First off wanna start off with a huge thank you all for all the info I have come across on the forum!!!
I'm a long time reader, posted before years ago when owned another 6.0. Now I own another with a bigger budget this time. Lol

Now to the problem....

2003 CCSB F250 4WD with 216,000. owned the truck 1.5 yrs water pump replaced with duralast at this time. Guy I bought it from said engine hasn't been replaced and hadn't had any problems. He was 2nd owner. Radiator was leaking so I decided to flush for preventative measures and change the rad. In the process I installed an Aluminum intercooler, mishimoto radiator, trans cooler and degas bottle, sinister adjustable fuel pressure spring, new thermostat, BPD fan adapter and 7.3 fan clutch.

I followed the flush procedure with distilled water, restore and restore +. Removed thermostat and installed fumotos on block drains. Ran on high idle in driveway. Drained everytime till clear. Here's were I'm afraid I messed up..... I let it sit with distilled water in it after the flush from may to september before I was able to put it all back together. Then Refilled with ELC to proper ratio.

Once up and running on the first test drive it was running good on the test trip then the top radiator hose blew off. I didnt properly purge the air out of the system. I reused the ford clamp instead of a worm clamp. Needle was in the red for about .5 mile at 30 mph back to the house.

I put hose back on with worm clamp, refilled system, and tested again with the results of overheating again. upon inspection under the hood, the top rad hose was blazing hot and pressured up and the lower hose was cool to the touch and pressured up. This time I purged the system of air. So I thought water pump wasnt moving enough fluid.

I replaced water pump. Tested the thermostat, and it was good. Making sure to purge the system fully this time. I ran it on high idle in the drive way and noticed the same about the top and bottom rad hoses. Even the rad overflow hose was pressured up and blowing fluid back into the degas bottle. It didnt overheat in the drive way, so I took it for a spin. Not even a half mile down the road it over heats.

with the Insight hooked up (since I cant drive it) at high idle in the driveway my ect is 230. Have a 12-14° delta between ect and eot while doing this.

After reading, next steps are to test for egr/head gasket leaks. Going to pull egr valve and look in there. Also do the bubble test at the degas bottle.

Asking to see if I'm missing something here?
Could there possibly be a clog somewhere in the coolant system causing this?
Maybe do another flush to make sure?
Or is it most likely a blown egr/head gasket?
Thanks in advance for yalls help!!! It is greatly appreciated!!

 

 

I am thinking of two things and the first is right up there ^^^^. Once you have done that there are a few places where crud can hide. Did you change the radiator
before or after the flush? The reason is the top tank can hold crudand unless you clean it out a fresh flush can end up getting the crap dumped right back in the coolant.

Also did you remove doth block drains during the process? Last thing is the heater corecan store crud but not as much qs the top tank can. I will when i want something
really clean pull the return hose and run some water through the core and then after with each flush blow the water out. If the core is not plugged up just take the hose
on the passenger side and blow through it.

Also one other though. I only use distilled water on the last 4~6 flushes. All the rest are graden hose. That way you can leave the block drains out when you are doing
the clean-out step. It works very well.

 

 

 

I agree - more than likely it accumulated enough new rust to foul up things all over. Probably be best to start flushing again, run the chemicals through it again, backflush the oil cooler then another distilled water flush. In other words, do it all again.
A royal time consuming pain in the butt I agree, but I'd do it just to make sure I had a clean engine with good ELC

 

This was my gut reaction, a plug in the radiator killing flow. I've seen radiators on other vehicles with mud clogging the tubes blocking 80%+ of flow that didn't overheat, especially not at idle in the driveway. I put a thermostat in my Jeep backwards and it wouldn't overheat idling for an hour with almost zero radiator flow, start driving and it wouldn't make the end of the block before ECT jumped 20*f. It would take some serious rust sediment to clog the entire radiator that completely, that fast.

IMO pull the radiator and backflush it because it's apparently 100% blocked. Then try to access the lower coolant galleries with a borescope, either via pulling the pump or through the front cover.

 

To the point made above about the thermostat made by texastech, you mention that you pulled the thermostat did the flush then the problems with overheating started, did you install the thermostst backwards? I would double check....

Dan

 

Interesting thought but it would be impossible to the 6.0 stat in backwards, since it mounts into a separate housing with ears. On the PowerTech 3.7L in the Jeep the stat fits into a round port on the front of the block, the entire edge of the stat is part of the seal.

 

Thanks for all the info.

Cold soak temps look good except IAT. I attached a pic. ECT 76, EOT 77, TFT 78, IAT 88.

I did remove both block drains and installed fumotos on both. I flushed it with the old rad and then installed the new after the flush.

I also though about if I left a plug on the radiator, though I thought back and dont recall that I did.

It seems the best plan of action would be to pull rad check/flush/back flush it. Then start the whole flush process over again. Which is what I was thinking of doing and yall confirmed it and I'm greatly appreciative of that!!!

I'm getting married tomorrow then straight to the honeymoon for the next week. When I get back, I will perform the rad and system flush and keep yall updated.

Thank yall again for all yall help!!!!