DamageINC

Ohhhhhh, hehe ok. Well, Keith took care of the question for ya then /forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/smile.gif *goes and sulks in corner* Dave

That surging/flutter noise you're hearing when you let off the gas is the audible result of there not really being an external boost bypass (or a blow-off valve). The VGT is designed so that a bypass system isn't necessary but when they get all sticky inside, they can't function normally. The issue is that when you let off the gas and the rpm's tank waaaaay down, the turbo is still spinning at 100,000+ rpm. There's still boost being created for a small period of time. Plus, there, is still residual boost left in the CAC tubes, CAC, and Intake as well. But the engine cannot use the amount of air that's trying to be forced down it's throat now that the rpm's have dropped so heavily, and this air literally 'rebounds' back out of the intake, through the CAC, and then off of the impeller fins in the turbo's compressor housing. And it continues to "bounce" around in the system until the pressure has alleviated and the impeller has slowed down enough. This is also not good for overall turbo longevity, as this event will slow down the turbo MUCH faster than it's intended to, and this loads the bearings in a way that they weren't really designed to be loaded and will eventually result in excessive radial end-play. But, as it turns out, when this problem occurs, you may very well be replacing the turbo (or at least the center-section) anyway for other reasons. Dave

This is just a shit sandwich... the problem is that you won't know there's a problem, until there's a problem. Quite problematic. There's no sign that these connectors will fail upon installation, becuase they snap in just fine. It's only after they've heated up and been driven that they back off and that's only IF they're bad connectors. Hotline told me there's no way to tell, all that they know is that there's a "quality issue" with some of the connectors and they're trying to determine which ones are failing. I was told 3 times, by 3 different hotline seat-warmers, NOT to secure the connector with any kind of mechanic wire or zip-ties or anything, and just let the harness do it's job. Until something new is released, I think we may have to just cross our fingers. Dave

If that's the case, then the Duramax techs will have a whole slew of new shit to complain about. Dave

Moral of the story - go get drunk with the causal part. Just don't wake up next to it. Dave

WE've had a few hard-to-fix power steering noises that were cured by replacing the fluid with Mercon V. The additive friction modifiers in the fluid took all the noise right of of the system, and none have come back with any other steering noise issues since. Dave

I spent a little more time with it and absolutely determined that what's happening is that these connectors are warping. They push in all the way, for certain. But the locking tab that needs to be "lifted" to remove the connector, is bending up on it's own, probably from the oil and heat. So there's nothing preventing the connector from walking off of the pump after it bends. You can manually push the locking tab down, and as soon as you let it go, it pops back up. Dave

Dude, have you heard "My Apocalypse"?? It's classic, Puppets-style Metallica. How can you not like it? Dave

Well, I got it all apart. (In just shy of 3 hours!) But anyway, there's really nothing special to see. I can't find any visible damage to the connectors, or the HPFP. All I know is that when I removed the cover and grabbed the connectors (yes, BOTH of them) they just popped right out of the pump. Reconnect them as tight as possible, jiggle 'em around, and they fall out again. I can shoot a pic or two if you'd like but I really don't expect to see anything.. there was a question as to whether the silicone packing in the connector stuck in the pump, and then when the new harness was plugged in, it "double sealed" causing it to not connect fully. But, there was no other insulation inside the connector. So, that wasn't the case. The new connector simply just won't stay plugged in now... Maybe the locking tab on the connector warps when it gets hot enough and allows it to come loose? Dave

All I know is that I'm amped to see Metallica when they come around here in the end of January... Not just because it's Metallica, and they put on the best show in the history of the planet, but because Machinehead is opening up for them. Better bring some clean underwear. Dave

I'm gonna bring my camera to work tomorrow. Once I get it all apart, I'll take a pic or two. Hopefully this doesn't bite anyone here... I checked the FMC forums and there's a current thread there on this problem too. Yikes. I don't feel so terrible knowing I'm not the only schlep who's been porked by this one. Dave

