When it rains .. it pours. Or better yet ... there is not always fire when there is SMOKE!

My 05 F-350 6.0 Powerstroke (74,500 miles) puked out on me. It all started showing its face a couple of days ago, and got worse real fast. On a Friday, I was pulling my 18' enclosed trailer, and when I pulled out of the lot, it was putting out some pretty serious white smoke. I went around the block to get back to the shop, and by time I was almost there .. it quit!

Two days later, after driving to the other side of town, and then after stopping to eat .. I pulled out (no trailer this time), and the truck was very, very sluggish on take-off. When it did go ... it was doing the white smoke thing again. When taking off at a stop light, it bellowed out some black smoke, and that was it ... till I stopped again.

Monday ... it smoked all of the time, and then all of a sudden the smoke got REAL thick. It started to overheat, run rough ... and was loosing coolant (burnig it out the back). It is sitting right now .. but needing to go in for repairs.

What does it sound like to you? Bad EGR cooler, head gasket, both? Someone told me (a buddy who owns a chain of auto parts stores), that even when a dealer replaces a cooler, Ford wants them to replace the head gaskets too.

What am I looking at here .. and will I need a 2nd mortgage (or actually a 3rd in my case)

 

If I had to guess, I would say just the EGR cooler. But the good news is, you should be under warranty. 5 years/100k miles.

No, Ford does not require HG repair when an EGR cooler fails. If it is an EGR cooler, make sure your shop tests the oil cooler too.

 

I've gotta check my warranty ... I could have sworen that it was 5yr / 60K miles on drivetrain.

 

I would also say egr cooler, however because you flow egr all the time, it is possible that your egr is bad as well...bpounds is right on the oil cooler bit, since you are right there,have the oil cooler checked to see if pulgged. Using a rad kit plus. (air lift) tool to vac down the coolant system. Make sure there is no oil in your coolant jug, a bad oil cooler will definately put some oil in there. In my career i really haven't seen too many head gasket failures.

 

i think it is 5k/60k

 

5/60 is drivetrain., and does not apply to an '05 anyway. 5/100 is Powerstroke motor only. Unless your inservice date is more than 60 months ago, to the day, you have motor warranty. Might cost you $100 deductible.

 

So ... my Powerstroke has a warranty of 100K. That would sure be a blessing.

 

I assure you, it does. Question is, is it more than 5 years since the first owner drove it off the lot for the first time?

Also, the EGR system would be covered under the emissions equipment warranty, which varies in term, but if covered it would save you the $100 deductible.

You can download the warranty guide at https://www.fleet.ford.com/

 

I'm the original owner ... can't remember for sure when I bought it .. but it had to be in the spring of 2005. That should take me till the spring of 2010 I would guess.

 

You are correct, the engine warranty is 5year/100k mi. and the egr cooler and headgaskets are covered under it.

There is a good chance that both are bad. My truck had the egr cooler, headgaskets, heads, and turbo replaced at 35k mi.

If the headgaskets are bad, make sure to see if the dealer will install ARP headstuds (you will have to buy the studs) so you don't have to worry about them again later!!!

 

correct! my memory has been refreshed. ford does have 100k on engine

 

I had to replace EGR cooler AND Head Gaskets when the
White Smoke got me too.
I had 170,000 miles on my 2005 6.0 F-350.
I got out of there for $3000.00
Holey Moley..That was 2 years ago and it has
ran like a new truck ever since.
My mechanic said that the previous owner replaced the EGR cooler
and NOT the head gaskets and that is what caused my problem only
a month after I bought the truck!!!!

 

Ok ... called my dealer today, and he confirmed what you all were saying ... that my Powerstroke had a 100K warranty. He asked me what was wrong (or what it was doing) ... I told him I thought it was either the EGR cooler or the head gasket. He said bring it in and they would look at it. I told him I couldn't drive it that far, and that I would be towing it down.

My question now is this. I had heard that Ford had told the dealers that if the EGR cooler was bad, that they would want them to replace the head gaskets too. It only makes since to me to do it while they are in there, and keep from them maybe being the next weak link. I will ask them about the ARP stud bolts too ....

Has anyone else heard about Ford wanting the dealers to replace head gaskets at the same time ... since I have heard that this has been an issue with the Powerstroke? I sure wouldn't want them to replace the cooler, and then me have to pay for new gaskets later on down the road if the truck is out of warranty.

 

The two failures are unrelated, other than some similiar symptoms, and an EGR cooler failure should not cause a HG failure. However, I can see an HG failure pressurizing the coolant system and causing an EGR cooler failure. I could maybe understand it if Ford repaired HG that they would also want to replace the EGR cooler, but not the other way around. I would certainly want to do that, but Ford being stingy with parts like they are, I don't even think they would do that.

Your EGR cooler lays in the valley above the intake manifold. It does not require removing the heads, or removing the motor, or lifting the cab to get to that cooler. On the other hand, replacing HG requires all of that and more, and replacing the EGR cooler would be a logical thing to do to save later repeat labor.

The only way I can see that an EGR cooler failure might cause HG failure would be a partial hydro-lock kind of thing. Not very likely IMO.

Your dealer should easily determine which one, if either, has failed.

BTW, my advice is to never tell the service writer what you think is wrong. Just give them the symptoms and stick to the facts.

 

Good advice ... usually works best in my things in life. Don't try and tell someone what their job is .. especially if they are going to be working on your stuff!

I'm just going to take it in and tell them what they symptoms are, what it was doing and what it is doing, and hand them the keys.

Thanks guys .. will let you know how this all comes out.

Dave