Truck overheated

[Buster]

My 08' 4500 6.7 Cummins overheated on a trip from northern Calif. to Las Vegas NV. It did not red line but got close. This happened 4 times in 650 miles. I took it to Cummins in Las Vegas and they said the thermostat failed and the outside of the radiator was clogged with bugs. They also found an exhaust leak at the manifold. $650 later I had a new thermostat and a clean radiator. They said it would be OK to take it home that way and have my local mechanic fix the leak. It overheated going home 3 times. I got it home to my mechanic and he said something else is causing the overheating problem (no shit!?!?!?). I ordered and installed the H&S tuner, gutted the DPF and took the truck for a long heavy pull. No more over heating! The problem must have been in the EGR system somewhere. Now I'm having the exhaust gasket replaced and the manifold surfaced and it turns out the manifold is warped beyond fixing. The #1 and #6 warped so much they streched the studs! Dodge has to order one in at a cost of $650. Is there a better manifold available for this motor or is stock OK? I run this truck heavy most of the time so if there is a better alternative, I'd like to know about it. The repair so far is $650 at Cummins, $650 at Dodge, $750 to my mechanic, $700 for the H&S for a total of $2750 !!!!

[ccoop769]

As far as I know there are no aftermarket 6.7 exhaust manifold. But actually i think there is a race shop that fabs them for expensive but you would have to search online cumminsforum somewhere. If im even correct on that.

Alternative is get a 5.9 manifold and any 5.9 turbo you please. yes you lose exhaust brake. The XRT clears turbo codes also for swap outs like that. My truck still hovering around 210-220. When i get home, gonna change the tstat. Ive already changed coolant and pressure washed everything and nothing changed, I never used to go above halfway even up the mountains. Now I cruise at 210 and 3/4 throttle im 219, never seen 220 though yet, even up mountains. Think im doing a 180f tstat. Exhaust gaskets are 60 bucks at cummins, 10 a piece, takes about 2 hours if your egr cooler is already deleted. very easy job minus them rear bolts.

[Buster]

I went with a 180 deg. when they replaced the old one. My choice was 180 or 195. I thought I read somewhere that a 5.9 made after 03 was a straight swap and was thicker than an 07 and newer. Must have been the mushrooms on my burger!:eek::o:rolleyes:

[Microsoftsteve]

sorry to hear the news buster. Seems like between the trailer and the truck you've had some tough cost lately. Hopefully things will smooth out now :)

[Buster]

Thanks Steve. Now I'm hoping theres no other damage to the engine. On the bright side, the engine seems to be running cooler and a little better fuel mpg with the programmer.

[Strix]

I think PDI and HTT both make manifolds but they might need a little tweaking to work with a stock turbo.. don't remember on that one. And ya coop was right you can go with a 5.9 manifold and 5.9 turbo and add a aftermarket exhaust brake if all your EGR/DPF crap is gone. In the end going back stock is probably easier. Better? Well everyone will have their own opinion on that one.

[ColoradoRVHauler]

If you need an exhaust manifold from a 2005 5.9 I bet the guy who sold me my injectors would sell that one off of the engine. Has under 1000 miles too.


He is in Tenn. though. Wouldnt have it till late in the week.

He already sold the turbo. They can be found used under 500 with low miles. Check carpart.com

You could find both there also.

Carey

[ColoradoRVHauler]

ATS in Denver makes a 2 piece ex manifold that guaranteed to last thru whatever.

They have some wicked turbos too.

For 2700 you could have had both from em. Its sad what these shops charge and they hardly know anything.

When a guy has to deal with some of these idiot shops it quickly takes the enjoyment out of owning a truck.

Carey

[ColoradoRVHauler]

ATS has cheaper ex manifols than dodge.
http://www.atsdiesel.com/ats2/product/2042272

[Buster]

Thanks Carey, I ordered one from Dodge. Its $650. Ats didnt look like they had them for the 6.7. The one from Dodge is supposed to be here on Monday. Lee

[ColoradoRVHauler]

Might be good to watch for a deal on a 5.9 manifold and turbo. Ive heard thats a good mod to the 6.7. If you need a jake there are many available for the 5.9.

Anyway good luck Buster!

Carey

[Buster]

I have a BD exhaust brake in the garage from one of my older trucks. I've thought about putting it on this one. The factory e-brake is not real strong. I think I am staying stock so there is little to change when smog inspection takes place.

