Jim Warman

The letter is, in my opinion, an attempt to disuade customers from pursuing modifcations to their vehicles that may put us (the store) further under the warranty microscope without alienating them (the guy with the cash)... When push comes to shove, we will revert to prostitution because we want that money and we don't want the hooker.... errrmmmm, I meant mechanic... down the street to get it. Dangle that buck in nearly anyones face.... and some attitudes can change quickly. This is a very fine balancing act - one that usually heads south somewhere along the trail - one that may have us see a "test case" in my lifetime as the impetus towards reduced tailpipe and evaporative emissions continues. Adam is a lot more mod friendly than I am.... his youth and lack of familiarity with history earns him forgiveness (Yussuf Islam once wrote "you're still young, that's your fault..." and backed it up with "I was once as you are now..."). I too applaud the letter though it's spirit is in question... What is needed... people to step up to the plate.... those that will dare to speak of the environment as a non-renewable resource... Sidebar... while I am comfortable, I will never be rich in the monetary sense of the word.... there are some things that I refuse to do "for a buck"... I look around and I see words like "honesty" - "integrity" - "responsible" - and even "good corporate citizen".... And I gotta think "Don't eat that, Elmer... it's already been through the bull once...". But the letter? It's message is still nothing more, nor anything less, than the truth.... If it keeps us from being forced into an unattractive or untenable position, it has done at least what was intended... If it keeps a daily driver from exceeding emissions allowances - it will have succeeded beyond ones wildest dreams.

Before anyone get's too carried away... let's remember that there isn't any apparent reason to get worried about having the PMRs.... unless you're dealing with power adders - once you get into that, all bets are off. I'm almost sure that there was some trepidation when the switch to PMRs was mandated... CGI engine blocks are one of the next logical steps in evolution.... consideration - a diesel engine with aluminium heads - does a CGI block offer better thermal compatability with the heads? Installing aluminium heads on an iron block introduces sealing nightmares.... installing aluminium heads onto something with 17 to 20something to one compression ratio and then adding forced induction.... One would think that the engineers have their bases covered... but why are my toes curling even before the engine reaches the street? Factoid.... I am unsure about modern practice. In the past, even the best engine blocks that Kieth Black and Ed Pink had to offer would have the water jackets filled with grout to add strength in fuel applications. (The last number I heard placed fuel consumption at 65ish gallons per minute) At this point in history (each moment we exist is doomed to become history very soon) the engineers have a pretty good handle on "!?@#%!'s !?@#%! and that's that". As long as we don't step outside of design parameters - either by design (a power adder) or by accident (a stuck VGT turbo in a modern engine)... we should be OK. But.... all the testing in the world (especially when it is done by folks that know engines) can't approach what the guy that lives down the street can do in the way of abuse... How many bottle rockets must a youngster try launching from the crack of their ass before they realize that God made Cape Canaveral for a reason?

Must have something to do with homeland security, Greg... Us lowly Canucks can't partake in any cross border sharing of that video...

Every time I bought a "new to me car",. the first thing that would happen was the back seat came out... cash - tools - somebodies stash.... occasionally a previously occupied condom - kind of a downer...

That's not a joke!!! That is a dream.... You met Dennis... has a 'Vette and a Viper and a 69 Charger and a 69 Roadrunner.... enjoys a little left handed tobacco whenever he is of a mind... spills better whiskey than I covet... and never has to say "Yes dear" to a statement he doesn't comprehend. Most of Dennis' friends are married. All of these married women feel bad about his perceived lack of companionship... He gets tail nearly prearranged for him. His friends wives feel badly for him and often clean his house, bake treats or do laundry... Mrs. Grampy never forgets his birthday or Xmas or whatever... If I knew THEN what I know NOW............

There ain't nothin' a guy is going to bolt on there that will make that truck "special"... You have seen the "dog hair seats", right? The kid bitches about that kind of stuff but you still see me driving his Ranger, yeah???? Back in the early to mid 90s, there was a Canadian company "manufacturing" the Grizzly basically a Dodge rolling chassis (complete with Cummins engine) and slab sided coachwork. Press releases of the day touted this truck as ideal for oilpatch/logging/mining since the flat body panels would be cheap to repair after the inevitable incident.... At >$400 for a new set, those rusty assed old dirt bars are going to have to suffer a severe malfunction sending my gnarly old ass on a collision course with mother earth to make me want to part with that kind of coin.... The really scary part? One of these days you will be just like your Dad....

Waterglass is the term I remember... back when your daddy was a gleam in some old perverts eye, they would preserve eggs in it... they would use it to seal coolant leaks... sodium silicate... have fun with it, guys.... What blows me away.... the number of people that think this stuff is "new"....

