Possible head gasket issues. Help please.

[Chrisp74]

Evening folks.
Things were going so well!
Transit custom “16” plate 2.0 panther engine. Have owned from new. 65K miles. Very regularly serviced, owner driver.
Van is consuming a small amount of coolant regularly. (Expansion bottle from full mark to empty or low in 1K miles).No external leaks. Holds pressure from a pressure tester.

Cooling history for the van:
It’s had the thermostat replaced early on in its life. (Probably 30K miles ago now) it was overheating at speed. (as soon as the warning came up on the dash I stopped) I limped home using the heater to help keep the engine cool.
A year later. (probably 55k miles) a small water hose at the front of the engine rubbed through and caused similar “engine overheat” warnings. Again van shut down immediately and hose repaired.
Quite quickly after the hose leak the water pump started to leak. Not serious, drip on the drive style. (Didn’t cause engine overheat warning message). Again this was dealt with promptly. (New water pump assembly)

My garage has told me it’s failed a coolant sniff test. He says there is oil/exhaust gas getting into the coolant. He thinks the head has to come off.

Am I missing any other checks?
I have read a few stories on here about head gasket issues.

I assume the van will have a EGR cooler? Are they any trouble?

Thanks for any help.

[metalworker0]

I hear the first thing to do is bi-pass the EGR cooler..Take both hoses off it and connect them together with a short piece of copper pipe.

Then observe what is happening over the next week or so ..if its still happening, then you'll need a a head gasket.

if it stops ..then you'll need a new EGR cooler .

oil getting into the coolant could be the OIL cooler .but this does not put combustion gasses into the coolant.

Just saying the order you should do things before it gets expensive, think both items can fail from age or because of lack of maintenance of the cooling system ...that being best quality antifreeze not used...or maybe in your case ..coolant being lost and diluted all the time with the other faults.
Having said that 2016 is not that old to have these failures
I hear Ford over the past 15 years have changed the type of coolant they use several times, wonder why - did they get it wrong? ...they are now recommending what they call "Yellow coolant"

all the best.mark

[Chrisp74]

Mark, thanks for the reply.
EGR cooler is a good shout. I will bypass the water hoses that go to the cooler and try.
So the van has a EGR Cooler (Exhaust gasses heat exchange with engine coolant)
And a oil cooler (Engine oil heat exchange with engine coolant)?

Coolant quality is a good point or though I’m fairly confident its been good. (I used de-min water and Ford A/F)
Ford themselves carried out the other repairs.

Will keep the thread updated.