Hey guys new to the site but not to diesels. I currently have 3 diesels 1 dodge and 2 ford 6 liters. One of the six liters was giving me trouble a few weeks ago with white smoke and blowing antifreeze out of the degas bottle through the cap. I bought the sinister diesel egr delete kit and had it professionally installed along with fresh oil and a oem oil filter not a wix or other. I have been driving it all day and it still smells of anti freeze so after further research I replace the cap with one from auto zone. The truck still smells of anti freeze and its still wet around the cap. Now Ive been cruising this site as a guest and to the best of my knowledge it sounds like a head gasket.
I bought this truck about 4 months ago for a plow truck. Its a regular cab xl 4x4 f 250 I paid $8,500 and the delete kit put me back another $1,600 I cant afford to keep dumping money in this. Am I right to believe that its the head gasket?!?!
Thanks,
Eric

 

If the EGR cooler is gone and you're still pushing coolant out the cap, even with a new cap, sounds like headgaskets to me. Are you capable of doing the work yourself? Most of the money on these is labor. I've got less than $1600 into ALL of my parts to do my headgaskets/studs and that includes a spare set of heads I bought used and had machined, and all the updated Ford parts I could think of while diving in.

 

Well it hasnt been leaking out of the cap after a full day of driving. Is it normal for the coolant to sound like its boiling or really hot and flowing from the top of the rad to the degas tank? I dont know if its normal or not. I got offered 5k for the truck today from a dealer so trading in is most likely off the table. How hard is it to pull the cab? After reading I heard its almost definately necessary to get to the heads. Is there a step by step guide on this job??
Thanks again!

 

You can do it cab on, just a little more work and wrestling, but it can absolutely be done. Getting the cab off is way easier though. You'll need a lift to pull the cab however. There are a couple write-ups on the ORG, one cab on, one cab off last I remember. Hopefully I'll have some pretty detailed write-ups coming up really soon about pulling my cab, should be happening in the next two weeks.

Keep an eye on the coolant level, sometimes the trucks will just self-level and be happy. I know mine is happy when coolant level is about half way between the min line and the bottom of the tank... seems to stop pushing coolant at that point. If it levels off somewhere in there and stops, you might be ok.

5k? Yikes. If you ever get so desperate to the point you'd let it go for that, at least give the members here a chance to buy it first haha.

 

I told the guy it was a little low. I said I know you can take this truck and put it on your lot for 11 tomorrow. I figured 8-9 would be a fair trade in. I'll run it till it blows up and then sell it for 5

 

New revalation the heat is only working at idle. Not really hot when im driving
My mechanic said to try the heater core flush and a tstat. He only works on diesel pickups and says he doesnt see that many cases where its the head gaskets and the truck isnt overheating or smoking.

 

Anyone??

 

the no heat problem should just be low coolant. not that big of a deal. neither one of those would cause coolant to be pushed passed the cap.

 

I thought the same thing at first, but his symptoms are exactly opposite, he's getting heat at idle, but not while driving. Every time I lose heat, I lose it at idle and low RPM, not when I'm driving. Though, I don't want to rule it out.

Where is your coolant level at dodgintrouble?

 

Its a little low. Check engine light came on too. What scan tool is decent for these trucks. I have two so i might as well know whats wrong with them.