Jim Warman

Some states, areas, baileywicks, whatever.... are smart enough to lergislate bittering agents for glycol based products.... These are few in number... Several years ago, there was a big deal with - IIRC - some table wines. Glycol was used to sweeten these wines and people became ill because of it... This happens when we become cavalier about rules and regulations. In some respects, we ARE the keepers of the public trust... People expect us to act or reactin a manner that befits the rules and regulations that pertain to us....

Oh, great... now I'm left feeling like it's me with the thin skin... Way to go, Larry Something I recall saying a time or two... the masses.... the great unwashed... des kammisados.. those that don't have a grasp of things mechanical... These are the people that are looking to us to be their protector. As professionals, we will observe and obey the laws covenants and regulations that pertain to us.... BECAUSE WE ARE PROFESSIONALS... We are the saviours of our planet.. If we don't follow the laws and regulations set before us.... what are we? I don't see what the problem is... The product is clearly marked as being unsuitable for use on public roads... The prostitutes amongst us will continue to supply, install and even "work around" these fucking things to save our "law abiding" customer a few precious dollars.... We will go out of our way to prove to the world that laws are made to be broken, that integrity is for sale, and we are the men to do it.... I'm not a tree hugger.... I eat red meat... I use fossil fuels.... I stay within the letter of the law... If you aren't part of the solution, you are part of the fucking problem....

Bruce.... I'm not entirely sure that bio-D is the big answer anyway.... In terms of renewable resource - ain't nothing but positives.... Has anyone done an intensive analysis of tailpipe emissions? Where I live, I can't see Bio-D or WVO catching on because of our winters. Our fuel suppliers can deal with waxing quite well.... what would they do with viscosity concerns? There is a grand reluctance to spend money on new infrastructure... especially considering we still aren't sure where technology will take us.... We always have the opportunity to find new sources of energy or develop the technology required to harvest this energy... In the past, we managed to "tech" our way out of dirty air.... 35 years ago..... The EGR valve dealt with oxides of nitrogen.... Thermactor and catalytic convertor dealt with hydrocarbons..... But this technology was in its infancy. Unleaded gas was the new kid on the block and gas mileage landed square n the toilet - overnight. Today, it appears that we have lost sight of the goal.,... Low tailpipe emissions....

Jayson, there ain't no way in hell I am going to calm down (and I hope Larry doesn't take my diatribe too seriously) but this is another of those subjects I feel VERY strongly about... I realize that some mods actually have the coveted blessing of CARB... and I also realize that most don't.... From some of my revelations, you must also realize that I modify the diddley out of some vehicles.... And not one of them is a daily driver.... And it is rare for any of them to be none compliant for their model year.... We need to differentiate between toy and not toy... My pet shit spewer ran for exactly zero hours last year.... my lawn mower ran for about 10 hours, my weed whacker ran about the same and my chain saw didn't even get picked up.... However..... I was railing against modifications that defeat emissions controls.... In some respects, I would love to see tighter controls... but technology just isn't there yet... My eyes are, indeed, wide open.... Part of our battle.... good tailpipe emissions and good fuel mileage are, currently, mutually exclusive... yet the masses (techs included) still view low fuel consumption as the number one EMISSIONS goal.... WTF is that???? Acceptable tailpipe emissions happen beause we don't allow combustion chamber temps to climb into the range where brake specific mean torque numbers indicate low fuel consumption... The modern Otto-cycle engine is a HEAT engine... the more heat we can generate in a combustion event, the more power we will make - if we can make more power in a given event without increasing fuel consumption.... not only will we improve fuel economy, we will create NOx (not to be confused with NoS). Urea injection and the SRC *MAY* signal a rethink of traditional conditions.... I'm hopeful that this is a harbinger of improvements to come... but I ain't gonna hold my breath. Well thought out mods can have a positive result in some respects.... service life of a motor may be extended by performing some mods and observing some maintenance schedules.... Deciding <yeah> or <nay> on any particular modification - the deal is still ALL about tailpipe emissions.... So why do I keep on harping about some of this stuff? I would love to have a big stack of money.... The quickest way to get a big stack of money that I can think of is too rob a bank. Unfortunately, I am going to break a law or two to get there...... I would love to get better fuel mileage out of my daily driver.... Unfortunately, I am going to contravene a regulation or two to get there. Now.... everyone is going to say "robbing a bank is a lot different".... Maybe.... but both show a distinct lack of integrity.... One of the things my customers hate about me is that I don't break the rules... the reason that they keep coming back is because they know I don't break the rules.... My old Mum (God rest her soul) would say "In for a Ha'penny.... in for a Pound". Lawyers make a living out of pushing the envelope..... Lawyers have the luxury of being self-regulating.... We will be butchers and hacks until we show the world different... and one of the ways is to look someone in the eye and say "That is in contravention of the laws that I must abide....". Hey, sailor..... wanna get lucky?

