Fredsvt

Benz has told the Euros in charge they won't use it. http://media.daimler.com/dcmedia/0-921-658892-1-1536147-1-0-0-0-0-0-439-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0.html

The original Goodyears on my Lightning are going for $317 ea on tire rack, I bought 2 nitto nt555 tires for the rear a few years ago, they were $245 ea at the time. Ouch. I could imagine if Michelin made that size, I'd probably have a heart attack at that price.

Why do I hear the music from the old show "American Hot Rod" playing in my head when you described the work he attempted to do?

Tell me about it! Got my dog at 14 weeks on June 23. She's gonna be like this for at least 3 years if history repeats. She's a Husky mix. Endless energy w/2 hour sleep bouts between. Luckily she's good with the crate, and makes it through a night since I got her!

gensets work great, when those that use them know to properly ventilate them, etc. a local environmental fleet had their o & m trucks equipped with damn expensive Honda generators. 4 trucks had bedliners melted out of them, 2 trucks burned to the ground and a couple of others the generators overheated, when started, then left in a closed utility body compartment. Not to mention the stolen ones, ones that fell off the trucks on the highway, etc..... Now they run inverters, 3500 watt, so, now they bake batteries and alternators, and the idiots cover the fan cooled inverters with all kinds of junk, that are mounted on the right rear floor as requested, an anodized black inverter will turn pretty rainbow colors in a short time. It seems you really can't fix stupid. Jim, sometimes I'd rather have a slow/stupid EMT that'll do his/her job, vs what I've been seeing around here. A story that may offend, so I'll hold back a bit on that one.

Caterpillar tried that. Now they don't make highway engines anymore. A nice idea, poorly implemented. A local limousine company, also with several custom limo buses has 2 with cats with the after DPF egr, both have been at cat more of the time, than they've been on the road due to EGR, SCR and DPF issues. And they both have constant engine overtemp issues. Both buses have only 15k on them.

Brad, You've got me curious, expensive in what way? I can't see it costing more than here in NJ, or is it? Property taxes alone, I have to put away more than $600/mo (just about an acre), and that's low for here. I've put off doing renovations on the kitchen and some outside renos due to the instant slamming I'll get. No issues with snow, buy a beater, with winter tires, I'd be fine.

Yes! I've wanted to move there since I was 18. After I stayed on Isle LaMotte for nearly a month in 1996, I want to go back.

Hi Keith, Since you asked. Here's a plan that I have, and really want to implement. I can sell everything I have here. I found 36.5 acres on Lake Champlain in Vermont. With what I can get, even at a low estimate, I can buy the land, have two modular homes and a decent sized workshop built on the property. One to live in, the other as a home to rent for vacationers, both summer and winter for those who want to fish on the frozen lake. Everything would be paid for. So a nice easy part or full time job, and the rental income would pay for everything.

I didn't yesterday and today. Old '03 F350, 7.3, oil leak. Customer wants pedestal orings changed. He won't do it himself, because.... it's got all kinds of Banks add ons, and pulling the turbo was just a joy. Found that the customer pulled turbo a few years ago to put on the banks outlet housing and monster down pipe and the Banks blow-job waste gate actuator. He neglected to tighten the turbo to pedestal bolt closest to firewall. The turbo ground up the pedestal, and the turbo's seal on the turbine side was shot as housing was filled with oil after shut down. Get it together to see his EGTs are WAY high. Normal accel (Edge) results in 1200, half throttle close to 1600. And so much smoke, that you can't see behind it. Needless to say, he's got NO warranty on that stock turbo, that he admits pushing 35 to 40 psi boost pressure on a regular basis.

Yes, you should be able to see the commanded fan state. And you can control both low and high with it as well. On some, you may hear what seems like two speeds, but low is too low and high is barely what a 'correct' low should be. I've run into that on the PT Losers a lot. On many mopars they use that power transistor for the fan(s) that burns out. They put them in such "accessible" locations.

