2004 6.0 90k miles
Oil cooler plugged & coolant puking due to egr cooler flash boil.

Flushed the coolant with tap water then replaced water pump and tstat weekend before. This week backflushed heater core & block. This weekend backflushed the oil cooler. My coolant system would be considered severe contamination due to tap water use resulting in rust. Average ect was 195-205 & avg eot was 230-240 before flush. Here's a baseline before flush.



Pulled the oil cooler exhaust cap, opened both block drains, pulled lower radiator hose, & hooked up otc blast vac. The pressure was pretty intense holding the hose into the bore just running water through it. Hit the trigger about 20 cycles of water then air blasts.


Filled with 1/2 gal of restore & tap water. Ran it for 2 hours with RPM 1k+ 95% of the time. Drove at 65 mph & grabbed some peak temps.



Then dumped restore while hot, was pretty cloudy but not that dirty. Let engine cool then filled with tap water, ran for 10 mins then dumped again. Stuck hose in degas with only the the drivers block plug pulled & revved engine a few times to have the water pump push any crap out. Pulled the oil cooler exhaust cap, opened both block drains, pulled lower radiator hose, & hooked up otc blast vac again. This time the back pressure on oil cooler was much less vs first time.

Took a mason jar with restore plus in it & boiled it in water. Got it up to 190° then poured it directly into the oil cooler & let it sit for 30 minutes. Then backflushed again.

Put rest of the whole gallon of restore plus in & topped off with tap water. Ran again for 2 hours with RPM 1k+ 95% of the time. Drove at 65 mph & grabbed some peak temps.



Dumped restore plus while hot & it was very green & contaminated with rust. Topped off with tap water, ran for 10 mins at 190° then dumped. Revved the engine again with hose in the degas bottle & only drivers block plug out to blow more junk out. Filled with tap water & dumped again.

It was late last night so I filled it with distilled & parked it. Plan to do 3 straight distilled water flushes this week running rpm 1k+ for 1 hour each time in hopes to rid all the chemicals.

The backflush didn't result in lower deltas, but it didn't puke from the degas bottle at all during both chemical flushes. The oil cooler definitely needs replaced but at least it's not puking anymore & will hopefully stay this way for about 1k miles of driving so I can let the coolant filter rid anything that breaks loose during driving. My hope was to get some sort of flow across the egr cooler to stop the flash boiling puking & get as much junk out of the system as possible. So I guess there's some sort of achievement in the end.

Currently running cheap regular green (mixes with all) elc. I am running the cheap stuff because when the coolant was puking a gallon of coolant every trip i couldn't justify upgrading to the Rotella ELC yet. Plan is to flush with rest of restore(1/2 gallon) after oil cooler r&r then switch to Rotella ELC.

 

Great progress!

What does your oil cooler bypass valve look like?

Seems like your oil cooler is being bypassed and not really helping to cool the engine oil.

 

I haven't pulled it yet, was just reading that thread the other day wondering how much wear mine has lolololol
I could pull it out tonight & check it. If it is bad does BPD sell them if you call them? I didn't find them on their website.

If push comes to shove i can whip up my own on my mini lathe I'm sure.

 

Call BPD and they should be able to get one to you pronto. I bet yours is in bad shape, it is the un-obtainium-rubber disc that is the problem.

Please pull it and take a picture, really quick to accomplish.

 

How much time have you spent flushing and an estimate of money, if you would please, to this point?

 

Will do. Thanks!

I would say about 5-6 hours per flush. Pulling the OC exhaust cap takes about 30 minutes. Fumoto valve on the passenger side makes it a breeze. I have pretty long arms & can open block drains through the wheel well. Cool off time after the chemical flush takes about an hour, then hooking up blast vac tool about 15 minutes. Then put lower hose back on, replug block fill & run until operating temp-about 20 minutes. I also used water from my hot water heater to prevent shocking the hot block. Was about 120° coming from the hose.

Total $$ spent...
OTC blast vac $50
Hoses & fittings $15
Fumoto valve $26
Restore $27
Restore plus $30
28 gallons of distilled $28

Total = $176

 

So 10-12 hours and $200?

 

Yes, that's about right.

 

Thanks for posting the process and results.

I contemplated doing this myself. I have a new oil cooler and I am not happy with my deltas.

I am now thinking of increasing my water to coolant ratio and using some purple ice. My deltas were a lot closer when I was running just distilled water during the fill and dump process.

It does not get that cold in SC, so I think it will be okay. I have not researched it to see what side effects there would be, if any, once past a comfortable freeze protection ratio.

 

Water has a better thermal absorption and release the a glycol/water mix, so it makes the heat transfer process more efficient, but not where I'd go.

Back in 2010 when I played with this whole flushing routine, once the compound hardened in the cooler I never saw anyone fully reclaim a cooler, and digging the gel out of a cooler I could not get it to dissolve even with hot Restore or a Restore/water mix.

My last Chem cleaning was double the concentration of Restore with a 3hr 65mph run, no difference. I believe once the individual pathways get clogged you can't get the flow to deeply dissolve the gel in those passages. If you catch it early, I think there might be a fighting chance. But if there is residual material that has lost its integrity but is still hanging onto the hot surfaces of the motor block it originally bonded to, there is the risk it will break free and end up in the oil cooler. Unfortunately, there's nothing we can do about that.

 

Definitely some wear like others have posted.
Rubber washer was intact so I didn't disturb it.





Here's the tools i used


Toomanytoys, i agree. It definitely seems like once it's plugged there's no hope but replacement. After I blast vac'd it i knew anything left in there wasn't going to budge. But at least everything is prepped & ready to go now.
Step 1 complete...coolant flush LoL
Step 2 replace oil cooler & bypass valve
Step 3 headgaskets while I'm there possibly

 

The ring on the rubber is the deal breaker, with wear on the valve body and the indentation on the rubber that bad boy is done cooked.

 

I see the problem, no beer.

 

I'll be calling BPD today about that valve with fingers crossed that they have it. Would love to see any eot improvement by replacing it!
Oh there's never a shortage of that in the garage!
Liquid motivation

 

I understand how it works and that your thinking outside the box. Oil cooler replacements a big deal and anything to increase efficiency is worth while... however, replacing the valve won't correct for the clogged water passages if in deed that is the issue. Because it shows signs of wear, your saying its non-operational? I would agree that it may need replacement.

And of all the replacements you have recommended in clogged oil cooler threads you reply to... worn valves, worn rubber gaskets, has this replaced by-pass valve resolved anything?

I find it hard to believe that of the millions of Ford vehicles they have sold, not one Ford engineer found this to be an issue. They even developed a test to determine when a cooler needed replacement... nobody looked at the valve.