Tree killer? Jeez, Larry... give me a bit more than that.... Has anyone read these terms ? No, I didn't think so.... What part of "not legal for use on public roads " don't we understand? Larry, don't you ever fucking portray me as a fucking tree hugger.... ever.... fucking never...... Pollution is something we can never avoid... we will never eliminate pollution.... What we CAN do - the only thing we can do is to reduce our personal footprint. And we aren't going to do that the way things are going.... First... we want to be treated as professionals... hey... we are BETTER than lawyers and more talented than doctors... Isn't it funny... at least THEY obey their regulations... Talk to a fucking mechanic and what "Hey sailor.... wanna get lucky?". I "interview" the people I am going to break the law for? WTF is this, guys? Fuck me... I cannot believe this shit... we are worried that a mod might make it hard to collect on a warranty claim. We are worried that a mod will make it hard to diagnose a concern.... but we aren't above breaking the fucking law and performing a modification that will defeat emissions controls... Ford CAN'T do that because EPA wont let them.... but we are above that. Back when I was a kid, we could drink tapwater.... now people buy bottled water... We stopped using leaded gas because we learned shit... we stopped using R-12 because we learned shit.... we started using EGR valvers because we learned shit... And you young fucks didn't learn not one Goddamned thing from our history.... you are bound and determined to repeat those mistakes from so long ago.... and the victims will be our grandchildren.... yeah... you... you aren't even fucking married yet... one day you will be.. and one day, the children of your child might ask "What did you used to do Poppop?"... And you will reply "I was busy fucking up the air so you can't go outside, sweety.". I ain't no tree hugger.... but the changes I have seen in the world.... First word comes to my mind is stoopid

Some time ago, I passed a remark or two about using air tools for assembly work... If some guy is the "old tech" and you are the "new tech"..... you have a 50-50 chance of becoming the old tech. Rounded over fasteners "happen". They happen because the torque specs in the manual are high to begin with... they happen because sockets wear out.. they happen because some youngster in a big rush uses an air wrench with a worn out socket to assemble shit... What might be a big surprise for some is that lefty loosey/righty tighty works.... the guy tryng to take something out is at the mercy of someone from a LONG time ago. And it isn't necessarily the last guy that worked on it.... Some time ago, someone asked me "what kind of animal could do <this>...?". A quick review of the service history netted an answer of "you". I've dealt with my fair share of fucked fasteners... caused a few, too.... These are the things we deal with on a daily basis. This makes us "mechanic".... Diagnosing things.... in a timely manner.... concisely.... correctly..... this allows us to add the adverb "good".... Every day we are given the opportunity to look like assholes....

I am reminded of a classroom scenario... 98 Windstar - no start - theft light flashing with, IIRC, an open fuse being the culprit... Are your codes memory codes or On Demand codes? If you clear them, do they come back quickly or take a while? Have you tried unlocking the doors using one or both fobs?

