04, loading up and blowing black smoke

[tastebud]

Four days ago I had the Neal EGR Cooler installed along with a new oil cooler and egr valve on my 04 6.0 with 108,000k, ran good until today when it decided to load up and blow black smoke worse than it ever has, Is there anything else this could be besides a egr issue, also I was wondering if now that i have the upgraded cooler could I just block off the egr or weld it closed ,any comments would be appreciated.

[fallendown]

Could be your VGT solenoid. Does the smoke ever clear up? And does it take longer than normal to spool up?

[tastebud]

Thanks FALLENDOWN, Yes it takes about 30 seconds with your foot to the floor for it to start to spool or clean out, in the past when i had this problem it would clean out pretty easily and run good but right now it is undrivable, it just loads up unless you have your foot to the floor.

[tastebud]

Found the problem, Took out the egr and it had two 1/4" charcoal rocks stuck in the plunger along with a few other crumbs laying in the manifold, this really irritates me because i told him I wanted the manifold hot tanked, he obviously made no attempt to clean it, when i pulled the egr it was as black and sticky as when i took it in, does anyone know if this was just carbon build up in the manifold or did these rocks come from somwhere else, they had a very strong charcoal odor.

[fallendown]

Probably just carbon buildup, they have a service that injects a solvent into the manifold while the truck is running. It clears up quite a bit of the carbon. It may be time to clean the exhaust side of your turbo also, the veins are prone to sticking. It can be done at home. There are several articles with pictures here on the ORG that give you step by step directions with pictures.

[sdigrazia1]

I had a similar problem. I replaced the EGR valve and it ran fine for almost a month probably could have just cleaned the old one. Driving home tonight it started smoking again. Pulled the EGR, it had some carbon on it and the "rocks". It looks like it is scale build up and a piece was stuck in the valve preventing it from closing.

Does anyone know how liquid could get there. I don't know enough about the EGR cooling system or possible head gaskets?

It looks like I've lost 3/4 of the coolant in the bottle (filled about a month ago)

[fallendown]

The cooler for the EGR could rupture and leak coolant into the intake.

The EGR re-circulates burnt exhaust gas into the intake to reduce NOX emission. Returning hot exhaust gas into the intake is not so good for performance. So, air is routed over a small cooler before being re-introduced into the intake. The constant exposure to hot exhaust gasses, and silica in the cooling system causes the cooler to fail.

In THEORY the egr system should reduce temperature inside the combustion chamber. ( By lowering the amount of available oxygen ) However in the real world it does not. The cooler is inadequate. If you live in a state without diesel emission testing, you can buy a kit and remove the entire EGR and EGR cooling system.

Deleting this system will also keep the intake cleaner as you are no longer pushing all of the soot from your exhaust back into the intake.


If the cooler begins to leak, it will more often than not flash off the leaking coolant, and over pressurize the coolant degas bottle. If it leaks too much coolant, water will not compress, and will find it's way out of the combustion chamber at it's weakest point, head gaskets, heads, or head bolts.

[tastebud]

Fallendown, What would happen now if i weld my old egr closed , does it increase temp and become a problem for the cooler, my thinking is that if it is welded closed no crap can get stuck in it, Thanks again for your replys

[fallendown]

Potentially YES. The hot exhaust gases will dead head inside the manifold. Welding the EGR shut will keep the carbon out of the manifold though. It definitely won't help the cooler. IMHO the entire system needs to be removed for maximum longevity and performance. If you are in an emission compliant state for diesel, your only option may be to purchase the upgrade EGR cooler, they are available on EBAY. I think the frequent cleaning of the intake will help a lot also. ( I could be wrong but I believe it was called inductive cleaning.)