Just got the truck bulletproofed.. Degas bottle puking

[Deiboe]

I just picked my truck up from the mechanic today.. I had him do the EGR delete/ARP Head studs/Tuner/STC fitting/Gaskets/Turbo cleaned etc. On the way home I was blowing blue/white smoke with black smoke. At one point my buddy who was following me said he even saw a spark come out of the exhaust pipe. The smoke was intermittent anywhere from pulling out to driving highway speeds. I figured the smoke was from any cleaner used in the turbo or any residue left over from the job. I called the guy and he said to drive it for a few days and see if it goes away, if not call him him back.

I drove about 70 miles and the smoke started to be blueish/white even when sitting. I popped the hood and noticed the degas bottle was puking and was whistling from pressure. I took the cap off and depressurized it. My truck was parked on a hill, front inclined up. The coolant was way over the max line. After I depressurized I drove it a few more miles. I came back and parked the truck then on a decline(front downhill) and the coolant was then extremely low, it wasn't even touching the bottom part of the inclined bottle. The coolant was smoking out of the bottle. I looked in the degas bottle and didn't see any oil.

ECT Range was 176-194.

What would be causing the truck to be pushing/pressurizing this coolant? Would there be a chance he didn't put a headgasket on right?

[kdogg85]

Could be the studs weren't torqued right, the cap has went bad, and the coolant being way overfilled will do it as well.

Hopefully it was just the coolant being too full and/or the cap being bad.

How bad was the smoke? A slight haze or a cropduster's worth? You may have an oring in the injector got cut, or the injector cup got broken and is washing the cylinder causing the smoke. Smell the exhaust and see if it smells like diesel or coolant(sweet smell.) That'll give a pretty good place to start.

Any residue should be gone in a few miles, the egt's get hot enough to burn that stuff out pretty quick.

[Deiboe]

Originally Posted by kdogg85

Could be the studs weren't torqued right, the cap has went bad, and the coolant being way overfilled will do it as well.

Hopefully it was just the coolant being too full and/or the cap being bad.

How bad was the smoke? A slight haze or a cropduster's worth? You may have an oring in the injector got cut, or the injector cup got broken and is washing the cylinder causing the smoke. Smell the exhaust and see if it smells like diesel or coolant(sweet smell.) That'll give a pretty good place to start.

Any residue should be gone in a few miles, the egt's get hot enough to burn that stuff out pretty quick.

The degas bottle/cap were replaced. The smoke is crop dusting at times. I'd say the exhaust is more sweet then anything, but my sense of smell is non existent.

The bottle wasn't over filled though, after the pressure stabilized the coolant actually almost emptied out of the entire degas bottle.

[kdogg85]

That sweet smell would indicate there are problems at the heads. Seeing as how the egr cooler is gone. Hopefully it's just the studs not being torqued right.

the coolant being at the full mark on the bottle will puke sometimes, over that and it's pretty much guaranteed to puke. Since the bottle was replaced, it should have the new full mark which is way lower than the mark on the old bottles.

You did have the heads sent to a machine shop to be checked out didn't you? If not, one may be warped pretty good or cracked. The warping is very common, the cracking is not as common, but not very rare either.

Look up a thread about pressure testing the degass bottle, anything over 16 psi and there is a headgasket leak, pretty simple to assemble and will tell you how good or bad the leak is.

Hope that helps out somewhat.

[Deiboe]

Too little or too much coolant would never cause smoking, correct?

[PGreenSVT]

Originally Posted by Deiboe

Too little or too much coolant would never cause smoking, correct?

Correct. It would seem you have issues with your mechanic.

[WLDHRSE]

Yep, too little is not really good, and too much will push out the degass bottle, but neither will ever cause smoke.

[Arctic Fox]

Did they mill the heads and prep the block correctly?
What head gaskets did you use?

[f350powerstroke]

Sounds like ur mechanic dun goofed. Does he have experience with 6.0 powerstrokes?

[jimmyv13]

Puking AND smoke out the back???? Take it right back to the shop.