Ford 6.4L Powerstroke Aluminium Degas Tank 2008-2010

This 2008-2010 Ford 6.4L Powerstroke Aluminum Degas Tank is now available. Click here to check it out!

Our last 2008-2010 Ford 6.4L Powerstroke aluminum degas tank post ended on a high note. We had pushed through challenges, taking an overcomplicated, ungainly design and creating one of our most refined prototypes to date. With the help of Powerstroke forum members and our future customers we decided to trim down our design to include only the degas tank while reusing the stock battery tray. This strategy required cutting the stock degas tank off the battery tray, but our engineer thought about that and created a simple plate to cover up the cut line and make installing our tank a seamless affair.

Before

One of the hardest aspects of design is often knowing when to stop and take a step back. Failure is never fun, but we've learned that failure is just the beginning of a better design. Nothing is a complete failure, it's just another step forward.

When we last saw our 2008-2010 Ford 6.4L Powerstroke aluminum degas tank, it had become a mess of extra parts that didn't add any value for our customers. Thanks to Ford's design team, who apparently didn't know when to stop, our degas tank was trying to be a degas tank, battery tray, and vacuum chamber. All of this was in an attempt to keep our customers from having to cut their degas tank from the battery tray. After building a prototype that combined all three components, we decided to change course. All the extra components had turned our simple degas tank into an expensive monstrosity. We turned to the forums for some perspective.

As vehicles become more complex, so does designing aftermarket parts for them. When components play multiple roles, every detail must be carefully measured and accounted for. The 2008-2010 Ford 6.4L Powerstroke degas tank is no exception to that trend. Even ten years ago, manufacturers like Ford were finding ways to over-complicate even the simplest coolant tank. Building our aluminum replacement for this tank has been challenging, but that's exactly how we like our projects.

Our last post looked at the stock degas tank and we learned that the tank isn't just playing double duty, but triple duty. Molded into the bottom of the stock tank is the battery tray. No big deal. But, below that battery tray was another

Few activities in the automotive world are less fun than trying to gauge the fluid level inside an aging coolant tank. Like cleaning a bathroom drain, it's a not-so-subtle reminder that no matter how clean you keep the outside, there's something nasty happening inside. In the case of the 6.4L Powerstroke engine, the cast iron block and porous plastic tank mean that a grungy brown blob inhabiting your engine bay is inevitable. Oxides and other contaminates will eventually enter the coolant and be spread across the inside of the degas tank.

Considering even the newest 6.4L is eight years old, cracking and leaks may soon become more pressing issues than just being ugly. We've learned from other vehicles that plastic is a cost-effective and acceptable material for most components in the engine bay;