What are my options after a blown head gasket on a 6.4L? Cab-off or cab-on repair?

[I40_Hauler88]

Well, it finally happened to me. My 2009 F-350 just started puking white crusty coolant out of the degas bottle cap under boost. Took it to a local diesel shop and they confirmed it—blown head gaskets and likely warped heads.

The shop quoted me $8,500 for a standard repair, but they highly recommend pulling the entire cab off the frame (cab-off) to install ARP head studs to prevent it from ever happening again. For those who went through this nightmare, what did you pay? Is it possible to do a proper head stud job with the cab on, or am I getting ripped off?

 

[SwayBar_91]

Is it possible to do it cab-on? Yes, guys do it in their driveways all the time, but it’s a brutal nightmare. You have to remove the motor mounts, drop the engine down, and some guys even cut the rear body bolts and pull the carpet up to access the back of the heads.

Here is the biggest risk with cab-on: when you are reinstalling those heavy, freshly-machined cylinder heads, you have to slide them back onto the block blind under the firewall. It is incredibly easy to scrape and nick the brand-new head gasket on the alignment dowels during the process. If you nick that gasket, it's ruined before you even start the truck. Pay the shop to pull the cab. If a shop tells you they prefer doing a 6.4L stud job cab-on, run away—it means they don’t have the right lift or experience for Super Duties.