Need some help diagnosing problem... - Diesel Forum

mts6175 · 11-08-2009, 10:26 PM

...and hoping it's not the dreaded blown head gasket.

Truck is an '05 F250 6.0L 4x4 Crew Cab, 135,000 miles.

First issue, on recent trip to San Antonio, cooling fan kept kicking on. Stopped and checked coolant, extremely low. Filled it and finished the trip. By the time I got to my dad's, fan was kicking back on and had to refill coolant. Discovered I had a crack in the degas bottle and had puking around the cap. Replaced both and no problems.

Two weeks later to today, made a trip to San Angelo from Fort Worth. Drove around the deer lease with no issues for two days. On the way home today, about 30 miles after a fill up, start having power loss, engine sputtering, and am blowing white smoke when I try to accelerate. I was due for a fuel filter change in 1000 miles, so I end up changing the filter on the side of the road. Filter was dirty. It starts to respond a little better, but still same issues. 1st & 2nd gear, it's really struggling and then once I get cruising it stops blowing white smoke and runs normal. I could run between 65-80 MPH with no issues, but struggled a lot until I got home when I was outside of that range. If it started to struggle, I could floor it and it would struggle to downshift, but finally would get to gear, get moving back up to where it ran smooth. It would pump out white smoke while it was struggling to get going, then it would kick in and accelerate and blow black smoke. It ran normal while at a steady RPM & I wasn't trying to accelerate but staying constant. When I got out at home, there was a sweet smell to the exhaust.

What is throwing me off on the head gasket issue is that I never smelled anything inside of the cab, and the truck ran cool for 150 miles back home, never ran outside of normal temperature range.

Anyone have any idea of what this could be?

Ranger_713 · 11-08-2009, 11:48 PM

Sounds like a EGR cooler issue, the white smoke is coolant. cooler probably expired when you were low on coolant. Headgaskets may be fine.

mts6175 · 11-09-2009, 11:26 AM

Dead now. Can get it to turn over but won't run at all.

mts6175 · 11-13-2009, 05:24 PM

Failed Fuel Injection Control Module, EGR Valve & Cooler, and my #2 Injector. Ouch on the pocketbook.

bismic · 11-13-2009, 08:30 PM

Coolant in the exhaust is most probably the EGR cooler as was said earlier. It happens when the coolant passages plug on the oil cooler. Both need to be replaced. A failed EGR cooler can cause head gaskets to leak AND can cause the engine to hydrolock. Need to get it diagnosed and fixed ASAP - even if you could get it started, don't attempt to drive it that way!