bomberman760
SDD Junior Member
OEM cooler was toast. Spy Hunter-style smoke screen as soon as it got hot enough. Looks awesome, but not amusing for anyone else sitting at a city intersection. The vendor I bought from was one of the cheapest, free shipping, and only a $30 core charge. Instructions say it can be done without removing the intake manifold, but if you're like me and doing this for the first time, beware that there are a LOT of caveats to that.
Started out Friday by draining coolant and prepping for the eventual coolant flush and replacement, and taking off the easy bolt-ons. Instructions say that you don't have to remove the belt before taking off the alternator, as if it's somehow going to stay in place. That just seemed like a dumb bit of advice, as you still have to get it re-aligned when you reinstall it. Spent the rest of the day ensuring I had every tool, fluid, and piece of hardware I'd need. Still forgot $h!t.
I soaked every connector I saw in PB Blaster overnight. Disassembly started out easy enough until I got to the turbo. After phoning a friend to help locate the three turbo mounting bolts, I decided to get the exhaust tube out first to make the rear one easier to get to. "Just roll it out of the pedestal mount toward the passenger side." Not at all that simple, but got it out with some twisting and cussing. Then work came to a halt as one pedestal bolt would not budge. I only have an air ratchet - no pneumatic impact gun. My neighbor lent me a battery powered impact, but the bolt laughed at it. So that was Saturday. Charged the battery overnight, soaked the hell out of the bolt area with PB Blaster.
Sunday morning, the bolt came right out. But not the pedestal. Then I stuck my head in deeper and saw it's attached with four bolts, but two. Luckily they didn't put up a fight. Passenger-side manifold bolts were removed, driver side loosened only, as per instructions. They don't tell you to remove the intake elbow, but I did and got a whole lot more play in the manifold later. The two 15mm bolts connecting the manifold to the fan shroud seemed inaccessible, but with a 15mm deep they came right out. The instruction don't make any mention of getting as much of the wiring harness out of your way, or any mention of removing what you can, but I'm here to tell you you need to disconnect as much of it as you can (unless you've done the procedure enough that you know all the little tricks and bends to take, I guess.) The picture of the OEM EGR cooler being slid to the rear it complete B.S. I don't know about the model truck for the instruction pics, but the rest of of us have an immovable exhaust header back there, butt right up against the cooler. I also didn't know that the silicone cooler tube needed to be rotated 90 degrees to slide off.
I'm pretty sure a sawzall is not listed in the Ford EGR cooler replacement procedures, but it certainly helped me, and actually made me feel a bit better. No $30 back on the core fee, but I've spent much more in worse ways to blow-off steam. With the EGR cooler and silicone tube cut in half, they slid right out. It was only when I examined the new tube that I saw the marks absent from the OEM tube, and noted the locking tabs inside.
Regarding the silicone tube, buy a new one with your cooler purchase. They are $35-38 from the vendors I looked at. and none of the usual auto part stores carried them. Only two Ford dealers in the KC area had them, and it cost me $42 + tax, and a lot of driving.
Soaked-up all the coolant that spilled from the cooler, then began the game of trying to get the new one in. The manifold only comes up so high, and the tab that bolts to the top of the EGR cooler really interferes with installation. I have no idea what I did to get it in. It was one of those times where you play with the part, turning and twisting in every conceivable combination, then it effortlessly falls into place and you weren't really ready for it. I do remember that the outlet side was already all the way down on the block, and the inlet side was to the left of the header. After that it was a full rage-mode blur. I didn't see a way to manually keep the outlet-side gasket in place as I slid it under, so I tacked it on with two dabs of grey silicone gasket maker and took a break while that set.
Re-assembly was as easier than I thought, with the exception of the turbo. Getting the three mounting holes, HPOP tube and inlet flange all perfectly aligned was impossible for me. When I had the HPOP tube in and flanges flush, there was always one bolt that wouldn't go in. When I got all the bolts started, the flanges weren't together. When I tried to fix that, the HPOP tube pulled out. So now I have a bit of an exhaust leak there. Not a terrible noise, but definitely a loss of power. And some exhaust smoke from under the hood. I'll fix that soon, as I was running out of light fast.
Since I didn't have enough time to tap the heater hose and do a full, proper backflush, I ran the hose into the fill tank and let that flow through for 10 minutes or so. Then came a distilled water flush and drain, then an hour and a half run with the CAT cooling system flush and distilled water, followed by 3 more iterations for drain, fill, run with distilled water. The system was full after 6 gallons of CAT EC-1 and water, so without removing the block plugs and other odds and ends, it looks like there's two gallons of fluid remaining after the drain stops dripping. I'm not worried, as the water was coming out fairly clear at final drain. Not optimal, but better than before for sure.
All-in-all, about a 16-beer job total (not including after-shower TV beers), my forearms and right ass cheek are very very bruised (sitting on battery terminals and radiator shroud). If I do it again I'll remove the hood entirely. The sockets I needed were 8mm, 5/16, 10mm, 10mm deep, 7/16 deep, 1/2, and 15mm. I also had to buy a tiny little stubby metric wrench pack for a 10mm combination wrench to get at the intake manifold bolt under the fuel filter lines. Next time I tackle a project like that, I'm removing the whole manifold. I don't think I saved any time doing it the way I did. An experienced mechanic might, but not a first-timer such as me. Hopefully this saves another noob some time and headaches in the future.
