Cleaned the EGR valve and have a question?

[arbarlow]

Pulled the EGR valve for the first time (for me) today and cleaned it. Piece of cake but the soot was not pasty and dry. It had a slight gooey feel to it. Not completely wet or saturated. Is this normal or do I have a leaking EGR cooler. No other EGR cooler failure symptoms. Temp delta is good and no puking at all. Is it supposed to be chalky black soot or is a bit of goo ok? Thanks for the input.

[HMM]

Mine was just like that too. I was planning on an EGR delete in the near future so I just went ahead and did it, ordered mine last week and I'm almost done putting her back together. Figured I had a slight leak and wanted to catch it before it got worse.

[BeXtreme04]

Mine was a little wet and pasty but i'm pretty sure it was oil from the intake... I had just cleaned it about a thousand miles before hand and just remove I to weld it shut when I blocked off the Egr an it was wet... When I wiped it clean it was brown oil not coolant


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[sinner6.0L]

yeah I don't know about this and what exactly causes it. When I pulled my intake to do my delete last year it was gooey as hell. Wasn't having any signs of cooler failure or egr problems. Logic however tells me that moisture in the carbon is bad

Maybe one out of every 10 valves I pull is all covered in that crap, the rest are just dry soot. It's really hard for me to say what causes it but I usually try and push for cooler replacement in that case. You wouldn't think CCV oil would be able to make it up to the valve since the constant exhaust pressure would force it away.

[Term3]

Could be a pin hole leak.

[bismic]

Originally Posted by sinner6.0L

yeah I don't know about this and what exactly causes it. When I pulled my intake to do my delete last year it was gooey as hell. Wasn't having any signs of cooler failure or egr problems. Logic however tells me that moisture in the carbon is bad

Maybe one out of every 10 valves I pull is all covered in that crap, the rest are just dry soot. It's really hard for me to say what causes it but I usually try and push for cooler replacement in that case. You wouldn't think CCV oil would be able to make it up to the valve since the constant exhaust pressure would force it away.

I had that gooey mess originally. Now I don't (dry powder all the time). Not trying to tell anybody what to do, but relating my experiences.

These are the things I did - who knows which one(s) resolved it:
1. Reflashed to latest Ford program (changes the EGR operation until truck is warmed up, cycles the turbo, etc)
2. Installed a ccv filter
3. Less idling time - unless using high idle mod
4. Started adding either stanadyne or Diesel Kleen every tank
5. Installed the blue spring and improved the fuel pressure by 10+ psig
6. Had weak batteries and later a failed FICM - had them replaced on warranty
7. A little more consciencious about minimixing short trips and try to regularly give it a WOT or two

Ford has stated somewhere where poor combustion (unburned fuel) can make the intake area under the EGR valve look "wet-ish", and can be mistaken for a leaking oil cooler. I just tried to shotgun everything that I could do to improve combustion. Seemed to work.

[sinner6.0L]

That makes sense. Thanks for the info.

My truck was not idled much(over 30m/h average) but I can't imagine the previous owner used good fuel or maintained the truck. When I changed the fuel filters after I bought it they were black.

[04krpsd]

mine is a little gooey inside, but have seen no coolant in there when I checked. I did unplug egr valve, have egr delete coming.

[arbarlow]

Thanks for all the great info. I just did the CCV mod and I do drive a bunch of short trips. I did park it nose down in the drive and it didn't look any different. I think I'll watch it for a while before I decide to tear into it. I just finished dumping some money into it (bilstein shocks, power steering pump, turbo timer, ccv mod, steering stab) and I need to let my wife get on another subject before I drop some more coin on the truck.

[maverick62]

i didn't know the EGR valve had to be cleaned ?? i first cleaned mine at 120k
and it was bad. all black with carbon with pasty goo. the second time my
CHECK ENGINE LT. came on ( 1st time ever ) now at 145k cleaned again and
just carbon build up. cleaned with brake cleaner spray. and i wanted to spray it down inside but the chamber but said no way .Id probably f!@k something up