First up, big thanks to all the posters on the board! I’ve been lurking many a day and night cramming myself with diesel info after I bought my truck (2005 F250 6.0) two months ago with 150K miles (mostly highway, only towed snowmobiles which will also be typical of my usage). I’m slowly making improvements as money allows, since I “plan” on keeping the truck for life, and am looking to getting the ARPS/OEM head gaskets installed in the near future but my question is as follows,
In January 2012 the previous owner had the ford dealer replace the EGR valve, EGR cooler, oil cooler and a dealer “coolant flush”, which from what I gather on the forums is most probably a simple coolant replacement, not a genuine flush. I also plan on keeping the EGR system intact with the ability to switch off for offroad usage, would perhaps upgrading to a bulletproof egr cooler be advisable over the new oem cooler?

I’ve added a dieselsite coolant filter, already have 1 gallon each of Restore and Restore+ (just in case) and will replace the ford gold with Rotella Ultra ELC, but my concern is of how much of a flush to perform so as not to crud up the new oil cooler. Which course of action would be recommended?
1. Since all the components are new perhaps a simple drain, distilled water rinse and refill with ELC.
2. Drain, disconnect the heater core and radiator to flush separately under pressure, give the system a rinse with distilled water and refill with ELC.
3. Go the for the full blown spend all day system flush operation (Nylons method, restore, etc)
4. Leave the truck with the wife, find a new girlfriend or two and travel the world.
Mucho thanks in advance!

 

since its all new , i would just leave it like it is an get a scangaugeII so you can watch ur oil temp an coolant temp spread.

or, if u insist of changing the coolant.do a #3 so you stop up the new oil cooler an then do a #4.

just my .03 cents

 

If you keep the EGR system, I would recommedn a BPD EGR cooler over the OEM one - hands down.

 

Vote #2 for the BPD EGR cooler. It's ALOT better made than the stock one.

 

If the dealer did the EGR cooler, I would get an oasis report and see if they did a VC9/restore flush. My bet is they did (ka-ching, ka-ching) FYI Dealers use tap water, it is filtered but still tap water. Check the coolant with an antifreeze hydrometer for peace of mind. You'll be checking the coolant filter every week for the first month, just to see if it's warm/hot to the touch. I know I did. Scangauge II big plus.

Keeping my 06 6.0 for life also. Hell of a truck. Runs like a scalded cat.

 

I doubt the dealer did a flush at all, I would presume they just push old stuff out with new coolant, this is what they told me here, I said no thanks.

I would " 2. Drain, disconnect the heater core and radiator to flush separately under pressure, give the system a rinse with distilled water and refill with ELC." and dump everything in a big bucket to see what's in there.

I would backflush the oil cooler through the rear cap and I would remove the engine plug to throughly flush the engine, then I would be a the "safe" side for the new baby coolers.

If I ever have to do my Egr Cooler, I would go with BPD, from what I get on this forum.

 

Both the dealers in our area do a VC9 flush prior to egr/oil cooler replacements. I can't vouch for the source of the water however.

 

What I mean is that I do not think the Dealer would do a throughout flush and backflush like many people recommend on this forum, it just take to much time to do at a 100 dollars an hour.

From what I see on this forum and from my own experience, I think the problem when you flush and run the junk through you oil cooler, it has a chance to plug the cooler. This is what happened to me, I did not backflush like many guys recommended on the forum, and bang, the oil cooler plug up. I was lucky to be able to clean it, over 3000 miles on now.

 

Thanks all, much appreciated!
I'm glad my apprehensions regarding the oil cooler clogging up and the "quality" of the dealer flush are not baseless. Got a copy of the receipt and it simply stated replace coolant fluid, I've decided to leave the oem egr cooler for now and change to a BP cooler when getting the arps installed (at most in a year), and I'll spend next weekend doing a careful and thorough flush to avoid clogging the system, thx!

 

If it says coolant change, sure they did nothing else, otherwise they would charge it, nothing is free, especially from the Dealer, if they have something free, beware.

 

LOL, very true, thanks!