DamageINC

So I've got an '08 F550 6.4 Dump truck with a lower end noise that, after removing the engine and pan and inspecting, was determined to be the result of the #8 rod bearing being heavily scored and gouged (along with the crank) and signs of it spinning/walking around in the rod itself. Wonderful. The delicious part is that I may actually end up putting a crank, bearings, and a rod/piston in this thing as opposed to just putting an engine in. It has 2,600 miles, it's still brand new. I can't imagine that the customer would be happy that a $70,000 truck this fresh would be getting a bottom-end overhaul instead of just being replaced. Anyone here dealing with this? Dave

You know what, screw all you guys, I'm going to work for Honda. Peace. Dave

Obviously it wasn't going to start, he just didn't realize that. He's just one of those characters that can't stand being "forced" to learn something and especially if it's the hard way. He was just real salty about the whole thing. Fortunately for him, there wasn't any damage done and we slammed some filters in, everything's fine so far. Either way, It went over more smoothly than I expected, something told me he was just gonna freak out at the desk... you know the kinda customer I'm talking about, hehe. Dave

Awesome bit of info there Bruce, thanks! Dave

Customer who "knows his shit" and had me put head studs in his 6.0 after he grenaded the gaskets, coolers, and turbo, just had his truck towed in. Apparently there was gelling on his primary fuel filter today (it was about -7*F this morning) and he thought it'd be ok to try and drive it without any filters in the system. Dave

You know, it sounds retarded but I've had a couple that would do this simply because the trans fluid was about 2 quarts low. I almost didn't believe it, but I've fixed 3 trucks like that now. (One of them was a gas engine with an E4OD) but it's certainly worth a check.. Every time though, shift into reverse and it'd engage, and just stall out. Fill it properly, problem was solved. Hopefully yours turns out as easily fixed... Dave

I'm sure you may have already checked, but just in case.. ..we've had a series of trucks with similar driveability symptoms lately (6.4's) that have needed fuel filter replacement, a lot of it has to do with the retarded ambient temperatures of -5 to -10 we've had over the last week. I've pulled a bunch of filters out of the HFCM on these things, tore open the "film" that covers the filter element, and then inspected the element and every time they've been gell'd up pretty heavily. You'd think it'd create consistent problems, but so far it hasn't. We'll get them where the come in running perfectly, good power, all that jazz, but then they just shit out and sometimes have trouble starting up, other times they fire up like nothing happened. All have been accompanied with the P0087. I'd definitely want to check the filters out, especially the lower one. Dave

Got an '05 E-350, 34,000 miles, check eng light on. Customer has not had any driveability concerns at all, aside from the light. Only code in the system is a CMDTC/P0341 (cam sensor skt code) but passes all on-demand tests. Freeze Frame data shows that it probably threw the code on a startup, so maybe the guy was cranking the hell out of it?? It's been *VERY* cold out here lately, (ambient has been anywhere from 0*F to -12*F). Either way, engine runnign time was 00:00:00, ECT was at 48*F (guess it'd been sitting for a short while), VSS was 0mph.. ..Just for grins I drove it around and monitored the RPM graph, which is looking completely normal, whether I'm cruising, parked, reverse, heavy or light load, it stays normal. Also kept an eye on SYNC and FICMSYNC (changed the pids over to bar graphs, it's much easier to monitor those pids that way) and they were rock-solid as well. Ideas? Dave

So yesterday we had *6* vehicles come in, barely running, with fuel filters that looked like they were used for target practice for the pink-goop guns in the Ghostbuster movie. Fuel was VERY cloudy in each instance. Every one of these customers bought their fuel from the same station, and2 we have had issues with this particular station before. But never 6 vehicles in a day.. 2 more came in today, and another customer called us up because he was changing his own filters for the same reason and wanted to know if we had any anti-gel additives. All purchased from the same station. I guess my question is that, how do these customers go about getting their money back from the problems the fuel caused?? One customer in particular had us change the filters almost immediately after he filled up a week ago... THE SAME TANK OF FUEL killed his second set of filters in under 200 miles. He's furious that he paid twice to fix a problem from the same fill-up.. Anyone have any recommendations? Dave

