First off I will introduce myself, I am Travis and I moved to NH about 2 months ago and bought a 2007 F250 with 34,064 on it currently. Everything is stock on the truck and it runs well. The last three days it has blown white smoke out of the exhaust on cold starts, and goes away after it warms up and only blows smoke under moderate acceleration until warmed up. Once it is warm there is no smoke from what I can see. I can't tell if it is sweet smelling or straight diesel so I am assuming it is a small coolant leak as of now. I called the dealership and am taking it in for service and probably a new EGR cooler under warranty. Should I have them replace the cooler or should I just delete the EGR? I was wondering if I could just unplug the EGR valve until I either delete it or have the cooler replaced. NH just does a safety inspection yearly due to the vehicles GVRW. What are your opinions on unplugging the EGR to stop the coolant from entering the combustion chamber and will that even work? Maybe unplug it and see if it smokes on startup? Thanks in advance.

 

Unplugging the EGR valve will not prevent coolant from coming into the combustion chamber unfortunately. Even with the EGR valve commanded shut through tuning, it can and will still blow open under pressure. Are you sure it's even the EGR cooler? You can pull the EGR valve out of the intake manifold and look in there, if it's wet, then it's probably the EGR cooler, if not, it could be headgaskets as well, but most likely not.

My guess is it's not even coolant related. How good are the batteries on the truck? You might try testing the FICM.

The dealer won't put a delete in under warranty for you, unless they're really cool, but most would never do that. They'll give you some nonsense that they have a new and improved design, but it's still the same old crappy cooler. Does your truck have some white residue around the coolant reservoir cap at all?

Welcome to the site Travis!

 

I will have the batteries checked tomorrow. I am not sure that they are still good, they look stock. Would having 'bad' batteries lead the FICM to make the engine blow white smoke? I will trouble shoot it tomorrow, as well as have the dealer take a look at it. The dealer is not a Ford dealer btw, it is Tim's Truck Capital so I am hoping to work out a drug deal and just delete the EGR all together. And there is no leaking on the degas bottle that I can tell, the dust and grime is still intact and no sign of it burping out coolant. There is also no clear crusted white residue on the cap. However I just bought the truck and can not rule out the dealership cleaning it to get rid of the telltale signs, or from the previous owner.

 

bad batteries can kill FICMs

 

I am aware that they will kill an FICM. I am going to have them look at all of the 'known' issues as far as batteries, EGR, FICM voltage, turbo seal and such to make sure there are no issues to pop up again in the near future. I guess I was to anxious to get it off the lot to use some common sense and make sure it was taken care of before I drove off. I will attempt to have it fixed on the dealer warranty but if that is not happening I am gonna try to diagnose and repair myself. Thanks for the input and the advice, I would like to go with some ammunition and some ideas as to what to look for when I talk to the Diesel Tech. Is a bad FICM going to make the truck blow white smoke? If so what would it be doing to have the truck blow white?

 

I didn't see anything about plugging in the block heater, are you plugging it in? It has been pretty cold here during the day and when I get off work I have gotten a white puff on the colder afternoons. I plug it in overnight and don't see any when I leave the hut.

 

I plug it in for about 2 to 2.5 hours ahead of when I go to work, well my wife does when she heads out. It has been in the mid 30s and dipped into the 20s once. I am plugging it in about 7 hours tonight which is in the low 20s. if there is any change in the amount of smoke I guess I can assume it is just from the temperatures and change the oil to a full synthetic 5w40. Thanks for the info. Keep it coming guys

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I just read a post about a sound that is similar to a tea kettle. Is the turbo on a 2007 suppose to have a slight whistle? I have read about the whistle of the '03 turbo but I am unfamiliar with turbo's except my buddy had a turbo on his GTO but that was with a waste gate.

 

Again showing my lack of knowledge - what does the white residue indicate?

 

The turbo whistle is just that, sounds like a really loud turbo. Ear piercing on the 03's with a straight pipe. The 04.5-07 turbos don't really have that whistle. The actual "tea kettle" whistle (sounds just like a tea kettle on the stove) is coolant being pushed out of the coolant reservoir, which indicates headgaskets or egr cooler failure typically. Some of them will just push a little out here and there with flash boiling in the egr cooler (early signs of trouble to come) but that really isn't much to worry about. If it's doing it every time you stomp on the skinny pedal, it's time to take a look at it.

It's dried coolant, it indicates that coolant is being pushed out for the reasons above.

 

So after plugging the block heater in for a full night there was no white smoke that I could see from the cabin. The exhaust smelled like straight fuel. Next step is either gauges or a monitor.