Brad Clayton

Well against what I really had hopes for when moving to North Carolina, I have had to take on a side gig. I haven't done side work for over a decade (since my kids were in diapers really) and haven't had to for the most part. Working from the wee hours in the morning to the.....wee hours in the evening is not what I had in mind at this point in my career [a quarter of a century in]. The biggest thing that sticks in my mind and brings this topic up at the moment is......I have never in my entire life, removed so many valve covers and IPR valves from 6.0L engines. Now that these engines are well out of warranty and in the hands of Indy shops, it's a lot of dummy plugs, stand pipes, injectors, and swapped in IPR's. The shop I moonlight at has one of the cheapest labor rates I have ever heard of at $65 an hour so needless to say they are swamped. There long time diesel guy parted ways and I was called in for reinforcement. The sad thing is I only put in a few hours a night and some Saturdays and I make about the same as I do at the dealer. The shop is better equipped than my dealer also. The shop owner is very committed to doing things right. I have noticed a lot of 6.4's running around and can only imagine those will start rolling in next. Well, guess I better get some rest, tomorrow evening I have to dead head a 7.3 with a HPOP that I think is pooched, replace an IPR on a 6.0 that crapped out after an oil cooler replacement, and do a timing belt and plug wires on a classic Thunderbird turbo coupe.

I was just talking to the Snap-on dealer about these on Tuesday. They even had to go to a class to bring them up to speed on all the new torque wrenches and fasteners that are currently in the field. I still use my trusted ooooolllldd school angle meter gage. This thing is about the equivalent of using a sirometer for vibration analyzing.

I had to make a trip down to our local ER the other night and did not see one Econoline ambulance. They were all Chevy's. Diesel powered Chevy's that is.

Damn, the dealer lost another veteran tech. I may not be far behind you with the way things are. Best of luck and enjoy getting paid for every minute your in the building, it should be a very refreshing change.

How long did that take ya? Was it an easy drill or a bit of work?

I wish they would address that issue for future models.

Clusterphuck of the day: couldn't get the bolts on the egr supply pipe to even budge, ended up snaking the valve and cooler around the pipe separately.

I recently had a run in with a couple of repairs that force you to use "ID", One repair involved electric steering (EPAS) on a 2011 F-150 and the other was an APIM repair on a Ford of some sort. It got me thinking about it again. I made a document years ago on the subject but never loaded it on here. I would like to preface this thread by saying I AM LAZY. With that said, anything that will make my job easier is more than welcome in my life. I love interactive diagnostics, it cuts my work load down greatly and I use it when ever it's available. Now there are some guys that have expressed a bit of concern involved with "ID" and not wanting to speak for anyone of put words in anyone's mouth, will allow those concerns to be voiced again if they want. I would dare say that if your dealership isn't equipped with decent internet or computers that can't reach the cars data link, or laptops that have trouble running PTS, you may be in for some overhauling in the future. Anyway, here is a link to the doc. If anyone can't open it or read it (using a phone or the like) let me know. PCED interactive diagnostics.pdf

Had a fuck of a problem with something when I first got it, but I think it was something to do with trying to get it to cooperate with our printer. We almost converted it back to Windows 7 but I think that was going to be an even more of a bitch and eventually a mistake. I have since gotten used to 8, so I am sure they will change it all over again now.

Both I and II

I employee this method, and like it because I can lift the rads out without a helper and it also keeps from scratching up any of the coolers.

I am using a windows 8 equipped puter with IDS. Everything runs as it always has.

Believe it or not, we got approved for not 1 but 2 of these lifts. One will be going over to the GM side of the dealer though. Of course now we have hit a new snag, they are saying that our ceiling is to low.

So I take your going to work today?

This is way too funny had to bring it over from "the boards"

A warning to heed for sure:

First Mustang PCM I ever flashed was in a 99 cobra for the power improvement recall. Used the WDS back in them days. We also flashed the brain boxes to correct the speedo after gear swaps. So I guess it could go both ways, but I think piggy backs were the way of the dinasour by then.

How are you checking fuel pressure? Are you using the fuel rail pressure pid? I would double check that rail pressure pid against a mechanical gage, they should be within 10 pi of each other. Quick and easy just to rule that out. However it would appear that spark advance is the low power issue on this unit, just not sure why its so retarded.

That's cool. We need something like that. I searched high low for that box.

This is a Cmax hybrid with a questionable BCM ground. I like to use the ol power probe for a voltage source, its fused, and easy to switch power on and off. A volt meter, and headlight bulb. This bulb has a nice harness hooked to hit for low and high beam operation and I can jumper it without having to worry about my jumpers shorting out due to an available ground in each connector. First, I locate the ground at the BCM connector and then use an appropriate terminal to jump it out with. I hook the power probe to the power side of the bulb and hook the ground side of the bulb to the BCM ground. I hook one lead of the meter to the ground at the BCM and the other lead to the ground lug in the sill plate under the carpet. After powering up the bulb it should be nice and bright and the voltage should be very low, in this case 50 millivolts, well within spec. So this ground is A-OK.

This is a pretty straight forward job if you have the tools to get the pulley off the camshaft. It can be done without the Ford tools but you would have to get a little creative. The tools have a new global number but that would be of use only if you were ordering them new. If these tools are in your dealer, then they will be in this box tucked away deep in a closet or crevice somewhere. As a matter of fact these tools had the anti rust goop still intact on them. The yellow arrows point to the removal items needed and the green arrow to the installer spacer. A standard harmonic balancer puller is used with the yellow items, and a standard power steering pulley installer is used with the spacer pointed out in green. It will have to be a CIII pump thread size. I take note as to whether the pulley is flush, recessed, or what not before removing it. Mount the tools up and pull the pulley off, there isn't that much of a press fit. These 3 bolts hold the pump and housing to the engine. Pushing the pulley on is quite simple.

Man, I thought this thread was gonna have a nasty car laying rubber for an 1/8 mile.

Thermostats were gravy on it though!!!!

Last one I worked on both coolers were removed and coolant passages capped off.