Well, this is kinda a "hand-me-down" job in which I just happened to be there when our other tech was doing the initial diag on this vehicle. After he popped the hood and saw the aftermarket PTO pump and bracket, he basically decided he was too busy for this one and asked me if I'd do the 4 injectors for him. So I did... ..it wasn't until after I pulled the injectors out that I noticed the rust on the inlet ports and began questioning the initial diagnosis. Looking back, we definitely should have done the bubble-check. Had I been the first guy to look at it, I probably would have checked for bubbles in the FF housing. I'm not throwing out other guy under the bus or anything, he's a great tech, but I think the gun was jumped here maybe. Dave

Well ok, to bring this one back up again... ..I have an '07 F-450 wrecker (badass mo'fo!) that came in BARELY running. Sure enough, cylinders 1, 5, and 7 were dead. About 30 seconds into the power balance test, cyilnder 3 crapped out too. After removing the ridiculous accessory mounted PTO pump and lines from the right side of the engine bay, I got the injectors out and surprisingly, every injector's copper "gasket" looks perfect. No real signs of any combustion gas making it past them. There's a *slight* brownish hue near the bottom of 2 of the injectors (5 and 7) just above the copper ring, but nothing even remotely combustion-gas looking. There IS, however, what appears to be -rust- all over the fuel inlet port area of all 4 injectors. I'm very skeptical to flat-out call it rust, because if it is then it's definitely not Ford's responsibility and we'll have to have a talk with the customer about fuel quality and filter maintnance. Oddly enough, the RO says "Customer can't go over 30mph, runs rough, cust changed fuel filters and fuel and problem still there" Now who actually changes fuel filters AND fuel unless they themselves think that maybe the shit in their tank, isn't supposed to be in their tank. The injectors defiitely seemed properly secured, and like I said, I don't really think I see any sign of combustion gas getting blown past the seal. At least nothing even remotely charred, black, or anything like that... just a slight brown, pyramid-shaped "stain" covering about 20% of the lowermost portion of 2 injectors, directly above the copper seal. Any thoughts?? I think I'm dealing more with a water-in-fuel issue than anything... Dave

Nevermind, I found the problem about 10minutes after I posted here. Initially I had power coming from the switch, all the way through the harness up until it made it to the dashboard area. But after a few minutes, I even lost power up by the dash. Traced the wires back again, ended up splitting the harness apart and found both wires (ckt 319 and 320) completely broken. Oddly enough, the rest of the harness was unharmed, no signs of damage, corrosion, anything... just 2 wires that almost look like they were cut. I had to pull the wiring off of the latch, and then through the door to access the damaged portion of the wiring, as the opens were located INSIDE the right side B-pillar. So it's VERY unlikely that anyone had ever been in this area before. Pretty weird. Dave

Basic electrical diag but I've reached a point to where I just want to know if anyone here has seen any "known points of failure" for a specific harness. '00 Excursion. RR window inop, good power to to the switch, I've determined that BOTH ckts 319 and 320 (provide the ground to the master switch on the drivers door, depending on whether the window is commanded up or down) are no good. I can run a jumper from the RR window switch to the master switch, and the window will work via switch activation just fine (jump 320 and it will go down, jump 319 and it will go up) The harness has NO connectors between the master switch and the RR window switch, and coming FROM the RR switch, goes through the door, comes through the passenger side B-pillar, across the pass front sill plate panel, up the RF kick panel, and then up behind the dashboard over to the LF Kick panel area... I would normally overlay a wire but the fact that I have *2* bad wires tells me that the whole harness is in jeopardy of going to shit, and I'd rather just fix this thing once. Anyone seen it before? Dave

