Anyone out there had issues with the front water pump plate/housing and corroding/pitting allowing coolant into the oil pan?

Just spent 4k fixing the truck, putting in a new plate, oil cooler, shop time, etc, etc. A little choked as my warranty of course ran out 13000km ago. The only reason the dealership gave me for this happening is air got into the cooling system and was "cavitating", causing the pitting and corrosion. Replaced 2 rads from original in this truck, and other coolant updates that were all covered under warranty before. I called bull hunk once I seen the old plate that was replaced. Also I found out when I was in there that my truck was not the only one this had happened to!!

Having the old plate with me I'm going to try to talk to ford on this one. I believe this was a messed up engineering design. I understand a wear item like injectors or injector pump, etc., but not a housing/plate?

2008 F350 Lariat 6.4l 173,000 km, all stock except for AFE cold air intake.

 

Hi, kvbodnar, and welcome to FTE!

Sorry to hear about your front cover, they certainly aren't cheap to replace. Your dealer was 100% correct about both the cavitation from sucking air as well as it not being an uncommon problem.

You have to realize that you have one of the biggest automotive water pumps around; it pumps up to 130 GPM! Because of this if there's any air in the system whatsoever the pump will cause cavitation and eat through the front cover. It's not a design flaw, it's a common mode of failure that's mostly brought on by a coolant leak. Lots of other things can get damaged by running low on coolant, be sure to check your fluids at least once every week or two!

 

I beleive air got into the system due to your other issues early on. It just caught up to you now.

Be sure to watch you coolant levels to ensure all the air is out since the replacement.

 

Thanks for the feedback guys. I am still going to write a letter to ford to attempt to get a "share" in the cost at least, probably not but can't hurt to try. The coolant system issues were all updates from ford and rad problems were all defective equipment from ford. My biggest issue is spending 72k on a truck and not being able to get more than 173000 kms with out spending a bunch more of $ to keep it running. I bought a 1 ton ford for a reason, I work in the oil patch and travel to very remote areas in western canada and required reliability. Also do a fair amount of pulling equipment trailers, etc. This is by the way my 2nd ford 1 ton - 1st was a 06 F350 Lariat with the 6.0l. In 120,000km I put on in the 2 year lease I had absolutely zero problems, that's why I decided to buy the 08 instead of leasing.

As for checking fluid levels, I am very **** when it comes to pretrip checks and proper interval maintenance because of the very remote areas I travel into. Ever since the 1st rad replacement, I have carried extra coolant with me always and still do, to keep a close eye. When all of the issues happened to me I kept the coolant levels up till it was back in town to get fixed. The levels never fell below the degasser bottle ever, so having a hard time with why air got into the system. Unless it happened with one of the previous times and air was introduced from the leak points before?

Anyway a heads up to any 6.4l diesel owners out there, this was a head scratcher for myself and the ford mechanics to find. The degasser bottle very slowly started to fall with no external leaks. Took it to a northern town small ford dealership to look at and pressure tested to 18psi - no issues. Kept driving, kept losing coolant. BTW once this started happening kept checking the oil levels for fear of the coolant getting into the oil, no rise or indication it was rising at the time. Limped it back to town, took it in and the 1st thing the mechanic thought it was 1 of the egr coolers (common problem) and started to take apart. He however went to drain the oil pan and there was just a bit more than 14.5l of oil in it. He figured more like 30l. So we knew where the coolant was going. He told me he even pulled the dipstick when it came into the dealership and it read normal - even baffled him. But knowing where the coolant was now, he went for the front housing immediately. He found the corrosion in the housing and the culprit pin hole into the oil pan. He figures we could not see the rise in the coolant on the dipstick is because of the clear gold coolant used and could not see it on the thin steel part of the dipstick? The oil did not turn creamy white at all to indicate mix of oil/coolant on the dipstick. He however drained a crap load of sludge out of the pan later he said. Good thing I run synthetic oil in the engine. I was super lucky I didn't have to shell out 7k for a short block.