So a truck that I just put an HPFP Gasket on for a blown F74/chaffed wire at the pump, just came back with an intermittent stall-no-start. Once it's cooled off, it starts just fine. P2291 and P0090 in memory, passes On-Demand when I get to it. I MADE ABSOLUTELY SURE that the connectors were properly seated when I installed this new updated gasket, by tugging on them once they were connected. This was obviously something didn't want to do twice. Either way, I load test the wires from the PCM to the jumper harness and they're good, and there's good power source from the BJB to the jumper harness as well. Great. A call to hotline reveals that they've been getting hammered with calls about this after gasket/harness replacement. Apparently there are a series of different things causing this, but it all revolves around the issue that once the engine gets hot enough, the insulator in the connector, or the HPFP connector itself expands, and pushes out the gasket-side of the connector, causing an open in the PCV circuit. Once it cools down, the connector re-seats and everything's fine for a while. Either way, I get to do this job all over again. Fortunately I've got some backup in a hotline request stating that this is a known issue and that they're looking into it, so I should probably get paid to re-do the repair. Maybe I'll have to wire-tie the thing to the pump, I dunno what I'm gonna find but I'll let you know what it is when I do. Dave

I completely agree about those heater pipes, what a horrible idea that was. That one by the left valve cover is in a bad spot, it's no wonder why people have been breaking them. But to be honest. the OTHER one that goes from the front cover, around the right side of the intake and then to the heater core... WOW. That thing is hard to remove even with everything OFF the engine. If the front cover's not in the way, then the intake is. So you try to remove the intake... but it hangs up on the front cover. It's like you need to move all 3 pieces at once to get it out without breaking the shit out of it. Dave

I made another post yesterday but for some reason it didn't show up.. ..anyway, yes, I know all about the book procedure. And it didn't work. It took, for whatever reason, over 2 hours for this thing to finally bleed out to the point that it would actually run for more than 3 seconds. Patience may be a virtue but this was flat-out retarded. I followed the book procedure, but to no avail. I ended up hooking up my fuel pressure gauge to the schrader valve and just holding the dump-valve open, then commanding the fuel pump on and letting it air out that way. AFter 20 minutes or so, it was still bubbly, and sllllow, it was almost like the fuel pump wasn't working properly. I checked for god power and ground to the pump, everything was fine, tried to start it after another series of key cycles (30 seconds on, 5 seconds off, per the manual) and the same thing. Starts, dies. I ended up pulling both filters, removing the lines, blowing them out, bleeding everything seperately, and finally after over 2 hours of waltzing with this truck, it finally started. Ran for about 10 seconds, then shut off. Did this 2 more times, right in a row, and then it finally kept running. I'm completely confident that I'll get my time out of it too! /forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/drinkingdude.gif Dave

Has anyone got a foolproof way here of bleeding these thigns out so they start and KEEP running? I've tried the usual method a dozen times and it just doesn't work. Now with the truck I finally finished putting together, the batteries were a little low from the initial tow-in and the customer spending half the day cranking it over to try and start it. I sat there, turned the key on for 30 seconds, then off for 6 seconds.. did this 7 times. Cranked it, fired up, then died after about 5 seconds. Air in the fuel system, and my low batteries aren't doing their job cranking anymore, so I'm charging them now. I'd love to if anyone's just got a click-boom method for this /forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/smile.gif Dave

I dunno. I think that service is just a horseshit service. I get it, but I think it's too redundant. You're not fixing anything. If it's coked that badly, then the turbo will probably need to come out anyway. If the turbo's out, then you might as well take the money that the customer would pay to perform the EGR cleaning and just upsell yanking the intake and cleaning it manually. Not to mention, you've got access to other known failure points (EGR/OIL coolers, EGR cooler hose...) that may also need to be addressed at the time. Dave

Probably because the Sprinter is a humongus pile of shit. We work right across from a Dodge dealer and they've had nothing but problems with that platform it seems. The MB Diesel in those things has been very problematic and expensive to repair, as far as I know. And as a whole platform they apparently just aren't holding up to the customer's demands. They've likely got the whole corner of the market here because there's nothing else for it to compete with. Dave

Well, although I'm not so sure of that, I wouldn't exactly call this one "some" cavitation. After comparing it to the new one (I'm sorry, I never got pics of the old vs. new) it looks like the old one used for target practice. The new one is very nice and "mirror" finished inside, the old one is VERY heavily torn up, not just behind the water pump impeller but the whole inside of the thing was really heavily beaten up. I still might be able to get a pic of the old one. But apparetnly after these things cavitate so badly, they become somewhat porous and the coolant will make it's way through the cover and into the oil. Yummy. Not to mention that all the eroded aluminum is now getting collected in the oil cooler. That also gets replaced. Dave