Kevin.... we desparately need to be on the same page here.... Let's be brutally honest - this car has a new PCM and the concern is still here.... Something has ben missed... Sorry, bro... What are you using to load test the wiring? I understand this is a hard fault? (Read that as OnDemand code). The PID for the VMV should have a pound sign - # - meaning we can control it... meaning we can place our hand on it and feel it click when we toggle it's state? Every pinpoint test ends in replacing a module.... it gets there because the PPTs that Ford describes are shit

Without codes and a trans drive cycle road test, we are pretty much in the dark, too... First order of the day... determine if the fault is INSIDE the trans or OUTSIDE the trans. If the problem is inside the trans, and the trans has 150K on it, maybe we already know where we should go....

Be careful of what you wish for... you just might get it.... Here is the file that Bruno sent me... Done watching? For one moment, let's pretend that your brother/suiter/aunt/uncle/son/daughter/mother/father is the occupant of one of those coffins... These people CHOSE to go there because they felt that it was right... They were doing the right thing for Canada... they were doing the right thing for the "free" world.... they are trying to make sure that some less than civilized extremist isn't going to try to hold YOU hostage in your own country... You will preach patriotism behind a facade of grief.... We will cry for our fallen heroes... But will we face the truth... will we acknowledge the fact that these kids are a half a world away and that they are dying - partly because they don't have all the tools they need to do the job we gave them? The enemy has chosen where we will fight... the enemy has chosen how we will fight... it is up to us to make sure our soldiers are prepared for the fight. Bruno, did you try to point out the grief associated with war? Or the personal sacrifice associated with war? As it stands, I am an old man with old ideas about the world - about war - about human suffering... War isn't right.... But if someone doesn't stand up for the weak and the meek, the world will suffer for it... Jump up and down... proclaim yourself the champion of the truth.... and then watch that powerpoint one more time... Sending our youngsters off to a foreign land so they can die is not high on my list of things to do... To deny that they are doing this is unconsionable... To downplay that fact and then make a circus out of thier loss... That is a fucking travesty.... If you lazy pricks had a real feeling about this shit, you would be inundating your government representatives for change... you would have suggestions for a better way.. you would make a difference... Instead, we go to snopes. Saucy Jack ain't real... so I guess our soldiers aren't dying... fuck me

Bruno... ain't nobody raining on my parade... anyway, it marches rain or shine... When I was a boy, my Dad went to Ellesmere Island for 6 months... Alert was a "listening" post... Manned by translators and radio technicians and suppoert staff. The cold war in full bloom. No, he wasn't going to get shot at up in the frozen north. This was YOUR Canadian military doing what was needed... that was in the late 50s.... Me, my sister and my Mum pretty much fending for ourselves so that your folks would be more secure.... In the 60s, Dad was sent to what was then the Belgian Congo... civil war was raging... genocide, name it... Dad COULD get shot at... me, my sister and my Mum pretty much fending for ourselves as Canada fulfilled her commitment to the United Nations. I was born in 1950, my sister in 1947 - both of us on the heels of WW2... our parents, our aunts, our uncles still cried for family members lost in that conflict... While the story of Saucy Jack may well be recorded in snopes or where-ever as an urban legend, Saucy Jack happens... Our boys and girls are sitting in some shit hole half a world away, they are getting shot at, they are getting FUCKING KILLED!!!! and the big deal here is the veracity of a letter... Not the fact that our children are a long way from home and may have to be carried to get back here. And some of us are going to worry about "impressions". If we do not learn from out history, we are bound to repeat it. I have an inextricable bond with Canadas military - even through the time that Paul Hellyer tried to turn Canadas military into a eunuch.. I have a good idea of the kind of support our soldiers need.... even if you do not. Saucy Jacks message... give us the tools to do the job. Fake? not fake? Does something like that make these kids feel better? And you will look your boss in the eye and say "give me the tools to do my job"... at least you don't have chiggers and aren't expected top self medicate yourself for sundry conditions. You can't candy coat this shit... you can't shut the fuck up and have it sudden;y become respectable or acceptable or become socially redeeming. This is the ugly underbelly of real life... deal with it.. face it... voice an opinion - loud and long... you have a fucking MP - make him your voice. Do not pray that keeping quiet will make this shit go away... Fuck me... what ever happened to BALLS.

