Re: Hey why's my truck in pieces?!
Seeing that my name was mentioned a few times I will jump in here. Have all the Ford haters finished getting their licks in? It never ceases to amaze me how they feel a need to pile onto a guy with truck problems...
The first dealer to look at the OP's truck was a classic example of what dealer ignorance did to the 6.0 reputation. The oil cooler clogging issue has been well documented over the last 3 years. A combination of leftover casting sand in the block and high temps created by the diminished coolant flow is the number one issue with the 6.0. The oil cooler is first in line in this part of the coolant flow circuit. It receives the debris before the EGR cooler. It is also more stoutly constructed than the DGR cooler. It has been demonstrated by some owners, with lousy dealers, that the oil cooler will outlive multiple EGR coolers. Therein lies the problem.
Here is the chain of events: coolant flow diminishes through an escalation of debris contamination within the oil cooler, eventually the lack of coolant flow causes the next component downstream to over heat. This would be the EGR cooler. The EGR cooler overheats, flash boils the coolant and internal pressures rise due to steam production. The pressure has to vent someplace and the overflow/degas bottle cap is where it starts. Multiple cascading flashboiling events eventually rupture the EGR cooler's internals. This allows coolant to leak into the intake plenum. Heavy white smoke is an indicator of this event. Eventually condensed steam(coolant mix) finds it's way into a combustion chamber and there go the head gaskets.
Some owners have blamed this on the Ford Gold Coolant. I am not in that camp. If an owner decides to switch coolant types, a complete flush to pure distilled water is required. Do not mix coolant types. Adding a coolant filter to your system is a better solution. When I added the coolant filter to my 2004 truck, it clogged solid in 400 miles. The second one made it another 1000. The third was still in it when I traded for my 2011 Ford.
Fortunately, there is a simple and not too costly way to avoid all of the calamity except for the clogged oil cooler. A method of measuring coolant temperatures and oil temperatures is the solution. Ford has determined the maximum difference in oil temp/coolant temp is 15 degrees F at operating temperatures. If you have a larger delta, you have an oil cooler that is on it's way to failure. Replace the $225 oil cooler before it causes the EGR cooler to fail and you are way ahead of the game. A good shadetree mechanic can change the oil cooler in 4 hours or less. I used an Edge Insight for my monitoring. Scan Gauge also makes a neat tool. The Edge Insight is about $350 and plugs into the OB2 port under the dash. It does a lot of monitoring for the money. It is NOT a tuner.
Bulletproof Diesel was mentioned earlier in the thread. If I was replacing a failed EGR cooler, I would spend the money for their modified Ford EGR cooler. It is not much more than the OEM. I would not replace an EGR cooler that passes a pressure test. The OEM works well until it has been well over stressed. I would not spend the money for their expensive to buy and expensive to install remote oil cooler modification. While it likely works well, the OEM cooler is very stout when the contaminants are kept out of the system...think coolant filter. Although a second oil cooler failure after a coolant filter installation may be out there, I have not heard of one.
One other area of importance regarding the 6.0 Ford is fuel pressure monitoring. This is so important. The fuel injectors require proper fuel pressure. They dislike either high or low pressures. Too low and the injector starves for fuel and hammers the internals to pieces. Too high, the o rings that seal the injector body in the cylinder head well fail and non-metered fuel enters the combustion chamber. Hydro lock can occur. 45 psi under heavy acceleration is the minimum. 75 psi is the maximum. A separate fuel pressure gauge is necessary. They can be purchased with a mounting pod for $100 to $200 and it is a relatively easy install.
While we all might agree that having to do these things to keep an engine running well should not be an owners job, the fact is that those with no remaining warranty have to be proactive. Not everyone can just dump their truck and get a new one.
I hope this helps.
Regards
