EGR Cooler / Oil Cooler / Lessons learned
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02-03-2015, 06:21 PM
Join Date: Jul 2007
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EGR Cooler / Oil Cooler / Lessons learned
Stand Pipes, Dummy Plugs, STC Fitting, BPD EGR Cooler, OEM Oil Cooler, Injector O-Rings and Glow plugs
I just got thru doing this, as many others have, and I thought I'd try and give a little back to the community and document some of what I learned in a bit of a light heart'd way.
Sorry for the excessive length.
2006 F250 Lariat FX4 218,000+ miles. All original/stock.
Original issue.
Longer than normal cold crank (6+ seconds and getting worse. Normal for my truck was < 2 seconds).Never had an issue with hot start. Long cold crank is what started me on the research path.
Purchased ScanGauge II to get a handle on what was really happening.
ECT/EOT deltas where running 12F-14F. (getting close).
Original STC fitting in the truck.
Original 10mm Dummy plugs and stand pipes in the truck.
Truck has never puked coolant, but pressures were getting close 13-14psi. I did all the testing I could to convince myself that my headgaskets were still good.
I had decided that doing studs and HG's was not something I wanted to tackle in my driveway without a way to lift the cab, so a diagnosis / confirmation of HG failure would have caused me to dump the truck and move on. I really like my truck and didn't want that to be the case. It's served me well,and has nearly 220,000 basically trouble free miles on it. Only left me stranded once, at 99,000 miles when the original FICM took a dump. Replaced under warranty.
I'm not a mechanic, but I'm not afraid to turn a wrench. In high school (35 years ago) we built our cars as 'hot-rods'. Rebuilt more than a few chevy small blocks. I've never done much more than change the fluids and filters on a diesel engine before I started this project.
I've accumulated a pretty decent set of hand tools over the years, and last year finally got a 60gal Air Compresser and some cheap air tools.. Ratchet and impact and a few others. I didn't HAVE to buy any thing special to accomplish this job. I did buy some ratcheting box wrenches to make life easier, and picked up an IPR socket. Other than that, just basic hand tools is all I needed. I did use my air ratchet a good bit, especially during tear-down.
I was fortunate in that I didn't have to rush the job. It took me 3 long Saturdays to complete, with a few hours on 2 of the Sundays spread in there for good measure. I drove my F150 for 2 weeks.
Things I learned:
Cheezit, Bismic, Rusty Axlerod, and all the others who generously spend their time answering questions on this forum is a huge help.
DieselTechRon's videos are an invaluable visual reference, as are many others on youtube.
Having a Top-Side creeper kept my old bones from aching so much the next day. I did tear down without it and I was 'hurtin' the next day.
Once you get started it's not nearly as intimidating actually doing it as it is thinking about all there is to do.
Cleanliness is next to Godliness. I cleaned the parts as I tore down so re-assembly was much quicker. Pick up the part and bolt it on.
Keep the valley and the HPOP system clean and free of debris. Then clean it again.
Don't leave tools in the engine valley, especially if the HPOP or Oil Cooler cover is off.
The passenger side Oil Rail is a PIA to get off. It's doable, but nerve racking. A 1/4" box-end with a torx bit taped to it will work.
The coolant return line nipple on the radiator will NOT support my weight. See DieselTechRon's video on repair. It worked for me.
When you drop something, find it right then or else the sound of 'something' hitting the ground 2 hours later will confuse the crap out of you.
There are many places in a F250 engine bay where a dropped socket/part/nut/bolt can fall without going all the way to the ground. One of their favorite places to hide on the passenger side is behind the transmission lines. Fortunately, none tried to find the inside of the block.
The passenger side heat shield bolt on the back side tang of the HPOP cover comes off much easier than it goes back on. (that's the one bolt I have left over).
A pressure washer WILL get most of the gunk out of your intake. It will also make a huge mess in the driveway. I seriously considered the Torch-n-Compressed air route, but chickened out.
I was doing the STC and the Oil Cooler, I did the STC first. Replaced it and buttoned it all back up before I cracked open the Oil Cooler. That way I
didn't have to worry so much about the oil from the oil cooler contaminating the HPOP. Also allows the Oil Cooler Sump to significantly drain so there's not as much oil to deal with. Mine actually didn't drip any oil.
The STC Fitting nut is lefty-loosy. .No matter how much you tighten it, it won't come off.
I made a temporary HPOP mount on my work bench to help with aligning the new fitting to allow for proper torque. A couple of spent 9mm and 45ACP cases from your reloading bench will give you the standoff's you need.
Take the time to air-test it after you've had the oil-rail off and you've reinstalled it, just for peace of mind.
Take care when resetting the oil rail to set it straight. Otherwise it'll leak and you'll have to fight with those God Forsaken lower 2 oil rail bolts again. Don't ask me how I know this.
A 3" piece of 3/8" vacuum hose will fit over the glow-plug and allow you to unscrew it (once it's broken loose) and also start the threads on reinstall.
