steamy tailpipe.

[KRISTOLSON]

The truck has seaped coolant at the cap for a long time, even after changing the cap, but not too much. this weekend I noticed when I started it up I I had steam coming out the tailpipe. smelled like antifreeze, but once it warmed up it went away. coolant level was good. right away I suspected egr cooler had a slight leak. It would do that everytime I started it for a couple days, then all of a sudden temp spikes, I pull over and it is 2 gallons low. whoa! filled it up, temp holds ok, limped it home and it steams all the time now. pulled the egr valve and it is wet and sweet tasting .

SOOOO... how long does it take just to get to the egr cooler? cost of part? I dont really like the idea of an egr delete.... I heard it is recommended by international to replace the oil cooler at the same time? anyone with experience on this? I wouldn't mind taking it to the shop, I have a list of things they can do (alignment, replace windshield, recalibrate for my new wheels, etc.) but if it is going to be 10 hours of shop time for the dumb cooler I will do it myself.

 

[Dogman]

You may not like the answer. I have just gone though everything you said and it was my head gaskets. Well in my case a cracked block. Fast thing is look at your degas see if it bubbling with the motor running at all. If so you'll need HG.

 

[mark6403av]

The seaping of the rad cap, and even seaping after you changed it. Sounds like head gaskets. The bad thing is, you can't test coolant pressures under load, because you have a BIG coolant leak. So you spend all the money to do the EGR cooler, just to find out, all that has to come back apart to do head gaskets. You would save youself a lot of time and money, doing it right the first time. Head gaskets, EGR cooler, and replace the oil cooler. I would think any shop would charge at least 15 hours ? Sorry for the bad news

 

[KRISTOLSON]

The local ford shop estimated around 1100 min labor to take it in, like 800 in parts.

I ordered a bulletproof egr cooler and a new oil cooler today. It was the same price as ford and the guy I talked to there said he has yet to warranty one. It came with all of the seals for 795 + 85 for overnight shipping. I am being optimistic and still thinking that the seep from the degas cap I got was due to flash boiling coolant from a restricted oil cooler.

I got it to stop seeping for about 3 months when I backflushed the line that runs from the egr cooler to the degas, if that helps anyone else be optimistic on the hg's

I tore it apart after work today and it seems like everything is full of sludgy sand. After I get this back together I am definitely doing a coolant filter.

I found ford has a flush agent called iron cleaner? or something along those lines, is there anything else I could get that is the same? I will have to fire up the heated pressure washer to clean the intake manifold too. it is nasty inside.