DamageINC

Haha, I'm assuming that you took care of the Florida Keys with the jiggle. (shake it more than twice and you're playin' with yourself) Dave

Then again, the turbo setups on the Terminators actually get GREAT mileage as long as you're not always driving like an Andretti. I know a few guys with single-turbo setups making well over 700rwhp and they will get 25-27mpg on the highway as long as they're not beating the snot out of it. One has gone 10.40's @ 137 on pump gas & drag radials (1.54 60-foot). Dave Dave

Holy Suicide Attempt! Dave

My buddy (Tony knows him) Skippy ACTUALLY asked a girl once if she'd like to go back to his place for some Pizza and Sex. After the instinctual "what the hell?" look on her face, he said "What - you don't like pizza?" That was about 9 or 10 years ago at a punk show in Chicago, lol. Dave

I've mentioned it before here, but I'll say it again. GASKET REMOVER. Wear a mask and go to town on these intakes with a can of Permatex Gasket Remover. YOu'll be blown away at how quickly this stuff just melts the carbon away and rinses right off. Worst case, you'll need 2 cans for an intake and it'll be pristene when you're done. Just be sure to wear some kind of mask and keep your skin as far away from the death-fog you'll create because the stuff stings/burns pretty bad if you get any heavy contact with it. Give it a shot, I doubt you'll use anything else afterward. Dave

Far as I know, I'm pretty sure the engineer who designed the exhaust was a woman. (no joke) Careful with that stick or you may end up with a harassment suit on your hands. Also though, do you *have to* remove the up-pipe to take out the manifold? I've never done a right side manifold but I always remove the left side manifold when doing the EGR coolers and I've never needed to remove the up-pipe, I've just been able to weasel the manifold out of there. Dave

The way I deal with these oil pan jobs is that I basically tell the customer that we'll be looking at just over $3,000 out the door, give or take a couple hundo. That gets me 22 hours of labor, and I tell him that anything that needs to be addressed while the engine is out, will be fixed. (Rotted lines, oil leaks, so on) This also inclueds new front and rear crank seals, a thorough cleaning, and all that good stuff. If something EXPENSIVE is needed, then I'll let him know before doing anything. Dave

Yeah those compression numbers are waaay low for us, we usually see 400psi dead-nuts for every cylinder. And obviously if they're all equally messed up, then the relative compression test will show up fine. (Keep in mind that anything at or over 2% loss on a relative compression test with these diesels is a big red-flag.) Dave

I agree with Keith too - a lot of ambulance conversions after they're loaded with equipment and O2 tanks and all that crap can weigh over 13,000lbs, some even more! That seems like overkill for a 350 chassis on a day-to-day basis. But you also mentioned that the rest of the fleet is fine... so I'd bet it's a combo of the weight of the truck, AND the weight of the drivers right foot. Dave

I've replaced 2 due to severe coolant contamination from wiped out Horizontal EGR coolers. I just separate the exhaust and peek in there with a light - it usually stains the whole lowermost inch or so (sometimes even deeper) of the entire substrate block in there. Both times, hotline insisted that ANY visual contamination or damage to the DPF *WILL* result in premature failure and won't comply to emissions standards, and therefore replacement is required. Cha-Ching. On another note, both of then that I replaced, the nipple for the DPFP sensor broke off in the bung even with a ton of heat. However, I found that a simple 1/4" male (with male threads) air-line coupler fitting screws in and seals perfectly, and the DPFP hose slides good 'n tight over the fitting. Cost of the air fitting - .72cents Cost of the DPFP nipple - $70-something dollars COST. Dave

... I suppose that the thing that eats me up then, is that as long as we have a Democrat or a modern-day Republican in office (they're both the same to me in the long run), then they will never sign anything regarding a removal of the Fed. Big government requires control systems like that to maintain it's status of big government. Just because our economy is in the toilet, doesn't mean our government is screwed too. These bailouts are doing nothing but empowering the banks and weakening the dollar even more. They couldn't have happened without the aid of the Federal reserve. I understand why the Fed is important, to some degrees, but I firmly believe that its importance is greatly overshadowed by it's flaws and removal of it would be a much greater help than trying to fix it up some more. It's like a big cancerous tumor that sometimes looks nice when the light hits it just right. Just get rid of the fucking thing. /forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/laugh.gif Dave

Hahaha, yeah, well, who knows. Pretty grim idea though. With the development of the Amero and what looks to be the ending of the dollar anyway, it really does make ya wonder what the hell's going on and why the news really hasn't said much about it. Paranoid, though? Nah.. what happens happens. It's definitely out of my hands. Dave EDIT: And if you Canadians don't know about it either, go do a little research on the "AMERO" as your new form of currency. Back in '05, Bush signed a series of documents that are basically stating the beginning of an open-borders policy between the USA, Mexico, and Canada, with a central currency amongst all 3, along with other interesting policies and whatnot. Dave

Whether or not he'd have followed through isn't the issue - if he'd just been given the same respect and media time as the rest of the candidates, then the mass population would have HEARD what he had to say. His followthrough wouldn't even be necessary because his points were so valid that, even if he'd failed to come through, the people would likely look to the next elect to have the same characteristics that he "displayed" during his campaign. I completely agree with many of the other posts here. There are a lot of things that I honestly believe about this whole situation that I feel funny about bringing up in a public forum (for fear of being called a lunatic, lol) but it all goes back to me being an absolute firm-believer that the Federal REserve system is a total disaster, and before we can address ANY of the nations 'current big issues', we need to eliminate the Fed first. Get rid of the fed, and eventually everything else will fall into place. Otherwise, I fear that America (and eventually the rest of the planet) will be metaphoric slaves to a much bigger, uglier government than we deal with currently. Dave

