Jim Warman

I have no familiarity with oil analysis... other than seeing an oil sample sent to Cat and the report came back saying the brake-saver was gong out..... the only problem being that the sample was from a Cummins NTC350... a motor with no brake-saver. Oil sampling likely works well in context.... locomotive, marine applications and such where samples ae taken regularly between oil changes or where oil changes are not regularly scheduled. Two problems I see with oil sampling from our point of view... samples at 5000 mile intervals allow damage to progress too far for the samples to be useful in any diagnosis. Looking at the usual forums, we see consumers agonizing over report findings. People are going on red alert for no reaso.... Done properly and in the right context, oil analysis is a valuable tool.... done the way I see it being done only generates revenue for Blackstone.

Dale, before I got my first one, one of the other techs had to flush a cooling system left dirty by another dealership. He tried the Motorcraft flush and. while it may be good at reducing scale, it didn't seem to make the flushing process go any faster.

I start the clean up pretty much when I start disassembly. I pull off the degas bottle before I drain the cooling system. Once I have stuff apart, I flush the EGR cooler, heater core and leave the hot water hose drizzle into the rad as I'm working. All of these will get several quarts of oil out of the system. After that it's all MT to fill with water and whatever dishwasher liquid they get me, drive it hard and drain it enough times until the water runs clear. Using the air lift when filling seems to help draw some oil up into the degas. So far, it's been taking about two days to flush the system enough to keep everyone happy. No chargebacks, so far. I'm unsure how they've been charging out the dishwasher liquid. The standing joke around the shop is that I get paid more than any other dishwasher in the world.

I did the one day familiarization course and about all I really learned is that it is easier to do repairs with the motor on a stand.... I will say that it helped build confidence when delving into new areas...... like oil coolers..... #3 is coming apart as we speak.

I'm into this one now.... they didn't let it run out of oil but they have been adding oil for several days. Gonna be a long time bfore the left side of this truck gets rusty.

Keith... I'm gettin' old and I'm likely not the sharpest pencil in the box... what on earth could they come up with to replace the HEUI without actually making the move to 42 volts?

Worked late tonight (yes, dammit - again!!!). When I left, sitting outside was oil cooler #3 in less than a month. I think I'm gonna call in sick for the next couple of days...

Keith and all.... one of my big concerns with websites like TDS stem from the "mods without thought" crowd. There are many owners that a baby fresh to diesel engines. These folks are getting advice from 'experts' that have tried a couple of mods on their own units and feel proud. Needless to say, none of these 'experts' come back to tell anyone they undid their mods because the truck turned unpredictable or unreliable ... and they sure aren't about to admit that their quest for torque may have had something to do with that rod kicking itself out the side of the motor. We only need to look at the wet stacking thread to see tunnel vision. For various reasons, I have no problem with someone modding an occasional driver but I think modding a truck that has to be dependable is counter-productive. If the friggin' thing isn't powerful enough for someones needs in stock trim, they likely bought the wrong truck.

We have a lot of clay in our area.... in the summer, on our oil patch and logging roads, this stuff breaks up finer than flour and can hang in the air for a long, long time. For the 6.os, the stock filter is about as good as our conditions is going to see. These things can weigh a LOT before the inlet restriction gauge even budges yet there is no residue on the clean air side of the system. I haven't seen many aftermarket set ups on these, but the few I have seen always have tattletales where the shouldn't be. For the 7.3, the 6.0 look-alike filter (the one with the blue honeycomb) appears to wrok well... they don't plug off as quick as the stock paper filter yet retain a clean upstream tract. K&Ns may work well in sandy areas but they are totally useless where red clay abounds.... sand grains being much larger and heavier than clay granules. Local conditions account for more in the area of failures and the frequency of those failures than we first imagine. It may make me sound like an anti-performance add on guy but I base all my considerations on what I see in the clean side of the lnlet system. So far, my experience shows properly serviced stock filters superior in dirt stopping power.

