Well, just got back from the Ford dealer after dropping my 07 F250 King Ranch off, to see what they would tell me about the dreaded wrench light. They seem to think that I need to replace the EGR and engine oil cooler, as well as the head gaskets, to the tune of 7 G's. Does anyone have anyone have any insight as to what options I may have, other then get that CAN OF GAS, someone else talked about? Not sure what to do other than park it at this time, as that is beyond my financial means! Jose.

 

Can you work on it yourself?

First buy a gauge to verify their diagnosis, then R&R the coolers as necessary. The test the head gaskets after the cooler repair.

Oil cooler kit is just over $300, another $150 for an EGR delete and various small parts. Starts around $500-ish if you do it yourself?

 

I'm not very diesel savvy. Just depending on what all is involved. I imagine if I can find the procedures for R&R on the coolers, I might be able to attemp it. I' m limited on elbow grease (coming off elbow surgery for torn bicep tendon). I put a ELM327 Bluetooth scanner on it using the forscan light for IOS on it. It sets a code for P012F, which shows a variance between EOT and ECT.

 

These are not hard to work on but as you said coming off of shoulder surgery you might would have a hard time as you have to climb all over and reach with the engine but it is well worth doing it yourself versus paying somebody a couple of grand much less 7.
Live data is what you are needing--ECT, EOT but with that code unless sensors are bad you are going to need a new cooler and possibly egr cooler or delete. Are you loosing coolant? Any degas puke around the bottle?

 

The guy at Ford had he pop the hood and showed me where he said coolant was venting through the degas cap, so I'm guessing, yes.

 

Ok--so it could just be the EGR cooler. You can do a quick check by pulling the EGR valve and checking for dampness but I assume the truck is at the ford place still so you can't do much to validate their breakdown until you get the truck back. If you have the time to spend get it back do some checks based on what these guys tell you and see what really needs to be done. It could very well be that it needs HG along with oil cooler and egr cooler but then again it could just need oil cooler and EGR cooler/delete. Either doing it yourself or paying someone based on the price they gave you it could be a significant $$ savings to do a few checks yourself.

 

Ok thanks. I'm on my way to pick the truck up as we speak. I can do some checks once I get back.

 

You can check the head gaskets by pulling the glow plugs and doing a leak down test. Does not require any heavy lifting.

 

Are there any special tools/test equipment required to perform the leak down test?

 

Would anyone recommend bulletproofing this 6.0. Is the work any more labor intensive? Something I could do myself? Is it more costly than a oem engine/EGR cooler and HG?

 

Really the only extra cost to bulletproofing is the addition of the ARP head studs if you are already in there doing head gaskets. And a few other items should be addressed like updated standpipes and dummy plugs, fuel pressure regulator blue spring upgrade ( adds approximately 10 PSI to the fuel system and is an upgrade from ford ) and updated turbo oil drain tube.
And your ability to do it yourself depends on your wrenching skills, the only specialty tools really needed would be a couple of torque wrenches one from 10 to 75 lb/ft and one from 25 to 250 and a few different size torx bits.
And there are many videos on youtube and the folks here on the forum to help you out. Srmastertech and dieseltechron on youtube have some awesome videos,

 

Hold up! Before we go head first off the cliff of tearing the engine in half, the only certifiable facts so far are that the wrench light was on, and there was residue around the degas cap.

The first step is gauges or a scanner, and verify the coolant and oil temp difference that set the wrench light/code. A very simple cold soak rules out sensor bias.

Second step is clean the residue off the degas bottle, check the new correct level of coolant, and put a new cap on it.

Third step is what David mentioned, remove and clean the EGR valve, and check for obvious fluid in the intake manifold.

That's a $25 starting point that will answer a whole slew of other questions not even asked yet before people start throwing around multiple thousand dollar repair ideas. $15 for the cap, $10 for EGR gaskets, and you need them both anyways for any of the following repairs so no wasted funds.

If the temp delta is out of spec, R&R the oil cooler for ~$350 in parts. Inspect the EGR cooler, or just straight up delete it since he's in Texas and there are no diesel emissions. Another $150 for a delete, or maybe just $30 at a fab shop to weld steel plugs into the cooler.

I would very strongly suggest throwing in a $50 STC fitting during the EGR and oil cooler work, because it's right there staring at you, and there's no guarantee that you'll need to take the turbo out again after the cooler R&R.

There are several step-by-step guides on this forum that walk you through every simple step. If you're worried about your shoulder, the most muscle-ly part of that job is removing the turbo if you are trying to remove the least number of parts. If you'd rather expend more time than effort, you can remove a few more parts than necessary and literally stand in front of the engine while it's still in the truck.

After the cooler R&R, use a simple mechanical gauge to test coolant pressure in the degas bottle as a starting point for head gaskets. If that's bad, move to a leak down test, then to R&R of the head gaskets. By that point you'll have been inside the engine bay enough to understand all the walk-troughs/tips here, and it won't matter if you've never seen a diesel before.

All the high pressure oil parts Brett mentioned are part of a head gasket repair, and standpipes come with the gaskets. If you test the FICM now, if it needs work this is the perfect time to send it off while the truck is down for gaskets.

Parts I've mentioned so far:
http://www.riffraffdiesel.com/degas-coolant-bottle-cap/
http://www.riffraffdiesel.com/oil-cooler-kit/
http://www.riffraffdiesel.com/stc-hpop-updated-fitting/

 

You're absolutely correct. I guess I just need to slow down and take the analytical approach to this thing. It's not like I have $$ to throw around anyway. I'll start small and see what I can figure out. Thanks for keeping me focused. Jose.

 

We got your back, eat that elephant one bite at a time

 

Good plan for sure. Like I said if you have the time it is well worth it to use FTE to help you through things. If it wasn't for these guys I wouldn't be in this wonderful truck I have. It's all because of the knowledge here.