[oregon]

Thanks Carey, I ordered one from Dodge. Its $650. Ats didnt look like they had them for the 6.7. The one from Dodge is supposed to be here on Monday. Lee

Hey Lee I hope that is $650 installed, as you know I had mine replaced at 98,000miles at Moss Bros dodge in San Bernardino, I remember the price being $300, I pulled my receipt out, no prices cause it was done under warranty, but I called them, there price over the phone was $368, plus 6 gaskets at $26.93. Just lettin ya know. As I remember I called all over the country trying to locate one, cause the dealer couldnt. I paid to overnight it on a saturday, truck wasn't fixed till thursday, so the cracked manifold cost me a week.

[Buster]

I still dont have the total but I think it was $650 for just the manifold.

[Buster]

Update: I called 2 Dodge dealerships and got prices for just the manifold. $602 at one and $613 at the other. Thats just the manifold!

[Mrs Coop]

See if you can find it cheaper online... I know the Dodge dealership down here will price match internet prices if you bring a print out in with you. Coops done it before. Just a thought.

[Buster]

Update: Got it back from the shop and installed the Pyrometer. Hope thats all over with. I hate it when it overheats!!!
PS. look for post of Pyrometer.

[ccoop769]

To give you an update on my truck as I was hitting 220f alot just hitting 60 mph and coolant was hovering around 212 on hwy, i did replace the tstat witha stock as I couldnt find a 180f in time and the tstat fixed the problem. There was no rust, just not opening all the way. Now the truck never goes over 200f again. Tstat cost was $27. 3 bolts 5 mintues later and a quarter jug of coolant and off she went!!!!

[LBZ]

My mechanic told me to get some coil cleaner that the AC guys use to clean out all the fins. Some brands require a rinse & others evaporate on their own, but am going to start there. Thermostat will be next for mine too.

[Buster]

Update on over heating:
I had 180 t-stat installed, cleaned radiator, replaced exhaust manifold, installed H&S, deleted DPF and installed Pyrometer. Took a load from Sacramento CA to Denver CO grossing 32,000lbs and brought back a load grossing 33,000lbs. The H&S is set on stock. I gained exactly 0 mpg!! The truck ran good and reached about 220 deg. max on the trip. This was pulling up I-80 from 250' above sea level to 8000' above sea level in 90 miles. The EGT's reached 1550 deg's. on several occasions. It ran a consistent 800-900 deg's. on flat ground.
I expected better fuel mileage from the H&S but I got no guarantees on that so...:confused:

[ccoop769]

hate to say it but something sounds wrong. 1550 EGTs are not high for the truck, but high considering you have your dpf/egr deleted!! Also, being 220f is still overheating. HS on stock wouldnt give you better mileage, just keeps your codes clear.

Do you have a cold air intake??? Done oil samples lately??? I usually run 700 egts on flat ground. Its hard for me to even hit 1300 egts wot for 10 miles in any gear.

Actually, do you even have your egr mia???? DPF mia wont lower your temps, just stop from regeneration, which lowers temps but not during normal operating. Well maybe a little for the less restrictive exhaust. Removing the complete egr system lowers your overal egts 200-300f while making your exhaust note different and your exhaust brake different while even feeling more powerfull with the eb, but the cooler does the note and power.

A neighbor hotshot, i just redid his complete truck and added hs, and he gained almost 1 mpg fully loaded!!! (60 hp tune)

If your egr is mia, guess the next thing would be bad radiator, pump, intercooler, internal.. Sorry buster, kinda confused on how your truck is reacting. Its not terrible, but its not right either. Well, at least compared to my truck.

[Buster]

Coop, I don't want to remove the EGR stuff due to California inspections. The last thing I need is a $10,000 fine!! I've been told that the 60 hp tune will gain you a little mpg but not the stock tune. The difference in our EGT's could be thermocouple placement. Mine is directly in line with the #6 exhaust port from the head, not between #5 and #6. No cold air, again due to inspections. Besides I have been told by many that the stock intake is actual very good. Just needs a better filter. Ive had all the other stuff you mentioned checked and all is good. Thanks for the help.

[ccoop769]

Well the egr intact explains the higher egts so you are on par there then. Egt probe placements isnt far off between runners. But dang 220 is hot!! Im sure youve been round long enough just to know that you can unplug the harness!! Working on selling an exhaust, thats my money for the hs. Cant wait to get rid of my DIY job, but it works!! Damn cali is strict, dont even have gas emmsions where I live!!!

[Buster]

I know about just unpluging but I wanted code free so I spent the money.

[ccoop769]

I know theres the option to disable egr on the xrt but I thought that just cleared codes. yes unplugging harness gives codes and xrt clears it but doestnt the harness have to be unplugged to actually yeild some benefits vs just disabling egr from xrt while still plugged in??? Just thinking... Not exactly sure on how xrt works but I thought it just cleared the codes and stopped regen, you will still physically have to remove or unplug harness only to get better egr results...............

