DamageINC

Haha, I know! I think that the synthetic oil will find it's customer very quickly, as it always had a tendency to do. There's always those select few guys who won't even talk to you unless you use synthetics.. ...some of these oil change intervals are getting insane now, though. And the thing that worries me is that, over time, engines *WILL* consume more oil. What good is a 10,000 mile oil change interval if you end up 3 quarts low by the time it comes around? I see these commercials for some Quaker State super-synthetic engine oil that makes you smarter & better looking too, (lol) but they seriously say you can go 15,000 miles between oil changes simply by using this oil. I can only imagine the backlash from customers with 10 year old cars who actually decide to wait 15,000 miles for oil changes, and then wonder why the oil light is coming on during agressive stops, hehehe. Dave

I recall having a wonderful time trying to get that thing to stay together while I was in the class, however I've not been fortunate enough to have any reason to use it in the field yet. To be honest, we've been very good with our 6.4's so far... only real problem was one with the radiator tanks seperated and another with a TERRIBLE front crank seal leak. Oddly enough, the new seal came with a wear sleeve. ..but now it's changing subjects, so, meh.. I'd be interestd if we can get any definitive answers as to the actual operation of the EGR valve. I couldn't find anything in the classroom books, or the "coffee table" book either.. Dave

So I've never done this before in this fashion, but I decided to try something a little different. I've got a '99 GT in the shop, came in locked up / no oil, needs an engine. Just because it's kinda slow here and I'm not trying to break and speed records or anything, I figured I'd go a different route than the "out the hood" method with this one, don't care if it kicks my ass or not.... And holy shit, is it easy this way. Left the engine bolted to the K-member, trans still attached, and just dropped the whole K-member (wheels still on, suspension intact with struts unbolted from towers, calipers hanging from body) out of the car instead. I was *taking my time* with this because I didn't wanna destroy anything in the process, and when it was all said and done, I have the engine sitting in the K-member, but completely out of the vehicle in less than 1.5 hours. Get this down to a procedure, something you can do without "thinking" about it, and you can honestly have this thing out in under an hour, I'd bet. Honestly, if I remember correctly, there are a couple power steering/booster hoses to disconnect, 2 a/c lines to disconnect, remove the battery & tray, 3 or 4 electrical connectors and a ground on the LF fender, 3 connectors at the right side firewall, unbolt steering shaft, pull clutch cable out, unbolt exhaust from the mufflers, pull the front sway bar, upper/lower radiator hose, and pull the drive shaft. Unbolt the calipers, unplug the ABS sensors, lower the car down so the weight's on the front tires, unbolt the struts from up top, and the 8 K-member bolts, and then up comes the car and the engine's right there. *VERY* fast. Dave

IF you polished that thing up & engraved Snap-On somewhere on the handle, you could probably sell it for about $179 or so. Dave

I actually thought that the 6.4 EGR valve was utilizing a bi-directional motor this time, that actually opens AND closes the valve, as opposed to just opening the valve and letting spring pressure close it. I could be wrong (which is usually the case) but I am pretty sure it "goes both ways" like that via reversing polarity. Seeing as you're getting used to removing these things anyway, why not yank the bastard out, and try to open & close the sucker on the bench with your own 12v source? Dave

Oooooh now we're swingin' below the belt! I'll get right onto cleaning those floors after I finish replacing the engine in this mustang /forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/smile.gif Dave

That hand couldn't be any less intimidating if if were inside a yellow rubber glove, washing dishes at a gas station diner. Dave

I would love to see the strong arm of irony deliver the bitch-slap of the century to the guys who've done nothing but praise that company, when they're following a Tundra down the interstate only to have the tailgate fall off and go through their grille. Dave

