this, since I do not have the self control to NOT romp on it.

 

Yeah I mean I'm not gonna be running any hardcore tunes just a little extra boost and a tow tune but I might get the studs first gonna ask my professional what he thinks first

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How much is a new head like 4,000?

 

A single head is $1000 new from Ford, comes with valves/springs etc. FWIW, even with new heads, I'd get them milled anyways. I've heard of the new heads being out of flatness spec too.

 

Is taking the silencing ring off of my 2003 6.0 turbo worth it ? Once removed can it be put back in ?

 

If you haven't gotten one yet I would recommend what I got,
I bought an SF-3015 from innovative diesel, it came with there
tow60 hp, street around 120 hp , extreme street 160 hp , and
anarchy 180 hp ( all rear wheel hp) as the canned tunes, now I have them
plus I got lope high hp tune on it too as one of my custom three
Think I paid like 520 ship to Canada
I programmed the truck with extreme street like a year ago and have never
changed it since. ( night and day compared to my old edge kit)


I have put over 100000 km on it since I installed the program , and I am still running on stock bolts, new arp s are sitting here I just haven't had time to put in. ( when I order mine sf3 I told him I still have stock bolts , not sure if its the way he programmed my unit but the highest boost psi I have ever seen is 30-32 psi which was on hwy with converter locked but it will get hot if I hold it and ask for power -- idle 400* hwy 600-830* hammer one it I have seen 1200-1400* truck pull 1600*