spraying coolant

[stuart01]

my 04 has been spraying coolant from the cap. new coolant tank and new rad cap. only does it when i pull a trailer up a hill. temp will climb untill fan kicks on. but when i stop i have to add coolant. no smoke and no water in oil. has done it for almost last 90,000 miles. had it at dealer before warranty went out and they did something with egr but it started again. no warranty now. dont do much hot roddin with it but i will blow it out every now and then. almost bought some head gaskets and arp studs but i was looking on my buddies all data and it said oil cooler and egr are normally the problem. is that true? to my knowledge the oil cooler has never been replaced and the egr was replace about 50,000 miles ago. truck has 144,000 miles on it and still runs like a champ. cold weather i have a real hard time cranking it. it throws a glow plug control mod light but it still cranks after i spin it over a few times. but really i am more concerned with the coolant problem. any feedback or advise would greatly be appreciated. thx

[dieseldan2005]

Hey Stuart welcome to the ORG. On the coolant issue, the oil cooler usually starts the chain of problems. It plugs which leads to the egr cooler going out, then if that isn't addressed soon enough it leads to the head gaskets going out. To me it sounds like you are blowing exhaust into the cooling system because of a cracked egr cooler. If its been doing it that long you might need the head gaskets too. When you tow or are hard on the pedal it increases boost which can open up the crack and cause the leak. The head gaskets go out as a result of the head bolts stretching under high boost, which is why you upgrade to ARP studs. Just make sure if you do end up doing head gaskets you get the heads checked before re-assembly.

[Chango]

when the egr cooler is replaced, the oil cooler needs to be replaced as well. Probably more than half the people on here with 6.0 have had the same problem. Do some reading around here and you will find the info you need. Good luck

[dieseldan2005]

^^^^^, exactly, i should have mentioned that too. Always replace the oil cooler when doing the egr cooler. Its more work, but in the long run you will be glad.

[stuart01]

would it be worth a shot to just change the egr and oil coolers without the head gaskets since i am not having a problem with over heating or water mixing with oil?

[dieseldan2005]

You won't get water mixing with the oil on a 6.0, but yes you could try doing the coolers. It won't hurt. If you are in a state that doesn't do emission testing then just do an egr cooler delete. You can get them on ebay for $200-$250. I bought the RCD kit, there are others that work well too. So if you can delete and then you don't have to ever worry about it again.

[stuart01]

ok thx for the help

[dieseldan2005]

No problem. Let us know if you need anymore help with the repairs.