EGR cooler or head gasket?

[EDKtrans]

I'm getting air into my cooling system and figure its either a blown head gasket or a leaking EGR cooler. Any ideas on how to eliminate one or the other? I prefer it to be the EGR cooler of course but I'm not sure how to diagnose and determine which is the problem. No coolant leaks are evident.



Thanks for any help,



ED

 

[EB]

If you are filling up and blowing the coolant out your overflow bottle I'd bet on the cooler leaking. I had the same problem, and was told I had a blown head gasket. It was replaced and did not solve the problem, cooler was replaced and the problem was solved. You can go back to my old posts around early May of 08 and find out about what was done. You can PM me and I'll tell you anything else you might want to know as how to solve the problem permanently. This all happened at about 130K miles, I'm over 278K now and haven't had any problems since.

 

[CPavlic]

More than likely it is the egr cooler. What you can do to check is make sure the coolant system is full, then get to operating temp. Then loosen the clamps on the crossover tube and pull away from the egr valve. Usually you will be able to see damp soot which will create an oily type coating.

 

[HBarlow]

I'm getting air into my cooling system and figure its either a blown head gasket or a leaking EGR cooler. Any ideas on how to eliminate one or the other? I prefer it to be the EGR cooler of course but I'm not sure how to diagnose and determine which is the problem. No coolant leaks are evident.

Thanks for any help,

ED

How many miles do you have on your truck? Is it already out of warranty?