I have had the radiator replaced as well as the upgraded hoses and degas bottle under warranty (after a unrelenting fight with Fomoco). Does anyone have accurate info on whether the upgraded parts (hoses/degas bottle) have improved the reliability of the cooling system? I know the new radiator is the same as the one they took out. Truck only has 47K on it and the replacement work was done at 35K. Totally stock because I have the Ford extended 100K warranty.

 

PSDx3,
I'm curious to see the answer to your post. I just purchased an '08 with 49K on clock with a new radiator! Didn't find out about the 6.4 radiators until I brought it home.

 

Proper coolant maintenance is key. Checking the level in the degas bottle weekly and checking the nitride levels. Proper flushes and ford gold coolant only...or the napa ford spec stuff

 

In 6.0 world we dump the gold for cat elc. Has anyone done this with a 6.4?

Sent from my leash using IB AutoGroup

 

I heard some international guys do that to the 6.4 maxxforce 7. Maybe it's a good idea, maybe it just sounds like one. Who knows.

 

I disagree.
While I believe what you say is positive and true, I don't believe that is purely the reason behind failing radiators.
I can't explain everything in detail, because I'm just not that smart.

I had an airlock in my engine for 2 or 3 weeks once, caused coolant puking, rad hoses leaking, and all kinds of problems.

Drained the coolant, added it slowly, like really slowly, and haven't lost a drip in almost 2 years. I can't explain what happened. Glad I didn't run out and spend 4000$ on head gaskets and studs though.

 

I agree you can still have failures, but maintaining it properly goes along way. I had an upper hose go on me as well. It was a single o-ring design.

 

So, basically, no one has an answer to my question?

 

I think the coolant lines got upgraded from single to double o-ring.

 

double o rings on the hoses is the only change that has been made

 

Took my 08 f350 6.4L super duty diesel in to get serviced. It was spitting white smoke out the tail and overheated several times over the past few days. Recently purchased this truck at 69k miles and using it for commercial purposes. I maintain it properly, but do not know of how this vehicle was used or abused before me. Ford told me the oil and coolant are mixing and the oil coolant reservoir cracked or something, and there was a bad hose. Btw my name is Tony, I'm fairly new and would appreciate a little feed back from you experienced ford users'. Thank you fellas. Just wanted to know what could cause these problems? Besides being 6 years old and now being put to work. Since the date of purchase I have accumulated 20k miles. Sitting on 89,000 miles now.

 

Sounds like a lack of coolant maintance. Probably plugged the oil cooler up. Or low fluid level issues.

So new oil cooler, new hoses, new t stats..ask for those and new coolant of the proper type.

 

The truck is under warranty so a new reservoir and hoses are covered, but correct fluids will be replaced at my expense. They also ran diagnostics with the code reader and everything came back okay. But usually when I run after about 50 to 75 miles the wrench light comes up. They said it would be a maintenance issue, but where would I begin?

 

wrench is usually a powertrain fault. I think you have found it.

Look for history codes in the pcm.

 

Alright, I won't say my problems are quite over with, but I do appreciate the help brother. Its a dependable truck and I want it to last. Thank you for your input you have been very helpful.