New owner of KW T660 ISX15 CM2250

[Longshot]

This is my first post @ rawze.com - Awesome Place!
I am not a truck driver and have never been involved in trucking operations previously, but have a family member who is a driver, so I decided to venture into trucking from an operations perspective.

This is a chronicle of my experience so far and hopefully it might help out some others.

After deciding to buy a truck we set the following criteria:
1. Budget $40K
2. Vehicle 2011 or newer
3. Vehicle <450K miles
4. Peterbilt or KW with Cummins and 10 speed
5. Must be able to obtain an extended warranty by a reputable warranty company to avoid repair expenses associated with major failures >$4000
The warranty criteria limited me to dealers that can prescreen the vehicle for warranty coverage and bind a contract.

Not very many trucks nationwide met the criteria.
After performing searches over a few days period we headed to Minnesota.
We decided to buy the 3rd truck we looked at and test drove.
The truck passed the prewarranty inspection and the warranty company approved the warranty.
I took the base coverage for the engine (all parts that touch oil) and added several packages
Turbo and associated systems, Aftertreatment, Trans and Rear End - 2 years 240K miles - $8000 with $1600 down OUCH!

We started our drive back to Texas and about 300 miles into the drive the truck began a regeneration and it was producing some smoke from the engine compartment.
Later on the truck wanted a parked regen and also threw an error for Exhaust Trap Inlet Pressure - go figure !
We stopped in the middle of the night at MHC Kansas City and they thought we had a leaking exhaust flex pipe but said we were safe to drive on to Texas.
We had lots of parked regen requests that took too long - up to 2 hours.

Once back in Texas I did some research and of course got my education here at Rawse.
We had the DOC / DPF cleaned and then performed a partial EGR tune up and maintenance including all filters and engine fluids. Just to give you an idea the air filter in the truck was dated 2015 and miles 229000. It was August 2017 and 434K miles. I guess the truck was not very well maintained.
Cleaned the diesel doser which was totally caked over with packed soot and as I learned from Rawze would cause incomplete or failed regens.
We had an error code of intake manifold pressure sensor so I replace it (IMAP) but saw that the old one was likely original with the red pain but also quite clean - surprised about that.
Cleaned the Delta-P (also original and pretty clean) and took the truck to the stealership to get the codes cleared and a forced regen.
After that truck ran beautifully, like a completely different truck, and running regens were doing their job great.
We put the truck on the road with a carrier - we don't have our authority.
Truck ran for a week fine (3K miles) but we noticed some coolant loss and the reservoir sensor was going off even when the tank was full.
I bought a new sensor and the alarm did not stop - found out the hard way that the reservoir tank has a magnetic float and the tank needed replacing.

NOTE: To stop the incessant audible alarm I pulled the sensor out of the bottom of the reservoir and taped a small watch battery sized rare earth magnet to the top end of the sensor and it stopped the noise. No need to take out the reservoir - just reach under, grab the sensor and pull it out.

Next day (6) the coolant was down again, about 1/4 gallon, and that wonderful error code Exhaust Trap Inlet Pressure was back.

So I followed Rawze's video for pressure testing the coolant (pressure tester from Amazon). Took the truck completely out of service and sent and oil analysis in to Blackstone Laboratories - 8-29-2017
The pressure test would not hold pressure for very long - I would pump it up to about 18psi and in 2 hours was back down to less than 15 psi but no signs of external leaks - had quite a bit of residual engine heat. We had also disconnected the U shaped tube off the back of the EGR cooler with catch pan and disconnected the diesel doser and put a paper towel between the doser and exhaust pipe.

In the middle of the night after the engine was completely cooled I found numerous external leaks but NO coolant in my EGR cooler catch pan or diesel doser. I thoroughly cleaned the EGR valve and tube between EGR cooler and EGR valve - not very dirty (used choke cleaner as per Rawze suggestion) not like other pictures I have seen on Rawze.com with totally clogged up EGR piping. This lead me to believe that it was not likely to be a EGR cooler leak or we caught it very early.
On Labor day we bought all new coolant hoses and installed them, ran the truck for 30 minutes and let it sit overnight. No coolant loss and no visible external leaks.
Next day, Tuesday yesterday 9-5 I got the lab results back from Blackstone Labs, 1.08 coolant (sodium and potassium elevated) and some elevated metals indicating premature wearing.

Based on these results I search Rawze and find a long post that includes one user who had no signs of EGR cooler leaking into catch pan but in the end need EGR cooler replaced.

NOW I AM GLAD I BOUGHT THAT $8000 WARRANTY! hopefully they pay....
Truck was dropped at dealer last night and I believe they will come back with one of the typical causes of coolant in oil; EGR cooler, head gaskets or similar. Hopefully it will be nothing more than EGR cooler. If the dealer tells me it is the EGR cooler and I DID NOT have the warranty I would do the work myself. But with the warranty I will likely let the dealer do the work as I want them to guarantee that after the fix that it will also resolve the Exhaust Trap Inlet Pressure problem because if it does not they may need to clean the DPF again or go searching for sensors, gaskets, clamps, or whatever in the after treatment.

When I have a diagnosis from the stealership I will post again.

ONE NOTE: I thought about taking the truck to Mr Haggs but since we have the oil analysis and the dealer already told me that they think it is likely the EGR cooler I am happy to get that work done locally under warranty.

However, if in the end the Exhaust Trap error is not resolved by the dealer I will be requesting a load to Atlanta and a visit to Mr Haggs.