Jim Warman

Thank you Steve and Larry.... but the real credit belongs to my better half.... Anyone that can put up with me for that long deserves her weight in gold!!! The knowledge stuff? It kinda just happens but yet it don't.... You do well, all the same... you're inquisitive - and that's the important thing. Bruce is inquisitive on steroids... I'd love to have some of those opportunities (I decided against it since I sunburn easily). If a guy wants knowledge, there are two questions that are constantly asked... "WHY" and "HOW". Look at the trouble grown men have understanding ESOF - "I have no vacuum to my hubs in 4X4"... "DUHHHH, don't take a leak/play with the dog/drink a beer between turning the switch and looking at the gauge". A long time ago, one of my mentors looked me in the eye and asked "If you don't know how it works, how the f@ck ya gonna fix it?". Everyone should think about that one for a while.... I got involved with a guy on an iATN problem (I should know better by now) involving the horn and cruise control on a *we think* 02 PSD. He "says" he has the factory wiring diagrams... He is amazed that there is no cruise control servo.... The horn works normally but he replaced the horn relay (actually the CJB) anyway.... He hasn't thought about "HOW" the circuit works... and he certainly hasn't considered "WHY" it works the way it does... (he was "shocked" at the way they have reduced the number of wires going to the horn pad). And it's a common problem (here we go again... the old guy is off on a tangent).... Knowledge comes from understanding.... This is my career.... I can choose to be good at it... or I can choose to treat it like a job and struggle every step of the way... A lot of what I learn, I learn from my young'uns... Knowing what NOT to do can be more important than knowing what TO do...

Having Spamsoil assess their own oil and filters sounds a lot like having the fox mind the henhouse... Something I think everyone overlooks... the big saving grace for synthetics is thermal stability. The add pack is going to break down, just like with dino oil... with PAO base stocks, shear shouldn't be a big concern... but everyone and his dog is allowed to call a "semi-synthetic" (cracked dino oil) a synthetic... with no real explanation of the differences. Without any manufacturer support for extended service intervals when using synthetics, I see no other benefit than in the way it performs in extreme cold or heat. FWIW, we usually have at least one full week of -40 in the winter... this isn't "extreme" cold... Minus 50.... well, we've had that too... that would be what we call "nippley".

Ahhh, the simplest things can escape us.... cranking the engine just isn't a good option in our shop.... cramped, crowded... and "oil patch" dirty... all of our floors slope the wrong way (if you want to keep your feet dry, go stand near the sump). Putting more crap on the floor is something we try to avoid... Now the air thing..... To quote a famous celebrity.... "DOH!!!".

Ours is an old Rotunda engine crane... purchased in the early 80s, it is still doing well, today. There's enough Rotunda decals and red and white paint splashed all over it to hide it's real parentage. I'm sure we originally paid way too much for it but, given it's 20something years of service, purchase price would be a moot point. Knowing that OTC supplies much of our factory tools, I might suggest starting your search with either Acklands-Grainger or (if they are in Winterpeg) Gregg Distributors.

Kevin, we've had a few where the screen has stayed in the HPOP when the IPR is removed.. not sure if it could be chalked up to poor fit, an assembly error or the damage we sometimes find to the screen (unfortunately, we can never be sure if it is the HPOP that killed it or our attempts to dig it out). I'm going to assume that the screen was undamaged and contained no debris once you got it out? FWIW, I do know of at least one instance where a second screen was discovered in the IPR port.... looked like the IPR had been changed previously and the wannabe that changed it was half asleep.

Kieth... you have wwwaaayyyy too much time on your hands /forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/grin.gif

Are you talking nuts or creeper, Matt? I'm sorry, I couldn't help it..... /forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/smirk.gif

What? And scare the piss out of all the new guys?

And that, Tony, is something I do well.... Even the simplest thing can generate a thousand sidebars.... And here we go on another tangent /forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/smirk.gif

<GRANDPA>? I understand my sons girlfriend and her almost mother-in-law have been "chatting".... I think I'd like that... I can fill the kid full of chocolate and give him noisey toys to take home.... sweet revenge... FWIW, the almost mother-in-law and I are celebrating #34 today... I already bought her a new torque wrench (which she kindly let's me use at work) so I have to make a quick decision.... would she prefer to have a new dado head for my.... (I mean HER) tablesaw? Or maybe a new snow blower she can lend me?

Yep... ain't he a handsome sumbiatch???? I can honestly say that the day they took that pic, I wasn't quite "ready".... Three days of stubble will attest to that. Anyone going to chip in for my "make-over"? Oh, yeah... did anyone notice I still have a lot of hair? On edit... notice my eyes don't do that spooky thing like Kieths avatar?

