steam in exhaust

[bigwhitemonkey]

i got a 04 f250 with the 6.0. i have notice ov er the past 2 weeks a little steam in the exhaust. it is not consistent. some mornings it will make some steam and other mornings it does not. when it doea it is only under throttle for a short time and goes away. my coolant level was low. any suggestions??

[NYC F-350]

EGR cooler failure brought on by an oil cooler failure. The oil cooler is plugged on the coolant side of it, this slows down the coolant flow to the EGR cooler. Since the exhaust gases that flow through the egr cooler can reach over 1000°F, coolant flow is of the utmost importance. Slow it down and the EGR cooler overheats and fails internally. Keep in mind that this failure is responsible for most of the head gasket issues that made this engine infamous.

[Austin G]

Originally Posted by NYC F-350

famous.

infamous* asdasdasfdadfsdf

[NYC F-350]

Originally Posted by NYC F-350

Keep in mind that this failure is responsible for most of the head gasket issues that made this engine so famous.

How that occurs is that the leaking coolant is introduced into the combustion chambers just by the flow of air. When the pcm commands the EGR valve open, coolant will flow along with the exhaust gases and enter the combustion chambers. The result of that is that the steam pressure will exceed the pressure that the stock head bolts (the TTY variety) are designed to withstand, and stretch..allowing the heads to lift.
The other side of the coin is when your truck is shut off. The coolant will still flow out of the leak in the egr cooler, however since there is no airflow to push it into the intake, it will flow down the up-pipe on the passenger side and down into the exhaust manifold, and then enter whatever cylinder happens to have the exhaust valve open. This will cause a hydrolocked condition eventually. It is presenting itself to you right now as steam.

[NYC F-350]

Originally Posted by Austin G

infamous* asdasdasfdadfsdf

LOL, thank you...and corrected

[Austin G]

Originally Posted by NYC F-350

LOL, thank you...

Both would work actually, but one is better then the other in this case.

famous |ˈfāməs|
adjective
known about by many people

infamous |ˈinfəməs|
adjective
well known for some bad quality or deed

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Maybe just a bad injector? Let's not go straight to EGR cooler and head gasket failure. Although it could be that.

[NYC F-350]

First thing to do is stop driving the truck, crack open the degas bottle to relieve the pressure on the cooling system.
Second is to get Restore, some Restore+, a bunch of distilled water, and flush out the crap coolant that actually caused this whole thing. (see the "nylyons "reverse flushing" link in my signature line for a detailed flushing sequence)
Another thing to get is 4 gallons of a CAT EC-1 rated ELC coolant. International truck dealers sell it under the "fleetrite" name, NAPA has a Zerex ELC (black bottle). You will need the concentrated form of the coolant since the engine block retains about 50% of the total cooling system capacity..even when you pull the block drains.
Add either an EGR cooler (or a delete kit) along with a bunch of other parts. There is a link in my signature line titled "Step By Step EGR and Oil Cooler Replacement" that will give you all the details, part numbers, as well as the written directions in pdf format.

[NYC F-350]

Originally Posted by Austin G

Maybe just a bad injector? Let's not go straight to EGR cooler and head gasket failure. Although it could be that.

I wouldn't say it is head gaskets right away anyway. I don't think he is that far along.
To test my theory that your EGR cooler is toast:
Park the truck on an incline, nose down. (leave the pressure in your cooling system for this test)
Remove the EGR valve from the intake and leave it like this overnight.
In the morning, check the open hole for the presence of liquid, if you see it, it is your egr cooler.

[bigwhitemonkey]

thanks for the info!!!!!!!!!