G. Bedford

And that is why the diesel techs were "stroked" with the $50 certificate before it is announced. Our rep was in today and said the same thing about a recall soon. Hold on to your bootstraps boys and girls!!

Thanks for the tip! And thank you even more for sharing it here and not on the Ford site.

We just had 2 claims charged back on the EGR valves on '04 models. According to the info we got, for '03/'04 models the EGR valve is covered by the 5/100 with the $100 deductible due after 3/36. In '05 the EGR valve is covered as an emission component. Go figure.

I would rather have had Ford send out the low profile MatCo ratchet they used to set the 6.0l head gasket times than this crummy CMP sensor tester.

We have had alot of them come apart just as you state. You have low fuel pressure allowing the piston and spring inside the injector to slam against the end until it blows the top off the injector. We have alot of overloaded oil field rigs in our area that on hard pulls will bring the fuel pressure to the low end OF SPEC. The new fuel pressure regulator kits have a longer/heavier spring that now holds pressure to the high end of spec. Ford has not mentioned they did this, that I am aware of, but the kit components have obviously changed along with the fuel pressure after replacement. When we called hot line on one vehicle and told them fuel pressure was 47psi, they said it was too low! Even though the diag. sheet shows that pressure to be acceptable. I would definately check fuel pressure. Hope this helps ya.

Remember also that the lines need to be flushed with the new "heated fluid" flusher. How many shops have that?

Remember also that the lines need to be flushed with the new "heated fluid" flusher. How many shops have that?

Noticed today that the time for operation 9438A2 has increased to 1.3 hours. Woo hoo!

I think it will be interesting to see if Ford gives each tech their test questions with the correct answers after last years fiasco. They may just post the scores like ASE does and let it go at that.

Soooooo..... who is following the 700 dollar injector at the Ford dealer thread going on now? I see Grampy Jim is involved. That will get the old blood flowing, won't it!

I visit the dieselstop at times and frankly I am appalled at the level of fraud and deceit many of the owners perpetrate on the dealerships. It works both ways doesn't it?

You can raise the cab/body with either an above or below ground hoist as long as the arms swing in from the outside leaving the underbody open. I prefer my above ground Rotary since the arms lock in place when lifted. On vehicles without running boards you simply lift on the pinch welds with the hoist pads flat. On vehicles with boards/nerf bars you can remove them or take a 4X4 (5 to 7 feet long) piece of wood and lay it on the spread of your hoist arms and lift using the wood like the skids of a helicopter against the board/nerf bar support brackets. There is little weight to the cab. The Excursion I mentioned in an earlier post, I did remove the factory boards since they are so easy to do and the full body with all the seats is heavier than just a truck cab. You are not wasting time in raising/lowering the body, you are merely trading it for the engine removal/re-install and engine stand mounting time the book procedure follows. You can find the body removal procedure on flatratetech. I have some pictures of my own, also. The Excursion I just did I finished in about 15-16 hours. This included the entire head gasket repair kit components for both banks, new EGR cooler and Y-pipe, diagnosis, road tests and oil change.

I have always raised the cab/body to do head gaskets or engine swaps on most pick-ups and Expedition/Navigators. When you remove the cab/body the engine is basically on a stand at the correct height for me. I use a 3/4" Snap-On breaker bar for the torque to yield sequences of the head bolts on the sick-o. The cab/body off method allows pretty much all the engine components to be assembled. You do not have to snake exhaust, turbos,wire harnesses or intakes under the cab lip since its already on and was properly aligned because you have ample room. All those clamps that seem to be pointed wrong when pulling the engine by the book are easily accessed with the cab/body off, cause that is the way it was done on the line during assembly. The turbo bolts on the sick-o are right out in the open with the cab/body off. I don't know for sure whether the cab /body off is faster, but my back sure is pleased with the method.

Just finished a '03 Excursion yesterday that was blowing coolant out the reservoir. We had a Super -Duty earlier that had .004" on the heads and the replacement was just as bad out of the box. We did use it. I don't know if it's worth waiting for a perfectly flat head. After doing the Excursion I have come to the feeling the problem is poor initial assembly or the original headgaskets(since I was sent the up-dated kit). We have been putting in both headgaskets and the EGR cooler and having no returns with the original complaint.

The on-line SLTS shows replacing all on the passenger bank pays 2.1 hours and all on the drivers side pays 1.7 hours. Since the procedure for the passenger side has been up-graded you can no longer take the evaporator plenum removal time for access( automatically kicks out as overlap). You should also be sure to get all your diag. times and any M-time for relative compression, power balance and active commands you performed as testing to pinpoint the injector(s) as failed.

We haven't done any yet. Management has not been able to convince anyone to do trans. work for the SLTS times and now this recall hits! Kinda tense at the shop but so far has been a stalemate with neither side budging. The local trans. shops just laughed at the times and passed on the work, too.

We haven't done any yet. Management has not been able to convince anyone to do trans. work for the SLTS times and now this recall hits! Kinda tense at the shop but so far has been a stalemate with neither side budging. The local trans. shops just laughed at the times and passed on the work, too.

Be careful, Ed. Ford now has the procedure in the exhaust section of the manual, section 309 as Turbocharger inlet Y-pipe. The labor ops are 9438A for turbo removal(1.5 hrs.) and 9438A2 for the Y-pipe(.7 hrs). We used to do it your way, but the risk of all those tickets being back-flagged on review or audit is to great. It sucks.

We have a couple guys that do them without pulling the turbo. They have long arms and a strong chest, gets sore laying over the engine they say. I know where you are coming from with your question because we have had some turbos we had to split in half and take the pedestal and turbo out together due to rusted/siezed bolts. I have watched the other techs do it without turbo removal and sometimes it takes them quite awhile to do it their way, too. Before doing anything else, I would see if the turbo bolt on the drivers side rear comes loose, if it does continue with turbo removal. If it doesn't I would seriously consider the other method.

Had an '04 in a few weeks back that needed injectors on the passenger bank. What an ordeal. The owner uses it for business so already had over 50K on it, but had been more trouble free than most Super Duties I have seen. He loves the thing. After the job, I had a chat with him that after he was out of warranty he would be hard pressed to afford anyone to repair it. Most indies will be awhile to coming up to speed on the sick-o and frankly, I told him (politely) I would nail him hard on any job, if I chose to do it all. This engine is simply not fun in an Econoline. There is better work out there. He was OK with it, but I bet he trades out before his 100K warranty is up.

The one thing other than the labor time cuts to have adversely effected my pay has been the lack of parts on hand. I am tired of feeling as if I work at a Sears catalog store and always ordering parts. Daily Parts Advantage sucks. I lose many sold jobs because people don't come back after having second thoughts about the price quote. Don't even get me started on the mark-up on the parts, either!

I think it is interesting how drive techs are such "tool whores" that they have little resistance to forking out the bucks for a new toy. How is it that a multi-million dollar franchise can't afford a $2200 tool, but a person on technician wages can rationalize the purchase as a good value? That thinking seems to elude me.