It's real easy to pop a broken glow plug connector out from the inside, especially if you take out the injector first.
Don't get lazy and try to re-use injector seals. They're cheap, and if you have the injector out anyway, why not put new o-rings on it.
When you're trying to break the oil cooler from the oil cooler cover, make sure the oil cooler isn't sitting on the 'other' 2x4 keeping it from dropping out.
Oil cooler covers are pretty tough.
A set of long shank torx bits makes life easier. 2" to 2 1/2" is about right. Passenger side heater box again.
Getting the wiring harness/injector harness out of the way wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it'd be.
Putting it back in place wasn't either. It can only really lay one way.
A 19mm socket worked for releasing the injector plugs, the 18mm didn't work for me.
I never learned the 'trick' to the FICM plugs. Both Off and On was a royal PIA and it's not the first time I've done it.
Getting the turbo off was fairly easy, Getting it back on, wasn't real hard, but not as easy as getting it off. Top-Side creeper helped in a big way
since the turbo is right beside the radio. I didn't do anything with the piping to the turbo.
When you're reinstalling the HPOP, make sure the gears are meshed properly. Makes lining up the STC hold down bolts much easier.
My new 'STC' fitting took 5 turns, not 6.
A 15/16" Crows Foot wrench is hard to find.
10 ft/lbs is about has hard as you can pull a little 1/4" box-end wrench.
Pucker factor was high on the very first crank. I was certain I hadn't dropped any nuts/bolts/washers etc, but do you ever really know for sure?
It takes a long time to crank-up after you've done this. There's lots of air in the system and no oil on the top side. Have your batteries fully charged. Mine finally fired up on the 'last try' before a recharge was going to be necessary.. volts were getting too low.
Once it fired up, it ran like crap for a few seconds. Then it evened out.
The next few restarts were long cranks again when cold.
Hearing that beast fire off again is one of the sweetest sounds I've ever heard.
Cold crank time is back to <2 seconds.
ECT/EOT Delta's are now <7 degrees.
Coolant Pressure is now 8-9 PSI.
Again, sorry this is so long and thanks for all your help.
Walrus
I just got thru doing this, as many others have, and I thought I'd try and give a little back to the community and document some of what I learned in a bit of a light heart'd way.
Sorry for the excessive length.
2006 F250 Lariat FX4 218,000+ miles. All original/stock.
Original issue.
Longer than normal cold crank (6+ seconds and getting worse. Normal for my truck was < 2 seconds).Never had an issue with hot start. Long cold crank is what started me on the research path.
Purchased ScanGauge II to get a handle on what was really happening.
ECT/EOT deltas where running 12F-14F. (getting close).
Original STC fitting in the truck.
Original 10mm Dummy plugs and stand pipes in the truck.
Truck has never puked coolant, but pressures were getting close 13-14psi. I did all the testing I could to convince myself that my headgaskets were still good.
I had decided that doing studs and HG's was not something I wanted to tackle in my driveway without a way to lift the cab, so a diagnosis / confirmation of HG failure would have caused me to dump the truck and move on. I really like my truck and didn't want that to be the case. It's served me well,and has nearly 220,000 basically trouble free miles on it. Only left me stranded once, at 99,000 miles when the original FICM took a dump. Replaced under warranty.
I'm not a mechanic, but I'm not afraid to turn a wrench. In high school (35 years ago) we built our cars as 'hot-rods'. Rebuilt more than a few chevy small blocks. I've never done much more than change the fluids and filters on a diesel engine before I started this project.
I've accumulated a pretty decent set of hand tools over the years, and last year finally got a 60gal Air Compresser and some cheap air tools.. Ratchet and impact and a few others. I didn't HAVE to buy any thing special to accomplish this job. I did buy some ratcheting box wrenches to make life easier, and picked up an IPR socket. Other than that, just basic hand tools is all I needed. I did use my air ratchet a good bit, especially during tear-down.
I was fortunate in that I didn't have to rush the job. It took me 3 long Saturdays to complete, with a few hours on 2 of the Sundays spread in there for good measure. I drove my F150 for 2 weeks.
Things I learned:
Cheezit, Bismic, Rusty Axlerod, and all the others who generously spend their time answering questions on this forum is a huge help.
DieselTechRon's videos are an invaluable visual reference, as are many others on youtube.
Having a Top-Side creeper kept my old bones from aching so much the next day. I did tear down without it and I was 'hurtin' the next day.
Once you get started it's not nearly as intimidating actually doing it as it is thinking about all there is to do.
Cleanliness is next to Godliness. I cleaned the parts as I tore down so re-assembly was much quicker. Pick up the part and bolt it on.
Keep the valley and the HPOP system clean and free of debris. Then clean it again.
Don't leave tools in the engine valley, especially if the HPOP or Oil Cooler cover is off.