I agree with the thrust of this thread.... and probably go a little beyond what some techs will. If a power adder isn't going to affect what I'm fixing, I don't even look for them. If the truck has some monster bullydog exhaust, as long as it's not in my way, I don't care.... When a customer brings me a truck with a running problem and he doesn't have the sense to take the chip off.... Where we might differ is on intakes.... I see far too many super-wowee intakes with dust on the wrong side of the filter. We have the chance of a dusted engine and it aint Fords fault... and I want to be sure it ain't my fault. Look at dieselstop and 6LPS and see how many 'honest' people are trying to get something for nothing.... look at usenet (newsgroups) and see how many 'honest' people are trying to get something for nothing. The general feeling is that warranty should cover stupidity... they drive them to destruction and expect someone else to pay.... Sorry for the rant.... the old booger is just feeling a little "pesky"..

Has anyone used the special tools for testing the vacuum seal of the hub and the seal in the knuckle? I've used the tools a couple of times but I find that even new seals in the knuckles can give mixed results. Even tried squirting oil into the seal with no change.... BTW... the knuckle seals on the O5s go onto the stub shaft easier but they sure grab onto the knuckle with a vengeance.

First, I'll agree that these are by far much cleaner on the outside than the 7.3s. First one I had was an 05... another dealer changed the cooler but left the cooling system full of pudding. IIRC, that one was nearing 20,000 km (12.5K miles). Second was an 05 21,000 km.... The one I'm waiting for parts on is an 04 with either 60000ish or 80000ish kms (ain't old fart eyes wonderful) and I understand I have one coming in on the hook tomorrow... birthdate unknown. So far, each and every one of these was driven until it stalled. 3.5 liters (nearly 4 quarts) left in the crankcase seems to be the norm. First one I pushed into the shop... now I just dump a gallon of oil in and drive them in. If the bottom end is hurtin', at least I'll get a heads up on it. So far, they sem to live without pulling the pan.

In addition... a couple of leaking IPRs. Friday I had to shampoo one motor.. the entire top covered in oil and dirt... added dye to the oil and will check again next week. But the winner is (drum roll please) - the degas bottle. I'm in the middle of a spate of pooched oil coolers. I know that there's over 10 litres of oil in the cooling system because I'm only draining 3 litres of oil out of the crankcase at which point the motor stalls ... so far, none of the bottom ends are DOA. Cleaning the cooling system is a PITA.

The pool gets pretty muddy up here in Liberal Canada.... People will trot out every excuse in the book to avoid logging on to the shop computer as individuals. We have a lot of personal (and personnell) dynamics in the shop that are slowing us down. My next step is to suggest a high speed connection in my bay free of our LAN. At leats I can access OASIS and even do instant messaging to parts and serivce without breaching security. Problem is that everyone else will want a company bought laptop to tae advantage of this sort of thing. If I can work through this problem, I'll be sure to let you know.

Hey, guys... be happy with what you have. Here in Canada.... Weez the poh fohks.... We used to have a monthly Q&A... if you got all the answers right, your name went in the hat. If your name was drawn you got a whopping $25.00 - if I had won that, I could have retired. Year before last, it went quarterly and last year it disappeared. Also missing.... awards for maintaining status. Admittedly, the cheque for maintaining senior status wouldn't be big enough to get you drunk at the peeler bar, but it was, in some small way, recognition. We have no national competition with hoohaw prizes... we have no hoohaw prizes.... we have no hoohaw.... Be careful what you wish for... you just might get it.

Does the old pitter/patter at the thought 8^) I'm reasonably sure that there is more of the "what the market will bear" south of the 49th. Aftermarket stuff just isn't that inexpensive (though most of it is "cheap") up here in the frozen north. One plus I like to mention is that If the injector I replace in SLave Lake screws up, the Ford dealer in Toronto can replace with no added worry to the customer. Few others seem to consider the "peace of mind factor".... my wife and son both travel far from home on a regular basis. Most of my problems are usually fixed by simply saying "do it...". GB, I'm sure you know who GrampyJim is wink, wink, nudge, nudge, know what I mean???

My hoist is a 4 post.... helps me dodge a lot of those bullets. Downside is those mud encrusted 450s and 550s with PTOs...

Parts are on backorder??? I just thought that it took that long to get them normally.... Amusing factoid.... for some reason, turbochargers and very few other parts are automatically delayed at the border (coming into Canada from the US)for 10 days (IIRC). I'm not sure if they need paperweights or if they expect these things to start producing "buds" while in storage....

