[hillcountrystroker]

ok so this morning while I was on my way to work my truck overheated and it was blowing alot of white smoke out of the exhaust... well i figure it was the egr cooler leaked all the antifreeze out. So i called my buddy who is a diesel mechanic for CAT and he told me that it was blowing white smoke because i either messed up an injector or two, cracked one of my heads or blew a head gasket... so i went to town and got some coolant filled er up and drove straight to the shop for him to look at it, he tells me everything looks good i didn't blow a head gasket and the heads were fine and it seemed to be running smoothly... what i am wondering is why it was blowing white smoke out the exhaust if everything was fine...(after i put coolant in it stopped blowing white smoke) and could there be any other damages that overheating could cause that i need to be aware of?? I don't wanna take his word for it and have something else majorly mess up beacause he thought it was ok... any thoughts??

 

[NYC F-350]

Next time (and there will be a next time soon) that it does it, get out and get a whiff of it. If it is sweet smelling, that is your coolant.
If it is coolant, EGR/oil coolers are junk and need to be replaced BEFORE it progresses into head gaskets.

 

[PowerstrokeTech82787]

ok so this morning while I was on my way to work my truck overheated and it was blowing alot of white smoke out of the exhaust... well i figure it was the egr cooler leaked all the antifreeze out. So i called my buddy who is a diesel mechanic for CAT and he told me that it was blowing white smoke because i either messed up an injector or two, cracked one of my heads or blew a head gasket... so i went to town and got some coolant filled er up and drove straight to the shop for him to look at it, he tells me everything looks good i didn't blow a head gasket and the heads were fine and it seemed to be running smoothly... what i am wondering is why it was blowing white smoke out the exhaust if everything was fine...(after i put coolant in it stopped blowing white smoke) and could there be any other damages that overheating could cause that i need to be aware of?? I don't wanna take his word for it and have something else majorly mess up beacause he thought it was ok... any thoughts??

No offense to your friend, I worked on Cats they came in alot of Peterbilts im pretty sure theyre the standard engine for a pete. And i work on C7s in the 650 and 750s, they are no wheres near the same as these 6.0 navistar motors.

Only way to tell if you popped a head gasket is by installing a head gasket tester (something ive made a long time ago and is easy to make with some 3/8ths nipples, a T fitting, an old valve core from a tire, 5 feet of 3/8ths vacuum/fuel hose, and a simple 0-50psi gauge) or dropping a borescope down to see if the tops of the pistons are cleaned. they will look like brand new if coolant was burning in there.

With the gauge if you build boost over 16 psi under WOT you are looking at head gaskets, typically i see 19-26psi while the truck is wot under max boost conditions.

EGR coolers are known to fail and usually fail due to a plugged oil cooler, the symptoms youve described are of a failed EGR cooler, but, when they fail they can cause your head gaskets also to fail.

 

[hillcountrystroker]

ok so i took it to a place near by called the super duity shop and i was told that my egr cooler is plugged and the head gaskets might be bad too... they guy recomends deleting the cooler which i was plannning on doing it anyways but he also said at this piont the oil cooler probably needs replaced too along with the gaskets... im not going to be able to afford 3000 bucks worth of repairs... do you think that it will be ok to delete the egr cooler and later on replace the oil cooler when i get the money or should i take a loan and just get it all done??

 

[NYC F-350]

You would be BEGGING for problems.
The oil cooler plugging is what has caused this whole thing. Leave it in and it would be like getting shot in the foot with an exploding round.....driving to the hospital, stitching up the hole and leaving the bullet in there to explode some other time. I just does not make sense.
You MIGHT have a head gasket issue. Find out before committing anything. The oil cooler replacement/EGR cooler delete will run about 6- 7 hours of shop time plus the parts (probably come in under half of what you are saying).

 

[06kngrnch84]

My truck just ran hot too. Except I had black smoke that turned to bluish- grey. WTF?