'04-6.0L-6/04 Build


I'm right in the middle of replacing the egr cooler and the oil cooler in my driveway.


I believe I may have coolant in the cylinders due to egr cooler failure, and want to be sure that I drain the coolant out before I crank it over when I'm finished.

Should I just remove the glow plugs, hook up the battery and crank it a few times, while I have the intake off?


I'm one of the dim bulbs in the room, so the high tech talk might fly right over my head....

 

Remove glow plugs, crnk over by hand. Socket on the crank. This is safer than cranking with the starter, although many people do it that way.

 

Thanks for the reply, Matty.

The morning when it was apparent that I was losing coolant as steam through the exhaust, I was able to drive back to my house before losing all the coolant....

...before I left my house, it didn't start right away like it always had in the past. It would crank and then stop. I tried it again...crank...then stop. Again....same thing....

Then, crank...and she started up...rough for a few seconds and then it ran great. As I was heading to work, I was keeping an eye on my side view mirror, and I saw the steam.

I pulled over immediately and saw that I still had coolant in the degasse bottle. So, I drove it back to the house.

I did not overheat.

The question I have is...was the "crank...stop..crank...stop" a condition caused by coolant in the cylinders?



Before I got started on this repair yeaterday, I tried to start it so I could turn it around in my driveway to work on it. It did it again.

So, fearing hydrolock, I didn't crank it again. I decided to work on it where it sat.

So what do you think...hydrolock?

 

I agree with matty,it is much safer to turn it over slowly a couple times first.That glow plug hole is very small and if the bore is full that is alot of coolant to expell in a hurry.

 

And if you do decide to crank it over, don't assume the valve covers will stay on without a couple of bolts when you go to crank her over to get the coolant out of the cylinders. Learned that the hard way . Just thought I would throw that out there.

 

ouch!!!
:-x04

 

Well, the turbo was full of coolant. Has some superficial rust. Needs a good cleaning.

 

At the best, it is pushing coolant out the exhaust from the intake, egr cooler. Otherwise headgaskets are bad. And if the motor was stopping cranking by itself while you had the key in the start position, I will be very surprised if the con rods are all the same length now, or maybe cracked a piston. Good Luck, Im afraid you will need it.

 

Don't need to yank the rocker covers on a 6.0 to get GP's out

 

deleted by me

 

I have looked at all the glow plugs.

They are all covered with oil...no indication of any coolant.


Originally, I thought I should crank it around a couple of times to expel any H2O out the glow plug holes. (EGR cooler failure. Am doing the repair myself)

Am I even close to having a clue?

 

Okay...

I've finished my repair last night.

New oil cooler, egr cooler, and cleaned the turbo vanes.


So, I go to crank it over, and the batteries were weak. After a few turns, (clickety-clickety-click at the solenoid). So, I pull both batteries and recharge at 2 amps.

After putting the batteries back in, I crank it a few times and it seems like it is still hydrolocking against the starter and it stops cranking. (No clickety clickety click this time, so I'm pretty sure the starter is engaged.)


I had the glow plugs out yesterday before putting everything back together, and cranked it around, by hand, what seems like a thousand times to expel the coolant from the right side of the engine (left side was dry). I tried to get it all out, but I know there was still some in there that I just couldn't get out. As a side note: when I cranked it by hand, it turned smoothly.


Here's my question. I want to pull the glow plugs again and crank the engine with the starter to see if that's the problem, and to expel the residual water. Now that everything is reconnected, is it okay to do this? Will I hurt any ECMs? Should I disconnect the glow plug harness, if I can get my fat fingers in there?

 

How do you KNOW that the leak has been repaired....what if head gasket is blown? Hell, what more can you go....crank it over with the battery......I would disconnect the G.P's. if you can....if not, shoot - do it anyway. ...can't do anything but start.

 

Well, not 100% sure of that, but:

1. The old EGR cooler defintely leaks
2. When I had the steam come out of my tailpipe originally, I was not puking coolant from the degasse bottle.
3. When the EGR cooler leaks (when you don't completely run out of coolant while it is running), it is my understanding that coolant typically ends up in the right side cylinders. This is because the it runs down the "Y" pipe on the EGR cooler side and in through the exhaust valves. [I did have coolant in all four cylinders on the right side. If it was a blown head gasket, wouldn't it, most likely, leak into one...maybe two cyclinders?
4. I have not been putting this truck through high load situations which cause excessive heat. When I noticed the steam from my tailpipe, I had just left my house. I did not come up to normal temperatures yet, and I was able to drive back to my house without running out of coolant and overheating.
5. At this point I'm still waiting to fill my coolant system.


I'm not pretending to be an expert here, but these are the facts I have to work with...if you see flaws in my logic, please...let me have it.



Anyway, I've pulled all glow plugs again, and disconnected the harnesses and I'm just about to crank it. I figure if it cranks well, then I was hydrolocking against the starter. Hopefully, Maybe there is still water in the "Y" pipe and it kept filling my cylinders while I was cranking it around by hand yesterday?

Learning as I go ....


Thanks for your response!

 

Remove the glow plugs and bump it over a bit at a time first. You'll know how much coolant was in there. It doesn't take much at all to hydrolock an engine, afterall, liquid doesn't compress. After you count 4 or 8 squirts from the right side then you can let it crank normally. The other thing you might want to do is disable the fuel pump, FICM, and PCM by pulling the fuses. That way you don't get fuel injected while you are cranking.