You're right, Keith... if we don't have good communication up front, we wont have much later on (a lot like whether a house is on a good basement or not). At the same time, I have to agree with GB... and it's not limited to truck owners. People screw up, wont admit it and then get mad when they see it can't be called warranty after all. Ford promised a lot with this motor.... while I feel it is still a very good motor, it's not living up to all the promises. Many dealers spend too much time looking at the botto line and forget about the people that make the bottom line a reality.... customers and, to some extent, staff (good staff... staff with training... staff with team spirit and the desire to do well). A lot has to do with techs themselves (ourselves?). "Gotta make hours... lots of hours..... that repair is good enough". If we spend our time doing warranty well and our SMs and SAs spend time doing their jobs well, we can build good retail business and everyone will do well.

I'm not sure that there would have been a problem with reflashes if Ford had handled the programming a little differently. Lord knows there was a lapse in communication twixt service writer and customer, and it is not uncommon for us to be directed to reflash a PCM before we know everything the flash does (or even before the engineers know everything the flash does). Once the flashes were coming almost as fast as soup of the day, the word got out and customers became wary of what new problems the latest cure would generate. Once the trust is gone, it's real hard to gain it back... I tend to look at life in simple, basic terms and not spend too much time analyzing things.

My newest laptop has the wireless card built in... works well at home (for an old geezer, I have too many computers... 3 laptops and a desktop all networked). I will leave the full server as a standing excuse since we have a distinct security probem with the SBTS. A lot of the guys aren't as PC literate as they could be and our system is constantly on the verge of spyware/adware/virus overload. If they opened te network to me, they could expose the network to needless risk by the next request. I can abide that decision but it would be real nice if we could have a wireless VCM plugged into the DLC and the ability to position my laptop where I want/need. Everyone else in our shop is waiting for the dealership to buy them a PC without any thought as to their utility NOW. They're not really spendy (as you already know)and just having one for our personal needs is a bonus. I do wish I had the added connectivity but I shudder when I see what is left behind on the shop computer.

Interesting subtopic... SLTs... I'm a slope-shouldered old geezer and I figure that I'll take the crap if they spice it up with a healthy dose of retail ball joints and clutches. If you do happen to get stuck with a run of real crap warranty stuff, our DP and SM will make sure you're not wanting at the end of the pay period. I wish you other techs could find a place to work like this.... it's enough to make a guy take the wheels off his toolboox (but that might be old age talking, too). Our shop has done many 04B24s... I've been lucky enough to cost cap all of mine. Good thing, too since I seem to have trouble getting the centre support back in even with half the fibers still sitting on the bench. Not one 05B27(??) as yet but we are seeing lot's of T-case problems. Mode fork and synchro troubles. First symptom is delayed engagement at speed.

Interesting subtopic... SLTs... I'm a slope-shouldered old geezer and I figure that I'll take the crap if they spice it up with a healthy dose of retail ball joints and clutches. If you do happen to get stuck with a run of real crap warranty stuff, our DP and SM will make sure you're not wanting at the end of the pay period. I wish you other techs could find a place to work like this.... it's enough to make a guy take the wheels off his toolboox (but that might be old age talking, too). Our shop has done many 04B24s... I've been lucky enough to cost cap all of mine. Good thing, too since I seem to have trouble getting the centre support back in even with half the fibers still sitting on the bench. Not one 05B27(??) as yet but we are seeing lot's of T-case problems. Mode fork and synchro troubles. First symptom is delayed engagement at speed.

I keep the current manuals on my hard drive (o need for the DVDs). Our server is plugged (so they tell me) and I have no internet acess othe than the shop computer. I initially bought my laptop because there is, all too often, a line up at the shop terminal. Now, there is, sometimes, a line up at my toolbox. Solve one problem and create two more... sounds like my daily job...

This tool is also available as a single chamber tool and sold under the name "Block Tester". Luke-warmline may have you install a clear plastic hose into the system to check for bubbles. Every 6.0 I have checked this way produces bubbles in the clear plastic hose... it will send you on a wild goose chase and there will be a chargeback. There are a couple of drawbacks... I've had the block tester fluid drawn back into the cooling system (i'm told the fluid is benign) and I've had the chanber fill with coolant.... in both cases, you may have to start over. If your shop has a gas bench (analyzer) this can be used to find combustion byproducts in the cooling system.... Sucking coolant through the gas bench probe makes for a very expensive day.