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No start + white smoke

16K views 11 replies 3 participants last post by  NGkingranch 
#1 ·
Like the title says my truck will not start today at all. I recently bought the truck about 5-6 weeks ago and ran great! about a week ago i noticed white smoke coming from the exhaust and was not sure what it was being this is my first diesel truck. I have an 04 F250 6.0L king ranch with no mods. I have been losing coolant from somewhere about 2 gallons in the last 3-4 days... I cant find a leak so im guessing its coming out the tailpipe. Now about 3 days ago I shut the truck off at the bank and then it would not start and had to get get help to push it out of the way at the drive through. About 10 min later I tried to fire it up and it was cranking and then after a few sec it started rough and smoothed out. I drove it home and the next moring I had a rough start again.. and losing coolant. The last couple days it would crank and not fire up but if I tried again it would after 3-4 atempts. Now today it cranked the first time but didnt start and I havent been able to fire it up since.. again im new to the diesel engine and I need help. I been reading many threads and find this is a common issue but all of them seem to fire up all the time.. Any help would be great! Thanks in advance :please:
 
#2 ·
Welcome to your Baptism by fire on the 6.0
That white smoke was telling you to stop driving the truck and fix it.
That missing coolant was also telling you to stop driving it.

Here is what happened before your no-start:
The oil cooler is plugged in the coolant passages within it (liquid/liquid style cooler). This will slow the coolant flow to the EGR cooler (EGR cooler gets its coolant supply from the oil cooler).
This slower moving coolant allowed the EGR cooler to overheat, and it failed internally. That failure allows coolant to flow out of the egr cooler and go one of two directions when the engine is running.
One is into the air intake when the egr valve is commanded open by the PCM. As you can imagine, pouring coolant into the combustion chambers is a really bad idea. This can result in cylinder pressures than the stock head bolts can withstand, and they stretch, followed quickly by popping the head gaskets.
The second direction the coolant will flow with the engine on is out into the exhaust. This will eventually cause your turbo vanes to stick, since the coolant is entering the exhaust system previous to the turbo and flows through the side of it that contains the vanes that control the boost. Add uncontrolled boost caused by sticking vanes and higher combustion pressure, and you are surely headed for head gasket replacement.

When the engine is off, the leak does not stop. The coolant will still leak out of the egr cooler and build up behind the egr valve, just waiting for it to open and make your engine gulp a big gulp of coolant. The other direction, since there is no exhaust flow to move the coolant upwards towards your turbo, it will flow downwards into the passenger side exhaust manifold. If there is a set of exhaust valves open on that side of the truck, the coolant will flow into that cylinder and fill it. When you climb in and turn the key, you just hydrolocked your engine.

You might not have popped the head gaskets yet, but I would bet that they are most likely gone by now.

At an absolute minimum, you are looking at replacing the oil and the egr cooler (or deleteing the egr cooler). You are most likely going to have to replace the head gaskets.
DO NOT use the stock head BOLTS again. Use ARP studs as a replacement, you will not regret that.
Use the stock FORD head gaskets. The gaskets are not the issue, the stock head bolts are.
When the head come off your engine, they MUST be taken to a machine shop that is capable of milling/rebuilding/checking these heads. DO NOT allow a FORD garage to tell you that they will handle this for you. Their procedure for checking the heads is not nearly good enough for what must be achieved. The machine shop must check flat/straight. If they must mill the head surface (likely they will have to) they can not remove more than 0.008, if more needs to come off, you are buying a new head.
If the machine work is done the right way, ARP's are installed PROPERLY, you use FORD gaskets, and delete your EGR cooler, you will never have to worry about another head gasket as long as you own the truck. Ignore something....well, you get the point.

There are 3 links in my signature line that will interest you. The first is a link you should have read long ago, before considering buying a 6.0
It has a bunch of info a new 6.0 owner needs to know, especially what gauges are REQUIRED on this engine, what they should read and what to watch out for.
The second link is a flushing process to rid your cooling system of the junk that caused all of this mess you are in (ignore all of the "reverse flushing" part of that document, it won't help you one bit).
The third is all about replacing the egr and the oil coolers.
 
