Dodgezilla

I have a friend who recently got all the delete kits and an XRT for his 6.7 truck. He has put everything on the truck except for the EGR cooler delete because he has read about people blowing headgaskets due to too much drive-pressure. He read about an external wastegate kit that is on the market and was wondering if he needed one. He is a retired guy and not out for max power. His truck is a DD and he pulls his camper around a good bit. He has his XRT set on the 120hp tune. He really does NOT want to spend a bunch of money on a WG if he really doesn't need one.

So, has anyone had headgasket issues after doing a cooler delete? He doesn't drive like a maniac but does "Enjoy" his extra power on occasion. Anyone running one of these kits and have any input on them?

I miss my 08 truck.....

Scotty

The only thing I have heard firsthand from a Cummins tech is to get the cooler off the truck asap as it is known to fail and dump coolant into the crankcase on the bigger motors. I have the delete kit sitting here. Just need the warmer weather. I would like to know if anyone has ran into an issue with this as well.

Scotty

cbrahs

the thing is zilla, the problem arises when people get onto a forum, say they deleted the cooler and now my headgasket is gone.

1. did they rid the block of ALL air bubbles before beating the crap out of the truck
2. what else did they do that they are not saying because they know they screwed up
3. what about all the guys running bigger turbos and twins on these. you don't hear about them blowing things up- cause they did it right

There was a guy on another forum that was whining about blowing a headgasket and blamed it on the cooler. after about 3 pages of posts, he finally came out and admitted what he had done.

Tell your buddy not to worry, pay close attention to getting all the air out of the system and as like anything diesel, don't beat on it until it is up to temp.

Dodgezilla

What air bubbles are you referring to???

mega-engr

Whenever one breaks into the cooling system, air can get in. It just needs to be purged correctly so that there is no air in there for the cooling system to do its job, keep the motor temp where it is designed to be, and thus not overheat and blow head gaskets.

Air will usually go to the highest point in the system which may be near the EGR cooler area so it might be a good idea to open a port or hose around there to bleed out the air.

Gypsyman

Deleting the cooler isn't blowing HG's. A combination of timing and excessive drive pressure appears to be. The XRT seems to run less timing advance hence less reports from the H&S guys of blown HG's.

If your friend isn't a hotrodder I would tell him to save his money. The only good reason to pull the cooler is for lower water temps when towing. There have been a FEW reports of internal cracks leaking coolant into the exhaust on the pickup applications but not many.

Richard

Dodgezilla

Thanks guys. I'll let him know.....

eb290

I blew the head gaskets on mine because of egr cooler failure. It was leaking exhaust into the water jacket, blowing all the coolant out the overflow tank. Tech said I had blown head gaskets, replaced them, went 20 miles pulling the trailer and blew all the coolant out again. The egr cooler was replaced at no charge to me, I did have to pay for the head gasket job, and the problem was solved. I had almost 140k on the truck at that time. 10k miles later the dpf started coming apart. When I was told it would cost $2200 to replace it, things started falling off the truck. First the dpf, then the egr, after that the egr cooler. I'm at almost 230k miles now and haven't had any problems since removing them.
There is a place to bleed the air out of the system on the egr cooler side. Hose comes out of the head, into a metal pipe and from there into another pipe that stands straight up. It is right over the alternator. Believe it has an allen screw in the top of it. That's your air bleed.

mega-engr

That is the spot I was thinking of to bleed the air. If one doesn't have any problems, then just leave it be. However, if one needs to go in or around there for some reason then that is the time to get rid of such vesitges.

kingofdodge7131

Did I read that they make the head gasket smaller in the 6.7? Due to a bigger bore to keep weight down?

cbrahs

sorry for not going into more depth.

entrapped air causes big problems if hottrodding the engine. the air enables an area to compress and not allow coolant, increased pressure inside the cooling system due to the air and bamn. there goes a gasket.

there is a bleeder screw on top of the t-stat housing. bleed it all and take your time, drive like ms. daisy for a few days, keep an eye on coolant level. better safe than sorry if you don't have the evac kit to do coolant (places a vaccuum on the system and sucks the coolant out of a jug into the engine. no air bubbles that way and a killer tool

jeff-kc9ftp

It sounds to me like you never blew your head gasket at all. Sounds like the tech mis-diagnosed a cracked egr cooler, replaced good head gaskets, found out that didn't fix it, then replaced a bad egr cooler.

jeff.

Chubby

I may put my cooler back on as it take for ever to warm up the truck in sub 0 temps.

got_soot

I got all the deletes and notta trouble here.

stratofisher

I did the egr cooler delete and haven't noticed any issues with the coolant system and bubbles. Wouldn't the air be pushed out to the overflow when the coolant gets heated? Am I missing something or did I just get lucky not getting air into my lines during the delete? Should I be out at the truck bleeding it? I have used it for 6 months this way and not an issue.