I'm not saying it isn't a waste... but I don't think you appreciate the spirit of the program.... "THINK" is a really good word...

Yep.... didn't watch it to the end... There is no point in displaying these videos... that car is simply a pile of plastic and metal... nothing more... it is a machine.... there is no more any glory... Recently, an AC Shelby Cobra brought $400G on Barret Jackson... Now.... people see that old cars, stamps, coins, toilets, gaming tokens are worth money. Is there a day that your truck (or mine) will be worth more than it is worth? Will it be worth more "stock" or "modified"? We can gaze at our own navels for a long time and never be sure.... I'm not trying to "long cock" anyone.... but I really wish that people would begin thinking.... and I really can't see my truck fetching ANYTHING on barret-jackson

PMRs are, indeed, forged rods... I'm not a metallurgist and I don't understand the process.... but I suppose that they can be considered to be "steel"... But I am told that they aren't as strong as their old technology counterparts... From my inadequate standpoint, I understand that PMRs are similar to items made of CGI (compacted graphite iron... is this term familiar?). My research is (at this time) "immature" and I hope I'm not reading too much into some of this stuff... I'm glancing over it without the benefit of time to study it in depth... It was somewhere around 2000 or 2001 that the switch was made FROM forged rods TO forged rods in the 7.3.... After all... iron is cast.... steel is forged... but where does the difference come into play? When does iron become steel? Is iron really cast and is steel really forged? Here is where I play the dumbfuck high school drop out card.... "I dunno"... but I'm curious.... I ain't no engineer and I ain't no metallurgist... but I don't see anyone asking many questions.... A good old cast iron block from the 1950s was something to contend with. It was heavy... you had to make it heavier to make it strong enough... Thin wall castings.... in an effort to make things "better" they engineered the block castings to get more strength from less material... "back in the day" we had cylinders completely surrounded by coolant.... and then, to reduce weight, they discovered that they could "siameze" cylinders... adding strength, eliminating weight. Now... you gotta think about the ductility of iron or the malleability of iron or whatever the fuck you can imagine about iron.... but do NOT think that iron is simple .... some iron is flexible.... some iron ain't.... don't look at me for a university level course. Strong iron ain't flexible and flexible iron ain't strong.... Stew on this for a while... I'm going to a funeral on Saturday... I expect you guys to teach ME a thing or two when I get back... FWIW... in my endeavours I found this and THIS

I don't know where I originally came across this... watch and weep. One mans treasure is another mans trash... You will find a young man with a piece of shit you wouldn't want to see your daughter riding in... but that car is precious to him because that's where he lost his viriginity. It's a car... cars are objects of passion... most often, there is no way of making sense of any of it. I am working on my third Mustang..... ALL of my Mustangs have been red.... MOST of my Mustangs have been convertibles... Why? Someone please tell me... The cars I remember most fondly were not the best cars in the world... A 63 Parisienne convertible... went through oil at a horrendous rate... a buddy at a gas station would save me the oil drained from one car each day.... I was given a remote parking spot at my parents house because of the slime that dripped out of the road draught tube.... The wipers didn't work... but the radio and the power top did... One mans clunker is another mans start at a Barret and Jackson slot... While we are on the subject.... "Demolition derby". I have seen a lot of good parts cars destroyed in these travesties... I have seen a few good project cars destroyed in these travesties... I wonder how some guys would feel if they saw a Maserati BiTurbo in one? At some point in time, we will have to embrace the inevitable... whether we want to or not... At some point in time, an old car will becomes just that - an old car. I can't recall when I first learned of THIS car - most of the articles I read about this car indicate that it is likely worth more in it's present condition than it would be as a frame off resto.... Or would the Venus de Milo be worth more with papier mache arms?

Happy unbirthday!!!! Just remember... there will come a day when I cease to get older... At that point, you will begin to catch up with me.... in a hurry.... Now... whats going on with your IPR when you crank? If the duty cycle higher than what you'd expect? Guys will disable the injectors to try and test high pressure oil but this skews the IPR since the injectors aren't spilling.... Maybe we need to come up with an easy way to allow the injectors to spill, yet deny the cylinder any fuel.... My big hiccup???? Sometimes we can turn a no start into a cream puff simply by pushing the frickin' thing into the shop... DAMHIKT!!!!!