Most, if not all, late model Hondas have scroll compressors, their compressors can't really take excessive high side pressures. They tend to self destruct, very rapidly if you're seeing idle pressures of anything higher than 275-300. The Honda units are VERY sensitive to oil charge levels, even a little too much, they lose lots of cooling performance. The Dodge minivan, Dodge in general issue, they push the limit on condenser size, being too small with poorly setup fans. They run too slow, until head pressure comes too high, and the fans don't always run at full speed either due to burned out secondary windings or a bad power transistor (fan relay). They use dual speed rad fans on most. PT Losers are great for melting out the second speed windings in the rad fan motor, they'll blow off the relief valve if it is, even on cooler days. The Malibu, sounds normal, especially if the rad fan is a multi speed unit, they usually don't kick on high speed until 325psi. It may have a variable unit. GM pickups, with the low slung compressor, early ones had a reflash to spin the compressor while cranking to get the oil out so as not to slug the unit on initial activation. I've seen many of these with very weak compressors from lots of oil slugged starts. Low high side, and very high low side when both front and rear units are running at full fan speed. Anything with a clutchless compressor is variable unit. A stupid design, the guts are always spinning, whether or not you want a/c. They put a shear pin/keyway in the unit, so that WHEN the compressor seizes, the pulley can continue to turn. Here's a link, you should be able to get information through here and through their links: http://www.macsw.org/Content/NavigationMenu/Training/MACSTrainingCenter/default.htm

It's as bad as a guy coming in with a late model Honda, and saying I only use 20w50. We tell him it's 5w20, and he insists the cap, owner's manual, etc is a misprint. Most of our local municipal fleets are running 15w40 diesel oil in every vehicle they have. One has a bunch of Priui and that just worked oh so well.

25C That's so comfortable. How much humidity? Past 3 days here have reached 37.2C, 36 and 35. Humidity was in the 70% to 90% range. So happy that's gone. Today hit 31 w/30% humidity. Nice in comparison.

http://flame-spray.com/index.php?option=...7&Itemid=50 Does this help?

I have found it has worked both ways, depending on which make of vehicle is involved. "Import" dealers, such as Toyota, Nissan and Honda, won't even consider anything done in the indy world as acceptable. Even if the indy shop has used all OEM parts, followed OEM procedures and schedules to the letter. The BS they try and pull can quite amaze. The worst I've ever seen in our area is Lexus, they won't even SELL parts to outside shops. The parts guys and service guys will go out of the way to tell the caller how you just can't possibly work on one of "their" cars. They insist the OWNER of the car show up, with proof of ownership to buy the parts. That goes over oh so well. Our shop has a good relationship with our local Ford store. I wish I could get all the training that's available to dealer techs. I thrive on knowing HOW things work. I find the theory behind how a system is supposed to work more interesting than fixing it, in most cases. As far as the general public's perception of how they see dealer techs, Keith's word, which I hate, is the norm. Only when they think they can get something for free, will they willingly go back to the dealership. Most indy guys are considered nothing more than grease monkeys, who also try and rip off a car owner at every turn. You wouldn't believe the number of people lately coming in asking if the labor rate is "negotiable". Or, if a guy brings 15 trucks in, he'll pay 30% less than the labor rate on the sign. Um, well..... Only those car owners who have had repeated good repair experiences with cars/trucks that run well, reliably seem to have good things to say about those that fix their car/truck. I think that's the goal (or should be) for both types of shops.

I work in an indie shop, in the area of NJ we're in, almost all shops within about 10 miles of us are starving. The local Honda dealer, who usually has 21 guys in the shop, last week, had 2. The HD truck shop near us closed for a week, last week, because he had no work. Move up the GSP, over the Driscoll bridge (Keith will know this one) and shops up there have more work than they know what to do with. I spoke with one guy that works in Woodbridge, NJ, they're looking for an experienced diesel guy, as their owner wants to get into fleet accounts. I've been sent home early (salary) and missed half days over the course of the past couple of weeks. It's the slowest I can recall, ever, where I'm at. In the particular area of NJ I'm in, so many people have lost jobs, many, many small companies closed up in 2009, never to reopen. There was a property tax reval that in some cases quadrupled or worse property taxes. Some homes went from 4k per year to 16k or more, for not much house. Many up and took off out of state. The lack of general vehicular traffic in the area is a big clue. I also think many people at this point are waiting to see what happens in November. They're saving/socking away what money they can. Amongst a lot of other things, like food, survival gear, weapons, ammo, etc. The number of customers we've spoken to that are doing this is quite amazing. All due to what's gone on in DC. If someone isn't tossed out, it's over.

