Bypass EGR Cooler? - Diesel Forum

kc2kgt · 08-24-2008, 10:56 AM

Yesterday I got off the highway after about a 25 mile trip and the truck was blowring out a huge cloud of white smoke. I made it about a mile and the temp gauge shot through the roof.

I pulled over and let it cool down and added in a little over two gallons of water to the cooling system, I made it about another 3 miles to my parents house without it over heating and it was blowing just a small amount of white smoke. Arrived at my parents house and added in another 2 gallons of water to it. You can smell the coolant burning out the exhaust and it drips out of the tailpipe.

Background, one week ago while troubleshooting a squeak from the engine I plugged in the EGR. Turns out the squeak was coming from the degauss cap which I replaced. I also flushed the coolant that day and refilled with 50/50 mix.

Question is can I bypass the egr cooler somehow so coolant never goes into there so I don't have to get it fixed ? Maybe my thinking is wrong but I would think that If I lost a headgasket that the engine would have hydrolocked.

I have no loss of power, just the coolant disappearing at a high rate with the white smoke and no signs of coolant in the oil.

Thanks in advance.

DRJ48 · 08-24-2008, 07:28 PM

Chances are your oil cooler is bad (plugged) also, which is typically what causes the EGR cooler to fail. This sounds most likely since you say you just flushed the coolant system a week ago.

This is one of the reasons I installed a Dieselsite coolant filter, is to try to keep the system clean.

I am not aware of any way to bypass the EGR cooler.

kc2kgt · 08-24-2008, 09:31 PM

That's what I was afraid of, but figured it was worth a shot to see if it could just be bypassed. I did quite a bit of searching on the forum earlier today and it looks like the egr cooler and oil cooler need to be replaced.

I have found the directions on http://www.motorcraftservice.com on how to do the work. Does anyone happen to have a list of all of the parts needed? The directions say which o-rings, washers, etc that should be discarded but there is no reference as to what part # to use as a replacement.

I would prefer to take it to the large truck dealer here in KC, but money is a little tight now and will probably have to attempt this myself. I'm no expert mechanic, but am pretty mechanically inclined.

Thank you.

soda_pop503 · 07-23-2009, 02:09 PM

I am not sure if your truck has a turbo, but it sure sounds like a blown seal in the turbo is letting the coolant leak in there.

I saw the same problem on my buddy's 95 eclipse.

purplehorn1977 · 07-23-2009, 03:03 PM

the turbos on the 6.0 are not cooled by coolant. you have a bad egr cooler and while your in there do the oil cooler i garuntee its plugged up. thats what causes most of the problems with the egr cooler.