GregH

So, not to sound like a noobie, what can you do with the code of the day?

I appreciate the defense, but I really don't need it. This is about the only rub I have in this shop - to be honest, if there was nothing wrong here, I'd be really worried. I make my check every week. The wife has perfume, the kid has shoes, and I haven't missed any meals. I'm good.

Speaking of long setups, here's one of my favorites: My mate Petersen once bought a pair of shoes with artificial intelligence. Smart Shoes they were called. It was a neat idea. No matter how blind drunk you were they could always get you home. Well, he got ratted one night in Oslo, and he woke up the next morning in Burma. See the shoes got bored just going from the local pub to his flat. They wanted to see the world, you see. He had a hell of a time getting rid of them. No matter who he sold them to, they’d show up the next day. He tried to shake them off, but they’d just kick the door down. The last thing he’d heard, they’d sort of robbed a car and driven it into a canal. They couldn’t steer, you see. Petersen was really really blown away about it. He went to see a priest. The priest told him that it was alright. He said the shoes were happy and they’d gone to heaven. Ya see, it turns out shoes have souls.

For the trucks with gasoline in them, they've been rolled to the other tech in the shop - they like to keep me covered with heavy 6.0L warranty shit. He's been popping customers 2.0 hours to drain the tank, plus the regular 1.0 for a pair of fuel filters. He uses a fused jumper to power the fuel pump, disconnects the outlet line from the HFCM, connects a long hose to the HFCM, and routes the hose to the waste oil collection tank. Then he walks away for a while... Yeah, I know... "let me count the ways"

DIT diag. This means just hooking up IDS and running some standard KOEO/KOER tests. Does your shop charge the same as an EEC diag for a gas engine? 2.0 hours for diesel diag, meaning the full sheet if necessary. Compare that to 1.5 for gas. Air filters for 7.3L/6.0L E or F series? No charge for 7.3L air filters, .5 for 6.0L E or F Fuel filters for 7.3L/6.0L E or F series? .5 for 7.3L, 1.0 for 6.0L Injector(s) for 7.3L/6.0L E or F series? 4.0 for up to 4 per side, 7.3L or 6.0L. 8.0 per side for E series EGR/Oil coolers for 6.0L E or F series? 8.0 for either one or both on F. Haven't had the pleasure on an E for customer pay time. Reflash PCM 1.0 Turbo R & R and cleaning/replacement for 6.0L 5.0 R&I, additional 1.0 to clean. This includes the PIA '03 models. How about 6.0L head gasket times? We've been quoting 25 hours...

That's one of the fun things about mathematics - those quirky little things that make you sit up and take notice. True, -40 is the same in both C and F. But just as they deviated from each other above -40, they also deviate below -40. Check out the following graph: The reason lies within the C/F relation. Remember the 5/9th's fraction in it? Well, 40 (the "distance" between 0 and -40) is evenly divisible by 5, while 72 (the "distance" between +32 and -40) is evenly divisible by 9. Also interesting that the lowest temperature that Ford computers are capable of reading is -40... Coincidence?

It's instances like these that reinforce the adage, "no good deed goes unpunished." And it always happens to people we know... Never to the stranger off the street...

If you can find the hardshells and the pins, you can rebuild the connectors yourself. I'd use an old FICM harness for parts if you cannot find teh parts new. However, the FICM harness is cheap, and it is absurdly easy to put in. By the time you add up your parts and labor, you'll probably come out about the same to replace the harness. And you'll get the vehicle out of your stall faster.

Yes, I have. Had one that made a quart of oil every 200 miles. Ran high pressure tests, all pass. Ran testing with the valve covers off, no leaks observed. Added oil dye to fuel filter housing, ran high pressure tests, no dye visible. No codes, fuel trims ok. Hotline said slam a pump to it. Returned to the customer, 1000 miles later had 5 quarts of fuel in the oil. International engineer was called in. He put 200 miles on the truck and measured the oil. No change. He said it was due to customer's driving habits and no repair was possible... Heh.. Customer traded out of the truck. We sold it to someone else who has never owned a diesel before, and just assumes that these issues are inherent to diesels. Heh, again... At the new customer's last oil change, 20 quarts came out.... Yeah, I don't know where the fuel is coming from. But it's not the pump... The International engineer and I worked on a new testing procedure while he was here. We applied 80psi of air pressure to the fuel return passages in each head and watched the pressure decay rate. Basicaly, we drilled and tapped a hole in the end of an open banjo bolt, and JB welded the perpendicular holes shut. Then rigged a pressure gauge and a ball valve to the banjo bolt and put regulated shop air to it. There should be no or very little decay. After the fact, we learned that International says over 20 psi of air pressure applied in that way can damage the injectors. Ooops... Anyway, there were a few other things we talked about. I'll need a bit more coffee before we go into all that, though....