[Buster]

The XRT requires the harness's be unpluged to work. Mine are unpluged.

[ccoop769]

The XRT requires the harness's be unpluged to work. Mine are unpluged.

Gotcha!!!!!

[ccoop769]

lol, guess that tstat fix was only a bandaid on my truck. Im now overheating myself. Wonder if the crankcase filter would make it overheat???? havent changed that out in say 130,000 miles or so. In the matter of like 1 1/2 days its been getting noticebly worse. Cant go upill without it getting hot. Hwy now crusing around 215F, hit a small hill and it jumps to dang near redline. Actaully gotton to red and lights came on a few times, but let off the gas pedal and it cools off noticably quick.. AC off cools it better too. Driver around framingham, Ma area!! Right next to our good ole buddies GAS and SAT. Gonna do some checks tonight to see if coolant low, seals broken, head gasket failure, possibly reroute the crankcase filter to under truck instead of turbo and just remove the filter to see if we can get any weekend driving done, or at least at night time. nobody is open where I need parts. Guess im gonna do the ccv filter and put a new water pump on. Good days!!!!!!! 300,000 miles, let the breakdowns begin......., to bad this couldnt of happened on a weekday with everybody open.

So far I have done recently,

1. New 190F Tstat
2. Flushed Coolant completly with all distilled water. (2-3 Times)
Added GL5 coolant from napa, added 4 gallons straight, not 50/50 since its about a 7.3 gallon system, so there was already 3.3 quarts of new distilled water in the system currentley
3. Cleaned radiator & interocooler completly w/ power sprayer, and
I flushed with heater on and did get all bubblesout.

[truckerjack]

lol, guess that tstat fix was only a bandaid on my truck. Im now overheating myself. Wonder if the crankcase filter would make it overheat???? havent changed that out in say 130,000 miles or so. In the matter of like 1 1/2 days its been getting noticebly worse. Cant go upill without it getting hot. Hwy now crusing around 215F, hit a small hill and it jumps to dang near redline. Actaully gotton to red and lights came on a few times, but let off the gas pedal and it cools off noticably quick.. AC off cools it better too. Driver around framingham, Ma area!! Right next to our good ole buddies GAS and SAT. Gonna do some checks tonight to see if coolant low, seals broken, head gasket failure, possibly reroute the crankcase filter to under truck instead of turbo and just remove the filter to see if we can get any weekend driving done, or at least at night time. nobody is open where I need parts. Guess im gonna do the ccv filter and put a new water pump on. Good days!!!!!!! 300,000 miles, let the breakdowns begin......., to bad this couldnt of happened on a weekday with everybody open.

So far I have done recently,

1. New 190F Tstat
2. Flushed Coolant completly with all distilled water. (2-3 Times)
Added GL5 coolant from napa, added 4 gallons straight, not 50/50 since its about a 7.3 gallon system, so there was already 3.3 quarts of new distilled water in the system currentley
3. Cleaned radiator & interocooler completly w/ power sprayer, and
I flushed with heater on and did get all bubblesout.

Coop, I believe you need a new radiator. I had a similar problem with my '99 7.3. My dealer told me I needed to replace the radiator ($500). I tried other things first but new radiator did the trick.

Good luck,

Jack

P.S My overheating started as 500,000 miles.

[ccoop769]

Coop, I believe you need a new radiator. I had a similar problem with my '99 7.3. My dealer told me I needed to replace the radiator ($500). I tried other things first but new radiator did the trick.

Good luck,

Jack

P.S My overheating started as 500,000 miles.

Found out resavour was empty and over a gallon short. Keep you updated. no leaks, no residues, no moistures, wtf??? Where did it go??

[ccoop769]

Gone up a few hills already missing 1 car, have 2 left to drop up tonight. Seems to not go over 206F which even going up hill. Give you an update later tonight/tomorrow fully loaded headed to omaha. hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

[cosgo]

hopefully its not going in the motor... thats what happened to my M2, luckily under warranty which is what got me the new motor.

[ccoop769]

how many miles on the new motor?? i didnt know that, what are you doing, just trying to tease me more?? only if you did self financing, lol......

[cosgo]

Its right in my post in the for sale section. Ive got about 25k on a brand new motor, not a reman. have paperwork from detroit diesel, and its under warranty.

[smr500]

Do you still have the egr cooler on there? It could be leaking internally or externally on/in the exhaust manifold and evaporating. May also be the head gasket. The 6.7 had some issues at one time on this if I'm remembering correctly.