The "Boss" platform has had a conceptual functioning 6.2 Twin-Turbo DI gas engine, I don't remember the power figures but they were flat-out absurd. In a good way. I think it was more of an experiment of what might be possible with the newer engines.. But if you're asking "does direct injection mean that it will also be turbo'd?" I believe the answer is no. For obvious reasons there are inherent power and efficiency advantages to having precise control over the volume and timing of fuel delivery on a cylinder-by-cylinder basis, and taking turbo's OUT of the equation would drastically reduce the cost of the engine when you think o fall the components involved. It's just that you get much more power and almost identical mileage (as long as you're not always stomping on it) WITH the turbos anyway, which is why I think the turbos will be a GREAT option because there's no real downside to the upgrade except for the initial cost. For what it's worth, The Saturn SKY and Pontiac Solstice have naturally aspirated DI gas engines and they apparently run VERY well. Oh, and by the way - I'm pretty sure this is a pushrod engine, too. Dave

Nah, I saw a pretty in-depth write up on this engine a while ago, it's an entirely new platform. The 6.2 is the first of 3 engines that is supposed to be derived from this platform, with a 5.8 and a 7.0 also being a result. They're still holding onto the 'modular' design idea but there's nothing carryover at all with these engines from the familiar 4.6/5.4/6.8 setups. Apparently they get surprisingly good mileage as well for larger displacement V8's. Still 2-valve in nature, but with a much higher static compression ratio than the current mod-motor family. Unsure if they're to be direct-injected or not. Dave

Exactly. The 7.3's were very problem free in the grand scheme of things, we we still made money on them, and made it a LOT easier than we do with the 6.0. I think a lot of that has to do with the fact that, from a customer pay standpoint, the cost of failed parts PLUS the labor times that SHOULD be charged for these 6.0 (and 6.4, soon) repairs is so high that the owners just laugh in your face when they see the estimate and put the money towards a new truck. We're forced to pull the times down even further to sell a job and then we work twice as hard to make money on it. Dave

I think it has something to do with the guy in your avatar.. Dave

He's probably still typing from his initial response 2 days ago, lol. Dave

I think it's a GREAT thing - look at the success of FORD's diesel engines overseas, the Lion engines, they're very, very reliable and make excellent power as well. As long as they build these like they're building their Euro diesels, I think we'll be much happier with the outcome. Dave

I really don't know where to stand on the whole thing, I can't say I'm an Obama fan but I really never thought Johnny had much going for him either. I almost feel embarrassed to admit it, but lately with the economy crisis, I don't look like such an "out there" dude - but I was very impressed with Ron Paul's overall standings on pretty much everything, it was the first time I'd really heard so much come out of a politicians mouth that I actually agreed with. It's a shame he never got much media attention (until lately, because the economy's in shambles and he's the only political figure out there who actually understands how money works) because I feel if he'd been given more of a chance to breathe, a lot more people would have been aware of his presence. Either way, doesn't make a difference, no point in wishing or hoping, just gotta roll with the punches and deal with the leftovers. Good luck to BO, he'll need it. Dave

That E-van ambulance I just long-block'd took it's toll on me apparently. My lower back is *shot*, at the ripe old age of 26. I -no joke- almost couldn't walk on Sunday morning. It was frightening, to be honest, I wasn't sure what was going on. This all goes back to the initial injury suffered back in May when I long block'd, oddly enough, an E-van school bus. During the job I developed some lower back pain but didn't think much of it and my SM just told me to hammer ibuprofen before looking into a workers comp thing. Sounded fair to me, It wasn't debilitating or anything. The pain came and gone from that point, but over the last week it got tremendously worse and this weekend, reached a level I'm not happy about. So, as for this week, I'm out of work for sure. Maybe longer, I can't return unless I'm 100% because they don't want it coming back. Plus,they want me to get physical therapy. Fix Me Right The First Time, I guess. Ahhhh, but at least I have that big, juicy paycheck to look forward to as a reward for all the time I have into that thing, right? Lol... Dave

Yeah, that's the word on the street. 6.7 FORD engine, not an International thing. 390hp / 720tq are the supposed power numbers at this point. Dave

Well, so far, it's been running fine. I was worried at first because it took an unusually long time to build base oil pressure, and then it started popping through the intake while cranking, but eventually it fired up and so far, so good. Another thing I also noticed was that, when I removed the oil cooler from the new engine - it's NOT a new oil cooler that was installed on this this long-block. There was still rusty-corroded coolant stuck to the passages all over the inside of the thing. How lovely is that? Also has old valve covers on it (the insides were scraped to shit) and there was so much paint globbed in the threaded holes in the block that a lot of the reassembly wasn't exactly cooperative. Just ordered another long block for an '07 F-350 with a melted piston, I'm gonna see what other niceties come as a bonus with this one /forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/smile.gif Dave

This got even funnier too... I went to inspect the pan further, and there was a ton of metal shavings and kibble in the pan, probably from the previous engine that blew up above it. While I was rinsing it out, I flipped it over to see a "repair job" that was done to this pan becuase it looks like it was really badly dented and beat up from whoever removed it last. The re-man place basically pounded the dents in and out (you can see the dimples all over the inside of the pan) and then filled the dents on the outside, then took a die-grinder to it to smooth it all out. Half of the bottom of the pan doesn't have any paint on it because it was all ground off. I'm just gonna keep chugging away here and hope that this thing runs right once I'm done, I should have it running tomorrow if it goes smooth. Dave