No, not quite. We don't have the time or money to reverse engineer an aftermarket setup - so we call in someone who does have the time and money to do so. I then simply follow what Ford tells me to do, since if they determine it is a warrantable repair, they'd be footing the bill. If they determine that it's non-warrantable, then Ford gets to inform the customer. If they argue, then I just steer them to Ford's customer service. In the meantime, I'll be dealing with another customer.... There is no "blowing the customer off." I simply shuttle the vehicle to the most qualified individual. Saves us from fighting with Ford or the customer...

To question 1 - I have had trucks with drivability issues that had banks and other aftermarket gear on them. I have also had trucks that only ran poorly after this aftermarket gear had been installed. Which question were you asking? To question 2 - Thankfully, it is not my position to decisively say that the aftermarket gear caused a failure. If there is a suspicion, then an engineer can be called in to examine the truck. Then it's Ford that looks like the bad guy to the customer, and not me. I've been on the side of Ford before. Quoting the warranty and policy manual, telling customers that their aftermarket stuff will void the warranty and such. I've faced pissed off customers who have gone on to call Ford and bitch to them. Then, sure enough, a day or two later I get a call from the service rep who says "go ahead and warranty the repair on that truck." Now, all the sudden, I'm the jackass who's causing grief to the customer and Ford comes swooping in to the rescue. Fuck that. There are bigger fish than me in this ocean. There is someone above me who is getting paid to make these decisions. If I'm considering pining a failure onto an aftermarket device, then it's time for someone else to make the call. So, yeah, to answer your second question, I've never diagnosed a failure to an aftermarket device. I leave that diagnosis to Ford while I get onto the next truck. I do feel that these motors are already pretty high strung as is. We've got headgasket failures on stock vehicles. Why would someone want to push their engine furthur?

Ummm, I don't think the amount of heat in a "turned off" EGR cooler is all that significant. With no exhaust flow through the cooler, there will be very little heat transfer from the exhaust to the cooler versus the heat transfer with the EGR valve wide open. Remember the really quick test to see if a gas burner EGR valve was stuck open? Bump your hand against the EGR tube and if it's hot, the EGR valve is open. But a cooler tube meant that the EGR valve was closed. Just my two cents.... As for the the efficacy of installing the plug in the y-pipe versus just disabiling the EGR valve, I donno....

I've had to put a few of these pumps on so far, and (knock on wood) none of mine have leaked yet. I take it that it is leaking from the high pressure lines? Or can you tell at this point? Make sure you use new lines, and follow the torque procedure by the letter. Over or under torquing will make a leak, as well as using a used line. Sorry, dude...

That's why a CO2 fire extinguisher is part of the safety gear here...

I had one that I thought was the thermostat housing seal. Turned out to be the upper radiator hose to thermostat connection... Manifested as a minor leak just left of center on the crossmember..

Shit dave, I'm sending you a bill for monitor cleaning expenses! I had just taken a bite of carrot I read your reply! Ok, reminds me of an old timer I worked with a decade ago. Shop had a very loosely enforced policy of no customers in the service area. It was regularly ignored. Customer is watching over the shoulder of a tech working a vehicle. Literally over his shoulder. Even to the point of maintaining physical contact. Made the tech a little irritated, which made him a bit bold. After repeatedly telling the customer to scram, the tech finally dropped trou. The customer was certainly not comfortable with leaning all over a tech in his skivvies, so he retreated to the waiting are. The tech finished the repair with his pants by his toolbox... Never had a problem enforcing the "no customers" regulation after that!

I beg to differ on the timesert kits. I've used a ton of them over the years, and have never had a failure. I think it's a well designed kit that makes for an effective repair. And, although it is tight on cylinders 3 and 4, it is possible without jumping through too many hoops.... I have not had the pleasure of using the lock and stitch kit yet..

Another suggestion I heard was to allow the weight of the truck to help keep the nuts where they belong. Set the truck back on the floor, set the rack under the body, and apply slight pressure. The weight of the frame of the truck should keep the nut down in it's cage, and help prevent a spin. I think I might try this for the two front mounts only. Since we've never had a problem with the remainder. Also, there really is no way to apply a load to the nuts with this method when most of the bolts are still tight - you'd need to be at the end of the sequence...

The IDS does "phone home" when we use it. Check the indicators on your wireless router when no one else is online, and you connect to a vehicle. As to whether or not it will lead to our jobs being "dumbed down," I think it will be (or maybe already is) more of a cross check. Suppose a 6.0L has a P0404. You replace the EGR valve per the TSB and retest. When the warranty claim is processed, there should be 1.2 hours and one part charged out for that VIN on that date. Anything else charged would be cause for a human being to take a look at the claim...

