My issue ended up being turbo seals. Sounds similar to your problem...

 

Please tell me you meant 180degrees coolant temp. Mine has some white smoke haze when its cold and idling.

Its a funny coincidence. I was riding my bacl home and had abput 3 cars pass me today and i smelled the exhaust and that wow they smell like they are burning rich. Or it was because they were cold.

I do not know why exactly it doesn't burn all the fuel when its cold but i think thats whats happening.

 

Avfrog, how do you diagnose turbo seals?

Jacksun, I did mean 191*, as the thermostat doesn't open on our trucks until 192*. If you're running at 180*, it sounds like you need a thermostat. That's too cold for our trucks and might be the cause of unburned fuel.

I'm thinking about trying Archoil's injector cleaner and getting back to my original oil.

 

I took it to a shop

 

Avgrog ... thanks!

I spoke to a guy over at Archoil. He thinks the Ford 15w40 oil is not allowing the Archoil friction modifier to do its job properly. He thinks if I went back to Delvac, or switched to synthetic, I'd see a big difference; that'll be the plan, once this oil change has expired. I've been meaning to try synthetic for some time, but haven't got around to it. Sort of like the devil you know is better than the devil you don't. Any recommendations on synthetic oils?

 

5w40 shell rotella with archoil is my combo.


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Well, it's been three weeks and the outside temps have raised a bit (in the 70s-80s). I don't see much white smoke at all in the morning ... very rare! I checked the coolant level. I was down about a quart and a half. Something is obviously not right. What do you guys think, EGR cooler? What tests do you guys suggest? Nose down in the driveway overnight; pull the EGR valve in the morning? Anything else that'll tell me?

My temps are excellent. Coolant sits at 191-193 degrees and oil temp is around 197-198 degrees. On the freeway, running 70-75 mph, I see 193-195 coolant and 197-199 oil temp. Idling, the two temps are pretty much the same after sitting for a bit, like you do in heavy traffic.

I've only got about 40K on this EGR and oil cooler, I hope that's not the issue.

 

If those are °F temps, they are way too low. If they're °C temps, they're way too high. I'm guessing they were +100 °F, if so, they look pretty good.

 

Yeah, you're right, I forgot the "1" ... I'm such a dumbarse at times!

Kyrol, the degas bottle was empty, so I added enough to bring it up to the minimum line. I'll keep an eye on it. I'm going to order an o-ring and gasket for the EGR, so I can pull it to check the intake.

 

My truck would mysteriously eat coolant if I over filled it. The Degas bottles are marked wrong from the factory. Mine will over the course of a few hundred miles settle to just below min and never moves from that. 190s for oil and coolant is spot on my mechanic said some trucks just haze white smoke till they get hot keep an eye on your fluids if anything goes south bring it back. I did turbo back and egr block off at the same time as heads and have a similar issue.

 

Okay, someone help me here. A week has passed and I haven't lost a drop of coolant. I called my local Ford dealer, who does not think it's the EGR cooler. He said my temps were way too good for it to be the EGR cooler. He's leaning towards a leak in the system that is not showing itself ... $110 to diagnose and it goes to the repair, if I choose to let them fix it. I'm going to wait to see if I begin losing more coolant, before I make an appointment. Does anyone have any experience with leaks other than the EGR? I'm really at a loss with this one.

 

I'm bummed! The truck started blowing heavy white smoke this morning. Checked the degas bottle and it was empty. On the way home the temps started to rise a little ... fortunately, both EOT and ECT together ... got up to 210* each.

I stopped by my local dealer and got some numbers. $3500 for BPD EGR cooler and Ford oil cooler or $5300 for BPD EGR and oil coolers (oil to air heavy duty model). He'll do all the upgrades (BPD professional pack) with no added labor (SCT fitting, turbo drain tube, blue spring, etc.). He'll add the BPD water pump for an additional $315 and give me a new F150 for the week, at no charge, while my truck is being worked on.

What do you all think?

Feelings on doing the job myself? I'm very mechanically inclined, but it seems like a bit of a mess for my driveway ... what do you think?

 

The top kit from BPD with the oil filter relocation, EGR cooler, water pump and professional pack is $3280. If you can do it yourself then do it. But you may want to consider doing the head gaskets at the same time since the top of the motor will be bare.

 

The head gaskets were done 40K miles ago, so I'm going to leave them for now.

The kit I'm looking at is BPD heavy duty air to oil. With everything, EGR cooler, professional package, including a new water pump, it comes out to $3100 shipped.

