Question Bad EGR Cooler -vs - Bad Head Gasket

[4x4grey88]

How can I tell if I have a blown head gasket over a bad EGR cooler??

For the first time my truck actually over heated (in the red on the gauge). I added coolant and continued to drive it to the desert. This was the first time that I towed any vehicle (4800 lbs Jeep).


Everything seemed normal after adding the coolant to and from the desert. I parked the truck to remove the Jeep and upon restarting I noticed a cloud of white smoke (or steam) from the tail pipe.

Note: it was a very foggy night here last night too.

So now I have to figure out which part is leaking. So does anyone have knowledge on which part failed???

 

[Jetpilot1]

It would most likely be a bad EGR cooler, especially if the truck is stock. Pull the EGR valve and look inside the manifold and see if there is any moisture. Do this after it has sat overnight and is cold.

If the head gasket fails, you tend to get alot of fluid coming out of the degas bottle as it overpressurizes the coolant system.

 

[4x4grey88]

If the head gasket fails, you tend to get alot of fluid coming out of the degas bottle as it overpressurizes the coolant system.

Would this be continuous or intermittent leakage? What color would it be?

In the past I have have problems with over pressurization of the degas and blowing coolant out the degas but that was intermittent and no white smoke from the exhaust.

I replaced the EGR and when I did -I did not notice any liquid inside the EGR housing area (in or out).

I will be checking the EGR again this morning to check for liquid in there.

 

[Jetpilot1]

If it is a head gasket problem, the amount of leakage from the degas bottle depends on how bad the h/g leak is. The leak from the degas bottle will be worse the more power you pull from the engine. That is, if you are towing, there will be more leakage from the degas bottle, than if you were just idling around town. The early 6.0's were worse for h/g problems than the later ones. You can determine if it is a h/g by hooking up a pressure gauge to the system and running it around to see how much pressure builds, there are also test kits to check for CO2 in the coolant system.

 

[Jetpilot1]

The blown hg would not necessarily produce white smoke, as what is happening is the cylinder compression is being forced into the coolant system, causing the degas to overflow, so it is hard for coolant to get into the cylinder unless it is not running - then the coolant pressure would be greater than the cylinder pressure and could fill up a cylinder causing hydrolock damage. An egr cooler could produce lots of white smoke because the coolant leaks into the intake manifold and goes into the cylinder to get burnt, and/or cause hydrolock damage.