Losing coolant, not 100% on diagnostic

[nodakpowerstroke06]

So i recently bought a 06 f250, and im basically loving evrything about the truck, other then my coolant disapearing! I noticed about 2 days after i bought the truck, its very cold up here where i live (-20 regularly), and i noticed i wasnt blowing hot air at idle, then it stopped blowing hot all together. I suspected being low on coolant but my temp gauge hadnt moved. Got it home and checked and the degas bottles were dry, took about 1 1/2 gal to fill them. Ran the truck 60 or so miles to work and back noticing a lil more smoke then i thought it should. But, no power loss, no overheating, no hardstarts or rough idle, nothing out of the degas bottle cap, just using coolant and blowing white smoke sometimes. After alot of forum research, I just about have my mind made up its my egr cooler, but i dont wana rip it apart and fix it only to have it be HG's or something else. My question is, is there any sure way to pinpoint my problem? I plan on doing the 6.0 Bulletproofing all around anyway, but i dont have the funds for both at the moment, i need to fix the root of my problem so i can drive this thing without worrying about a hydrolock everytime i shut it off!

[crspeedy67]

Sounds like head gaskets to me. There's quit a few post on how to make a gage to test for it.


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[RatherBNtheWoods]

Leave the degas bottle cap loose, and see if less coolant disappears without pressure. If so, I'd say cooler. When my cooler sprung the leak, I loosened the cap and came on home.

[nodakpowerstroke06]

@crspeedy can i ask why you suspect HG's? I know its possible to not overheat with bad HG's but ive let this thing idle for like 3-4 hrs at a time without a budge on the gauge...smh?

[nodakpowerstroke06]

Sounds good ill loosen the cap next time i drive the truck. Any other things that were very noticeable to you when your cooler went?

[nodakpowerstroke06]

Even when i was very low on coolant with no hot air blowing temps still didnt rise at all

[RatherBNtheWoods]

It holds around 6 gallons, so 1 1/2 wasn't all "that" low. The heater coil in these trucks is pretty high, so they it is one of the first things to loose coolant.

As for what I noticed was when I was working it hard, I was pulling the 38' fiver, it would smoke(steam) more. Until I loosened the cap.

[PSDMikeB]

If you have a bad head gasket, the primary symptom is overpressurizing the coolant system and puking coolant from the degas bottle. The cyclinder pressure is way higher then the cooling system pressure, so you will not loose coolant to the cylinder (or exhaust) with a bad head gasket.

If you are seeing white smoke (it sounds like you are) that is indicative of a blown EGR cooler. To be sure, smell the exhaust, should be sweet coolant smell. That is not to say you don't also have bad head gaskets. One check is to hook up a pressure gauge to the degas bottle and drive it hard. I have seen videos of a blown EGR cooler raising the pressure continuously and steadily while blown head gaskets will spike up more quickly.

Once again if you are seeing white smoke and loosing coolant, it is alomst certainly a blown EGR cooler. The main cause of blown EGR cooler is a clogged up oil cooler, so you need to fix that also. Do you monitor your ECT/EOT delta? Need to do that...

MikeB

[nodakpowerstroke06]

Well the strangest thing happened today, driving the truck into town (60mi) about halfway there i was still seeing the white smoke so i decided to pull over and loosen the degas bottle cap a bit. Well after loosening it, by the time i got back in the truck to drive off i noticed it was smoking even worse, billowing in fact. So i immediatley opened the hood and tightened the cap back down. Got back in the truck and took off. I noticed a little bit more snoke but then, it stopped. Drove the 20 more miles into town and 60+ miles back and no smoke!? I dont know whats up with this thing. I havent checked my coolant levels yet im still waiting for the truck to cool down. But im assuming they havent dropped much if any, since my heat is still blowing really hot air. Going to double check here in a bit and see what the deal is. Wierd though. Regardless i will still be doing the egr delete as part of bulletproofing my motor.