Can I weld my EGR cooler off?

[rlu_tech]

I'm in the process of tearing my truck apart that I just bought. Gonna clean up the turbo, replace the oil cooler, and do an EGR delete. After removing the EGR valve, I noticed alot of coking inside the intake and it appered to be slightly wet, suggesting a leaking EGR cooler. Is it safe to just remove my current cooler and have someone weld it shut on both ends and reuse it?

[jwsland]

Yes, you can put a freeze plug on the one end. Its quick and easy but I think its inferior to a real kit because it can still develop problems. I had mine this way for a while but just spent a couple hundred for a real egr cooler delete kit.

[Truckless]

yeah thats what i did and im up to 1k miles since egr delete and no coolant lose or smoking out the tail pipe...but i would make sure you change the rubber hose with the oem ford replacement...blue in color last thing you want to do is all that work and it leak externally... a 1 and 3/8 freeze out plug will tap in perfectly in to the hole then weld it in

[Truckless]

just be carefull with the kits i heard that blue hose often leaks thats why i welded mine up

[rlu_tech]

Great info guys, thanks!

[L&B]

I nearly did this to mine, but got a new one under warranty and decided to keep the thing in reserve. Full delete kits cost half as much (or less) than a new cooler. If welded properly, a failed cooler is a fine delete, costs a lot less and will pass a visual inspection. If your up-pipe has a scoop in it, you might want to cut that out while it's apart. My '04 did not have this, and if I'd known that before getting into it would have probably done things a little differently.

[Truckless]

good call on the scoop...mine is an 04 and did not have it either