Yeah, cool story but I think the BS meter pegged right after the tach did. Dave

I'd be very interested to see what the tips of these spark plugs in steel inserts look like in relation to the surrounding plugs after a few thousand miles of operation. I suppose whether or not you "buy" the information, the fact is that it's still a fact. Steel inserts expand almost 3 times slower than the aluminum around it. So as the head heats up, the aluminum expands 3 times (it's actually like 2.8 or something) faster than the steel insert within it, and thus loses much of it's metal-to-metal contact with the insert which is obviously going to severely affect the insert's ability to transfer the heat from the plug, to the head itself. You've got to remember that the spark plug is firing on the power stroke 25 times per second at 3000 rpm, which is very frequently seen under normal accelleration events from stops and passing manuvers, where engine load is at it's highest and resulting in the highest cylinder temperatures. 25 times per second. Sometimes more, sometimes less, but irrespective - that is NOT a lot of time for the plug to cool down between firing events. This heat is transferred to the insert, which is no longer effectively able to move the heat to the head, and just soaks the plug with it's own heat again. Cases of the plug tips literally glowing within the cylinder have been found and that is obviously a guaranteed preiginition source. You could argue that a colder spark plug in the given cylinder would be the solution, but this would also likely result in a misfire on cold starts and premature fouling of that particular plug in the cylinder because the entire cylinder bank is controlled evenly as far as fuel distribution goes, not like a modern Diesel where each cylinder can be independantly "tuned" on the fly. I know it may sound trivial, but it's trivial little things that cause thousands of dollars of damage in the long run. Just look at the 6.0! Dave

Maybe I'll just start fixing all these trucks naked and see how mother ford likes watching that. Dave

The horsepower wars are back, as far as I'm concerned! We've got the 6.1 hemi's putting out 425hp and gobs of torque, the LS1 engines GM was using in the F-body's are ANIMALS with incredible potential, the newer LS engines are 400+hp, with the LS9 in the Z06 being a 427 cube 11:1 505hp V8 that still gets 26mpg on the highway, don't even get me started on the performance potential of Ford's 4 valves with some boost in the mix. And these are modern-day power ratings, with all the accessories bolted to the engine and running full-tilt, not the old days where it was basically just the crank and water pump. I personally love it, it's about time we started giving vehicles some testicles again. It's a hard to swallow, but desd-accurate fact that the coveted muscle cars back in the day like the Big Block Chevelles, 426 Chargers, and the like, that could barely crack 12's on a good day, are now only a gear swap away from stock GT mustangs right now. LS1 Camaros and Firebirds would run right with the fastest of the muscle cars back in the day, '03/'04 Cobras would leave them in the mirrors... and this is with power steering, stereo cranking, and the A/C blasting as well. Like I said at the beginnine - Muscle cars are back and only getting more impressive, as far as I'm concerned. Dave

The problem with timeserts is not the issue of whether or not they'll come loose and fail, but rather the heat-transfer properties associated with the repair. The thermal expansion properties of aluminum and the metal that the timeserts are made of are much much different, and this utimately results in the spark plug overheating because it can't effectively transfer the heat from itself to the cylinder head anymore. This results in the spark plug overheating and causing pre-ignition and knock issues, which could obviously lead to severe engine damage if it goes on unaddressed. The Lock 'n Stitch kit is actually a very well engineered, heavy-duty repair, which is actually STRONGER than the initial casting by itself once properly installed. It's certainly a pain in the ass, but it's an excellent repair that is a much cheaper and still effective alternative to cylinder head repair, if you ask me. But the length of the tools and accuracy of some of the procedures require head removal or at least body removal to access some of the cylinders. Cylinder 1 is the only one on the right bank that could actually be repaired completely in-vehicle, although it does leave A LOT of metal in the cylinder, regardless of how careful you are with the repair. I've yet to do it on the left bank, but I'd imagine cylinder 8 and probably 7 are not doable. Removing the problem head and installing inserts into every plug bore will save tons of cash and eliminate the chance for the problem to return later on that same head. You could upsell the other bank as well, if you chose to. Overall, it saves roughly $1,500-1,800 over head replacement. Dave

Is your shop using the Lock 'n Stitch inserts??? Because there is NO POSSIBLE WAY to access cylinders 3 and 4 in-vehicle to perform this repair on an older body-style F-150/Expedition platform. Cylinder 2 is barely achieveable, but even then the final step for drilling the 1/16" hole in between the insert and the head to lock the insert in place is, although possible on paper, still about as likely as throwing a key directly into a lock from 20 feet away. Using crappy Time-serts and Heli-coils will do nothing but cause problems and that's why we don't use those at all. Dave