You're right, Jim, Ford is playing their cards real close.... I spoke with an engineer some time ago, and he related an event that happened to him several years prior - so this puts us back to around 2000. There was an Expedition that had some type of transmission issue. Various repair attemptes had been performed, with little success. The field service engineer (the one I was conversing with) was called in to oversee the repair. The repair got escalated again to another engineer who worked in the transmission plant. The second engineer arrived with his own diagnostic equipment. The second engineer downloads information directly from the PCM into his own machine. He then starts to scan over pages and pages of data. The two engineers begin talking about the data - it was data on every single shift that this PCM had commanded. Things like engine RPM, OSS, commanded pressure, and others. The second engineer pointed to a spot in the data where the shifts started to look different. He says "this was the last shift the transmission made before the truck left the factory." The current mileage on the truck was in the 80,000's. That's quite a load of data to be stored for a system as minor as the transmission, on a vehicle as average as an expedition. Now, remember Moore's law. The number of transistors on a microchip doubles every 18 months. (which results in approximate double capacity) Imagine what the processors in the 2008's are capable of! There is a lot of data flow between the scan tool and the vehicle when we hook up. Take a look at the log file sometime - continuous codes for every module, basic vehicle information, calibration filenames, and other info. IDS is on a wireless network connected to a broadband connection. And, I don't know about yours, but our router starts flashing - indicating data flow - immediately after hooking up the IDS to a vehicle. The IDS is talking to someone on the internet every time we connect to a vehicle. Mother Ford knows just what we are doing.... Again on the 2008 - I had a faulty DPF pressure sensor to replace a while back. I pulled the truck in, turned the key off and put the key on the seat. Raised the vehicle and swapped the faulty pressure sensor. In the process, I accidentally disconnected EGT3. Noticing my mistake, I reconnected EGT3 and disconnected the pressure sensor. When I set the truck back down, I rescanned the PCM and went to clear the codes. There was a code for EGT3 circuit failure that wasn't there before... The PCM was watching what I was doing, without the key being on.... Hmmmm....

I'd say that +10 on cylinder #1 is an indication of a problem. I'd also double check the flywheel - the owner's demo here had one torque convertor nut installed from the factory. Drove out good on the PDI, but a few thousand miles later developed an engine vibration... It would be a quick check, anyway...

No real issues removing my EGRTA sensor, other than clearance around the sensor. I ended up cutting off the old wiring to the sensor and putting a deep socket on... Surprising, since so many others here have had issues with threads..

Ok, so the DOT brings me a truck that won't develop any power. I look it over, verify the concern (Ha! don't pull out in front of anyone!) and run the codes. P040D was present, pinpoint it, find that EGT-A is not responding to temperature - reads 4.65V (140 degrees F) all the time. No problem, right? Replace the sensor, clear the code, run KOEO, KOER tests - no additional codes, and the P040D was gone. Road test, and it still won't go worth a damn. Runs smooth, just won't develop any power. 19 pounds of boost max... After a bit more head scratching, I went ahead and reflashed the PCM, TCM, and IC to the latest levels. Problem solved... So, here's the speculation - the truck was in failsafe becuase it couldn't tell how hot the exhaust was at the manifolds. After repairing the condition and clearing the code, the PCM would not come out of failsafe. I looked around for a PCM KAM reset function and couldn't find one. Flashing it evidently kicked it out of failsafe.... Just thought I'd share... "warning, sharp learning curve ahead!"

Heh, I guess I didn't read the first part of your message very well, Bruce - sorry about that. Ok, so we're done with the slope of the CKP identifier...

Hang on - the CKP identifier is supposed to go negative first, then positive - take a look at your 6.4L graph: But, the noise in the middle, I don't know about... So, the waveform being inverted is a red herring. I noticed the CMPO dropping below 0V between pulses when the engine was going wild, too. The more wild the engine got, the more negative it went. So, yeah - powers and grounds. An engineer will be here shortly (like within a half hour) to work with me on it. He's supposed to have the PTEC to 104 adapter, so scoping many lines won't be a problem. I'll have data on that later on. I did the engine replacement(s) the same way I do all major engine work on these vehicles - cab off. I think it's pretty unlikely that there is an issue with loose or disconnected grounds; I've trod this road a number of times. However, I am not above double checking (or triple and quadruple) my work, so I'll go over grounds again before the engineer arrives. Powers come in from the left side battery, through the body harness, and then through the two connectors under the power steering resevoir. Those connectors were cleaned and checked prior to reassembly, since I'd been burned by that before on a really filthy truck - pushed dirt up into the connector during reassembly. Again, I'll double check that too...