EGR issues/anger

[Tapatio]

Originally Posted by daveb

The cetane booster doesn't affect the Espar units as far as I know and actually after using it seemed to make them run better as well.

I recently had my Espar serviced and they said it was clean as a whistle after 75 hours of use with cetane. I asked if cetane caused issues and said it was safe to use. The failure was with the blower motor and had nothing to do with fuel.

[UpaDowna]

Thanks all.

I took off the EGR and was impressed with myself at having it down to less than 20 minutes from popping the hood to having it out! Well once I got it out it was well carboned up so I said screw it and returning it on warranty. Once I got the new one it only took a little bit to get it installed. Fired the old girl up and holy cow she was SMOKING some thick nasty white smoke...SO I took the new one out and noticed that it was not flush where the sensor meets the casing. It must have been this way when I got it and I did not notice. And wouldn't you know it the parts store did not have another one in stock and the earliest they could get one would be next Tuesday!

So off to their competitor and they had one in stock, another short install and now we're rocking and rolling again!!

I think my EGR cooler is ok as I did not find any sign of coolant at all. I still plan on addressing this issue in the future, but it'll have to wait until after the trip to the desert. FWIW the EGR was crude up with soot that was almost cavelike in how dry it was and even with vehicle nose down there was no apparent coolant under the EGR.

Thanks again for all of the suggestions and I feel like a dodged a bullet...for now.

[UpaDowna]

Oh yeah and a scan tool and cetane booster are going to really help in the future!

[daveb]

In the older 7.3 engines we didn't have as many issues with fuel. It was the 6.0 and older vehicles that along with the newer fuels mandated by the government that seemed to cause trouble. Maybe using or not using additives is a witch hunt but even Ford suggested I use their cetane booster in my 6.0. At first I didn't use it and whether I can attribute the EGR and injector failure to that, after I started using it I never had anymore problems. But we don't use additives in our work vehicles and so far many haven't had any trouble with the current vehicles we're driving. I'm told there is some kind of additive in the fueling tanks but I'd bet it's probably just bio diesel to some percent. Now they have those urea tanks on the newer rigs but we still have injector problems. I'll admit when the whistle blows in the morning the vehicles are started up and run all day long, much of it at idle so some of the problems might just be the way we drive them. The 6.0's have been phased out at work so what we're using doesn't apply to the 6.0 anymore. I will admit when I pour cetane booster into the 6.4 I'm driving the engine runs much smoother. When the vehicle was new I lost an injector and started using a off brand additeve. 2 cycle oil might have done the same. They quit supplying it last year and from time to time I see white smoke and get the feeling of an injector sticking. We'll see.

I'll continue to use additives in my van and have switched to Rev X. I still also run Hot shot secret fuel injector cleaner from time to time plus their stiction oil additive periodically. Whether or not the Hot Shot helps with the EGR I don't know.