EGR cooler replacement, whats it cost?

[RamAirfreak98ss]

One of our 2006 F350s had ARP studs, EGR cooler , & turbo replaced in early 2011, February actually at a ford dealer. we upgraded at the time to a Garret "stage 1" turbocharger instead of the base factory ford unit, and a Bulletproof EGR cooler.

I believe the truck had 125,000 miles on it at the time. Well now 24mo/2yrs later and 155k miles on the truck, the EGR is leaking. I noticed back in November, it seemed like the coolant was low, so added about a quart.

December rolls around and its a quart low again. Looked everywhere for leaks.. nada.

Two weeks later, just before xmas, bottle is way low and i notice a popping sound when you turn off the truck" and while running sometimes", its the coolant tank pressure releasing. I start to see some dried coolant around the bottle on the outside.

I add a full gallon of coolant. Checked around 1st of the year "dont use the truck a lot sometimes", 300 miles later, half gone.

Check for leaks again,and really watching exhaust pipe for any white smoke. I know what it looks like when the coolers fail and are leaking LOL. Don't see much of anything besides when its cold and first starts up.

by end of january, using the truck more for salt spreading/plowing NJ's 1" of snow here and there, 300 miles later again, now the tanks empty. I drive it 300 more miles for the first week of February and it will empty the coolant tank and upper rad hose in 250-300 miles, take for service to a local shop.

My buddy works there but he doesn't ultimately dish out the pricing.

Costs were $240 to determine the EGR is at fault leaking, the Bulletproof EGR.. who knows could be a fluke, already spoke to them and they're going to warranty the cooler and ship us a new one. I still have the "extra" BPD egr cooler bought for our other truck anyway, so not really any down time.

Shop says with us supplying the replacement EGR cooler, $973.00+ 7% tax to replace it? Thats on top of the $240+ tax for diagnostics :/

I fully 100% understand how much is involved to do an EGR delete or cooler replacement including removal of the turbo, alternator, upper intake manifold which can take two guys sometimes, the gaskets etc.

Actually a EGR delete probably takes more time than the EGR cooler replacement.

Is it normal to cost over $1k for this? I have not done the job from A-Z myself yet, but have seen it done enough times, been involved with portions of the work on other buddies trucks so im sure with all my mechanical experience working with cars, superchargers, mustangs and racing stuff, i can easily handle this, just more ticked off that now i either have to go pick the truck back up and do all the work myself or face another $1k bill.

Our other 6.0l 86k mile F350 just got back from the same shop with a $850 repair bill for an leaking flex "actually broken flex" on the passenger up pipe.

It just seems excessive that even if it takes 8hrs for the slowest mechanic, to cost that much, and we supplied the new up pipe part too.

[bondsman]

It is expensive at the dealership. Best thing to do is find a local diesel mechanic. Preferably an enthusiast and they must know the 6.0l. It will cut the price way down. Especially if you have multiple vehicles that he could do maintenance on. My local shop does it for $600 in labor. My son is a diesel mechanic and cuts their prices in half.

[southend]

Check out the write-up in my sig.

Sent from my phone that somebody didn't help me get.