I have just had the latest flash performed on my 2003 6.0. While at the dealer I had a chance to talk with the tech. about egr' and coolers [He noticed mine was unplugged, he said that was fine] I ask what he thought about the complete egr delete , He said that he thought the 03' cooler did not have problems with leaking, due to cyl.[round design] He also said he has never replaced an 03 due to failure, just the later ones 04-05. I have read a lot on this forum about coolers but nothing as positive as this on my 03. Does any one know of this not to be true?

 

From what i've read over the years, the early style, round coolers are less prone to failure.. From my experience having that style cooler, i'm surprised i've only had to replace 1 on my truck.. I beat on my truck pretty hard.. When this one fails, it'll be deleted..

 

thaks for reply. approx. how many miles did you get out of first one?

 

IIRC, it was about mid 30K on the ticker when I had the cooler replaced.... the last 40K have been much harder than the first 40K..

 

2000 Roadking,

I have 122K on my '03 and have no issues with the cooler or the engine in general (dealer replaced ICP at 3K as the truck would surge and stall every now and then, nothing since). I did add a coolent filter at 100K but by then you would think the damage would be done if it was going to happen. I did have the rad flushed and new coolent at 60K and I will be doing it again this fall.

 

But from what I understand, most EGR cooler failures are contributed to the plugging of the oil cooler. Does the 03 oil cooler have a different design then later models?

 

I have a 2004 6.0 with a build date in December, 2003. This truck is on its third EGR and Oil coolers (each), and the EGR just failed again.

The EGR cooler in my truck is squarish while the earlier models were roundish. From what I understand, the roundish ones did not collect particulates as easily due to the design which provided better flow with less 'dead' spots (aka "nook" and or "cranny") in the flow.

However, I believe the oil cooler design stayed the same, and even though early model EGR coolers are "less" prone, I believe they are by design, still prone to failure, just not at the same alarming rate as later EGR coolers. Besides, I think that the location of the oil cooler is a horrible design, being right on top of the engine.

I recently got to look at a stock oil cooler that had been sliced in half to show the size of the tiny coolant passages. After seeing the amount of grit and garbage that came out of my first two coolant bypass filters, I am surprised that the oil cooler (which was plugged) did not go out sooner.

I am not paying to replace the EGR cooler and Oil Cooler with stock crapola, poorly designed, doesn't work in the real world parts. I currently have my Truck in the shop at bulletproofdiesel.com's shop getting the EGR Cooler and Oil Cooler that they manufacture aftermarket installed. I would delete them, but here in Maricopa County AZ, they are rigorous about poring over my vehicle during inspection, and I do not think that the truck would pass without it. I am confident that with the bulletproofdiesel.com EGR and Oil Coolers installed and the coolant bypass filter, I will not be replacing these parts again.

Just my .02

 

The oil cooler plugs and restricts coolant flow to the egr cooler causing the solder inside it to melt. The early ones almost never fail. Been at this game awhile now, and I've never changed an 03 round style egr cooler.

 

So are you saying the 03 oil coolers never plug, or they do plug but the high temperature flashing effect caused by lack of sufficient coolant flow does not melt the solder on the EGR cooler?

 

Knock on wood, my EGR cooler has never been replaced and I have 135K miles.

 

03 OIL coolers will definitely plug, as their design is the same through all years of the 6.0.

It's the round-style 03 to early-04 EGR coolers that have a lower tendency to fail compared to the square-style 04.5 and up EGR coolers.

The round old-style coolers have about 10 - 15 coolant tubes running through them. The new style EGR is a coil style cooler with much smaller passages. The increased number of much smaller passages improve the heat transfer capacity of the cooler, but also increase the failure rate when coolant flow is slowed due the plugging oil coolers.