Blown Inter Cooler

[JimmyDee]

A friend was towing his 12k, 5er back to Ohio last week with his 2005 F350 and he heard a loud bang and lost all power. He blew his inter cooler. I have never heard of this happening before. It took 3 days to get it fixed and he was on his way. Totally covered by Ford.
On the rest of the trip home, his mileage improved by at least 2 mpg for which he is thrilled. I guess I have a couple of questions. Is this a common problem? Could the inter cooler have been defective all a long and leaking causing his lower mileage? Wouldn't that have made a lot of noise?
Just wondering.
Jim

 

[Kleetus]

If it had a restriction in it, that could give it some problems. But that would have had to have been a manufacturing defect. if it had a leak, I'd think you'd have heard it, and yeah, that would give you less power out of it.

How common? No clue there.

 

[Scot]

leak = less power = heavier foot = poor mileage.

Yep

 

[DaveBen]

I have not heard of a cooler going in the 6.0 engine series. This is a first for me too.

Dave

 

[bushpilot]

ive only heard (and seen photos) of ONE...but it was
on a highly modified 6.0 that was running 55lbs of boost.

it blew the end cap off the stock intercooler

 

[keanoknick]

This is the third of fourth stock 6.0 intercooler I've heard of blowing out. Saw one at the dealer when my truck was in, it was a F-550 and totally stock, it blew nearly the whole end tank off, looked like it was never attached real well from the factory.

 

[JimmyDee]

My friends F350 is totally stock. He was towing at the time and that would cause an increase in pressure. His 2 mpg increase in mileage would indicate to me, something was wrong all along with the intake system. He has had great mileage running empty but towing was really bad. 7-9 mpg and this was in contrast to 10-12 with his 1999, 7.3.
He continued home from the repair getting 11.5 mpg. I think that is really significant. What does not make sense to me is that he should have heard the noise if the inter cooler was leaking.
Oh well, Thanks for the responses.
Jim

 

[bushpilot]

are you sure he blew the intercooler...or the boots

 

[JimmyDee]

are you sure he blew the intercooler...or the boots

It was the intercooler. Boots were intact. They had to order a new one and thats why it took 3 days to fix.
Jim