Truth or fabrication... I don't think that part matters much... we send our boys and girls off to foreign lands and expect them to do those things we refuse to do ourselves... For those that cannot find words or feelings of thanks for our troops - I can only say that if you can read..... thank a teacher... if it's in English.... thank a soldier....

This was sent to me by a Canadian Army vet - a man that saw peacetime duty with my Dad.. -------------------- This is from Jim, a retired Delta pilot, and a Marine fighter pilot. The letter comes from his son serving in Afghanistan. Reconnaissance Marine in Afghanistan It's freezing here. I'm sitting on hard, cold dirt between rocks and shrubs at the base of the Hindu Kush Mountains along the Dar 'yoi Pomir River watching a hole that leads to a tunnel that leads to a cave. Stake out, my friend, and no pizza delivery for thousands of miles. I also glance at the area around my ass every ten to fifteen seconds to avoid another scorpion sting. I've actually given up battling the chiggers and sand fleas, but them scorpions give a jolt like a cattle prod. Hurts like a bastard. The antidote tastes like transmission fluid but God bless the Marine Corps for the five vials of it in my pack. The one truth the Taliban cannot escape is that, believe it or not, they are human beings, which means they have to eat food and drink water. That requires couriers and that's where an old bounty hunter like me comes in handy. I track the couriers, locate the tunnel entrances and storage facilities, type the info into the handheld, shoot the coordinates up to the satellite link that tells the air commanders where to drop the hardware, we bash some heads for a while, then I track and record the new movement. It's all about intelligence. We haven't even brought in the snipers yet. These scurrying rats have no idea what they're in for. We are but days away from cutting off supply lines and allowing the eradication to begin. I dream of bin Laden waking up to find me standing over him with my boot on his throat as I spit a bloody ear into his face and plunge my nickel plated Bowie knife through his frontal lobe. But you know me. I'm a romantic. I've said it before and I'll say it again: This country blows, man. It's not even a country. There are no roads, there's no infrastructure, there's no government. This is an inhospitable, rock pit shit hole ruled by eleventh century warring tribes. There are no jobs here like we know jobs. Afghanistan offers two ways for a man to support his family: join the opium trade or join the army. That's it. Those are your options. Oh, I forgot, you can also live in a refugee camp and eat plum-sweetened, crushed beetle paste and squirt mud like a goose with stomach flu if that's your idea of a party. But the smell alone of those 'tent cities of the walking dead' is enough to hurl you into the poppy fields to cheerfully scrape bulbs for eighteen hours a day. I've been living with these Tajiks and Uzbeks and Turkmen and even a couple of Pushtins for over a month and a half now and this much I can say for sure: These guys, all of 'em, are Huns. Actual, living Huns. They LIVE to fight. It's what they do. It's ALL they do. They have no respect for anything, not for their families or for each other or for themselves. They claw at one another as a way of life. They play polo with dead calves and force their five-year-old sons into human cockfights to defend the family honor. Huns, roaming packs of savage, heartless beasts who feed on each others barbarism. Cavemen with AK47's. Then again, maybe I'm just cranky. I'm freezing my ass off on this stupid hill because my lap warmer is running out of juice and I can't recharge it until the sun comes up in a few hours. Oh yeah! You like to write letters, right? Do me a favor, Bizarre. Write a letter to CNN and tell Wolf and Anderson and that awful, sneering, pompous Aaron Brown to stop calling the Taliban 'smart.' They are not smart. I suggest CNN invest in a dictionary because the word they are looking for is 'cunning.' The Taliban are cunning, like jackals and hyenas and wolverines. They are sneaky and ruthless and, when confronted, cowardly. They are hateful, malevolent parasites who create nothing and destroy everything else. Smart. Pfft. Yeah, they're real smart. They've spent their entire lives reading only one book (and not a very good one, as books go) and consider hygiene and indoor plumbing to be products of the devil. They're still figuring out how to work a Bic lighter. Talking to a Taliban warrior about improving his quality of life is like trying to teach an ape how to hold a pen; eventually he just gets frustrated and sticks you in the eye with it. OK, enough. Snuffle will be up soon so I have to get back to my hole. Covering my tracks in the snow takes a lot of practice but I'm good at it. Please, I tell you and my fellow Americans to turn off the TV sets and move on with your lives. The story line you are getting from CNN and other news agencies is utter bullshit and designed not to deliver truth but rather to keep you glued to the screen through the commercials. We've got this one under control. The worst thing you guys can do right now is sit around analyzing what we're doing over here because you have no idea what we're doing and, really, you don't want to know. We are your military and we are doing what you sent us here to do. You wanna help? Buy Bonds America . Saucy Jack, Reconnaissance Marine in Afghanistan: Semper Fidelis

