If you are thinking delete, I"d delete it. You'll see if the blank off plate is leaking coolant or not, plus when you pull cooler it will looks very clean. Be prepared if you do delete the sound out of the exhaust isn't a traditional straight piped diesel. I didn't like it and added a resonator in front of big Donaldson muffler.

 

Well I popped the hood Saturday when I got home from work to start working on it and coolant level was full. I guess they topped it off at shop before I picked it up Friday night. I drove it Friday night and Saturday afternoon quite a bit: stop and go, interstate, about 1500 lbs landscaping rock in back and Saturday night coolant had not budged, right where it was when they topped it off at shop. I began to hope it was a flush done incorrectly as senix said earlier in thread but then I get up this morning and had to run in to work for a few minutes about 25 miles round trip and sure enough it had dropped about an inch when I got home. I guess it could still be a flush done incorrectly and now it's slowing down as it gets burped? They had it about an inch above cool fill line and now it's right at fill line. Or, maybe cooler has been bad and it got low then as we filled it there was air that kept coming out and coolant would go down quickly but now that system is getting full it's showing its' true colors on how fast the coolant is disappearing. Guess I'll drive it a little more and see what happens before digging into such a big and somewhat risky repair, those exhaust bolts potentially breaking off triggers some sort of ptsd from when I went through plugs breaking off in my 5.4 triton. I have an appointment Friday at a custom diesel shop with a very good reputation in case I can't get to a decision on my own this week.

Still on the fence about the delete, lots of pros and cons but starting to lean towards delete to avoid dealing with this again if it does turn out to be cooler. Maybe this other shop has a 6.7 deleted that I can listen to to see if sound change is going to be a big issue for me. When I called to make appointment at other shop I told them what was going on and they said it was almost definitely not the cooler Not sure if Milleraj30 is still watching this but if so hope will elaborate on how fast coolant was going down with his bad cooler.

 

 

 

If your going to mess with those egr bolts on the manifold anytime soon I would start spraying them with a good penetrate like kroil right away. I soaked mine for a couple weeks, everytime I shut it down I would spray some on the bolt and it would creep into the threads as it cooled, came out like butter once they broke free.

 

Thanks for the additional info. Feeling more and more like this has to be it despite shops not thinking so, keep hoping for something more simple but clinging to false hope is probably just wasting time and we've got some trips planned soon with TT so need to get it taken care of. They offered me an aftermarket warranty when I bought truck, I noticed egr cooler and heads were not on there but radiator actually was and turbo too. Did you get a weird film on top of engine or air cleaner box or underside of hood? I'm noticing some inside my engine compartment but maybe it's normal? This is my first diesel so not sure what's normal yet, I'm off to a great start...

 

Good tip, I started tonight. Only have PB Blaster hope that's equivalent to Kroil.

 

Quick update for future readers: Decided against working on it myself just been too busy lately, took it in to diesel shop that specializes in powerstrokes they confirmed egr cooler was bad. I think they pulled the front manifold pipe and looked into the cooler and instead of the usual sooty stuff it was very clean and wet. They got one exhaust manifold bolt out and broke the other. Don't know why they didn't just get the one out then swing pipe to the side. Then despite having the special drill jig they could not get it drilled and tapped and ended up breaking off an easy out in the hole so now the turbo has to come off and a new exhaust manifold has to be put on. A simple egr cooler replacement has turned into a nightmare that will probably end up running me like 1800$ by the time labor and parts are in. Plus it has to have an oil change now of course so that's another expense in addition to turbo having to have all new seals when it goes back on. This shop says they've done over 200 of these and mine is by far the worst they've ever encountered, just my luck it seems.

 

 

Why does the turbo have to come off to change the manifold? Is that standard? Would of thought you would just unbolt the up pipe and manifold and swap out but I may be missing something.

 

Turbo definitely has to come off to remove the exhaust manifolds. You can remove cooler without removing the pipe from right manifold. Remove bolts from egr valve. Remove right inner fender and right battery tray and the cooler will slide out. May have to remove the pcm as well. Been a long time since I've done it that way. Best way I have found to remove those bolts is with Blue Point PH1038, 3/8 to 1/4 adapter, 10-12 inch 1/4 drive extension, 8mm swivel socket. Takes patience and finesse and a lot of penetrating oil but I have never broke one of those bolts. Seems counter intuitive to use an air chisel in a finesse application but the heat that is generated from the rattling of the bolt does the trick. Start at a 1/4 throttle and apply a light amount of force with a 19mm wrench on adapter and gradually increase force on wrench. Once you get the bolt to trurn you usually can work it back and forth with a 1/4 drive ratchet until it comes out.

 

The manifolds are mounted inboard not on the outside like a 6.4, 6.0, 7.3

 

yeah I realize that. I've done 3 sets of blocker plates now with my soaking the bolts for 3 weeks or so prior to removal with kroil method and yet to break any off in the manifold. Looking at it now thou it does look like a real bitch to have to remove that manifold. Sorry to hear about your luck op, hopefully the repair goes better for you.

 

Should be final update, wanted to give a little follow up for future readers. They got egr cooler fixed and two days later I'm throwing an engine code I believe it was P02e1 and P02e0. Back to the diesel shop 3 days before we have a big trip planned with TT. They got me right in that morning and determined the egr valve was bad. Pulled it and sure enough completely coked up with soot. They said normally it's like a 300-400$ part but they just happened to be deleting one and had just pulled his egr valve and it looked good so they did a swap. I realize just a temporary fix but at this point my wallet will live to fight another day. Made our trip no problems pulled like a champ, no codes and coolant seems stable(was worried about cracked heads the way my luck was running). Thanks again to everyone who commented and thank you Torqued Diesel in Joplin, great group of guys they cut me a big break on cooler repair meltdown and the did the valve swap at no charge!

 

I think a lot of the EGR and cooler issues are caused by not working the motor hard enough.