On a 7.3.... yes.... on a 6.0, I think you'll need more than one OR a relatively obvious physical concern(that weep hole isn't all that big, right?). Of course one would have to temper that with what may or may not be wrong with other components. So... you have a no start with low ICP.... you could conceivably change a faulty injector and have it "push you over the top"... enough ICP to start the motor - but it still may not be right because of other leaks or a weak pump or a leaking IPR or.... Look at the high pressure oil system like it was a bucket.... it might have one big leak.... or it might have a bunch of small ones.... If it's small ones... the more of them we plug, the more oil we can get to the destination... Curious question... "Curiouser and curiouser" - Alice in Wonderland.

Wow... a little humourous overview has taken wing... Something I didn't quite expect - at least not quite like a bar fight.... Come north, young fellows... We have the Liberals.... most all of them are of the bleeding heart variety... We have the Conservatives... you should reap the benefits of your labours. Unfortunately, the Liberals want to give the benefts of your labours to those that refuse to earn their own... But it doesn't stop there... Come election time we aren't putzing around with "primaries" and however else you folks choose to self-inflict your pain... Our federal election ballot is going to include the "Bloc" that Jay alludes to. The Bloc Quebecois is a special interest group. Their mandate is a free and equal Quebec (be sure to pronounce it Kehbek lest we offend someone the Liberals will choose to defend... in spite of their motives) SEPARATE from Canada yet enjoying all of the benefits that Canada (particularly western Canada) has to offer. Check this out. Our federal election ballot may include the communist party, the "green" party or even the "rhinocerous" party (yes... although tongue in cheek, many rhino party members routinely manage to fulfill all of the requirements set forth by electoral Canada rules). Without Liberals, there would be none of these vote spoilers.... Look at it this way.... The Liberals want to take all my money and give some of it to strangers... the rest they will keep. The Conservatives want to take all my money and give some of it back to me... the rest they will keep... How can you tell when a politician is lying? ANY politician? His lips are moving. They are in politics because it pays better than used car sales... Lighten up guys... the system is flawed because society is flawed...

For those that don't know much about history ... Here is a condensed version: Humans originally existed as members of small bands of nomadic hunters/gatherers they lived on deer in the mountains during the summer and would go to the coast and live on fish and lobster in the winter. The two most important events in all of history were the invention of beer and the invention of the wheel. The wheel was invented to get man to the beer. These were the foundation of modern civilization and together were the catalyst for the splitting of humanity into two distinct subgroups: 1. Liberals, and 2. Conservatives. Once beer was discovered, it required grain and that was the beginning of agriculture. Neither the glass bottle nor aluminum can were invented yet, so while our early humans were sitting around waiting for them to be invented, they just stayed close to the brewery. That's to show how villages were formed. Some men spent their days tracking and killing animals for the B-B-Q at night while they were drinking beer. This was the beginning of what is known as the Conservative movement. Other men who were weaker and less skilled at hunting learned to live off the conservatives by showing up for the nightly B-B-Q's and doing the sewing, fetching, and hair dressing. This was the beginning of the Liberal movement. Some of these liberal men eventually evolved into women. The rest became known as girlie-men. Some noteworthy liberal achievements include the domestication of cats, the invention of group therapy, group hugs, and the concept of Democratic voting to decide how to divide the meat and beer that conservatives provided. Over the years conservatives came to be symbolized by the largest, most powerful land animal on earth, the elephant. Liberals are symbolized by the jackass. Modern liberals like imported beer (with lime added), but most prefer white wine or imported bottled water. They eat raw fish but like their beef well done. Sushi, tofu, and French food are standard liberal fare. Another interesting evolutionary side note: most of their women have higher testosterone levels than their men. Most social workers, personal injury attorneys, journalists, dreamers in Hollywood and group therapists are liberals. Liberals invented the designated hitter rule because it wasn't fair to make the pitcher also bat. Conservatives drink domestic beer, mostly Bud. They eat red meat and still provide for their women. Conservatives are big-game hunters, rodeo cowboys, lumberjacks, construction workers, firemen, medical doctors, engineers, police officers, corporate executives, athletes, members of the military, airline pilots and generally anyone who works productively. Conservatives who own companies hire other conservatives who want to work for a living. Liberals produce little or nothing. They like to govern the producers and decide what to do with the production. Liberals believe Europeans are more enlightened than Americans. That is why most of the liberals remained in Europe when conservatives were coming to America. They crept in after the Wild West was tamed and created a business of trying to get more for nothing.

Mechanics prayer.... Please, dear God (Yahweh, Allah, Jehovah, Beelzebub).. have them keep making parts that break...

A recurring theme in vegetarian truck discussions is how biodiesel can scour the fuel system clean... Also, many of my detractors find it hard to admit that temps can fall as low as freezing... let alone continue to plummet to -40 and colder... I'd love to see something other than petroleum resources fueling both our nations motorways... at the same time, the appropriate taxes should be paid... I am tired of supporting the underground economy...

