Howdy guys. Have been lurcking for a while, but now I need some specific advice. I have an 07 F-250 6.0 with 115K. I drive about 50K a year with moderate towing 3-4 times a month with about 80% being highway mileage. The truck is stock and well maintained. Lately, I have been noticing a surge with smoke. It is very intermittent and only happens in certain circumstances. This happens usually under a load going uphill at highway speeds(60-70 mph) and only when RPM's are at about 2Kor less and turbo boost reaches about 12-15 psi. Once the load is alleviated or if you hit the gas and it downshifts, the problem goes away. If the truck has already downshifted or if you just get on it, it doesn't happen. Other than this, no performance issues at all.

I assume from previous posts and know problems, this could be my EGR starting to clog. I will be pulling it for cleaning this week to see if it helps. First, any other suggestions for "routine" things I can easily check for.

Second, I've seen many recommendations for simple mods which should be done. I'm trying to develop a "mod plan" for the near future and wanted to run it by you guys with any specific suggestions welcome.
1. EGR delete- is there a best brand or tech who can do this in TX? Is it something I could do on my own? Should I remove the EGR cooler at the same time or just leave it?
2. replace headstuds- Same questions here?
3. add a tuner such as Xcal 2 or 3 with an economy tune which shuts down EGR- I'm really looking for economy as I only haul real heavy every once in a while. Normal haul is a 21' CC boat(100-200 miles) or a trailer with 6-8 round bales(10-20 miles). How much increase in economy could one expect with an economy tune? Will the tunes decrease the life of the truck or motor? Should I also plan some type of intake/exhaust mod to help the motor breath better? If so, any recommendations or specific products?

Again, I'm not looking for a hot rod or to break the bank. Just want to do good solid mods to increase dependability, economy, ease of maintenance, and life cycle of the vehicle. Thanks for all your help.

 

Welcome! That does sound like an EGR valve clogging up. Have you cleaned it before?
As for your other questions (this is the fun part):
EGR cooler - There are a few good kits out there for either blocking off or completely removing/deleting the EGR cooler. Price them out and decide what fits your long-term strategy for this truck. The cooler is not leaking, so blocking it off would accomplish your goal and it will probably never leak. Probably. Remove it and you KNOW it will never leak. People have done this in their driveway with a good set of tools and mechanical know-how. A topside creeper would help too.
Headstuds - if you can say with a straight face that you never plan to put more than a mild economy or towing tune on the truck, I say you can do without ARP head studs. If you want them anyway, you need a means for lifting the cab or pulling the engine if you do it yourself.
Intake - leave it alone.
Exhaust - 4" turboback. I have the MBRP setup (actually 3.5" downpipe and 4" after the cat. You can also delete the cat with a test pipe to bring temps down even more).
Also do the CCV reroute if you haven't already.
Finally, have you put a coolant filter on it yet? Cheap, good insurance. I used the dieselsite.com coolant filter setup.

 

JimC, not trying to hijack but I thought from previous reading that the coolant filter was more for the early 6.0s like mine? Still important in later models?

Lovntexas, welcome aboard. If you clean up the EGR and the surging still occurs, it may be sticking turbo vanes? Just a thought, I had similar problems to yours and it turned out the turbo vanes were rusty. Cleaned up under warranty, problem gone...

Let us know how it turns out.

 

Welcome to FTE lovntexas, glad to have you on board. As mentioned you would start with the EGR then look at the turbo. Can you give us any history to maintenance such as dealer serviced?

A good addition is the coolant filter and exhaust, cat back is fine if you want to stay emission compliant. Not everyone here modifies their truck but everyone will help out.

 

All,

Thank you for the warm welcome and thanks for the advice so far. Just got through cleaning up the egr- it was diiiirtay! Have it back in and about to go for a test drive to try to emulate the problem.

I noticed that the manifold has pretty heavy soot buildup as well, so it looks like I will be performing an egr cleanup often until I can do some mods. Is there a good way or product to remove this carbon from inside the manifold without taking it off and manually cleaning it?

Maxium- I have performed all maintenance on my own at or above dealer and manual recommendations. I even change the oil and filter at 5500-6000 everytime. I do try to take great care of my motors- my last two trucks(gassers) I have sold with over 300K mi each and were still running strong. I will have to check into the coolant filter as well, like Jim_C said, cheap insurance. I like the cheap part and definitely like the insurance part!

 

One more question for you guys. After reading the sticky again on EGR disconnect, would I just be better off disconnecting my egr until I can do a full and proper delete? I'm out of warranty and not afraid of a little code or two?!

 

The buildup in your manifold is a combination of exhaust gas (from the EGR) and oil mist from the crank case vent (CCV) .
Taking care of the EGR either by blocking or eliminating along with the CCV reroute will stop the buildup.
As for simply unplugging the EGR valve - go ahead and try it but some have reported worse mileage because the computer defaults to a different set of fueling tables because it's reading no EGR flow. And, it won't stop exhaust from going into the EGR cooler.

 

I just put a coolant filter on my 06 and have driven it only about 400 miles and it feels like the filter is already starting to get plugged. I just am leaving my egr plugged in until I put in my egr delete with ceramic coated up-pipe, y-pipe and manifolds. BTW I am at 119000 miles and just bought it at 118k and the guy that owned it looked like he took real good care of it but I had to clean the EGR already once.

 

Maybe somebody who has put one on a later model 6.0 can confirm. I thought Ford put the stop-leak stuff in all of them and that's what causes problems. I have an older one too, and my first filter was full of sandy-looking stuff. The next two, a lot less.

 

After cleaning EGR valve, I tried to recreate the problem with several hilly drives today. It seems as if this has fixed the problem for now. Please let me know if you think I'm off in my line of thinking. Will be performing the following in the coming months to avoid future problems.
1. coolant filter
2. CCV reroute
3. EGR and cooler delete
4. sct xcal tuner with economy tune and egr operation shutdown.

Still need to figure out how to clean the intake manifold once this is done, as it's pretty nasty right now. Anyone have any comments or suggestions?

 

Could be okay I had a problem egr last week and my truck was dumping smoke and would not accelerate. Cleaned the egr and runs perfect now.

 

About the only EASY way to clean the intake is w/ a shop vac. It will do a fair job. Some folks have poured additives like sea foam in the intake and run it, but that only works marginally well to clean it up. Not worth it for me. The other way is to pull your intake and have it cleaned.

 

Also on the intake cleaning, Winn and another company (can't remember name, Bismic will remember it maybe) have a machine you can hook up to the EGR port and it will suck it all out and clean the injectors. But it is pricey...

 

Do NOT spray carb cleaner in the intake then vacume with a shopvac. The vapors are explosive. Please do not ask how I know this

 

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