[ccoop769]

Do you still have the egr cooler on there? It could be leaking internally or externally on/in the exhaust manifold and evaporating. May also be the head gasket. The 6.7 had some issues at one time on this if I'm remembering correctly.

Cooler is deleted. Turning away from the head gasket as usually a head gasket failure would make the overflow bottle overflow????? We are looking for leaks still every stop but i know it will be hard with the evap. Hmm, we will have to see how it goes on the way to omaha. As of now, just chatted with driver and everything is perfect. Head gasket is still a small thought though, but water pump i beleive is fine.

Im starting to lead towards stupidity on my end, but still dont make sense as the truck already has many miles on it before this happened. Something is going on, and prolly will find out within the next few days if its serious, maybe even tomoroow. time to do another oil anaylisis when the truck gets home at the end of the month.

Cosgo, I dont know how I missed that part in the for sale section. Now im really getting teased!!!:(:( You have a really nice truck, well maintained and taken care of, would love to own your truck. Unfortunately, my situation doesnt allow me to have cash or credit on hand. Wish I had something in collateral if you were even willing to do that, but I dont even own anything of value these days other then a cheap take 3 trailer that nobody will even buy for $5000. But hey, if I get this chevy for 50k:eek: i will put the take 3 to work then!!! Im suprized you havent sold it yet. If you still have it in 2 years and bring the price down because of depreciation in 2 years, i would do it, lol.

Anywho, id give you $1000 a month or more for it for self financing!! hehe, thats the last joke I make, i promise:o

[ccoop769]

New scenerio,

After of about 500 miles, the resavour is empty again, and have to add about 1/4 gallon of water to the radiator. No signs of leaks, everything runs perfect when full of fluids. Any ideas to where the leak might be wether internal or external from past research/experiences???

Its hard to tell as truck wont be here till next weekend. Guess I will uv test it. Where internally will these things leak if it was internally??

Being that the resavour keeps on being empty decides that I dont have a head gasket problem, but is a leak obviously.

[shstransport]

I'm just guessing here but you can have a bad head gasket that is letting compression leak into cooling system sometimes they are so small you don't notice it till it gets worse. In old days you could pull the cap on radiator and look for bubbles in water with the closed systems you would only notice water evaporating.Air in water does not cool so the temp goes up even if it's a small leak.Another way to confirm this is when you start up in morning once the truck is shut down water tends to be pulled into the cylinder with the leak some times there is enough water to be noticed in exhaust when starting back up next morning (again in gas engines you could pull plugs and look for clean one water cleans them on diesel the injector would be cleaner than the rest). Almost sounds like what you have going on temp increase, no water in oil, no leaks,, but still loosing water?

[ccoop769]

I get small bubbles pop up here and there but ive seen that for a little while now. nothing major or minor but taking that into consideration. On a closed system usually a head gasket failure would make overflow overflow.. Its really hard to tell untillt he truck gets home. Just spoke with driver and hes pulling I90 hills in albany with a full load and not going over 214 while hwy cruising around 197 (under halfway). My truck used to never go over halfway mark before so I think 214F is suspicous to me. But from what im reading, its normal??? Water is going somewhere, when I filled the system I just added straight 4 gallons of GL5 coolant. So its not evaporating in the system as straight water would?? Hmmm, all this happend so suddenly with the loss of water so im seeing what a few days will bring me. Ehh, either way, when truck makes it home if it does, i will find it and fix it before it leaves weather water pump seal is leaking or head gasket replacement. As for internal, hmmm, still waiting on suggestions on where it would be leaking from. Guess I might be doing a HG either way to eliminate that as a problem/guess.. Who knows... But we are counting miles/water added to see where exactly it stands. Gotta full weeks of work left. 4000 more miles till shes home. Bandaid her up and off she goes again!!!!!

[cosgo]

Coop, I havent advertised any of my gear anywhere but here really. You may say im hesitantly selling. Im sitting on 7 trucks and 4 trailers right now and only really running 3 of them. I know that ive got to sell some, win the lotto, or score another good hauling contract!! This week though, im going to start putting them in truck paper, craigslist, central, and then if all else fails, ebay. We'll see how it all plays out.

[truckerjack]

Coop, Check out this on Carson Dodge.

http://www.carsondodge.com/Forums/showthread.php?t=759

Good luck,

Jack

[ccoop769]

Overheating problem fixed. I was losing coolant out of my egr cooler delete coolant line to the head. It was rubbing against a hoseclamp and finally worked its way thru.

5 dollar hose about 1 foot long and 5 minutes later, good as new.

[shstransport]

Good thing you found it, that was a much easier fix than a head gasket.