I don't see that as much of a problem except that they'll lose a lot of business from the customers that need a van and simply won't buy anything without a bigger diesel in it. Ambulances (for some reason), along with a lot of other conversion-style vehicles, are almost always E-Vans. At least around this area.. Dave

Like Kevin said, I'd be checking to make sure that the turbo's not taking a dump. If you're getting heavy compressor surge from simple WOT blasts then that's usually a sign that the vanes aren't doing what they're told. The fact that the CAC hoses don't wanna stay on is also indicative of a sticky turbo. Obviously you need to replace the one that's torn, but clean the other ones off with brake cleaner and a rag before you install them again. And take that turbo apart! Dave

Hey Keith - if you get a minute, check out my band! It's not crazy heavy but it still tickles the borders of metal.. http://www.myspace.com/inncinema I'd love to hear any recordings of your stuff too! Dave

Ok, so I just wanna see if anyone else is seeing this yet... First - there's the fuel line that gets banjo'd to the HPFP and works it's way around the right side of the intake, then snakes behind the oil filter housing, and quick-connects to the fuel filter housing. Has anyone had those crack at the flexible-hose location? I was installing this line when I noticed diesel fuel dripping right out of the braided section, the line is internally cracked beneath the braided cover. I must have done this either during removal or installation, but I don't know when. Funny thing is, there were 2 other dealerships near us that had that line in stock - so are others breaking this thing too? Also, I went to tighten the M12 banjo bolt for the fuel line-to-fuel filter housing, to the shop-manual spec of 28 ft/lbs. The bolt just exploded instead, right as the torquewrench clicked. Had to extract the remains of the bolt from the housing and blow out the fuel line to make sure none of the kibble got into the fuel.. Seen that yet either? Dave

Hehe, me and Tony are the last people here to start this conversation with. Dave

Well, this one's been driving and runnign for about 3 or 4 hours now. Slo far, so good, filter standpipe looks ok as far as I can tell, pids appear normal. I beat the holy hell out of it for a good half hour and the only thing I noticed was that the overall running temperature hovered around 220*F, which seems a bit toasty. But the EOT never went more than 12* higher, and there's no other driveability problems yet... so I was told to send it on it's way. Hopefully it doesn't show up again /forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/smile.gif Dave

Got a lovely one here - '06 Ambulance. Vehicle came in, guy driving it says he noticed the "check gauge" light on and the coolant needle was pegged when he looked. Also stated the loud whistling/hooting noise from underhood while he'd accelerate. I let it sit for 10 minutes or so, check the ECT/EOT pids KOEO and found them maxed out. I pop the hood - wooooooah, that's hot. The degas bottle has stress cracks all over it and it's been venting heavily. So I grab an infrared thermometer and start checking things. In the meantime, I'm letting the degas bottle vent out with the cap cracked a bit. I notice that the thermostat housing and upper radiator hose are measuring a solid 280*F, and the remote oil filter housing is at about 260*F. After about 10 more minutes, the degas bottle's done hissing, so I take a shot at the coolant sitting at the top of the bottle. 349*F!!! Just to be sure, I checked a few other things, and came back to it and it was almost identical. After at least 20 minutes of cooling off and 10 of them with the cap loose, the coolant temperature was almost 350*F!!! The cause of the overheating was the fan clutch wiring - looks like someone broke the retainer for the connector in the shroud, and it made it's way into mr. fan blade. As we know, the oil filter is remotely mounted, so I don't know how likely it would be to find a melted standpipe in this housing, and this one appears ok for now. The filter doesn't look terrible either. As it sits, I'm in a position to have to replace the fan clutch and just beat the holy hell out of it afterward while monitoring some vitals. Hotline's being very "avoidant" with telling me there's any potential for further damage, and just recommended I perform the coolant loss TSB which wasn't necessary as I noticed right off the bat that the fan RPM wasn't exitant when I checked pids while running. So this begs the question then - just how hot can these things get before you start questioning things? Dave