This is what I've been talking about... every last one of us has feet made of clay... shit happens... things break... switches leak.... Mistakes are made.. and sometimes, they aren't - but shit's bad anyway... homo erectus strikes again...

OK... everything I have been reading on the 6.7 indicates that the EGR valve is going to be made by Pierburg.... I came across this - if you look at page three, you will notice that the valve we eventually see should be at least be a little familiar. Interesting developments... "back in the day" we would see companies built simply to fulfill a manufacturers need... PrestoLite sold distributors and (IIRC) generators and even (at one point) alternators as well as regulators to manufacturers. FWIW, PrestoLite came into being as a supplier of headlight gas - early headlights being fueled by acetylene. Branching into other areas was only a natural progression. Today, we have come full circle... collaboration (I can think of at least one current Ford transmission borne of a development effort between Ford and GM) and cross platform use... Anyway... reading closely, we see that the EGR valve will now reside on the hot side of the EGR flow. This should help keep the valve clean. Is this by design? Or is it simply going to be a happy accident? FWIW, early attempts at controlling EGR flow were nothing less than Neanderthal... A port was drilled into the carburettor venturi (very high in the venturi) to signal the need for EGR flow... This signal was very VERY weak... It required a vacuum amplifier to operate the valve.. Now.. to compound the affair, the valve would 'hit' too 'hard'. This would nose the car over.... give it a bit of a stumble until everything caught up... EGR valves were developed that offered "feedback". Ford and GM used negative feedback valves and this is what I am more familiar with. If the feedback port carbonned over, the valve would hit too hard... and the car would nose over. Some techs would fix the concern... some techs would throw away handfuls of vacuum hoses... Back then, it was easier to defeat the problem than it was to actually fix it...

Certainly looks like SOMETHING coming out of the tailpipes. But Kieth is right... there will always be those modifiying diesels.... If you add a chip to a gas powered truck... you have a gas powered truck with a chip... HO-HUM!!!! Chip a turbo diesel??? No brains required... or is that "brains will be a handicap".

Kieth... how come I can say fucking? but I can't say !?@#%! ? !?@#%!? euphamism for feline that starts with <P>

In a word..... yep. This is going to be one of their advertising hinges, I am sure... Most of their pre-release propoganda mentions the B-20 blessing. What that is going to mean for us igloo dwellers is beyond me, as yet... But I've seen what happens to cooking oil left in the back of the truck for a few winter hours.. Having been dragged, sometimes kicking and screaming, through all of the permutations of Micro$oft operating systems from IBM DOS through MS DOS and how many fucking variations on Windoze???? One thing I have seen as being very true... The operating system has always been hard enough to screw up the hardware... Windoze 6.0... Windoze 6.4 and now... Windoze 6.7... things change... but they will forever remain the same.

Greg... that Milan has three possible transmissions accordng to the WSM... seeing the reference to gear ratios, I feel safe if discounting the CVT but that still leaves us with two... knowing which one may help.... OK... I think I've narrowed it down to the 6F35 and, hopefully, this will be my last rewrite.... Trans pressure while the concern is happening might help as well as the exact codes... I suspect that any shift solenoid codes you are getting will be symptomatic rather than causal - but at this point I would call that assumption "taking something for granted"... By this, I mean that the PCM hasn't seen a commanded change in rpm at one sensor or another (verify by comparing GEAR_RAT to TRAN_RAT) and is <assuming> that SSB <may> be stuck... TSS jumping would indicate internal slippage at one friction or another (how does stall speed compare to spec?).. a jumping OSS is adding confusion... I don't have much time working with the 6F35 and I can't say for sure where they are getting OSS... but for this to jump when the car is standing still??? Add that both of these sensors are hall effect and RFI shouldn't be a big deal... but don't discount charging system issues all the same. Your burnt fluid could indicate a trans/converter cooling issue as well. Since you are creating a stall condition, the converter is going to be hot anyway.... Adam had a 6F35 in an Escape the other day... burnt fluid... runaway on stall test.. the customer took it away?!?!?!? IIRC his LPC at idle was high or at the high end of the limit and his stall pressures were low... not tragically low but remarkably low... Normally, I like to have a real good idea of what I am looking for when I go into a transmission... we didn't have the opportunity to get real hard into scan tool diagnostics and I was nearing the thought that we may be looking for a needle in a haystack. Did your tech think to check the worm trails for flatness? Not a common thought, by any means, but when you don't see stuff.. sometimes your search needs to get more in depth...

I came across this...