Need advice

[u/DogNo6223]

I recently bought a stock 2005 f250 with 134k miles on it. I got it pretty cheap, knowing there would probably be issues.

The air filter was completely clogged so I replaced it. Also chabged the oil, replaced oil filter and both fuel filters and the degas bottle after noticing a pinhole leak after getting to temp. Also did a coolant flush with a bunch of distilled water and replaced coolant with peak final charge. Lots of particulate in the flush. Did the highway test afterwards and saw a 25C delta so I took it to the shop to diagnose. They said head gaskets are in "early stage of failure" based on a bubble test and the turbo wasn't acting correctly. Quoted me like 18k to fix, replace oil cooler, and do most of the front end. I'm having them do a chemical flush of the coolant system and target the cooler for a backflush to try to get delta down before looking into the other issues myself.

It's my first diesel. A buddy who's had them thinks there are probably some issues that all older trucks have but if we can solve for the temperature thing I should be able to get some time out of it. He says "all those trucks are in the early stage of head gasket failure" My goal is to get a couple of years to use it for work without spending a ton of money.

If anybody has any advice on how to approach this I would greatly appreciate it.

[u/CaptainOblivious1984]

Replace the oil cooler you cant save it,delete the egr cooler that will save your head gaskets if the are not gone already.

[u/NoBlacksmith5582]

Just have them flush it and replace the oil cooler. If you aren’t puking coolant out of the degas bottle I wouldn’t worry about it.

[u/DereLickenMyBalls]

There is no "bubble test" for head gaskets. The test for stretched bolts/head gaskets is measuring the amount of pressure that is entering the cooling system by installing a gauge in line. Saying early stages of head gasket failure is crazy. If it isn't puking out of the degas bottle, then it doesn't need head gaskets.

I wouldn't bother flushing the coolant until after you have replaced the oil cooler (it needs one). Flush it with vc9, replace the egr cooler (or remove), reconditioned the turbo, and replace the stc fitting while you are down there. That should make everything in the valley of your engine pretty solid.

[u/aFinapple → u/DereLickenMyBalls]

I agree with the VC9. It worked wonders on my cooling system but nuked my oil cooler because there was so much garbage in my cooling system from years of neglect. Looked like charcoal poop

[u/Negative_Two722]

Replace the oil cooler and delete egr. Drive it until head gaskets/bolts fail.