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I give up!

2K views 30 replies 11 participants last post by  racin4ds 
#1 ·
Well boys I attempted to swap my egr cooler this weekend.. needless to say I was in over my head. Truck won't start it's goin into the dealer to get runnong again... it'll crank and try to start I have a little combusting but enough to keep it goin and I have a major coolant leak somewhere on top of the engine.. wish the best if you can
 
#2 ·
Might not be so bad. The coolant leak is probably the short hose between the oil cooler housing and the EGR cooler. Regarding the start, I'd suspect the FICM connectors. If that's the case, you won't be paying for so much.

Please update with the outcome. That sort of information will help others in your spot. Good luck.
 
#3 ·
Either that or the o ring where it goes into the intake manifold got pinched. I just changed mine out Saturday for the third time
 
#5 ·
FYI some dealers won't touch EGR deletes because there illegal in all 50 states and will make you replace it with an EGR even if the fix is simple.

The dealer down the road from me doesn't care unless the problem is the delete and then won't touch it unless they put an EGR back.
 
#7 ·
I'm reasonably sure that the Good Lord created both beer and pastries to aid in the convincing of people in the service industry to do things that they otherwise would not do.

...and not donuts. Pastries. ...with fruit.
 
#8 ·
He didn't say he was doing a delete, just a swap??
 
#9 ·
Well brain fart then.

Everytime I see EGR I assume delete.
 
#11 ·
I didn't want to bring this up but....

your egr cooler was probably cracked because the coolant passages in your oil cooler were getting clogged. do yourself a huge huge favor and....


flush the crap out of your trucks coolant system, I mean flush, flush, flush! then replace the oil and egr cooler and run the Caterpillar elc rated red coolant. You can buy rotella brand at tractor supply co, zerex brand at napa or pay$$$ for caterpillars brand.

the gold coolant can gel up under the heat and pressure from the egr/oil cooler and clog the coolant passages causing ruptures, and even taking your headgaskets out.
 
#13 ·
ok ya you might want to have them replace the oil cooler too. the dealer is already right there so maybe 3-500$ more to have them replace the oil cooler too. also if you have emissions or inspections ask if they install the bulletproof egr coolers. they are smog legal in California so they would pass any emissions test lol.
 
#14 ·
Damn EGR cooler...... I have mine still in the truck but it's eye candy, when I had my engine rebuilt I had them weld SS plugs in both exhaust ports. What a jewel to have on these engines but can't beat the EPA. Unless you live in the Sierra mountains lol.

Justin is right you surely have a plugged oil cooler if you fractured your EGR cooler.
 
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#15 ·
Do you have a monitor to see what your oil temp and coolant temps were? Gauges on the dash do not do anything for that. If they were more than 15 degrees apart your oil cooler is clogged. The lack of coolant flow to your egr cooler and the inability to cool the exhaust gases coming in cracked the egr cooler most likely. When this happens coolant can start to get into the intake manifold, then the cylinders, then lead to a hydro lock or blown head gaskets. Coolant is incompressible and will lock up your motor if enough gets in the cylinders. That and the hot exhaust gases heating the minimal coolant passing through is going to flash boil the coolant and create steam which also increases cylinder pressures causing your head bolts to stretch and heads to lift blowing the gasket
 
#16 ·
I've seen deltas as high as 15 but usually about 10ish.. 65 down the highway unloaded.. I was also getting large puffs of steam from hot starts.. all signs pointed to ruptured egr cooler but oil cooler seems to be fine from what I can tell.. not 100% though..
 
#17 ·
:ditto: the EGR cooler probably failed due to a clogged oil cooler.
 
#19 ·
So the white puffs out the pipe was oil. Where was this water coming from out the exhaust ?
I guess I'm lost.

Glad it's fixed.
 
#21 ·
I think that the disconnect is when the symptoms occurred that made you want to change the EGR cooler and what made you want to go to the dealer.

My take on it is that you had puffs of white smoke in the exhaust and that is why you changed the EGR cooler. Then you had the coolant leak and no start - which is why it ended up with the dealer. They found the coolant leak (hose from oil cooler to EGR) and probably pulled the turbo to get at it. That is why you ended up with a new gasket and a turbo reinstall. The need for coolant is obvious. The no start was prolly a FICM connector or something else not catastrophic.

For a trip to the dealer, you did o-tay!
 
#22 ·
Get an sct tuner and disable the egr so you arent dumping exhaust and soot back into the manifold. That way when you decide to drive it on the highway (like down to the smog inspection for example), you can just load back in the stock file and everything will be working correctly.
 