I have also been looking at the IPR high flow coolant filter ... it appears to be what these trucks really need. I have the Sinister coolant filter, but I'm not sure it's adequate. Obviously, it didn't help me out this time around. The IPR filter cleans 100% of the coolant and has produced excellent results. It uses a reusable metal filter. To take advantage of this filter, I'd need to go with the BPD kit with the factory fuel filter, as I'd like to use the coolant manifold to run the coolant filter. Are there any cons to using the factory oil filter kit?

 

I am leaning toward their coolant to oil cooler relocation kit due to me plowing snow with the truck and the amount of ice I get on the front of the truck. I talked with BPD and while he thinks the cooler will be protected from icing over they did understand my concern.

I personally think the factory oil filter set up is good as long as you maintain the vehicle. Your idea of using the coolant manifold to run the coolant thru the filter makes sense to me and should work well. I use the Sinister kit and it seems to work great just slower to get the initial clean on the coolant but my coolant was flushed before I bought the truck.

Good luck! Keep us updated on what happens.

 

IMO I would be looking for the source of that leak before I throw any parts on it. I think $3K is a lot of money .. Find the source of the leak first, fix it, then upgrade if you feel like your temps aren't where you want them to be.

If you can pressurize your cooling system and watch for a drop over time, do that. If not, check if there's coolant in the oil. If not, put a new EGR cooler in it ... Coolant can only be getting into the downpipe through the head (crack), head gasket (failure after 40K is unlikely if it was done properly), or the EGR cooler. No sense in putting a $3000 cooling system on a motor with a cracked head, is there?

 

AJPaonessa, although I didn't mention it, I have an appointment with the dealership for a diagnoses.

When I was at the dealership the other day, we discussed the symptoms, deltas, etc., and the mechanic is quite certain that, after he diagnoses, it's going to be an EGR cooler. He said although my deltas are good and the oil cooler appears to be doing its job, there is no point in changing out the EGR without the oil cooler. I totally agree with him, especially witnessing another EGR failure after 40K miles ... and that was with new coolant and a coolant filter installed.

I am preparing for the worst and, obviously, hoping for the best. I don't mean to sound like I'm going off half ****ed; I just want to be educated in my decision if/when the time comes. I know for certain the coolant is making its way into the exhaust system, so, as you said, it could be several things, which I'm trying to cover. Hopefully, not a cracked head/blown head gasket, which the dealership ruled out based on deltas and no puking from the degas bottle ... but I guess you never know. I will certainly report back with the result of their inspection/diagnoses.

 

What were the results of pulling the EGR valve?

Here's another way to test the difference between heads and EGR:

If the headgasket was changed without the heads being pulled and checked for warpage and magnafluxed for cracks, the reason for the gasket going bad could still be there causing it to go bad again.

Doing the work in your driveway really does leave a mess. Especially the flush part.

Asking the shop what would happen if the EGR didn't fix the leak and the heads were bad, to see if they could give you a discount for the labor could be good.

 

I have the gasket/o-rings, but haven't pulled the EGR valve yet.

The heads were done by a Ford dealership. I think they would have failed in less than the 40K miles I've put on them, if there were issues with the heads. I'm hoping not.

Apparently, my wife's boss has a good diesel mechanic. I'm going to give him a call to see if he can help me out on the price. Ford is asking $120 an hour ... ouch!

I wanted to add that I've been letting the pressure out of the degas bottle after each time I drive it. The result has been no more smoke in the morning. I haven't had smoke in 3 days. I'm hoping this will give me some longevity, so I don't have to rush out and fix it ... although, this morning I noticed a rough idle when cold ... almost surging at times. It did the same when I started her up to take her home. Once she warms up to operating temperature, the rough idle disappears. Is this a symptom of what I'm going through or something new?

 

I took the truck to Domestic Diesel in Chino ... excellent shop and staff!

Turns out I was correct, a leaking EGR cooler. The oil cooler was fine. They swapped it out for a Bulletproof EGR and an new OEM oil cooler, as I was lucky enough to have a clean cooling system. They recommended I went that way, rather than the Bulletproof system, which they thought I really didn't need at this time. I was given the choice, but rolled the dice with the OEM oil cooler.

The checked the complete truck out and found no other issues ... they said my injectors are running perfectly ... thank God!

Hopefully, I'll be okay for a few more years.

Thanks, everyone, for your input!

 

I stumbled across this old post and needed to post an update.

The new oil cooler failed a few months ago and I had to have the truck repaired using the Bullet Proof Diesel remote oil cooler/filter kit. Domestic Diesel did the whole repair under warranty and only charged me for the parts to upgrade. The truck runs well and the temps are no longer an issue.

A HUGE shout out to Domestic Diesel for their professionalism and excellent customer service!

 

Always great to hear about good service!