My Excursion is a 2004 now with 120,xxx miles. At about 95,000 miles while still in warranty, the EGR cooler went bad. All the engine coolant went out the exhaust and the engine definitely overheated. The Ex was towed to the dealer and the EGR cooler, oil cooler and EGR valve were replaced.

I only had minor coolant loss after the dealer repaired it, which didn't alarm me and I thought was due to a faulty degas bottle cap. Only when I purchased a large travel trailer and pulled it home through the hills of N Georgia did the big problems begin. I had major coolant loss from the degas bottle around the cap.

Now that I am having to replace the head gaskets at my expense I am wondering if the dealer should have gone deeper when the truck overheated. It just seems to me that the amount of gunk in the intake manifold and intake ports in the head are extreme and show that the egr cooler was probably leaking for a while before it completely let go.

Seems to me that ANYTIME an engine overheats (especially since it was in warranty) the heads should be pulled and checked for warpage or other damage.

Just wondering what the experts think.

You can click on a thumbnail pic for the full size pic.

 

Your pics look pretty bad and yeah they probably should have pulled the heads and at least replace the gaskets but either way you don't have a case against them so there isn't much point in going down that road.

 

I really didn't intend to make a case against the dealer. The background info was included to explain some history of the truck to better understand what it has been through. Also I am now leery of the dealer.

I was wondering what the consensus was on the gunk and if it probably came from a leaking EGR cooler or if I might need to look at something else while I have it apart. I was also wondering if most people agree that the leaking head gaskets were a result from the overheating or just a coincidence.

 

when I did my egr cooler block off, I looked into the intake manifold and it had a lot of gunk. a lot!!! that was only at 45000 miles. I cleaned the living crap out of it and it looked new when I put it back in. a year later I had to do the oil cooler, ya I know I should have done it then, but the intake looked as good as new. I had one of the guys ask if it was a new intake I was putting in. so I don't know about the head thing but good luck with that.