Blown head gaskets?

[anviltester]

ok. new to this forum. I have a 2005 f350 crew cab dually with auto trans and the 6.0. I installed at 2k miles a banks kit (6 gun, turbo back exhaust, and banks guages (trans, boost, egr). at 25k miles i noticed the coolant level low at the oil change. refilled the bottle and on my way. 25 miles later noticed white stuff on driver fender. open hood and coolant low again. took into dealer and asked if chip was a problem. they said no. Ford field rep comes to inspect, sees chip and is trying to void the warrantee. says blown head gasket but no white smoke out of the exhaust and the truck ran great. now i have banks warrantee and ford guys duking it out for the coverage and ive been without my truck for 3 weeks. the ford guys wont do the tests cause they say its a blown head gasket and the chip caused it. banks says no way and we continue to ping-pong back and forth. Can someone please give me a place to find printed material from ford on the max boost pressure for a stock vehicle that it can produce and also that the motor can handle. also what tests do i need to have the dealer rund and give me results for and what should the results read? ive seen many posts on the egr cooler but am new to this. I love this truck but the dodge is looking better and better. Any and all help is appreciated.

Anviltester
www.RevolutionSpeed.com
Anviltester@hotmail.com

[super_stroke]

the only advice i have is ALWAYS ALWAYS take your chip out.

[mschn99]

first of all, since it is an 05, i would almost garantee that the head gaskets are not blown. i cant say for sure but i have only seen one late build motor blow headgaskets and that all started with 1600+ egt temps and a melted down turbo. im betting its an EGR cooler. to test for that, they need to take the EGR cooler out, raise the rear of the vehicle with the motor hot, and pressurize your cooling system. if coolant flows to the front of the intake where the hole is from the valve being removed, the cooler is blown. if your headgaskets were blown the motor should also be overheating. there is no way they can attribute an egr cooler failure to the chip, that would be like trying to say a blown trannie cooler within the radiator was the chips fault. as far as literature, i cant give you what i have access to due to ford copywrite and also for risk of diciplanary action if ford gets a hold of it, but that motor should be plenty safe at 28 psi of boost, which is fords guideline, and it probably can handle 30-31, but i cant say that for sure............Marc

[anviltester]

the truck never overheats, runs like a top (still), and never hit egts over 1100 (it reads 8 when towing my bikes and a 20ft eclosed trailer or my race car and 30 ft enclosed - only hits 11 if i floor it for a bit). also neither guage (banks or stock) has seen over 27 lbs of boost. i have never had it above level 3 (of 6) and only tow on level 1. I will make a stop by the dealer and have them test for the egr, even if its on my dime as to rule this out. If i can get thru this, I have seen posts on disconnecting the egr. is this a good or bad thing and will it help in the future this happening again? again, all help is much much appreciated.

[mschn99]

Originally Posted by anviltester

the truck never overheats, runs like a top (still), and never hit egts over 1100 (it reads 8 when towing my bikes and a 20ft eclosed trailer or my race car and 30 ft enclosed - only hits 11 if i floor it for a bit). also neither guage (banks or stock) has seen over 27 lbs of boost. i have never had it above level 3 (of 6) and only tow on level 1. I will make a stop by the dealer and have them test for the egr, even if its on my dime as to rule this out. If i can get thru this, I have seen posts on disconnecting the egr. is this a good or bad thing and will it help in the future this happening again? again, all help is much much appreciated.

disconnecting the EGR valve will have no affect on weather the cooler will blow again or not, and i would worrie about carbon build up in the intake if it was disconected. if it has never gone over 27lbs of boost, i would say the chance of a headgasket failure is about 1% in my opinion and the chance of an EGR cooler failure is about 99%.......the test for egr coolers is covered under a TSB, but it is possible for the cooler to pass the test and still be bad. i would say about 20% of the coolers i have replaced have actually passed the test........i hope all this helps and Welcome to the forum, i hope you hang out with us some more, this is a great place

[timmy]

My 05' is doing the same thing, its been leaking out the bottle for a few months now but just enough to notice, all a few ounces. Was roddin it the other night and it puked out a quart! Dealer aleady knows about my Banks, kinda hard to hide with the intercooler an all, they said it "shouldn't" be a problem. This truck has NEVER gotten hot ut i'm afraid of hearing the dreaded "headgaskets"! By the way, I'm running 30 lbs of boost, both stock and on Banks.

[mschn99]

Originally Posted by timmy

My 05' is doing the same thing, its been leaking out the bottle for a few months now but just enough to notice, all a few ounces. Was roddin it the other night and it puked out a quart! Dealer aleady knows about my Banks, kinda hard to hide with the intercooler an all, they said it "shouldn't" be a problem. This truck has NEVER gotten hot ut i'm afraid of hearing the dreaded "headgaskets"! By the way, I'm running 30 lbs of boost, both stock and on Banks.

thats gonna be a tough one timmy, casue honestly if it was an EGR cooler i would expect it to be a lot more consistant in the way it acts up, i would say your best bet is to have it diaged.......Marc

[timmy]

Thanks again Marc...I just cant believe it can be headgaskets the way it runs and never gets hot...it seems to be loading up more than usual lately, dont know if that means anything. My dealer is very reputable as far as their diesel service goes, thats why I shop there( I have to pass 3 other Ford stores to get there!),they're good people and i'm not worried about the service just not thrilled tearing apart a new truck!...hey anviltester, sorry about hijackin your thread! ... thanks again tim

[mschn99]

Originally Posted by timmy

Thanks again Marc...I just cant believe it can be headgaskets the way it runs and never gets hot...it seems to be loading up more than usual lately, dont know if that means anything. My dealer is very reputable as far as their diesel service goes, thats why I shop there( I have to pass 3 other Ford stores to get there!),they're good people and i'm not worried about the service just not thrilled tearing apart a new truck!...hey anviltester, sorry about hijackin your thread! ... thanks again tim

your not hijacking anything, and the reason i say to take it in, is you have symptoms of both problems, and the loading up to me sounds more like EGR.......when its not so clear cut it is very tough to tell for sure without the truck in front of you. i will say the egr cooler failureis about ten times more common than headgaskets, in fact a lot of "headgasket failures" are misdiagnosed, they were actually a blown egr cooler.........Marc

Most of them will puke coolant out if this recall hasnt been done yet.