#23 ·
Ok still not done.. drove it home from dealer had oil leaking out of turbo drain tube.. to back gonna be another 600$ kinda freaking ticked right now.. told um don't call me till it's 100% ready to go.. the tech said he didn't want to cost me 600 bucks to change an o ring.. told him he would have cost me 1000 for a new turBo if I hadn't caught it. Don't think this dealership will be getting anymore of my business ever again
 
#24 ·
So instead he did a half *** job, WTF?
 
#26 · (Edited)
You automatically think that the factory trained mechanics are a step above the private repair shops for several reasons. But the reality of it quite different and often that is where you will find some of the worst mechanics at. I have come to the conclusion the Ford garage in Elk Grove at least is poorly staffed with knowledgeable mechanics. One decent mechanic followed by several very young and inexperienced mechanics that are accustomed to small parts changeout jobs. I had a experience that summed it up for me permanently with the Ford dealer.

I bought my current truck from a shop in Los Angelos with 41,000 miles on it. Drove the 475 miles back home with no problems except for the mistake of forgetting to fuel it up before going over the grapevine. Dohhhh.......
I ran out of fuel on top of grapevine and it took 2 hours to get 10 gallons of fuel brought to me.....lol
I managed to chew up a injector running it out of fuel too btw. Anyways brought it to Ford to have a complete inspection done on it. They said fuel pump was bad along with a fuel injector. Said head gaskets looked good. Even though I did a hillbilly test in LA which is getting truck hot then venting off coolant pressure and driving for 10-15 minutes and opening cap again to see if pressure built back up again. Which it did in LA.
So new fuel pump and injector later I took it home. Next few days I installed my IPR coolant filter assy along with a 30 psi gauge in spare plug in filter frame. I started truck up and at a idle I watched pressure go from 0 psi to 16 psi in a matter of two minutes. I was so pissed I could spit, drove truck back to Ford in the morning and asked for a explanation for them not to confirm that the truck did indeed have a head gasket issue.
After looking at the pressure in my system the Service Manager said YUP you have a head gasket problem and to follow him into the office and he would quote me a price for the repairs. I knew him pretty well at that point because of the work they had done on my first F250.
I looked him straight eye to eye and asked him why in the hell I should trust his mechanics to properly repair a truck that 12 hours earlier they stated it had no problem.
Long story short when I bought the truck I told salesman it had a head gasket issue and that I wasn't going to buy it unless he threw in a repair warranty with the truck. He tried to convince me it had no head gasket problem but eventually quit arguing about it. Knowing that I flew in from Elk Grove to look at the truck he figured I was going to buy it on his terms. When I pulled out my tickets for the flight back home his attitude changed and things got pretty honest and to the point from there. Anyway he threw in a 24 month warranty for the truck that was $2,200 at least from the B/S paperwork he showed me.

Took truck to a BPD Approved shop 475 miles to the North of me this time LOL.....to have all the problems fixed. Bottom line the dealerships do NOT have the best mechanics. But the mechanics have the most information at a factory garage for sure. That big beautiful shop that you see means nothing. They are there to make a buck and often a private shop pays much better then a dealer. So where are you going to work at as a mechanic. Trevor can surely back up the realty on this matter.

My finger is getting worn out, but I have not been back to the dealer for anything. Though I am going to bring it in soon to have a hot flush for my transmission. But anything major hell with the dealership. It's a ship that sank in my opinion.
 
#27 ·
Yeah so I flubbed the egr cooler install.. told service manager that and told her here it is, get running back to factor specs.. they told earlier today good to go.. I was so extremely happy to come in under a grabd for the egr cooler and the repairs.. now im
Over a grand for the repair.. asked the service manager after I got it home and it was smoking from the oil leak below the turbo.. said why in the hell would you let me take it home if it wasn't ready!! In 6 month's hopefully I'll be taking it to bulletproof shoo in albemarle nc and getting it studded new gaskets remote oil cooler bpd egr cooler and a tuner of some sort.. but that's in the future.. rest assured though no more dealerships working on Ole blue anymore
 
#28 ·
A BPD oil cooler is not a must have item it really isn't. Is it the best way to go.......yea no doubt but it's very costly. As long as you do a thorough cooling system flush including pulling both block drain plugs to get all the debris out you will be fine.
Of coarse you must put in a ELC-1 coolant.

Also very wise to install a IPR coolant filter.
That is how my truck was done and it's solid, I'd drive it around the planet without a single concern. If you have the $2,500.00 to do it then by all means. My total cost on engine repair was $7,200.00 which out of my pocket was right at $4,000.00 with warranty picking up the rest.
They actually paid $5,800.00 in repairs all said and done for me. Thank God I got it worked into my purchase. Saved my butt.
 
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