hey guys, I just had an '05 F250 (140k mi) with a real bad knock/clunk at idle, running rough and vibration that the customer was complaining about. The truck has been "jiffied" it's whole life, with who knows what oil and the "universal" wrong filter. It's also been overheated a few times as well. We did an oil pressure test on this beast, it was fluctuating wildly at low idle, but would steady above 1500, but then the motor would vibrate badly. It wasn't a miss, but a definite "feel". At idle, with EOT of 190, it was fluctuating from 9 psi to 30 psi, the fluctuation was right in time with the upper end noise. No crank endplay was noted on this truck. The customer was advised that he should consider a motor, since going into one of these isn't usually cheap or quick to fix. He's going to drive it for now. Did I make the right call on this one?

I agree about any MLS gasket, if done right is a good thing. A long while ago I read it costs significantly more to engineer and make the MLS gaskets. Makes you wonder how an aftermarket company sells a MLS gasket, coated or not, for an affordable price. Maybe a factory gasket coated, then resold? It's really rare anymore to hear about a head gasket issue when the engine they're on is machined correctly and has proper clamp load across the gasket. It seems with the 6.0, it had both issues, poor machining and not the greatest clamp load on a motor "hot rodded" as Ford wanted. What was it, ~100hp over an International version in one of their trucks? I've seen a few stupidity killed Honda engines that melted out rings, and even lifted the head, but the gaskets never blew.

I've shown the guys at work some clips from their channel on youtube. They always comment how it looks like they are having so much fun doing what they do. Whether it's driving or destroying stuff. The US version is blah. The guys don't have the chemistry as the UK guys do.

From TopGear UK

Hi Mike Never had a Boss 429 apart, have a neighbor that has several, along with about a half dozen 427 cammer motored late 60s Mustangs. Quite the squeeze, and SOUND. Ok, the guy next door did use the "black onyx" gaskets, I did see them, black coated MLS. Haven't seen the truck back yet, but I feel it will self destruct from the multiple overheats it saw. He did this over the nose, cab on. He didn't even take the whole cooling stack or bumper off. Seemed WAY to painful for me.

Current F1 engines don't use head gaskets, per se, fire rings and individual o rings for each part of the head to block they want sealed. Most F1 engines now don't even use bearings, everything is DLC, and with the insane oil pressures and temperatures they run, that keeps the parts from touching. It's amazing what they do with those things. An engine that won't even turn at room temperature, that at their power peak with the 3.0 V10s, the Hondas made 1100-1200 hp at just a hair under 20,000 rpm. Cosworth broke the 20,000 rpm barrier with their V8 a few years ago. A shame they are limited to only 18k now. I wish I saw the gaskets the guy next door used, I've seen the pics here of what looked like a black composite graphite type gasket, not sure if that was the "onyx" gasket or not.

Matt, are the "black onyx" gaskets MLS or a composite gasket? A shop next door to us, did a set of these w/studs and the heads were severely machined, and rough looking to boot. I went and took a look at the truck when it was apart and wasn't impressed with the machine work, or the gaskets. These were a black MLS gasket, I can't remember exactly what he called them. They were recommended to him by a 6.0 "hot rodder" as the truck has an Edge box on 6 all the time. It popped the head gaskets originally after blowing an egr cooler, and running repeatedly low on water. It had the bores and deck rainbow blued from getting so hot. A huge mess, IMO.

Keith, Is that piston melted outside the bowl?