lefthanded
Registered User
I think it's coolant.
This is the sad story: bought a 2006 6.0 with 172K miles. It's an E350- a van. Ran for ten miles, and then the engine light flashed. A moment or two after that, white plume but the engine still ran, didn't heat up, good oil pressure. This is a completely stock van. Have no service history on it. It was in construction. The test drive was great, no check engine light, the coolant was only a bit down, and it started in the cold after about a month (I can verify the month, long story).
I planned light duty, hauling an old trailer. It had had NO trailer use that I can tell. It was a service truck whose bins and tanks had been removed.
I'm guessing it's a head gasket, which means pulling off the body and replacing the studs, the gaskets, machining the head, new oil cooler and an EGR delete, then the reverse install.
However, before I bought it, I looked to see if there was coolant in the oil or vice versa, and no, no problem. Nice running van. I planned to put at most, 6k miles on it each year, but not now.....
I was told that a leaky injector seal could also pull coolant. I didn't know the water jacket was that close. And all of my knowledge is on 7.3 IDIs, not PowerStroke. It SMELLS like coolant and only blows it during acceleration. I've driven it 5mi back to my house.
If it is a head gasket, I might just get a crate block reman and have that installed. Seems simpler, as much of the labor is yanking the chassis and body apart. How much more could it be to drop the drive shaft, tranny, and install a new block?
Sorry for so many questions in the same post, but this just happened, and I'm not having a happy new year. I can't find my code reader to read the codes. The code reader's around somewhere.... I no longer have a garage where I could fix this myself, nor the body hoist needed. I'm sure there's no way to do the head without pulling the body.
Thanks in advance for any help or wisdom. The van chassis is not quite immaculate. It would be a waste to part it out, and I'd rather put a long block in it if the differential's only going to be $2-3000.
Lefty
This is the sad story: bought a 2006 6.0 with 172K miles. It's an E350- a van. Ran for ten miles, and then the engine light flashed. A moment or two after that, white plume but the engine still ran, didn't heat up, good oil pressure. This is a completely stock van. Have no service history on it. It was in construction. The test drive was great, no check engine light, the coolant was only a bit down, and it started in the cold after about a month (I can verify the month, long story).
I planned light duty, hauling an old trailer. It had had NO trailer use that I can tell. It was a service truck whose bins and tanks had been removed.
I'm guessing it's a head gasket, which means pulling off the body and replacing the studs, the gaskets, machining the head, new oil cooler and an EGR delete, then the reverse install.
However, before I bought it, I looked to see if there was coolant in the oil or vice versa, and no, no problem. Nice running van. I planned to put at most, 6k miles on it each year, but not now.....
I was told that a leaky injector seal could also pull coolant. I didn't know the water jacket was that close. And all of my knowledge is on 7.3 IDIs, not PowerStroke. It SMELLS like coolant and only blows it during acceleration. I've driven it 5mi back to my house.
If it is a head gasket, I might just get a crate block reman and have that installed. Seems simpler, as much of the labor is yanking the chassis and body apart. How much more could it be to drop the drive shaft, tranny, and install a new block?
Sorry for so many questions in the same post, but this just happened, and I'm not having a happy new year. I can't find my code reader to read the codes. The code reader's around somewhere.... I no longer have a garage where I could fix this myself, nor the body hoist needed. I'm sure there's no way to do the head without pulling the body.
Thanks in advance for any help or wisdom. The van chassis is not quite immaculate. It would be a waste to part it out, and I'd rather put a long block in it if the differential's only going to be $2-3000.
Lefty