Help w/ dealer diagnosis!!!!!

[MCR500]

Long story, bear with me!!!

Truck HAD Edge on it from new till 30K, when the headgaskets went. Dealer is mod friendly, but didn't want to cause any waves, so after gaskets, truck went back to stock, with the exception of the exhaust. 43K on truck now.

Pulled my 15K FW back from Pismo last w/e, truck ran superb, as usual. Noticed the following day that SOMETIMES, when I just start it, or pull away from a light, white smoke comes out the exhaust. Checked degas bottle, empty. NO signs of puking, whatsoever.

Took truck to dealer, tech diagnosis is blown headgaskets. Don't know how he came to conclusion, don't know the procedure to check for gaskets gone, except for the puking, which it did bigtime when the gaskets went the first time. Keep in mind that this set of gaskets has only 12K on them.

Informed tech that I thought it was an EGR cooler leak(which they DID NOT replace the first time around when motor was out). Tech gets very irate, says "No way, its' the headgaskets." I asked him if he pulled the EGR valve, he says "No, the cooling system won't hold 16PSI, its' the gaskets."

My question is twofold. If the EGR cooler is leaking, wouldn't the cooling system lose pressure? White smoke out the exhaust is a sign of a leaking EGR cooler, no? I really don't want to have the cab off, again!!

I could just let FMC throw big money at it, and get the gaskets done again, but really don't want to do this.

Any suggestions to the current tech to get him pointed in the right direction? Should/can I just drive it till the EGR cooler goes out totally? It only smokes sometimes. Take it to the next dealer, and risk it?

What is the procedure for diag. a blown EGR cooler?

Comments, pls. Sorry for the long post. Thanks in advance.

[weasel79]

You can pull the egr to see if it is wet. If it is then its the cooler. For the head gaskets, fill the degas bottle, have someone pump the brakes twice to get a good hold, put it in drive, give it throttle till a good amount of boost is built up and you should see bubbles or coolant getting unstable in the degas bottle with the cap off.

[GrampyJim]

Have your tech perform his diagnosis according to TSB 07-21-05... this is the TSB he should have followed in the previous repair, too.

FWIW, we see head gasket failure as one of the causes of EGR cooler failure.

[MCR500]

Thanks for all the responses, gentlemen.

GrampyJim, is there someplace on this site or elsewhere I can get a copy of the above referenced TSB?? Thanks for the help, guys!!!

[darsey715]

where are you at in central california. city? how far from hollister?