One of the few sabbaticals I've taken from this career involved big trucks.... I had a brief love affair with an R700 Mack with the 375 V8.... it was "opened up" to 2600 rpm and didn't seem to mind it at all... except for the fact you can't keep valve seat inserts in these friggin' engines. After the "divorce" I drove a KW for a few months .... originally an oil patch truck (it had a Fuller I can't remember how many speed - RTO12515 I think - and a 4 speed behind that for the power tower to run a winch) with a wet kit for an end dump. 8V92 with some non-stock parts opened up to somewhere close to 3K. That was impressive to hear. We had a few 6.0s come in on the hook with "redesigned" oil pans a couple even perforated... My first introduction to a runaway 6.0 was on the highway. It was the first 6.0 "leaker" we saw in our shop and I would later drain over 42 liters out of the crankcase... This was before Ford announced the injector concern. I was doing about 100 km/h and stuffed my foot in it while watching I can't remember what PIDs..... I lifted at 120ish km/h but the truck didn't slow down... Wondering just what the hell was going on, I rode the brakes (moderate pressure)... Once I got the thing down to about 70~80, I could relax the brake a little and things returned to "normal".... I tried the procedure all over again.... with the same result. OK... "Houston, we have a problem".... Still not suspecting a "runaway" type scenario, I limped back to the shop keeping the tach low.... Seemed that, as long as I didn't get the motor "excited", it was business as usual.... Back at the ranch, with the hood up, I noticed a new oil leak... coming from the dipstick tube O-ring.... When I removed the drain plug I wound up using two five gallon pails and a half a bag of floor dry.... *Most* of the trucks we work on are fitted with positive air shut offs (oilfield requirements). The most popular one is the Rhoda Deaco with auto-activation (no switch to flip or handle to pull). These "steal" an rpm signal from the alternator rectifier. While they are fitted with a "cheater" button that supposedly give the opportunity to adjust the rpm set at 1/3 the required rpm, we've had a couple that gave us concerns... Now, we set them up at "live" rpm... Rev the engine to governed speed and adjust the set point to kill the motor (an "interesting" sound) and then advance the set point a bit.... This can almost be an art-form on stick shift trucks since we know that the driver is going to overspeed the motor on a downhill and we'll want to compensate for that.... Even the "auto" PASs are equipped with a toggle switch.... every now and again, we get a phone call "my truck wont start".... And my first question is "Does it have a PAS?".....

Not all that long ago, I remember saying something like "Bruce sucks"..... Well... it snowed again today.... we tried burning our store downlast night... and Bruce still sucks... On the bright side (for Bruce, anyway), with my fair skin and virile good looks, I could get sunburned simply by looking at his vacation pics.... Did I mention that Bruce sucks /forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/smirk.gif ?

Bruce... I don't have what we'd like to see.... For some reason, the missing battery shroud just didn't seem important.... but, after careful examination.... The programmer had been disconnected and the factory harness was unceremoniously draed over thge side of the battery... At fisrt, this appeared like this wiring would "naturally" be from the programmer. Cut to the chase.... This battery had several B+ taps that were unprotected... At one point, this truck had a Tidy Tank mounted in the box with an electric pump (circuit unprotected). When the tank and pump were removed, the wiring was simply cut and abandonned... Left to it's own devices, the wiring drooped down and rubbed against the drivesahft... areas of burned insulation support this assumption.... and eventually, met the right circumstances inside our shop... And here is the conumdrum.... I often see B+ taps that aren't obviously protected.... Sometimes I think to mention them, but I often forget.... They aren't currently a problem, why bother? But that can change in a heartbeat.... as I had the opportunity to be reminded... Of course this could turn into another esoteric dicussion of "how far should we go" when we get a customer unit in our bay. If, for no other reason than self-preservation, we see ANYTHING that is "odd", at the very least we should make a note on the RO... Put in writing that we saw something that deserves further (cost added) investigation. As it stands... circumstances occured.... When we all got to work this AM, we had a building to work in.... Thee is no other way to describe it than "lucky". There is a very good chance (given the truck and the customer) that I have seen these unprotected circuits before.... But, with no customer concern expressed, I overlooked *because I am human*. So.... in order to be "better" than them hacks... we need to add vigilence to our repertoire... Damn... I hijacked my own thread...