Oh - and as I was gathering my gear for work this morning, I saw my thermostat on the dining room table. I'll take care of that when I get home. It's always f-ing something, right?
Started out Friday by draining coolant and prepping for the eventual coolant flush and replacement, and taking off the easy bolt-ons. Instructions say that you don't have to remove the belt before taking off the alternator, as if it's somehow going to stay in place. That just seemed like a dumb bit of advice, as you still have to get it re-aligned when you reinstall it. Spent the rest of the day ensuring I had every tool, fluid, and piece of hardware I'd need. Still forgot $h!t.
I soaked every connector I saw in PB Blaster overnight. Disassembly started out easy enough until I got to the turbo. After phoning a friend to help locate the three turbo mounting bolts, I decided to get the exhaust tube out first to make the rear one easier to get to. "Just roll it out of the pedestal mount toward the passenger side." Not at all that simple, but got it out with some twisting and cussing. Then work came to a halt as one pedestal bolt would not budge. I only have an air ratchet - no pneumatic impact gun. My neighbor lent me a battery powered impact, but the bolt laughed at it. So that was Saturday. Charged the battery overnight, soaked the hell out of the bolt area with PB Blaster.
Sunday morning, the bolt came right out. But not the pedestal. Then I stuck my head in deeper and saw it's attached with four bolts, but two. Luckily they didn't put up a fight. Passenger-side manifold bolts were removed, driver side loosened only, as per instructions. They don't tell you to remove the intake elbow, but I did and got a whole lot more play in the manifold later. The two 15mm bolts connecting the manifold to the fan shroud seemed inaccessible, but with a 15mm deep they came right out. The instruction don't make any mention of getting as much of the wiring harness out of your way, or any mention of removing what you can, but I'm here to tell you you need to disconnect as much of it as you can (unless you've done the procedure enough that you know all the little tricks and bends to take, I guess.) The picture of the OEM EGR cooler being slid to the rear it complete B.S. I don't know about the model truck for the instruction pics, but the rest of of us have an immovable exhaust header back there, butt right up against the cooler. I also didn't know that the silicone cooler tube needed to be rotated 90 degrees to slide off.
I'm pretty sure a sawzall is not listed in the Ford EGR cooler replacement procedures, but it certainly helped me, and actually made me feel a bit better. No $30 back on the core fee, but I've spent much more in worse ways to blow-off steam. With the EGR cooler and silicone tube cut in half, they slid right out. It was only when I examined the new tube that I saw the marks absent from the OEM tube, and noted the locking tabs inside.
Regarding the silicone tube, buy a new one with your cooler purchase. They are $35-38 from the vendors I looked at. and none of the usual auto part stores carried them. Only two Ford dealers in the KC area had them, and it cost me $42 + tax, and a lot of driving.
Soaked-up all the coolant that spilled from the cooler, then began the game of trying to get the new one in. The manifold only comes up so high, and the tab that bolts to the top of the EGR cooler really interferes with installation. I have no idea what I did to get it in. It was one of those times where you play with the part, turning and twisting in every conceivable combination, then it effortlessly falls into place and you weren't really ready for it. I do remember that the outlet side was already all the way down on the block, and the inlet side was to the left of the header. After that it was a full rage-mode blur. I didn't see a way to manually keep the outlet-side gasket in place as I slid it under, so I tacked it on with two dabs of grey silicone gasket maker and took a break while that set.
Re-assembly was as easier than I thought, with the exception of the turbo. Getting the three mounting holes, HPOP tube and inlet flange all perfectly aligned was impossible for me. When I had the HPOP tube in and flanges flush, there was always one bolt that wouldn't go in. When I got all the bolts started, the flanges weren't together. When I tried to fix that, the HPOP tube pulled out. So now I have a bit of an exhaust leak there. Not a terrible noise, but definitely a loss of power. And some exhaust smoke from under the hood. I'll fix that soon, as I was running out of light fast.
Since I didn't have enough time to tap the heater hose and do a full, proper backflush, I ran the hose into the fill tank and let that flow through for 10 minutes or so. Then came a distilled water flush and drain, then an hour and a half run with the CAT cooling system flush and distilled water, followed by 3 more iterations for drain, fill, run with distilled water. The system was full after 6 gallons of CAT EC-1 and water, so without removing the block plugs and other odds and ends, it looks like there's two gallons of fluid remaining after the drain stops dripping. I'm not worried, as the water was coming out fairly clear at final drain. Not optimal, but better than before for sure.
All-in-all, about a 16-beer job total (not including after-shower TV beers), my forearms and right ass cheek are very very bruised (sitting on battery terminals and radiator shroud). If I do it again I'll remove the hood entirely. The sockets I needed were 8mm, 5/16, 10mm, 10mm deep, 7/16 deep, 1/2, and 15mm. I also had to buy a tiny little stubby metric wrench pack for a 10mm combination wrench to get at the intake manifold bolt under the fuel filter lines. Next time I tackle a project like that, I'm removing the whole manifold. I don't think I saved any time doing it the way I did. An experienced mechanic might, but not a first-timer such as me. Hopefully this saves another noob some time and headaches in the future.
Oh - and as I was gathering my gear for work this morning, I saw my thermostat on the dining room table. I'll take care of that when I get home. It's always f-ing something, right?
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