The passenger side Oil Rail is a PIA to get off. It's doable, but nerve racking. A 1/4" box-end with a torx bit taped to it will work.
The coolant return line nipple on the radiator will NOT support my weight. See DieselTechRon's video on repair. It worked for me.
When you drop something, find it right then or else the sound of 'something' hitting the ground 2 hours later will confuse the crap out of you.
There are many places in a F250 engine bay where a dropped socket/part/nut/bolt can fall without going all the way to the ground. One of their favorite places to hide on the passenger side is behind the transmission lines. Fortunately, none tried to find the inside of the block.
The passenger side heat shield bolt on the back side tang of the HPOP cover comes off much easier than it goes back on. (that's the one bolt I have left over).
A pressure washer WILL get most of the gunk out of your intake. It will also make a huge mess in the driveway. I seriously considered the Torch-n-Compressed air route, but chickened out.
I was doing the STC and the Oil Cooler, I did the STC first. Replaced it and buttoned it all back up before I cracked open the Oil Cooler. That way I
didn't have to worry so much about the oil from the oil cooler contaminating the HPOP. Also allows the Oil Cooler Sump to significantly drain so there's not as much oil to deal with. Mine actually didn't drip any oil.
The STC Fitting nut is lefty-loosy. .No matter how much you tighten it, it won't come off.
I made a temporary HPOP mount on my work bench to help with aligning the new fitting to allow for proper torque. A couple of spent 9mm and 45ACP cases from your reloading bench will give you the standoff's you need.
Take the time to air-test it after you've had the oil-rail off and you've reinstalled it, just for peace of mind.
Take care when resetting the oil rail to set it straight. Otherwise it'll leak and you'll have to fight with those God Forsaken lower 2 oil rail bolts again. Don't ask me how I know this.
A 3" piece of 3/8" vacuum hose will fit over the glow-plug and allow you to unscrew it (once it's broken loose) and also start the threads on reinstall.
It's real easy to pop a broken glow plug connector out from the inside, especially if you take out the injector first.
Don't get lazy and try to re-use injector seals. They're cheap, and if you have the injector out anyway, why not put new o-rings on it.
When you're trying to break the oil cooler from the oil cooler cover, make sure the oil cooler isn't sitting on the 'other' 2x4 keeping it from dropping out.
Oil cooler covers are pretty tough.
A set of long shank torx bits makes life easier. 2" to 2 1/2" is about right. Passenger side heater box again.
Getting the wiring harness/injector harness out of the way wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it'd be.
Putting it back in place wasn't either. It can only really lay one way.
A 19mm socket worked for releasing the injector plugs, the 18mm didn't work for me.
I never learned the 'trick' to the FICM plugs. Both Off and On was a royal PIA and it's not the first time I've done it.
Getting the turbo off was fairly easy, Getting it back on, wasn't real hard, but not as easy as getting it off. Top-Side creeper helped in a big way
since the turbo is right beside the radio. I didn't do anything with the piping to the turbo.
When you're reinstalling the HPOP, make sure the gears are meshed properly. Makes lining up the STC hold down bolts much easier.
My new 'STC' fitting took 5 turns, not 6.
A 15/16" Crows Foot wrench is hard to find.
10 ft/lbs is about has hard as you can pull a little 1/4" box-end wrench.
Pucker factor was high on the very first crank. I was certain I hadn't dropped any nuts/bolts/washers etc, but do you ever really know for sure?
It takes a long time to crank-up after you've done this. There's lots of air in the system and no oil on the top side. Have your batteries fully charged. Mine finally fired up on the 'last try' before a recharge was going to be necessary.. volts were getting too low.
Once it fired up, it ran like crap for a few seconds. Then it evened out.
The next few restarts were long cranks again when cold.
Hearing that beast fire off again is one of the sweetest sounds I've ever heard.
Cold crank time is back to <2 seconds.
ECT/EOT Delta's are now <7 degrees.
Coolant Pressure is now 8-9 PSI.
Again, sorry this is so long and thanks for all your help.
Walrus
#2
02-03-2015, 06:52 PM
#5
02-04-2015, 08:21 AM
#6
02-04-2015, 08:53 AM
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: Southeast, Louisiana
Posts: 470
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Thanks guys. The wealth of information on this site made the entire process that much easier. It's nice when you're tearing into something to have definitive answers as to 'how this comes off' before you start.
The huge majority of the 'tricks' I listed were gleaned from this site, I just used them while I did the work.
The huge majority of the 'tricks' I listed were gleaned from this site, I just used them while I did the work.
#7
02-04-2015, 09:33 AM
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Join Date: Sep 2014
Location: SAn TAn Valley
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Great write up, I'm in the midst of replacing the FICM harness, an EGR delete, checking the HPOP and oil cooler, etc... noticed a lot of little tid bits that will help me out, especially the starting it up after done part, don't want that feeling of wondering if I dropped anything into the engine.
Great job, Thanks
Great job, Thanks
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