first 6.4 egr cooler failure for me

kevin41 · June 12, 2009

working on 08 f450 6.4 vehicle towed in lost coolant and overheated filled degas bottle drove truck in pressure tested found radiator leaking left side and plastic bypass hose split at seam watched coolant disappear from degas bottle faster than leaking externally removed pressure attempted to restart no go engine hydrolocked removed ebp tube at exhaust manifold and water gushed out removed glow plugs cranked engine over and did compresion test o.k. truck has over heat history prior to this failure another shop repaired leak at egr cooler not sure what made it 5000 miles more now this failure looking for some real world advice besides the obvious any replies would be greatly appreciated!! would feel much better about repair hearing from you guys thanks

Keith Browning · June 13, 2009

I would contact the Hot-Line and run it by them. I was advised that the EGR coolers do not stand up to low coolant conditions very well. They told me that a lot of the trucks that have an EGR cooler fail had the radiators replaced. See the vehicle history and it might tell you the story. They also told me that the horizontal cooler tends to fail more often. You WILL need to remove BOTH coolers and bench test them.

Remove the left tire/wheel and the inner fender well. It will make access much easier and I found that it is not necessary to remove the left exhaust manifold... and I don't care what the manual says this time. The less you can disturb, the better. The cooler clamps can be removed after the cooler is out of the way. You will see that one of them is pinned onto the bracket from the other side. Take a small punch to the pin to release the clamp. You will see what I mean. Do however replace everything else the manual says to.

International Tech · June 13, 2009

How are ya'll refilling the cooling systems? We have been told that is we have an EGR engine it HAS to be vacuum-filled.

Aaron · June 13, 2009

There's a procedure in the shop manual for it....I've used my vacuum filler on several of them, and filled several with the jugs and ran it at high idle as per usual.

I'd get you the procedure but my interwebs aren't workin right today.

kevin41 · June 15, 2009

THANKS FOR THE REPLIES INTHE PROCESS OF REMOVING COOLERS TO BENCH TEST, I ALWAYS PULL A VACUUM ONTHE COOLING SYSTEM WHEN REFILLING SEEMS TO ELIMINATE ONE LESS HEADACHE ON THESE ENGINES. THANKS AGAIN!!

Steve Mutter · July 31, 2009

Keith do you remove the egr cooler bracket and install the pins or do you just install new clamps and re install the cooler?

Keith Browning · July 31, 2009

Steve the idea here is to avoid having to remove the bracket because that will require removing the exhaust manifold and dealing with all that. Once the cooler is out I simply punch the retainer pins out and snake the clamps out. You need to snake the new clamps back in before you install the cooler but the retainers are not needed - I beleive that is for factory assembly purposes... to answer your question, no, I do not install the pins - you can't with the bracket on the engine.

Steve Mutter · July 31, 2009

thanks for the info Keith

joshbuys · August 2, 2009

Steve the idea here is to avoid having to remove the bracket because that will require removing the exhaust manifold and dealing with all that. Once the cooler is out I simply punch the retainer pins out and snake the clamps out. You need to snake the new clamps back in before you install the cooler but the retainers are not needed - I beleive that is for factory assembly purposes... to answer your question, no, I do not install the pins - you can't with the bracket on the engine.

+1!

Don't touch the manifold bolts, more work for same pay....the bracket has 'grooves' for the clamps and the pins are just for ease of installation at the factory.