I have 6.0 with coolant loss, half a gallon per 200 miles, white smoke , temps in 180-190 with oil temps within 10 degrees at most. worst when cold , am I wrong to assume head gasket or could there be a cheaper problem to look for ? thanks

 

welcome to FTE and sorry to hear about your problems. your question might get better answered down in the 6.0 forum further down on the main page.

to answer your question digging around a little will help narrow down what your problem might be. are you puking coolant from the degas cap and have you replaced it with an updated cap with larger spring? can you park the truck at a nose down angle (doesn't have to be much) and park the truck over night? pull the egr valve and look down into your intake manifold and check for any coolant that may be puddling down there. if there is coolant present then more likely its your egr cooler. have you pressure tested your cooling system while climbing up a hill? there are a few video's on youtube explaining how this is done and how to read the gauge to determine what your problems could be.

 

Coolant loss checklist for the 6.0L:
https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...nts-degas.html

 

it does not seem to be puking ,the degas tank is clean , just often low, smoking white smoke sometimes , seems worse when cold . could a bad egr valve allow it suck coolant to burn ? thanks

 

Hi delawared, welcome to FTE! I'm going to send this one down to the 6.0L Powerstroke forum, you should get a better response down there.

Are you getting white smoke when the truck is warm, or cold?

 

I seems to be somewhat intermittent , now that the temp dropped it seemed to smoke more. I have a scan gauge 2 ,ficm is good and the delta is 6-10

 

With it smoking and using coolant with no evidence of puking on the degas bottle its probably the EGR cooler, as previously suggested get the truck up to operating temp (185-190* ) and park it nose down over night and pull the EGR valve the next morning and look for moisture.

 

I pulled egr valve ,pretty gummed up . it looked like moisture in the intake. when I checked the eot ct there was a ten degree spread at worst and seven degree average at 60 mph for 12 miles. could it still be the egr cooler even without a big temp difference ? thanks

 

tats a huge possibility. another point to consider. depending on how ur egr cooler is messed up, if ur dumping coolant, it will be from egr cooler straight out to the y-pipe exhaust. and of cos, if it gets into the ur exhaust pipe, with the heat coming out as well, ur coolant is gonna turn to steam.

it may be the first bet tat ur egr cooler could be busted. u could delete it or upgrade it with a better one.

 

do u get any loss of power? truck suddenly dying?

 

no, it seems ok .

 

i'm leaning towards the egr cooler. just my 2 cents based on the symptoms u described.

 

so how worried should I be about head gaskets or how do I check if they are blown. it almost sounds like a very slight whistle at idle from the exhaust I do not remember before , but I really did not stand there much before. that what I thought about the egr cooler and oil cooler before I got gauges, but with the close temps I was confused . thanks

 

here's a pretty good way how to test your cooling system. usually its a failing oil cooler that wipes out the egr cooler but with his delta's pretty normal would you guys think that it would be a good idea to replace the oil cooler at the same time?

 

Ur right. The deltas kinda throw it off. Ford recommends replacing the oil cooler as well as the egr cooler but there are other stuff too if ur paranoid like me. Updated stc fitting, updated standpipes and dummy plugs, updated hpo screen, new ipr, etc etc. it can work up to a bunch of money too.

It all depends on wat route the OP is intending on taking. I'm sure the other guys will say something about this. Lol

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