Not to be the asshole who stands there hovering over the bleeding carcass of the enemy and point & laugh.. .. but as far as the Tundra goes: HA--HA! *points finger* I'm so glad that the new Tundra is turning out to be a bit of a disaster with Toyota. Everyone I know of who has one is unhappy with it. The only thing that people like is the power, but apparently they're just piles of garbage. Lots of complaints about terrible engine noises on cold startups, squeaks/rattles, various driveability concerns, mildage complaints, not to mention the rash of engines that needed replacement due to broken camshafts... ..it's like Toyota's own personal 6.0! Dave

I made sure to inspect the filler neck and inside of the tank to make sure it wasn't rusting out, and both areas of concern were in good shape. The school that owns this bus recently had their *ENTIRE* fleet of buses vandalized, ranging from over 70 slashed tires to fully spraypainted/graffiti'd, and God knows what else. There's always a possibility that this stuff was introduced into the tank by some dumbass at the school who aided in the festivities. The only bus that survived the attack was one that I happened to be putting an STC fitting in, so it was in our shop that night /forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/smile.gif Dave

Holy hell!!! What dealer was this anyway? Dave

Anyway, this one turned out to be a real easy one. Just got around to looking at this one again because they had us on "hold" after we mentioned it might be non-warranty. But anyway, I went and took the thing out on the road. Ran fine but didn't accelerate for shit, foot to the floor and it was like you might as well have been at half throttle, total fuel starvation symptoms. Just put filters in it a couple weeks beforehand and it ran it's ass off before, so I just ended up yanking the tank out of it & having a look inside. Sure enough, it looked like someone threw a handful of playground sand in the tank. It wasn't delaminating, but whatever fuel they're putting in there is just contaminated as hell with debris. Not sure if it's coming from *their* tanks or the supplier, but either way - customer pay. Getting a new sender/pickup, pump, filters, and having the tank sent out to be cleaned. Dave

ACtually, I recently had a badly blown EGR cooler that leaked a ton of coolant.. you could actually see in the y-pipe up to the turbo where the coolant sould travel, all the way into the turbo and completely ate away at everything in the tirbune housing. Fins, vanes, and bearings were corned. Dave

The '05 MY is the only one with the injector issue. I've never seen any other years display the problem. Aparently, Ford switched vendors/manufacturers after the '04 MY and you can guess what happened then.. ...yeah, that ESST kit is a joke though. Basically, it's a recall that covers the failed injector, and only the failed injector, as well as any other parts that the injector failure had an effect on (i.e. short blocks due to bent rods, blown out cats, so on...) The GREAT thing about this is that, even though the injectors are $40 a pop, you still are only replacing one out of a set of 8 that are potentially hazardous to the engine. So you can replace a #3 injector and a short block for a bent #3 rod, only to ve it come back a week later with a #6 stuck injector and another bent rod. We had one scare like that before, about 6 months after I did a short block in an '05 for the #7 injector wiping out a rod. It came back in recently with the #2 injector stuck, but fortunately didn't do any real damage. ...and back to the 126 report thing - the reason we don't "update" the other potentially hazardous injectors, is because it will raise our numbers. Dave

I gave the guy my e-mail just to see if this was the site he was talking about, but haven't heard back yet. But yeah, LOTS of people interested. It was basically an offer for him to e-mail anyone interested a link to the site, if they were so inclined. I'd love to see this site really get some recognition, but by the same token, I really kind of like the "tight knit" group of regulars here who continually make the place worth visiting on a daily basis. I fear that an overabundance of people mowing through the doors here may kind of detract from the overall learning experience, God knows there are plenty of idiots out there who troll the Ford boards. Dave

