2006 overheats and starts blowing white smoke, smells like antifreeze, added 2 gals of water to make it 1 mile home. Smokes on the way @195 temp and when I shut it off it smokes out tailpipe for another 3 min. Smells like the head gaskets just went, what should I check? The eot and ect have been 10 deg or less.
This has 225,000 miles on it ran great before this, so would it be stupid too not get a redone set of heads while I'm doing the gaskets and studs?

I was thinking of getting heads from here, UCF Machine Shop - Precision machining, engine rebuilding and more. Cummins + Ford Rebuild Specialist.
And a SINISTER DIESEL COMPLETE SOLUTION FOR FORD POWERSTROKE 2003-2007 6.0L. Are these the right places to deal with or should I look elsewhere?

 

Are you doing you temp check the right way? Also where are you located and what kind of gauges do you have?

 

Sure your EGR cooler didn't rupture?

 

I have Dashboss

 

How do I check that?

 

My money is on the EGR cooler as the head gaskets cause degas bottle puking under heavy load ( high boost ). Do not attempt to run it anymore as you are taking a big chance on hydro-locking it then you may bend some connecting rods.

 

Pull the EGR valve and look for coolant on the bottom of it and down in the intake manifold. Much easier/less expensive fix than headgaskets. Coolant from a ruptured cooler getting in the cylinders can spike pressures and cause it to spit a headgasket. I wouldn't run it any more than necessary because of that.

 

Vote #3 EGR cooler is toast. mustang_309 & Rusty Axlerod are right don't try to run it unless you have
money to throw away. Like Rusty said pull the EGR valve and look for coolant. The fact that is still
blowing mist after shutdown points at the cooler.
When you do get ready to start it back up after repair turn it over by hand. better yet and it
a Pain. Pull all the glow plugs and then spin it to make sure that you have not had any coolant run into
a cylinder while it was sitting. (I know extra step but a safe one).

You are most likely going to need an oil cooler. and here is the 2 PITA part. The best thing to do is to
replace the bad EEGR cooler and then do a cooling system flush with the chemicals to remove all the
crap in the block. Then run for a short time (week or so?) to let any crud that did not flush out collect
in the old oil cooler (keep an eye on temps). You don't want to rupture the oil cooler and make a mess.
The reason for not taking it out right after the chemical flush is it a little bit of time for all the small
bits to settle in the oil cooler and you don't want to kill a new oil cooler with the crap if you can avoid it.

What you need to do is pull the old EGR cooler and still check it to make sure that it is indeed the leak.
You can do that with a tank of water that the cooler will fit into and some plugs. One will need a hold
init to put air in under some pressure to get it to bubble while under water.

Once you prove that it's the bad guy you have to decide what you want to do. 1 replace it with stock.
2 replace it with something like the BPD EGR cooler. 3 Delete it. Each option has it's pros and cons.
I'll let you do a little research on that you will find a lot of info on all three.

Once you have a plan we will be happy to give all the info and how to we can.



Sean

 

^^^nice post^^^

 

Ok, so I pulled the EGR out and it's a mucky mess of black crap and liquid. I did the bottle test and got bubbles with turbo plugged in and then I unplugged turbo and 0 bubbles. So looks like it's the EGR cooler, correct?

 

yes, it the intake is wet and full of liquid, EGR cooler.

 

Running the truck with an EGR cooler leaking that badly will likely result in blown head gaskets and a $6k repair instead of $2.5k for EGR/oil coolers (estimated shop prices). Bubbles in a bottle connected to the degas tank means air/pressure is getting into the cooling system, but it doesn't point to where it's coming from. Your risking further damage and cost for valueless info.

 

That is why I said to remove it and place in a tank of water with plugs and an air fitting.
That is where you want to find the bubbles and not on the truck.

But how ever you look at this not you going to have to pull it down at least to the EGR
cooler. Test if off the truck and you know where the problem is and just hope that you
have not sucked water in and did any damage to the head gaskets or bent any thing.
Also at this point if going in I would still pull the glow plugs and crank it over to clear
any coolant in the cylinders. (Rusting problems) Very likely the head gaskets are just
fine and you caught this in time. But don't forget the prime cause of EGR cooler failure
is a bad/failing oil cooler.

How far from you is Grain Valley? If you want to do the work you self cool and we can
help with info, tips and tricks. If you want to have a shop do it I can point you to one
very good shop that can get you all fixed up.


Sean

 

First off, I'm not driving the truck since this happened.
So after I pull the egr off and test it, put it back together to see if head gaskets are bad? That seems crazy! Should I be doing a different test before or after egr is off to test head gaskets? You got me thinking just sell it and move on with all the talk of bent rods. I don't see how I would not know at this point if the rods were bent, but I've been wrong before and will be again some day, lol.
And if the head gaskets are bad would it be wise to do nothing to the heads with 225000 miles on them. Really I got a good deal on this truck 2+ years ago at $11500 so putting a little($5000) money in it would be ok with me.

 

Replace the EGR cooler, do the coolant flush and drive it for some time after the coolant flush( the reason you drive it for some time after the coolant flush before changing the oil cooler is you want to catch any remaining solids from the flush in the old oil cooler and not the new one ) then change out the oil cooler as a plugged oil cooler is the cause of the failed EGR cooler. When you are driving it after the coolant flush get it up to temp ( 185*+ EOT ) and do some WOT (wide open throttle) runs and get the boost up there, if you are not puking coolant from the degas bottle the head gaskets are fine.