This post is so that we, as 6.0 owners, can compile actual EGR info as our engine series ages.

Decided to change out the EGR for a couple of reasons.

1. It is common theory on the various forums that it needs to be checked or cleaned at certain intervals (50K?)

2. It is common theory that the spring gets weak over time

3. The EGR that I have is original, and I think Ford updated the part with a stronger spring (and/or something else)

4. Peeking through the EGR opening and looking inside the intake is a good indicator of how much soot build up has accumulated, EGR cooler health, etc.


Info:
2003, 6.0, TorqueShift auto, 4x4, CC, SRW
Truck is completly stock
I live in central CA in the foothills
Temps get as low as 20F in winter and 105F in summer
I have the inductive heat flash, not the latest one, the original one.
I use whatever 15w-40 oil is the least expensive (Motorcraft,Delo,
Tection, etc.) and change it w/filters at 7,500 mi.
I use no fuel additive
I run a frantz bypass oil filter and a Dieselsite bypass collant filter

Getting out the valve was fun, as I have an early 2003 build, so it has been installed for 7 full years. I parked it facing down hill as recomended on the forums to see if there was moisture in the intake. Inside the intake was a dry, thin soot film, similar to the pictures of the valve. There were no chunks and no thick build-up.




As you can see, it is pretty clean considering 7 years and 130K mi. It was mosly a light coating of soot, with a just alittle bit of tar on a few spots. It was functioning OK when I replaced it.

 

I am sure the high quallity diesel fuel that's available to you where you live contributed to no major build up on the valve. Calif. cetane minimum around 50, where I live 40-42.

 

Great post! Mine had tar when I replaced it at 30k miles or so (can't recall exactly). After installing the new valve, getting the flash updates, installing the updated fuel pressure regulator spring, re-routing the ccv (which may or may not actually help), my subsequent inspections were all the thin, dry, powdery coating.

 

I have also heard this before. Although I have found no data or anywhere on the forums that anyone has actually tested it.

 

Obviously what you're doing WORKS, so don't change it. As good as the old one looks I'd have taken the new one back--LOL.

 

Do a search on California cetane mandate, Texas is another state that puts a mandate on cetane levels. (at least in hi density areas from what I read) Also many states now have biofuel mandates like Pa. where I live. Many people don't know their diesel is 2% bio now and it goes up when the in state biodiesel Mfg.'s meet certain annual output to the point of 20% biodiesel.

 

This is the way that I felt too. If it ain't broke.......

 

Most of the information that came up in my google search of those two terms was over 5 years old; pre-ULSD days.

Now that the sky has not fallen, and the world has not ended (but many injectors have been replaced) under ULSD, I suspect the whole cetane number arguement may die back to the obscurity it normally enjoys.

I should note that I have (more or less unvoluntarily) switched to Shell fuel, and have noticed a 2-3 MPG uptick.... I haven't burned enough of it without additive to be able to say if it's the fuel, the additive, or the time-of-year.

-blaine

 

I just did a little searching on "carb diesel fuel specifications" there is reference dated aug. 14, 2004 saying diesel fuel made by general refineries to be 48 cetane minimum, and small refineries to be 47 cetane minimum as tested by ASTM D613-84 Maybe one of our members from Calif. can give us more imformation on mandates. Added, there is also reference to 2010 CARB requirements of a cetane rating of 48 compared to a US EPA 40 minimum and a EU european union of 51

 

the 03 also doesn't have the up pipe diverter so exhaust isn't directed into the EGR
like it is in the 04 up

I have cleaned my 06 twice and it alsways looked worse than the OP's pic

 

Zmann,
maybe your soot issue is more tuner related than model year related. What I mean is that I always assumed that the tuners would produce more soot than the stock programming. I think this is the case because the stock programming is set up to produce as little soot as possible, and the tuners are programmed for different parameters. In other words, none of the tuners carry programming for "Reduced Emmissions" or "Reduced Particulates"

What do you guys think? Has there been enough posts of people who run tuners for about 50K and then popped open their EGRs?

 

Tuners typically are used to create more power, burning more fuel.

But they also work the engine harder --- so it should blast carbon out more.

In my case, I think the issue is soot from incomplete combustion (low cetane), and cold temperatures.

Plus the former owner did not operate it hard enough to clear it.

Let me see when I pull the EGR valve this spring.

 

the first time I cleaned it I had no tunes Now I don't clean it at all because the tunes turned it off and it doesnt function

I think the lack of the exhaust diverter scoop on yours has a lot to do with it being cleaner than mine was at 24k

 

First-gen EGR tuning was more or less designed to produce as much soot as possible.

The easiest way to reduce NOx emissions is to retard timing. The problem is that retarded timing also produces a tremendous amount of soot. That's why they went with DPF's, and why '07-'09 DPF's have such short service lives, and require such frequent regens.

If you'll remember looking at the stacks of late '90's big-rigs when running, they have almost no soot, but NOx levels that make the EPA cringe; you get diesel tuning one of two ways: low soot/high NOx, or low NOx/high soot. Problem is that the retarded timing is much less efficient(read: makes less engine power); thus they had to increase fuel delivery, and reduce mileage, in order to keep the power.

One reason why the '10+ engines get such dramatically better fuel economy was that the SCR systems are so blindingly effective at reducing NOx that they could revert to high-NOx/low-soot programming, which is much more efficient.

-blaine

 

I took the EGR out of my 06 the other day and it looked just like that one. I cleaned and put it back in! Maybe there another 130,000 miles on it!