EGR Delete,New Head bolts

[8GotNo]

OK I am new to the Ford family. I have always had Chevrolets and loved them. So i decided to buy a diesel truck so I looked and looked and I like the look of the Ford super duty and I have a few friends that have Fords and they all said once you start going into the hevey duty trucks Ford is where it's at. So I found a 2006 F350 crew cab long bed loaded with 64K on it no plows, no fith wheels just some old man had a big truck to drive around in. If I knew what I know now I woud of looked a little longer and found a 7.3 powerstroke it just sounds like the better diesel to have. I have only had it 7 mounths and in the first month I had it the intercooler hose (cool side) let go on my first road trip to KY. I found the problem and fixed it this is a common thing as I have been told. I just last week put a 5" turbo N/M exhust on it the sound is sweet and I can tell a little bit of a diffrance in the way it runs not much but I can tell. I was talking to a diesel teck at the local dealer and I asked him about the EGR delete he said he would deff. go with the delete and some head bolts along with a custom tune he said he had a buddy that had a shop and would do it for $3500. patrs and larbor. This sounds HIGH to me but I don't know that much about diesels so dose that sound HIGH to anyone else? And should I do it all at once would it be more cost effective to do it all at once or do the EGR delete and then save up and do the head bolts later ?

[modman92]

i would defently do it too. 3500 is not a bad price is that including the head gaskets. it 23 hours to the head gaskets

[8GotNo]

yeah that is for everything cept im not sure if that includes the tune or not but im going to call the guy and see exactly what all $3500 covers

[250TUFF]

if it ain't broke don't fix it right now.

[ajpu1983]

I would make sure that the heads are getting rebuilt as well cause there are a lot of guys doing the stud jobs out there that are not getting the heads checked and that is a must!

[NYC F-350]

I am of the mindset that you shouldn't spend thousands of dollars fixing something that is not broken.
BEFORE installing an EGR cooler delete, you will need to know what condition your oil cooler is in now, and in the future. Without the proper gauges on the truck, monitoring them, and knowing what to watch for, you are playing Russian Roulette.
Read the first link in my signature, "basic info" to find out what gauges you need, what they should read normally and what to watch out for.
That $3500 could be spent much more wisely preventing the issues rather than fixing something that you may never have to touch, if you know what to watch for.

[8GotNo]

Originally Posted by 250TUFF

if it ain't broke don't fix it right now.

Why would do you say not to whats the reasoning

[NYC F-350]

Originally Posted by 8GotNo

Why would do you say not to whats the reasoning

The real question is WHY would you drop $3500 on a problem that does not exist?

[8GotNo]

I was talking to the diesel tek at the local Ford dealer about the EGR and all the crap I have been hearing about it and he said he would go with a delete kit as soon as I could and head bolts along with it and he went in to explaining how it worked and what happens when it quits working and how the head bolts strech and I should have it all done at once ( he wasnt offering to do the work or trying to make money off me I ask him if he worked on the side and he said no ) like I said this is my first Ford and my first diesel trusk and all I hear is EGR this EGR that so thats why I made the post
I read the gage list and all of that makes sence to me but if the EGR and head blots are known to be junk why not delete/replace the 'junk' before I do have something go wrong with them
Like I said I'm new to Ford and Diesel's and i'm REALLY trying to make friends and learn all I can about my truck on hear so if anyone says go read tihs of read that i'm going to read it
I don't have a ton of cash to just throw away so if gages help then i'm down to try them I just don't want to have a major brake down and have to have a ton of money to get it fixed

[NYC F-350]

I hate to disagree with that guy, but I do.
The whole problem with head gaskets is brought on by COOLANT. I didn't see where he mentioned you need to add a coolant filter on your engine....

The stock Ford coolant that was used is ill equipped to handle the type of heat a medium duty diesel engine creates.
This excessive heat will drain the nitrites out of the coolant. The nitrites are in your coolant for corrosion protection and to help control cavitation. When the nitrite level falls, chemical reactions can take place in the coolant with high heat applied. This reaction causes the formation of a gunk/slime in the coolant. The low nitrite level can also allow rust scale to form on the walls of the cooling system. This rust scale and the slime is what will gather in the oil cooler, since the oil cooler is much like a "P" trap (liquid enters and exits through the top). All of this junk accumulates in the oil cooler coolant passages (liquid/liquid cooler).
This junk will slow down the coolant flowing through the oil cooler. The coolant leaving the oil cooler is directly fed to the EGR cooler.
Take a second and think about what the EGR cooler does. It cools exhaust gases before they are reintroduced back into the engine. Exhaust gases on this engine can EASILY reach 1000°F. You can now see just how important fast moving coolant is to your EGR cooler. If you slow down the coolant in a situation like that, the slow moving coolant WILL eventually boil and allow the EGR cooler body to overheat. Continual heat cycling of the metal the EGR cooler is made out of will lead to its eventual failure internally. This failure will cause a coolant leak.
The coolant leak will go one of a couple of different routes, depending on if the engine is running or not.
With the engine running, the leaking coolant will go two different routes, creating two separate issues. One route, the egr cooler leaks coolant into the exhaust gases entering it. This coolant will flow with those gases and when the EGR valve opens, will be sucked into the engine. Coolant being ingested by the engine will result in higher cylinder pressures than the stock head BOLTS were designed to withstand. The BOLTS will stretch and your head gaskets begin leaking.
The second route the coolant can take when the engine is running: When the EGR valve is closed the coolant could leak backwards out of the EGR cooler and enter the exhaust up-pipe on the passenger side. The exhaust gases would then push the coolant through the side of the turbo that houses the vanes. Mix coolant/soot and heat together and you get a nice paste that can result in the loss of control over those vanes. This can result in an overboosting condition, and that along with rising cylinder pressure from the coolant entering the cylinders and this just helps the head gaskets pop.
Now with the engine shut off:
The coolant can leak backwards and into the exhaust system and into the passenger side up-pipe, just like before, except that the exhaust gases can't push it up into the turbo. The coolant will leak downwards. If you shut the truck off and just so happen to have an exhaust valve open on a set of cylinders on the passenger side of the engine, coolant will fill the cylinder. This will result in a hydrolock condition (at its worst). It can also result in the truck running like crap at first start-up and the creation of the big white cloud.
The opposite way the coolant will flow when the truck is off is getting a huge puddle of coolant settled behind the EGR valve. When you start the truck and it finally warms up, the egr valve opens, dumping this big puddle of coolant right into the intake. You can put together what will happen from here.
All of this ends with popped head gaskets AND is CAUSED by lack of maintenance on your coolant.
Drop $3500 on head gaskets (plus add machining onto that), or do some simple (MUCH cheaper) steps to ensure that the head gaskets are safe. Its your money, what do you want to do with it?