Oh believe me, this is not news to me or our manager. Fact is, it just doesn't work here. I know as well as everyone here that the EGR cooler should come in the same box as the Oil cooler & sold as a valu-pack. I have trouble getting hotline to tell me what I want to hear, as far as EGR Cooler/Oil Cooler and injector replacement goes and whatnot, seems like each time I am trying to get them to tell me to replace the parts I really believe should be replaced, I'm told to "reference TSB xx-xx-xx" instead. The latest crackdown is that we aren't allowed to claim M-time anymore for these things. Period. No more M-time. No NPF time, regardless of how much time you may have into looking for a problem that won't act up. But whoopee, we got Level-1 status again. Until Ford jumps on us about making absolutely sure that we fill out our diag sheets, we won't be using them because they raise our numbers. We are actually kicking ass as far as the 126 reports go, as far as the big hitters on the 126 sheet goes (cost per repair, repairs per 1000, so on...) and it's because of the way we run things. But it also flat-out sucks for us as techs. Not much we can do except sit back and deal with it. Our manager has been very worried because he's apparently hearing that there will be an enormous crackdown on the diesel end of the 126 reports with some huge investigating going on. The good thing is that he "knows" we're way ahead of the curve and we'll definitely survive the next couple years becuase we're used to the way things are eventually going to be. He's also almost positive that there will be a LOT of dealers in the area that well end up in deeper shit than a midget cleaning out a port-a-potty and will have to severely cut back on their diesel service. The good thing is that we'll be up to our asses in diesel work, but it may be too much to handle as well. I guess time will tell. Dave

Ok, so we have an '05 short bus that just came back in. I looked at it 2 weeks ago for what they stated as a crank-no-start after the vehicle died on them. I hop in the van, turn the key - boom, fires right up. We *know* that the fuel used in these vehicle has a very high biodiesel content, after prying the information out of the guys at the yard where they fill up the buses.. mind you, it's getting pretty damn cold out here this time of year so gelling of the fuel with high bio content is constantly in the back of my head. Only codes in the system however were a P0231 (fuel pump secondary ckt low). Check oasis, talk to hotline, basically was told not to worry about the P0231 as long as the connections at the inertia switch were ok. I end up replacing the fuel filters due to the history of the shitty fuel being used, and send them on their way with my fingers crossed, as I was getting absolutely nowhere trying to verify the stall and/or no-start. They were aware that this "may or may not" take care of the issue but we need to be able to verify the concern to make a proper diagnosis. So.... Bus comes in today on the hook - "died while driving. Cranks, starts, but only runs for a split-second". Get in - verified, sure enough, cranks over, fires up for a fraction of a second, then shits out. After letting the glow plugs warm up for a good long while and cranking it some more, it starts to sound like a fuel delivery issue again, I can practically hear the injectors hammering away while cranking (and still not starting) so I decide to just call it quits there and start with the actual diagnosis. Pull up some basic pids, B+, VPWR, FICM SYNC, SYNC, ICP, RPM, just to get started and check for obvious problems. Turn the key - boom, ICP ramps perfectly and the thing fires right up, runs like it was new. Can't get it to act up anymore. WTF. Pull codes, get that P0231 again (which I cleared last time) ALONG with a P2614 (CMP output ckt open) and a P2617 (CKP output ckt open). So I've got an intermittent P0231 and now 2 other codes for cam and crank circuits, with no sign so far whatsoever of these signals dropping out and causing a loss of sync. Just curious if anyone here has run into any similar situations, seen these codes before, that kinda thing. OASIS comes up empty. Initially I was thinking that maybe I was running into a delamination issue, but now I'm not so sure after seeing the cam/crank codes. I'm going to drop it outside for a few hours and hopefully after sitting, I'll be able to get it to act up. What kills me is that it's dying while being driven, and then it's a crank-no-start, which definitely coincides with the P0231 and the P2614/P2617, so I'm not sure that being cold really has much to do with the issue.... Dave