Just wanted to let you guys know even though this is a first thread for me on this site, I have been getting valuable information of off it for the past 3 years. Keep up the good work. Its handy to be able to have a wealth of knowledge at your fingertips.

 

Just saw your thread. I have a 7.5 6.4L 62K and 3 radiators more than a couple dozen coolant problems; my front cover looks like a air-chisel took a liking to my cover. My head gaskets didn't survive either. I've just dropped $4k on parts and my truck is in pieces in the shop. I've only driven 2000 miles since first part of October. Total of 3 months in the shop. But Ford apparently let us buy this bag of bolts. Would somebody take the real F450 (not just the badge like now), put a Cummins in it with an Allison or Cat tranny already. We all know what is the best, they just don't offer it in anything smaller than a 650, and I don't have the cash for it. However, I guess I have put that much in mine with brake upgrades, shock and coil upgrades, CAI, intercooler, studs, cam and valve springs, egr delete with wastegate, and more. MAN!

 

Did you check the coolant nitrite level regularly as specified in the owner's manual, adding VC-8 additive if the nitrite level was low? If not, you neglected a specified maintenance item and Ford is not responsible. If you did and have documentation of it and still had this problem you might be able to get Ford to do something.

 

The front cover is a design flaw, thats why they have updated the cover, if you look at the new one there is a small tab on it that helps stop the cavation, the design allowed cavation even without the presence of air system air only makes it worse. Id ask the dealer if its not an uncommon problem why was the part updated?

 

did the updated part make it into production, or it only came out after?

 

The first picture is the old style the other pictures are the new style the idea is to eliminating areas of low pressure which are prone to cavitation with the new style front cover. These pictures and information is curtsy of another forum i frequent.

 

Im not sure thats a good question. I know who to ask i'll drop them the question

 

the new part is after production so far as I have seen.
do this job all the time. there are a number of posts about it infact. try searching for "front cover"

 

Have you done any after the new cover was installed?

 

the new cover has only been around for a few months. so to date no, but even if I do keep in mind I work on the worst of the worst trucks. all farm, oil filed and city units is 99% of my money.

 

I saw a reply from wp6529 after my thread that asked if I checked the nitrite levels. Couple things on that; first, First change after 105K and I have had the truck flushed 4 times by the dealership which I alluded to in my thread; second, the scheduled maintenance should have been expanded on and if the levels are so critical, which I am finding is a nightmare, there should have been a test kit for the life of the warranty and not a sharpshooter reading forums and and looking for a reason to blame it on the consumer when they buy a bill of goods. Lastly, to answer wp6529's question, I have not gone 6 months or 15000 miles without it being in the shop for "coolant related issues" and am finding what appears to be a continuous stall tactic on warranty issues. Opinion not fact but my cover is torn up and mechanic is adamant that I also replace the oil cooler but Ford explicitly forbids even an inspection of it but his experience has been that most come back immediately with that problem. The logical conclusion is fix one thing at a time and not perform any prophylactic measures or logical diagnosis of fixing systems rather than parts. On the surface, the 6.4L was a temp fix til they built a non-Navistar motor and in lieu of putting a Cummins in such a beautiful truck, they chose to keep relationship w/Dodge and put a new motor in, knowing that the 6.4 had much of the same issues to the 6.0 (which I never had one lick of problems) to include the initial Job 1 tranny. Long thread but unfortunately, I am trying to have a great work truck that won't leave me on the side of the road with a camper or gooseneck hitched to the back of it and no way of getting that home and no way of getting my horses anywhere because my truck is in the shop with warranty issues. I remind that I bought this in May 07, yes 2007, and I only have 62,000 miles on it and it is my only driver. Just about 5 years old with only 12K a year, I normally rack up 25K a year on previous vehicles, I racked up more annual miles on my 2005 FLHTCU but I no longer have that so I could get the newest Ford out there that was the heat, but turns out to be a super-hyped slightly better engineered version of the 6.0L and ONLY a temp motor while they knowingly were scrapping Navistar for good.

 

The first reference to and picture of the new revised cover I have dates from 8-Jan-2011, so they have been around for over a year.