Hello all:

Sorry to beat a dead horse as I know this has been discussed before.. I have a 2005 F250 PSD and it is having issues.. I know its either the EGR or head gaskets failing..

Symptoms:
Truck is using coolant, I have to refill the reservoir every so often. I have not had any signs of puking historically. However the other day I noticed a few droplets of liquid on the coolant bottle. I do not see any signs of water on the hood though. I also hear whistling coming from the engine area every once and a while. I assume this noise is pressure escaping from the degas bottle.

I do not have any noticable smoke from the exhaust and the engine has plenty of power. I have also noticed some brown gunk in the degas bottle..


I believe that my head gaskets are blown, but wanted to be sure before I head down that venture. I hope that its just the EGR. I had an OASIS report completed and the truck has never had any major work done. It has 136K miles on it now.


Thoughts anyone?? Or any further information needed?


Thanks Everyone

BuckWeet

 

You can have the degas bottle/coolant checked for combustion gasses.It only takes a minute with the proper tool.If it has head gaskets blown you will know right away.The brown gunk is a pointing the finger at gaskets.IMHO

 

couldn't the whistling also be coming from air being pushed out between the blown gaskets of the head and block?? jw.

 

Well I was wondering that myself, but it happens when the engine is idling and there is no boost from the turbo.. Tts a real low pitched whistle which would mean its a slow leak.. I would think if it was a head leak it would be a hitch pitch whistle..


BuckWeet

 

Hmm...I would replace the cap if you haven't already and pray to allah. lol unless of course you got the money to stud.

 

Yea replacing the cap still doesn't explain why I'm losing coolant though

Hehe, I think its the head gaskets myself...

I think when I replace them I'm going to do an EGR delete, studs and get the SCT device to remove the EGR from the PCM..


BuckWeet

 

a quick way to check for compression gasses in the cooling system is to put a pressure tester in place of the degauss cap, start the engine ,warm it up and see where it goes, on my EX it went from 17psi to 24psi when I raised the rpm from idle to 1200rpm. you can use a standard radiator pressure tester to do this, good luck and keep us posted.

 

If there is pressure, couldn't that still means its an EGR failure?? Or when the EGR causes puking its only because of extreme temps?

BuckWeet

 

Do you mean EGR cooler failure? You would see higher pressure if the EGR cooler failed.

 

Do the EGR bypass first since you plan on doing it anyway.
I had the same symptoms as you and took my truck in.
The EGR cooler was leaking so they replaced it. It was over 300bucks for a part that is not needed if you are going to eliminate the EGR system anyway.
They said my head gaskets were blown but I think they took off the heads so they could see the pistons and prove a tuner was used.

 

I had the EXACT same simptons as you plus I would sometimes smell coolant. The dealer replaced the oil cooler, degauss bottle and the blown head gaskets. It took them 2 day's to diagnose and fix it.

 

I too would like to know FOR SURE. I have recently been experiencing some of the same symptoms and I brought my truck into a shop last friday. He did a pressure check of my coolant system and said that it almost immediately goes over pressure and he thinks it has to be the head gaskets. I've only lost a small amount of coolant so far so i don't know how long it will hold on, or how bad it is.

I would like it to be the EGR cooler but I'm not sure how hopeful I should be.

 

I also have a coolant smell coming into the cab while driving only, But a friend has the same thing happening. I figured its because Ford mounted the refill bottle so close to the fire-wall that the fumes get sucked into the cowl that feeds air into the cab. I've been driving it like this for over 80,000 miles. Recently I noticed that the orange EGR coolant tube (about an 1 1/2 inches long) has started leaking, I think its just clamps.

 

It was my understanding that the head gaskets and EGR failures would cause higher pressure, which still comes back to the question.. How do you tell for sure, lol!

Thanks

BuckWeet

 

Ok let me try to explain this the best that I can,Head gasket failure will almost always pump excessive pressure into the cooling system largely because cylander pressure is higher then cooling system pressure, egr cooler failure will pump coolant into your exhaust system due to exhaust pressure is usually less than cooling system pressure, head gasket failure can cause egr, oil cooler and a host of other cooling system failures due to the high pressure that can build up as a result of the severity of the failure. Egr failure usually does not cause high pressure and alot of dealers unfortunatly look for an easier way out but facts are facts, building excessive pressure in a cooling system and that includes the pressence of air bubbles should make you suspicius of bad head gaskets. Now if your only symptom is loosing coolant and no smoke or pressure problems , check your heater core and your hoses and connections. Wow I hate typing LOL and I hope this helps.