I believe I have a busted EGR cooler, and am preparing to replace it along with the oil cooler, etc. I want to perform a cooling system flush with Restore before I tear into it, but I get the feeling that would be a bad thing to do with a leaking EGR cooler.

What are the risks of running my 6.0L with a bad EGR cooler?

 

Depending on how bad the leak is you may flood a cylinder with coolant and hydrolock the motor. If it's a very small leak then you could chemically flush the cooling system before doing the oil and EGR coolers. Regardless you're still taking a chance.

 

Will a hydrolock condition cause any damage? Remove glow plugs to relieve pressure and recover from hydrolock with no ill effects?

 

That's the common remedy. The bottom end is pretty stout on a 6.0. I've hydrolocked mine a couple of times changing injectors and never bent a rod. It did bend one running some stupid high RPM's one day, but I wasn't driving. It ran for 3 more weeks before I tore it down.

 

So, if I remove the thermostat and run it at high idle for a few minutes, it shouldn't be a problem, then...and just hope for no hydrolock so I don't have to mess with that side of things.

Thanks for the feedback!

 

I would delete the egr first. Sounds like the most logical thing to me.

 

Two things about that approach:

1) I'm replacing the EGR cooler rather than doing a delete.
2) I don't want to tear it down twice

Though, you do make a good point that I'll have to consider.

 

It's easier and cheaper to do a cooler twice than rebuild an engine. Do you feel lucky?

 

Hmm.. two votes for "don't try it, dum-dum".

The '69 Mustang in your sig is my dream car. 428 CJ - mhmm...nice. Share a picture or two?

 

3 votes....

 

I'm vote #4

 

Alright - so..

- tear it down, replace the EGR cooler
- put it all back together
- flush the coolant system
- tear it all apart again and replace the oil cooler.

Can I reuse the old EGR cooler gaskets for the flush, then replace them with new when I put it back together the final time? Are EGR gaskets reusable? What about intake gaskets?

 

What are your deltas?

 

I don't understand...why wouldn't you just replace with a delete set-up and do all the work and put it back together, THEN flush the whole system and put new fluid into it ? Hmmm...smh..?

 

The upload keeps failing. I think the jpegs have too many pixels or I'm doing it wrong. Wouldn't be the 1st time.