#3 ·
Thanks for the info.. sounds like its going to cost me $$$... any websites that have the best prices on these parts I need? Im currently on google looking for them. Also with the EGR delete.. now i apologize in advance.. does this mean im eliminating the egr cooler? or just the EGR valve.. im thinking its both..correct? thanks
 
#4 ·
Yep, you will be spending some serious cash. Figure about 4-5 grand if you are not doing all the work yourself. Right around $1100-1200 in head work (if your heads are good).
For all of the FORD parts, you will not find anywhere any cheaper than Tousley Ford (800-328-9552). For the ARP head studs, CLICK HERE to get them for $400.
Whether or not you CAN delete your EGR cooler depends on your states existing and future emissions testing and if you want to 'roll the dice' on ever getting caught violating federal emissions standards and tampering with a smog control device.
You would only delete the egr cooler, and leave the valve in place and plugged in. Doing otherwise has shown (especially on the 03-04 trucks) to play a part in having fan control issues and turbo operation issues.
I used a cheap EGR cooler delete kit off ebay. It cost about 175 bucks or so. Whatever delete kit you get, should you decide to go this route, should come with a new up-pipe. If it does not, you would have to purchase one separately, or make your own.
 
#8 ·
most if not all of the 6.0 's were someones problem the day they drove off the lot brand new.........anyone driving one that hasent done the fixes to help prevent this will experience this sooner than later..... fyi i had 2....back when Ford was still denying they had a major problem..:ford:
 
#10 ·
Update:
After ordering all the parts and getting everything installed the truck fired right up and ran great after getting a new starter as well. Now im hearing a weird sounds and I was reading other post on here. IM getting that hissing sound from the driver side of the engine bay.. and smell exhaust inside the cab.. am I right to say this is an exhaust leak from the turbo or y pipe? The mechnic claims that sound is from the turbo itself due to it sitting with coolant going through it before it hydrolocked on me. Any input on this would be great please. I noticed lastnight when I shut off the truck or let it idle for a while it starts to pour out some coolant on the passenger side.. could this be from the EGR delete kit not set up good? Also if he just doesnt want to try and re fit the y pipe how difficult is this to do? Thanks for everyones in put before and now.
 
#11 ·
My guess is that he rushed putting the y-pipe onto the turbo and thought (mistakenly) that the clamp would pull the connection together. It just won't do that. That clamp is not strong enough. If you can climb up there while the engine is cold and have a flashlight and inspection mirror in hand, check around that clamp for the presence of soot. If you find any, don't clean it off. Bring the truck back to whoever did the work. Lining up the y-pipe to the turbo after installing an egr delete can be a royal pain in the rear. You already paid him for this job, let him fix his mistake.
Also, check the rubber hose that is connected to the new u-shaped pipe on the passenger side of the truck. Have whoever did the work tighten those hose clamps. That is probably the source of your coolant leak. There should actually be three hose clamps on that hose, two on hose connection towards the rear of the truck and one at the oil cooler coolant outlet connection (towards the front). The typical U shaped (or J shaped) pipe is smooth where the hose clamps go and have nothing to stop the hose from sliding a little bit, which is why I would recommend using two clamps on that side of it. The oil cooler coolant outlet has a little flange on the connection, so one hose clamp is good enough.
The 'mechanic' you chose should have checked/fixed this before you picked it up
 
#12 ·
I just checked the hose on the J pipe and the side twds the firewall was a bit loose. I just tighten it a bit more and see what happens. I called him back and am setting up an appointment to go back later this week so he can fix these issues. I checked and I do have just a little soot and put my ear real close and i can def tell its from the y pipe. Thanks again for all the help. Everyone on here is full of good info so far :thumb:
 
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