Damon, I do all manner of government inspections as well... commercial truck, bus, ambulance, out of province - as well as accident investigation. Until now, I hadn't really thought about ramifications... I just do my job - I don't fudge on safety. Whether the brake fluid cap was a harbinger in this accident or not isn't really the important consideration.... The omission - leaving the cap off.... THAT is the unforgivable... Yes, it is ever so easy to be distracted or called away.. and that makes it important that we either complete the operation we are doing, undo that part which we have done (don't install a bolt if you aren't going to tighten it right away) or somehow "flag" an incomplete operation... The mind is a magnificent machine... but it is a flawed machine and we must work with it's flaws to produce flawless results. Making a mistake in the diagnostic process happens... we misread how to perform a test... misunderstand what the test is having us measure... skip a test step or do it in the wrong order... These are errors in judgement... and these errors are almost a way of life.. even though we strive to avoid them... Errors or omissions in our actions.... these are the things that can kill people... Even if everything goes well, consider that we can either do <it> right this week, or we can do <it> for FREE next week. Did this poor schmuck drop the ball with his inspection? Sure sounds like it... But I have to think that driving this van should have been something akin to a white knuckle affair... And I don't understand anyone that hasn't go the nerve to tell their boss that "this POS shouldn't be on the road.... and I ain't taking it there...". There are lots of people on the road that I know and love... and if some other tech allowed an unsafe vehicle to drive off his lot and the unthinkable happened, I would hunt that scurvy bastard down and kill him like the crippled dog he is...

Rick Wagoner resigns http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/30/business/30auto.html

Water in fuel is quite common here... this is the land of slip tanks and on-site storage (read that as low standards)... If one of these guys doesn't have a slip tank in the back of his truck, he has more than likely borrowed fuel from someone that does or will soon be forced to do so. Even now we occasionally encounter a HFCM with one of the old, soft drain plugs - siezed in place, of course. One of our aims is to have everyone drain the water separator at every service... sadly, you can't watch everyone....

The business end looked normal... like I mentioned, the only obvious thing on quick inspection was that water had made it to the injector as evidenced by the discolouration of the fuel area...

I have to wonder, now.... I've been trying to find out more on the new "dark green coolant" that ships on the 09 Edge and some others... I 'think' the Motorcraft number is VC-10 but it is, as yet, unavailable... Instead, if you order it, you will get some new Mazda coolant... It comes premixed and is incompatible with other coolants...... Hmmmm......

Two injectors (IIRC) were being replaced on this motor... not sure of cylinder numbers. This injector did have indications of water intrusion. The screen was never located.

Our speedos (the gauges, not the pants) have kilometers as the major (large) numbers and mph as the smaller. Our store has imported many MarkLTs - if you select <metric> for the message center display the units registered in the fuel minder will change, if the cluster displays ambient air temp, that will change... but the odometer will remain in the clusters "major" format.

