I've been chasing a coolant leak for a while now and I believe it's the front cover gasket leaking. About a month ago I changed out my water pump as it was whining and at the time I thought it was starting to leak. After the water pump change the leak seemed to stop but reappeared a couple of weeks ago. At that point everything seemed to indicate that the blue EGR hose was probably leaking but it's dry with no sign of coolant in the valley or anywhere around the hose. I tore back into it today and exposed the water pump again and it appears the coolant is from the front cover. Is this typical and why would it start leaking? How hard is it to remove the front cover and does anyone have any tips, further suggestions or things to watch out for in removing it. Thanks

 

remove the intake to remove the front cover. seen it before. go to the local parts store rent a cooling system pressure test and adapter for the degas bottle. reassemble the cooling system hose, fill system with water and pressure test it.

 

My trucks front cover sprung a leak this past spring. Thank goodness it was covered under Fords 7yr/200k warranty! The tech ended up dropping the cover into the radiator, so it was replaced too. BONUS!

My point is, yup.... front covers "can" leak.

 

Remove the intake? as in intake manifold? Is everything else pretty straightforward from there? Are there any write ups on this whole procedure available that anyone is aware of that I haven't found?

 

no idea what you have found so far but yes Im sure there are soem you have not seen. try all data online. expect to spend 10-15 hours of your time redoing the front cover if you have not done one yet.
also be warned its possible to pull the bed plate seals out while doing the repair. if you do that you are basicly screwed for lack of a better term

 

Regretfully for my wallet I ended up taking the truck in for the repair rather than doing this work myself as I just did not have the time. The leak was from the front cover gasket as I originally thought but there didn't appear to be any real reason for the gasket failure.

I quit using the Ford gold coolant and switched to Chevron Delo ELC in early 2011 after I flushed my system, and added the coolant filter set up. This was mainly because of the silicate drop out reportedly associated with Ford gold and EGR/engine oil cooler issues which I've also had. The Chevron ELC is endorsed by Navistar for their engines so I don't think that would be the cause the gasket failure or would it?

The other part of this whole scenario is that I found water in my CCV breather canister during an oil change which I thought may have been due to a failing head gasket. At this time I have no other reason to think a head gasket is failing other than the 6.0's history for blown head gaskets. For the techs who know what the inside of the front cover looks like, could the coolant have gotten into the oil due to the bad front cover gasket?

Now I'm at a coolant crossroads on going back to the Ford Gold or continuing with the Chevron Delo. Has anyone else seen any issues with using the Chevron Delo or other ELC coolants?

 

a little bit of condisation is normal. it will come from just build up in the charge air cooler. its like sitting a cold beer can on the table when its hot out side. the form liquid goes somewere.
so far as a failed front cover gasket they just do that some times.