So this truck is just haunting me. '00 Expedition, 5.4, launched a spark plug into orbit. Gave the customer the usual options, as well as the newer approved Lock 'n Stitch insert (which is an extremely well engineered repair). After a WEEK of head scratching, the Customer decided to go with the insert for the plug. So, after talking back and forth, letting them know the dangers of doing the repair in-vehicle and how we'd rather remove the head for access and lack of metal contamination, they still insisted on the in-vehicle repair because it's cheaper. So, cylinder 2. The plug angles back toward the firewall, but it's still BARELY possible to get all your tools into the plug bore and perform the repair. Except for the last step. CAll the customer and let them know that, now being 90% finished with the job, we cannot lock the insert into place without further access to the engine, requiring "engine removal" (body removal). They go flying off the handle. Finally I was just told to slam a plug in the insert and ship it if it runs fine, the customer is wililng ot take the chance on the insert coming loose. Put the plug in, start it up - runs rough. Power balance shows cyl 3 dead. WTF?? I didn't touch #3... Turns out it needs a coil. There's another $100 the customer didn't see coming (and they were already furious about the $400 they spent on the labor, insert, new plug and coil for #2). Whatever, put the coil in, fix the problem, runs fine. Get in, go to back the truck out of the stall.. ..I can't. Parking brake shoes just decided to seize COMPLETELY. This thing *will* not move out of the bay. I never once touched the parking brake, so I really don't know how it happened... the truck was towed in. Gotta call the customer up and tell them that they need parking brake shoes and backing plates now too. I'm sure this will go over like a lead balloon. Dave

I haven't really been doing this a whole long time, but I suppose it's kinda interesting that I started working for Ford on 9/11/01. Strange first day on the job to say the least... shop ewas empty and everyone was watching TV, I remember thinking "damn this job looks easy.." hehehe.. Dave

Same here, on a stick-shift 150,000mile 7.3 nonetheless. Boy was I excited. Tell you what though, I've never had an engine out that fast before. Dave

He's got a blower on it now?? Last I saw he was just running N/A, lol what's it running with the twin-screw now? Dave

Too bad?? I've been waiting forever for us to finally have a direct-injected & turbo'd gas engine. The capability is unreal.. aside from great power & torque, decent milage, and much more consistent fuel quality, it also holds AMAZING performance potential. The ability to inject fuel on the exhaust stroke is going to make building boost at low load/rpm very easily achieved. You'll be able to spool up in neutral! Turbo lag could potentially be almost entirely eliminated, and you won't have to worry about choking the top end out either. There was always that fine-line between good boost response and top-end power that got smeared because it was either "one or the other" that you were kinda forced to choose between. Smaller turbos will inherently make boost quicker, but they become a restriction once the rpm's get higher and power production is at it's highest. This technology can allow us to use the larger compressors without the inherent boost lag that wuold normally come along with te scenario.. Gives me a woody. Dave

I know this isn't the yellow pages or Craigslist or anything, but this site has it's fair-share of hot-rodders and I figured I'd mention this.. Buddy of mine has a badass 4.6 for sale NEVER BEEN RUN, basically: '99 Cobra block ("Teskid" motor, basically indestructible block) .020" over (283 cid) Polished/rebalanced crank H-beam rods 9:1 Forged pistons Stock 4v Cobra heads/cams *COMPLETE* all the way from the throttle body to the oil pan. Comes with Cluster, PCM, wiring, everything you would need to drip this engine into virtually anything. It's a lower-compression 4-valve built-to-the-hilt and will handle over 1,000 hp all day long. As it sits, it probably only makes just shy of 300 in it's naturally asiprated form, but this engine was built for one thing, and a lot of that one thing - Boost. So, if you have any itching to build yourself a retardedly powerful turbo 4.6 (a single 76mm or a couple smaller twins will but a big smile on ya) street car, let me know! A good 22-23psi from a properly sized turbo(s) or blower will net you around 800hp at the crank on this engine, and it will be totally streetable on pump-gas, as long as you get a good safe/conservative tune. Located in the Chicago area, if you're interested... Dave