Our manager shoves the 126 reports down our throats at least twice a month, with a full review of everything and notes areas we need to improve on. We've been a Level-1 dealer for 3 years straight now ever since we were all "involved" with the 126 reports. But, yeah, we also have not been "allowed" to claim any diesel diag sheets anymore, because they raise our numbers. When we have a bad EGR cooler, we replace just the EGR cooler. If the oil cooler shits out, it just gets an oil cooler. We don't upsell warranty work on the diesels. Because we get chewed out hardcore for it. It sucks. We fix these vehicles at cheaply as possible and it really aggrivates me because I *KNOW* they'll be back sometimes. I miss the days when we had a truck with a problem, and we just fixed it right. Now, we have to bounc around all these horseshit numbers and bite our nails abot audit threats because we're "over repairing" vehicles. Ford didn't seem to care about the fact that our repeat repairs/Repairs per 1000 section on the 126 sheets was blowing everyone else out of the water... they were pissed because we averaged more dollars per R.O. And it wasn't even that bad. So "fix it right the first time" has officially taken a back seat to "fix it as cheap as possible and hope it doesn't come back soon". I'm really excited to see where this goes in another year. Dave

I'll be the guy in the back of the theater who ends up making headlines similar to the ones we saw about Pee Wee Herman a good while ago... On a serios note, we've had a lot of School Buses come in with exhaust smells that ended up originating at the exhaust manifolds where they meet up with the heads. There are actual gaskets made for these engines and so far, after installing exhaust manifold gaskets, none have returned. Dave

I agree completely! I've only done one body-off on a 6.0 Van (for a branch tube) and it was surprisingly simple when compared to the F-series. It still took me longer because of the learning curve, but if I had the opportunity to do a couple of them in a 2 week span, it'd be cake. And I needed to heat 5 of the mount nuts to get them loose too. The frontmost ones *really* were uncooperative but I found that you can just grab the rubber mount with some large channel-locks and blast the bolt out that way. Even so, with all the extra time it took me to double check/triple check everything and make sure I wasn't gonna break anything when seperating the body, I still beat the labor time by a good half-day. And I'm not a haul-ass kinda tech either, I prefer working comfortably instead of fast. I'd seriously recommend E-van body removal WHENEVER possible, if it comes down to serious engine repair/removal. Dave

Ford has a nice little "how we can justify screwing you" section on the SLTS page that shows 'new' shortcuts around a lot of common 6.0 repairs. They recommend (and so do I, if you have one) using a half-moon wrench to hold the bolt and then spin the nut off from the bottom... Dave

That's funky... initially it reminded me of when the DPFE sensors on gas engines would melt/blow off because of plugged catalytic converters. What are the odds that your new DPF is also taking a dump, maybe geting plugged or something? I'd be surprised if that were the case, but it's the first thing that comes to mind.. Dave

I'd just drop the pan and go right there. Every time I have an '05 3-valve with a previous injector history and a return misfire on the same cylinder, I do a relative compression test and if the results are "iffy" I take the pan right off. *EVERY* one has had a bent rod. The pan seriously comes off in 15 minutes, it's cake. Get that front "crossmember" thing out of the way and then unbolt the motor mounts and both sway bar mounts, let the sway bar hang there. Jack up the front of the engine and the pan slides right out. And short blocks are *JUICE* on these things too, the body comes off in 45 minutes and you don't even have to open the doors. Get the converter nuts and starter bolts out with a 3/8 impact and an extension/swivel combo once the heads are off, and yank the short block after tearing the engine down. I've had a couple that were in-and-out in well under a day and they paid out like 22-23 hours. Dave

Seen that before firsthand when I, somehow, managed to cross the lines on a steering rack in an Explorer. Ordered the lines up, went to install them assuming that, the way they were bent, there's no way they'd ever line up in the "wrong direction". Oops. Pretty violent manuvers from the wheel actually!! Fortunately, I *never* stick my hand through the wheel after seeing a kids arm get broken in half during school (UTI) when he turned the key on and the drivers air bag blew out. Dave

That's actually a great picture though, you get a good look at the fuel chamber and even the small little path that the fuel takes as it's LEAVING the injector. I can imagine the damage that kinda thing would cause though. Dave