Lost some coolant in my 06 6.0, and had some heater issues. Take it to Ford, they tell me they think it's a head gasket. They want 4 grand to fix it. They also said I'd get a new oil cooler/EGR cooler out of the deal. Now, from what I've read here and a few other places, the OEM stuff isn't up to snuff, and I may be better off deleting the EGR cooler all together. What I'm wondering is, what does this do to the performance of the truck? I don't have a tuner, and probably not planning to get one. I see aftermarket oil coolers that claim to work much better. If I get this fixed (and don't just trade the truck off), I'm thinking of avoiding the dealer, and maybe going to a diesel specialty shop, there are a few here in Omaha.

I know this has been kicked around a few thousand times here. But, I'd appreciate any info/ experiences / parts to use/ etc, to help me with the decisions I need to make with this truck.

Thanks in advance guys!

 

tat sounds pretty much standard job coming from a dealership. jus to do headgaskets, oil cooler, and egr cooler, plus labor. tats not bad. but i'm sure u can save the money if u dont need to spend it, and if ur willing to roll u ur sleeves, u can do all tat by urself.

u mentioned u lost some coolant. have u checked to see where it went? did it leak out? if not, it might have leaked in. have u spotted milky white substance in or around ur degas bottle? tat usually means u got oil in ur coolant. when i had my missing coolant, it ended being in the engine. how it got there, i got some theories but tat issue stumps lots of ford techs as well.

u mentioned heater issues. block heater not working? do u have the cord? have u checked the connections? maybe it's a bad harness somewhere.

i tink tat if u jus do ur coolant flush at regular intervals, u'll be jus fine. i dont tink u'll blow ur egr cooler again. tis is a mixed topic. some folks follow regular intervals and never experience probs, and some continually do.

i'm sure the other guys will chime in later wif their professional experience. btw, u might also wan to check the egr cooler hose to oil cooler. sometimes tat could be leaking coolant there. the rubber hose wears out over time.

while ur in there, maybe u could update ur stc fittings, check ur ipr screen if it needs changing, and u might wan to upgrade ur dummy standplugs.

u mentioned u went to the ford dealer. did they pull up any codes? these codes will help the senior guys here better to assist u in ur prob.

i wish u the best in ur repairs. i'll chime in again if some other ideas hit me in the head. have a great day!

 

I think he means the climate control HEATER, not the block heater. Prob gunk from the Ford Coolant in it....maybe a back flush will fix this.... if it's in there THAT bad, it's prob in the radiator too......

How many miles on the truck, Pat?

 

my bad. yeah, i forgot bout tat one. sorry.

 

Bummer Pat.

If you're not going to get a tuner I wouldn't consider deleting the EGR system, because without a tuner that turns off the EGR you'll be getting a Check Engine Light and most likely fighting performance issues because of it. The EGR cooler from Bulletproof Diesel costs less than a tuner does, and that would be the way to go rather than replacing with a stock unit.

Do you know what the dealership did to diagnose? Did they hook it up to a laptop and take it for a drive?

 

Bud, 77,000 miles, the warranty just ran out....

Steve, I'm not sure, the service writer was very vague over the phone. I'm going to ask to talk to the tech when I go get it this afternoon. Thanks for the heads up on the EGR delete. If I fix it, I'd rather get an aftermarket EGR and oil cooler. From what I'm reading the OEM stuff will just cause me problems again. If this damn thing was still under warranty, I'd have them fix it, and stud the heads, just in case I would decide to get a tuner later.

 

I think I've read that you can buy some strips to test put in the degas bottle to find out if exhaust gasses have entered the cooling system. I understand from reading on this forum that exhaust gasses in the degas bottle are a pretty sure sign that the heads have lifted.

 

Deleting the EGR cooler is a personal choice. Maybe blocking it off and getting a tuner to take it out of the loop (electronically speaking) would be a better idea just in case someday down the road you need it. As far as OEM parts...the headgaskets are just fine. There are several guys on here running 500+ Hp trucks with stock gaskets. They did change from TTY bolts to ARP head studs...but that's a given since the TTY are a known weak point on the engine. Aftermarket oil cooler? You must be talking about one of the remote style coolers a couple of guys have fab up lately?

 

Well, since I have you guy's attention, if I was to put a tuner on this thing, and delete the EGR, what is the benefits of a tuner, other than the obvious of being able to tap into extra power? Can these help you with mileage? That would be a big plus.

 

No mileage benefit.... But with the studs, you'll have the towing power. I wouldn't delete the EGR tho. Go bulletproof.

 

The tuner may improve your mileage since your limiting the amount of exhaust gas is getting recycled into the intake. I wouldn't buy one expecting mileage improvement; but if it happens consider it a bonus

 

If it were mine I'de put a stock cooler back in get a cooolant filter and a scan gauge 2 (so you can monitor EOT-ECT) so this doesnt happen again.I would also stud it without a doubt.

 

surely he's referring to the BulletProofDiesel.

 

Yep, that's the one I was thinking about.

 

This is what I would do, at least for a second opinion. It raises a red flag with me whenever they hem and haw like they are not sure whether it is HG or just a leaking cooler. I love our Ford employed techs here, but when the customer is paying, the Ford shop rates are just too high. It isn't the technicians fault, but the dealership overhead is just too high.

Sorry to hear, Pat. My list of guys with trouble free 6.0's keeps getting shorter.