I've often used that line (along with "baby-sitter") when I'm asked to describe my job... Tonight, I proved it.... It was snowing fairly heavily this afternoon so, at days end, some of tomorrows first jobs were pulled in to warm up and melt off.... As usual I was still putting out some fires from another hectic day at the office and, about 7:00PM, I made my lock up rounds of my part of the store... I noticed that one of the recently brought in trucks had "steam" rising from the hood. When I got closer I noticed that the steam was very dark coloured... I pulled the hood release on an 06ish PSD and peaked in the crack..... a saw flames. A couple of good snorts with a handy extinguisher and I opened the hood... at first glance it appears (in a moment of fitting justice) that the customers Edge programmer developed an Attitude of it's own... and lit up the harness right between the battery and PCM... Once I had the battey cables disconnected and the truck pushed back outside, I had to reflect on how Lady Luck has smiled on our shop today....

Brad, equating fuel consumption with tailpipe (and/or evaporative) emissions is a common mistake. While we all need to be concerned about the rate at which we're consuming non-renewable resources... it is the quality of our air that is of greater concern at the present time. If people are affluent enough to afford what it costs to feed their choice of transport... that's fine.... as long as tailpipe emissions are in line with the production year of the unit... As for professional motorsports.... would it be interesting to learn that "off road" industries (logging, quarrying, construction) aren't under the same restrictions as the general public for many of their fuels and such? Professional Motorsports have been allowed the luxury of not having to add expensive R&D into "greener" fuels (though NASCAR is researching alternatives to leaded gasoline). But, compared to what we, the general public, consume in our day to day activities, motorsports is just a drop in the bucket.... not to mention nobody is going to consider political suicide at this point by legislating "green" fuels for these activities. Let's add that most racing venues don't happen on publicly funded roads.... If any of us are going to start messing around with fuel or timing curves, or if we are going to alter the operation of the working charge dilution (EGR) ratios, we should ensure that we aren't exceeding the emissions limits legislated for that particular vehicle...

If you're tuner isn't going to control fuel, what will it control? At the same time, most of the tailpipe emissions we have to worry about are colourless and/or odourless. FWIW... and I hope everyone is listening here.... as automotive technicians, we are the gusrdians of our planets future.... Whether we agree with emissions requirements or not, these are required "by law".. plain and simple fact... I am doing everything in my power to reduce the effect of my excesses on the environment... but I'm not doing it so someone else can neglect his responsibilty to the same cause....

I have to agree, Tony... doing it Stevens way has too much chance of creating a hobby instead of fixing a truck... Not picking on you, Steve... but there comes a time when you have to look the boss in the eye and say "I ain't gonna do that...". If I was going to set out on the adventure you're planning, I'd be in there with a cylinder bore gauge and a magnifier.

Yes... for the PCM, TCM and IC, anyway... It lists both the current cal. as well as what it would be replaced with...

Spamsoil has made me confused.... As far as I can tell, part of their product line uses PAO base stocks (which, AFAIK, is the good stuff) and part uses "hydro-cracked" (so-called "semisynthetic" base stocks). I tried Mobil 1 in a couple of my personal vehicles with no really astounding changes... I'm left with impression that the only real benefit of synthetic oil is it's thermal stabilty in temperature extremes...

I guess it's up to me to ask the question.... what does this do regarding oxides of nitrogen? Are the tailpipe emissions up to snuff?

The tech in our shop that bought one is a skinny little guy in his late 20s... he loves it.... I tried it once.... I'm not rotund.... but neither am I svelt.... (well, maybe I am close to rotund).... Picture a pilot whale in the wrong place at low tide....

Just an FYI.... at <someones> discretion, hooking up even a PDS is $119.95 (plus gouge and screw tax). This will include some very basic diag time... PPTs and any symptom driven diag time is extra... A full blown IDS (including VMM) is going to be something like 10 large or so in Canada... recouping that investment is very important. This doesn't include the subscriptions once the freebie wears out. Box score... I have two IDS (one VMM)... Two PDS... A Genysis (for all make capability and simply because the government makes me have proprietary module capability for some of my inspections).. a WDS that I keep at the ready for using the PVT without miles of wire going on.... one NGS... all the usual Star and SuperStar crap and a Blue Streak BDM (which is for sale, BTW). That's a lot of coin tied up in specialized tools.... Like Bruce says.... buy what is going to work for you... don't shop price... "Buy the best there is... and only cry once....".

If I have a customer in the service bays, someone is escorting him.... definitely no "strays" allowed... "Back in the day", I couldn't aim a spray bomb or oiler worth shit... and was often heard saying "oh, I'm sorry, did I get you with that?".

I feel for ya, Dave... but like lew says... there's just no pleasing some people... You do the best you can.... and leave it at that... (teflon shoulders helps). We refuse to perform repairs that we don't feel comfortable with ... and if you can't get in there comfortable with the tools you need to... you do what you need to. Some customers wont accept this.... I invite them to shop around before they make their decision.... Unfortunately, by this time they are belligerant with every shop they talk to and we wind up stuck with them.