Keith Browning

You mean a bad name like Power Joke?

Good point BUT this picture is telling a story too. While it doesn't mention "Power Stroke" it shows the stigma attached to these engines. Perhaps a re branding is in order. I like either name actually.

Yeah, this if Ford Quality Care Maintenance - they want to pay 6.0 for this job. I oped out 7.1 hours and added 30% for CP time which comes to 9.2 hours after itemizing. My original quote was 9.0 hours. Am I off here? Is 30% over factory time unreasonable? Even so, I am not doing this for LESS than factory time.

Anybody have a Motors labor manual for medium duty trucks? I need MOTORS times for tow in no start with a broken flywheel - move disabled vehicle, no start diagnostics, data logger, R&I Torqshift trans, R&R flywheel, post repair road test. Thanx in advance

I was talking with someone at Ford who didn't know the answer to this - is Scorpion more than just the project code name or will the "name" of the power plant actually be Scorpion replacing the Power Stroke? Two ways of looking at it is Power Stroke has excellent recognition and it is a good name. The flip side is that Ford might want to disassociate their new FORD designed and built engine with International and all of the problems. Opinions?

Did you actually run a manual compression test? I got sucker punched by using the IDS relative compression test. What was your fuel trim for cylinder #8? According to Ford anything over +10% indicates a problem with the cylinder/injector. As for the star pattern it is normal to see that to some degree and it will vary from engine to engine. If you have one cylinder that has a star pattern with a distinctly different appearance I would think that is an indication of an injector problem. Remember, we have an active FSA on injectors. Is this truck involved?

There is a connector available and it fits the CMP and CKP sensors: [*]Motorcraft# WPT231 . [*]Ford Part# 3U2Z-14S411-CGA

I am really talking about the aftermarket/DieselStop crowd. I have read about this for a couple of years but paid little mind to it. Look at the site DieseSite.com instead of me trying to explain it all.

I was thinking the same thing Brad. Duh! Why didn't I think of that. I wrangled with a few of these too.

Here's something we haven't discussed: I would imagine most of us have seen the Dieselsite ads for the 2003* thermostat to replace the 195* thermostat installed at the factory on 7.3L PSD engines. Apparently Navistar applications use the higher temp stat and Ford uses the lower. So why the difference? Emissions? Application? (F-Series cooling system) I have read a lot of thoughts and opinions along with some silly claims as well, I thought I would see what you fellas think.

To begin with, the cylinder head cleaning video does not play on ANY of my computers, here at home or at work. I praise Ford Motor Company for having outstanding resources and technical website - many in the know say it is the best in the industry. So why can't they embed a freaking video in a way that works? Needless to say I have not seen it. I also agree with Jim here - it appears the factory machining of these cylinder blocks and heads is not as pristine as they would have you believe. Ever clean one up and look at it? Nice long sweeping grinder marks. I think that the fear here is that using heavy abrasives will leave deep scratches that the gaskets cannot seal allowing gasses and fluids to breach over time. The second concern is the desire to clean the surfaces so "good" that you can create low spots in the attempt to remove stains or pitting in the metal. I know there are guys that have done that - I had a short-timer that worked with me grind up a 1/8" valley on a 3.8L cylinder head. You did not need a straight edge to see the low spot. Here we are talking about iron parts. There is going to be some staining of the steel, some minor pitting or etching is normal and recognizing that is crucial. Knowing not to try and "clean" that is important. If you are unsure whether a dark spot is carbon or gasket material or a stain in the metal, take a fresh razor blade and rub it flat on the metal. If you see anything coming off you have more cleaning to do otherwise leave it be. They allow us to use the green Scotchbrite - the PADS not the DISCS. The pads will leave minor scratches in the surface if you look. The only compromise I allow myself is to use a worn maroon Roloc disc with my whizzer and I use fast sweeping motions to remove debris. I follow up by hand wiping with Scotchbrite and Brakleen.

Earlier this week our dealer had the Ford dog and pony show in for a promotional event while we had a service customer event. They brought in a new Taurus SHO and had it on display along with the Fusion hybrid and a 2010 Mustang. The sales managers and the dealer owner got to take it out for a beating but I didn't ask how it was. I did get to look it over and feel it up later. Nice car! The engine did not look to be stuffed in there too badly as I could see the firewall and the turbos from the top though they won't be accessed from there I assure you.

Bad day for the entertainment industry as two American Icons died today. Farrah Fawcett this morning and Michael Jackson this evening. This on the heels of Ed McMahon's passing just yesterday.

Do you do a lot of harnesses and did you claim a lot of M-time? Just curious. I don't think they have ever called back a harness from us but I doubt we have ever done more than 4 or 5 6.0L harnesses in total over the years... excluding fuel injector harnesses of course.

And ask your parts department to save the harness if Ford does not call it back. They usually don't. If you get to keep it, cut off all of the connectors leaving 4"-6" of wire. These salvaged harnesses have saved my ass several times and you WILL need something from it one day sooner or later. We havent done any harnesses in a while now and some connectors are scarce again.

Boy you ain't kiddin! It's just too much climbing up and down and leaning down to work on these engines is added strain.

" It isn't dealerships against independents... it is professionals against turds... "

Remember, it is easier to prove neglect than abuse. You have a great case when an engine has an inch of sludge under the valve covers. Then try to prove those modifications caused the EGR cooler to fail... particularly when they are failing in serious numbers. I had a conversation with my FSE this evening about the recent TSB on maintenance specifically oil changes and coolant testing. It will never be used to deny warranty. It WILL help to (re)educate the customers and hopefully more trucks will receive the proper maintenance. In theory, this should help reduce failures thus warranty costs. As far as mods go, there is little they can do to stop them much less prove they caused or even influenced a particular failure. Unless you can prove so with 100% certainty, I personally wouldn't waste my time documenting it.

Ohhh absolutely Bradley! I concur.

Gee Jim, sorry to hear about your, and particularly your Wife's ordeal. I hear kidney stones are a real blast and I wish her a speedy passing! Now tell u more about this 30mm combo wrench.... You're not going to beat the stones out of her are ya? Just trying to figure out how the wrench fits into the situation.

How was your trip Jim?

When did we start using 25 miles = 1 hour? I thought it was 33 miles to 1 hour. Talk about severe duty, I have a customer with a 2008 F350 6.4L that just received a new DPF because it would not clean. I looked at it and it was well loaded up, not actually clogged. The trucks showed 31,000 miles but the engine hours were 1900 and using the new calculation figure that comes to 47,500 miles. We had a ling conversation about fuels and vehicle use to keep the DPF clean. He lives and works in Brooklyn where there is a traffic light at every intersection. He claims that he does not really idle the truck much but he spend A LOT of time in city traffic. I suggested that he try to get her out onto the NY Thruway a little more regularly. Goes to show you that anything is possible.

For the life of me I could not remember where I saw it, then I went looking. Only the manuals have language options - I looked in a 2008 online manual and there is an option for English, Canadian French and Mexican Spanish. I don't understand the national labels... what is wrong with English, French and Spanish? Why not contact the FSA help line listed in the FSA notice and ask them directly?

I recall seeing a "Mexican Content" tab somewhere on PTS but I don't see it...