Field Service Engineers

Brad Clayton · July 14, 2007

Back in '99, an F-250 came to the shop with a terrible vibration. The truck was brand new and the owner had driven a 1000 miles or so. This thing would rattle change off the dashboard at a stop light. With a quick call to the hotline we find out that 2 engines had been shipped from Navistar with unbalanced crankshafts. We had one and who knows who got the other. A crankshaft was ordered and installed. Truck comes back with an oil leak at the pan. Now I am seeing the truck for the first time. I pull the engine and reseal the pan, the original job did not quite take. Guy is on his way again.

At 11,000 miles truck comes back and has an oil pressure fluctuation problem. I get the truck again and knowing these oil senders aren't the most reliable source I'm thinking a cluster problem. It was a wierd problem because you get run the truck hard and it would be ok, then shut it off and come back to it and the gage would bounce all over the place. To be on the safe side I checked the oil pressure with a master gage and had 20-30 psi cold/fast idle at oil resovoir. Being low I called hotline and they said check it at the fitting down near the oil filter. I did and had 60 psi. Oh boy, 30 up top and 60 down low, where is the oil going?

Hotline says pull the valve covers and looked for a broken lifter causing oil pressure loss, pull trans and check lifter plugs, ect. to no availe. They decide to send help.

Well the calvary shows up. Chuck Gregory and Matt Hahn from Navistar stroll into the shop, we shake hands talk about the truck briefly and they get right to work, I mean all business. I handed them tools and watched. They put the top of the truck back together and then proceed to hook up two oil pressure gages one high and one low at the same time. The thought never crossed my mind. Guess what when the pressure was ok at the bottom it was also ok at the top and visa versa. The pressure loss was in the main oil system. If I had done this I could have saved them a trip to South Carolina. But I'm glad they came down, I learned an extreme amount about Power Strokes while they were there for 5 days. We went to lunch everyday and they bought mine. So we pulled the motor out (this 3rd time now) and hook shop air to oil pressure port with pan off, major hissing from number 4 main cap. We removed the cap and the upper bearing is gone. Tech that put the crank in got side track with a string of waiters and forgot all about that lone bearing laying on his bench!

The bearing was spinning on start up and would block and unblock the oil passage in the engine block, wild stuff. The owner promptly when to the show room and was given a brand new 2000 model. Believe it or not the owner belonged to a travel club in California and made three trips out pulling a 11,000 lb. fifth wheel since the crank replacement.

Anyway these Folks were the best I have had the pleasure of working with. We stayed at the shop til Midnight putting the truck back together with new parts, again they bought me supper. They shared info with me about hush hush stuff at the plant. One topic was the injectors for the 6.0l, another was camless motors they were tinkering with. Keep in mind this was mid 1999. I had some other 7.3's hanging around and they tackled them. They had this wild injector cancel box. I felt like a little kid helping his father fix the car on the weekend, very humbling experience indeed.

kevin phillips · July 14, 2007

I HAVE HAD THE ENGINEERS COME OUT ONE TIME AND THEY WERE VERY HELPFUL WITH A EARLY 6.0 WIRING ISSUE BUT I FIND IT HARD TO GET THEM THERE BUT THEY WERE SUPER TECHS WHEN THEY GOT THERE WENT RIGHT TO WORK, NO BS,ALL WAS WELL AFTER THE VISIT AND THE CUSTOMER MET AND WAS VERY GRATEFUL AND RETURNED TO BUY A 06 TRUCK AT THE DEALER