Early Stages of EGR problem?

[sastevens]

Heres the whole story... Its a 2004 F-250 6.0, I bought the truck in January at 98k miles and the day after I bought it the EGR cooler AND the turbo went out on it. The Ford dealership replaced both free of charge.

The truck now has 105k miles on it. This morning I went to work the truck was fine, absolutely no problems. I leave work (truck still fine) and get a half mile up the road and stop at a stop sign, go to take off and the truck is VERY WEAK. I go another half mile up the road and stop to check it out, truck seems to idle fine with no smoking, having this similar issue before I rev it up while looking for white smoke out of the exhaust, which like I figured, thats what it done..alot. I limp it back home which is only about 5 miles, still very little power but not very much smoke. I get home and rev it back up looking for the smoke again but it does not smoke. It is real sluggish hesitating until about 2k RPM and seems to clear up.

First thought was EGR cooler is going out again but after doing some reading I am really unsure what's going on with it????

HELP PLEASE...

[powerhoghp]

If you don't have coolant loss or dried coolant around the degas cap, your egr valve probably got stuck in the open position.

[sastevens]

Is it supposed to be difficult to remove the EGR valve? I tried earlier to remove it but it wouldnt budge.

[motorhead440]

it can be difficult but keep working it and it will come out. Clean it , put it back in and leave it unplugged. Flush and clean your coolant system , use Rotella, Cat or Fleetrite ELC, add a coolant filter and re-route the CCV or you will be back on here in short order saying you have blown another EGR cooler. Good luck and there are some really savvy folks on this board who provide a wealth of assistance!

[sastevens]

Thanks guys Ill try that tomorrow and update.

[amdriven2liv]

Originally Posted by sastevens

Is it supposed to be difficult to remove the EGR valve? I tried earlier to remove it but it wouldnt budge.

Yeah, they can be buggers. Twist it back and forth a little, and give it a quick tug. It will pop out of there. You might need a new "O" ring. Check it real close and make sure it's still ok. They can be re-used. Lube the o-ring before installing. Here is a link to cleaning. And clean out the port it came out of real good. Use a vacuum to suck out that intake area as best you can.

6.0L EGR Maintenance and Cleaning (Write-Up)

[f350powerstroke]

from what i understand usually when an egr cooler goes its because the oil cooler is bad all because of a certain chemical in gold coolant that atromizes into gel/gunk which clogs em both.

[PGreenSVT]

Originally Posted by f350powerstroke

from what i understand usually when an egr cooler goes its because the oil cooler is bad all because of a certain chemical in gold coolant that atromizes into gel/gunk which clogs em both.

Close enough. Flush the Gold out and refill with ELC from Cat, Rotella, or Fleetrite.

[sastevens]

Took the valve out and cleaned everything. Kept the valve unplugged and took a trip up the street, Truck was back to normal. Turned around and plugged the valve back up before bringing it back home, revved it up a time or two and it was fine, went to take off and wouldnt you know it the sluggish hesitation came back. Guess the EGR Valve needs to be replaced??

Will it hurt anything to drive the truck around a few days with the valve unplugged? Im going to have to take the valve out and close it again, It was slightly open when I took it out the first time!!

[amdriven2liv]

Shouldn't bother anything. Some 04 trucks wont throw a code with it unplugged. I have a co-worker who has had his unplugged for months and has had zero side effects.