Need help, have an 04 excursion and towed a pretty heavy trailer (6000 lbs or so) and heard a weird whirring sound on long grades when I was over 3000 rpm. I pulled over and there was the chalky residue over the bottom of the hood and over everything near the degas bottle. Just from googling it looks like it may have been overheating, have a faulty cap, have a blown EGR cooler, or have blown headgaskets.

The temp gauge never moved above the normal range so I doubt it was overheating, but I don't really trust the temp gauge that much. The truck does have a brush guard with a punched steel grille guard in front of the radiator, and I did have the AC on when the coolant was venting.

The coolant in the degas bottle did not have any oil in it.

I added distilled water to top it off and I've been driving it since then. on the return trip with the empty trailer I slowed down and kept the rpm's under 2500 and didn't experience the whirring sound. It doesn't look like I lost any coolant either. I had the truck out today and yesterday and drove normally and haven't seen any weird signs or had any trouble.

Can anyone help me diagnose this? I'm worried it might be a headgasket lifting, but I'm skeptical that this would only happen at the end of a long grade. If it was the EGR cooler I'd think it would do it all the time. I'm just not sure.

thanks!

 

oh and if it helps, I just bought it 3000 miles ago with 59000 miles. I checked the oasis and it had the egr replaced one and cleaned once and 2 oil leaks fixed, one in the bed plate. its all stock but there are 3 wires (blue red, and yellow) taped together by brake booster near the firewall, I dunno what they are/were to.

 

Really need something to read actual temps while driving. The factory dash gauge is just a glorified idiot light. It really dosent tell you much. Something like a scangauge II will serve you well. It will allow you to see just about anything you will need to diagnose this. Plus will let you pull codes, which by the way you need to check for any too. You can have codes without a cell on. The SGII cost like $145 and from what I have read a great little devise. If you want something a little more advanced look into the autoenginuity with ford enhancements. It's what I use and a very good tool. In fact out of the $1000's in tools I have it's probably the best one in my box. I don't remember for sure how much it cost but it was somewhere around $500 IIRC.

In the mean time try parking your truck with the noise down hill. Pull the egr valve, and see if there is coolant in the intake. If so it's time to replace the egr and oil coolers. Then go from there to see if it took out you head gaskets as well.

 

There are 4 wires there. They are used for the "upfitter" switches (4 of them) in the F-series super duty trucks.
Since the Ex doesn't have an option for those switches the wires
are left in the firewall but not connected to anything on either side.
They are handy for hooking up accessories since you don't have to drill holes yourself, but you do have to add your own switch(es) somewhere
inside and extend the wire then connect it up.

 

The sound you describe as whirring might be your fan. I know when my egr cooler went and the truck was heating up my fan would roar.

 

You need the eot/ect deltas after a 15 to 20 miles hiway run. I;m concerned that they changed the egr cooler and not the oil cooler. The oil cooler is usually the cause of the egr cooler failing.

 

I will have to look up how to pull the EGR and check about the coolant.

As for reading actual temperatures, I don't disagree but I just lost my job and money is extremely tight so I don't know that I even have $145 in the budget for additional gauges right now.

thanks for the info on those wires- I thought maybe someone had hooked up a tuner or something thats why I mentioned it.

I thought the whirring WAS my fan until I pulled over and saw the chalky residue all over. Is the fan so loud it can be heard over the engine at 3000 rpm going 65 mph?

as for eot ect I'm guessing you mean engine oil temp and engine coolant temp? I don't know what a delta is, and I don't know how to get that information. I don't have a scan tool or anything....

The notes from replacing the EGR say: "found egr valve stuck open install new egr valve and ran koeo koer" etc.
They didn't change the egr cooler or oil cooler.

 

Your back to knowing the eot/ect delta after a 20 mile hiway run. The delta is the diff. between the two temps. after the engine is fully heat saturated thus the 20 mile drive. There should be no more than 15 degree max between the two on level ground at hiway speed. When the 6.0 fan gets a 100% command it can sound like a B-52 taking off. Incidentally, 6,000 pounds is not a heavy load for these trucks. My 5er is 11,000 lbs. dry and I usually don't even know it's behind me. I will hear the fan however if it comes on.

 

Yes u can here the fan over the motor

 

The wirring sound was your fan.join the west virginia chapter and see if someone close to you will loan you there sgll.itll take an hour to see what your temps are.if you were in wa I would loan you mine.

 

What was your coolant level after coolant loss. When I first got my '06, my coolant would puke out when towing. With the truck cool and on level ground the post puke coolant level would be about 1/2" below the low level mark. I marked it with a sharpie, never fill above that level and haven't lost any coolant in over 5 years of frequent towing. Might be that simple.

 

I added about 3/4 gallon and then dumped the rest back in to get it back up to the cold fill level after a 50 degree night sitting in the mountains. Its just over the cold fill now. I have to tow another 6000 lb trailer tomorrow so I am gonna keep AC off as long as it stays dry and take it easy on the grades, and see how it goes.

 

I lost some more coolant though I didn't have any more signs of venting, so I'm confused and concerned. I'm going to try to buy a scan tool. Would this one work? I'm not sure about the "version" (it says in the questions to seller this one is version 3.15?) ScanGauge II | eBay

 

I have a scanguage to watch temps

 

what version is yours? is the version important?