...or at least what little I know about it. If we get a P0263 or (as most of us will) a P0266 or any other similar contribution codes(I understand that the cylinders most likely affected when crankcase overfull is a concern will be 8, 4 and 2) and go to the PC/ED, we start getting refered to the "hard start/no start" diag chart early in the going. This has the fuel system tests that we will be concerned with in our diag. I am a little concerned about the order they appear in... but I was assured that much thought went into it.... The inverted fuel injector test is step 23 in the hard start/no start diag tree pages. The key is turned on and the engine cranked for 15 seconds... All eight of my brand new fuel injectors leaked from the drain holes... At this point, the bank 2 head was removed and the #2 piston looked much like Robs in the crankcase overfull thread.. Also, all of the combustion chambers had varying amounts of fuel puddled in them. Now, if we turn to the diag worksheet and consider steps 18 through 27.... they have us removing and installing stuff with no real rhyme or reason... In 18 we remove the glow plugs and look for mist while cranking the engine... then we install the glow plugs and do a power balance in 21... Then, in 22, we do a high pressure pump test with the valve covers off (more on this in a bit)... and then we remove the injectors and do the inverted test for step 23.... and then, for step 25, we install the fuel injectors (new lines - old lines - WTF?) and perform a HIGH PRESSURE FUEL SYSTEM TEST? Ermmmm, didn't we just do that in step 22? OK.. let's skip to 27... and do a high pressure fuel system test while cranking the engine... And finally, we get to step 28... checking the system for debris... Now that I have had the system open several times (where once should have sufficed), there is a pretty fucking good chance that I might find some debris in the system... I shouldn't, but, if I do, when did it get in there? Besides, what is it with Ford where we continually have to jack up the ass end to diagnose a diesel? High Pressure Fuel OK.. so we have a fuel system capable of producing tremendous pressure... we have a FAULTY fuel system of producing tremendous pressure. And we are going to take off the valve covers and expose ourselves to the potential risk of high pressure fluid embolism (except for Bruce who wears nitrile gloves while holding maxed out pressure gauges and makes fun of the fact that I was born before the wheel). At this point, none of us has the foggiest notion of how much danger we are really in... Ford recommends paper strips for "feeling for leaks" - do we want to get that close? Depending on what we are doing, pressures in excess of 25000 PSI can be expected. And don't forget we are disturbing the injector feed lines... several times if we do it Fords way. The "what was I thinking of" factor. Every day, each and everyone of us has the very real chance that we are going to have a brain fart... They can range from a little slip that we don't even catch ourselves to a "HOLY FUCK, AGATHA!! How'd I get my head that far up my ass?". One little slip and we might never play the piano again (or count to ten, for that matter). And that's for someone familiar with the system... how about the Rex's of the world that will plunge blindly into one of these engines thinking he is teck - he are fix ennythink. Anyway... Rob asked about the inverted test... and you got a full course meal....

The floor WAS clean.... This is the oil patch and it doesn't make any pretensions... Winter isn't too bad since most everything that falls off the bottom of a truck will melt and go away mostly on it's own. However, spring is here.... It isn't uncommon to fill a wheelbarrow with dirt to simply remove a transmission - and it isn't unheard of to fill the wheelbarrow a second time off the same truck... This is all part of a days work and we are pleasantly surprised when we DON'T have the "pleasure". I think that you'd raise your eyebrows if you see what we would consider "normal" behaviour... "Kick a little more snow out of the way.... I can't quite make it under there....". "Fuck... that tasted HORRIBLE...". And one of my favourites "Down your neck and all the way to your crack, huh?". In most areas of our shop, the floor gets washed at least once daily. I envy some of you guys and how clean your shops appear... but our reality may not resemble your reality.... One of my sons "traditional" Xmas presents (he gets a useful one and a fun one) is a 'spiffy' worksuit.... Insulated, fire retardant bib overalls and work jacket... between $600 and $900 CAD. Our coveralls usually say "Made in Pakistan" inside....

We have imported several vehicles from the US.... The instrument cluster must be changed. It appears that Fords current stance is that the odometer will read in the same format as the major speedo display. This is to say that if the large numbers are on the speedo are mph - the odometer will read in miles and vice versa. There is no way that we have found to toggle the odo reading.

I have two explanations.. pick the one you like best... Creepers are for pussies and sensitive new age guys.... we'll not be havin' none of that o-fay crap on my watch.... Parts of me are no longer as sleek and slim as they once were... the vertical space consumed by the addition of a creeper can reduce the possibility that I might fit under even a lifted truck....

I don't know if any of you are seeing this.... Notice the missing screen....