Jeff_

Ain't no thing Steve, and your side has some pretty good arguments too /forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/cheers.gif Now your sides' challenge is to take my arguments apart over the next 4 years if you want me to vote Republican again. P.S. Thanks again for the banjo fittings - they work great! As far as a career in politics, I don't know that it's realistic at this point in my life. But maybe someday when I have more time and money than I know what to do with I'll run for dog catcher or something.

Perhaps we should take a step back and consider the possibility that this election represents more than just another battle in the epic struggle between Democrats and Republicans. Perhaps what happened is exactly what the nation needed. I voted for Bush in 2000, and I voted for Obama in 2008. I make no apologies for the latter, because when I take a look at this, I'm not seeing left or right this time. I'm not seeing a battle between the far left ideology of Communism, verses the far right Ideology of Fascism. I'm not seeing a struggle between the far left economic system of Socialism, verses the far right economic system of un-regulated monopoly Capitalism. This time I see a generational battle. A battle all of us - from all points in the aforementioned spectrums must grapple with. The question of whether it is finally time for one generation, to pass the torch to another... And whether that new generation is prepared to accept it and lead the world. John McCain embodies all of the very best qualities of his generation. He is truly an American hero. I submit to you, that because of John McCain, and his generation, and their success in everything that truly matters, a new generation, one Barack Obama currently represents, is now able to accept the torch and lead all of us forward. I further believe that what happened yesterday was necessary as evidenced by our current economic and geo-political state. 2 wars with no end in sight, the worst economy since the Great Depression, and the 5 trillion dollar national debt that took our country 200 years to accumulate... Well, we doubled it to more than 10 trillion in less than 8 years, and we're passing these burdens to our children. It reminds me of a section in the farewell address of one of those good Republican presidents: Quote: "Another factor in maintaining balance involves the element of time. As we peer into society's future, we - you and I, and our government - must avoid the impulse to live only for today, plundering for our own ease and convenience the precious resources of tomorrow. We cannot mortgage the material assets of our grandchildren without risking the loss also of their political and spiritual heritage. We want democracy to survive for all generations to come, not to become the insolvent phantom of tomorrow. ~Dwight Eisenhower These failures were brought to us by a failure of the current administration to unite us. This is not a failure of Conservatism... This is not a failure of the market... This is a failure to unite. A failure to realize the truth that the late senator Paul Wellstone knew when he said: "We all do better when we all do better." I'm not a welfare queen, nor will I ever be. What I do know however, is in the last 4 years my income has decreased steadily, I've had to work harder just to keep my head above water. All this time I have become better and more efficient at what I do. In 2006 the dealership I loved - closed, and now I'm stuck at one that is hostile to labor, and has a pile of job applications on the service manager's desk from other closed Ford dealers. The only reason I have a job right now is because I excel at what I do, yet I feel no economic justice or reward for my excellence - that's for damn sure. The only reason I don't leave and start over somewhere else is because I'm trapped in a home that won't sell in this ever-worsening market, and I care too much about my hard earned credit rating to walk away from it. The American dream, the dream that a man can support a family on one income... send his children to college... afford to take a risk and start a business... Well, at this point it seems like a fairytale to me. This is not the same America I used to know. I still love my country, yet I feel something fundamental about it is broken and needs to be fixed. I've worked far too hard, invested far too much in myself to become just another number, just another replaceable employee. No my friends, something is very wrong right now with our country. We have become far too polarized, and for what? Political strategy??? So one party can get their 51-49% majority by dividing us over wedge issues like Gay rights and Abortion? That seems a little shallow to me. It seems that we have bigger legacy issues to worry about these days, and we can only dig our way out if we shed this partisan warfare and actually work together. Socialism has become such a dirty word, because it is not fully understood by most people, and is often used to paint one's political opponent as unacceptable, or "un-American." The truth is many things in our lives are socialized ie: Police, Fire Departments, the military, roads, the criminal justice system, the postal service, public libraries, public schools, Social Security, Medical care for citizens over 65, veterans benefits, and all functions of our government. Most industrialized countries that we consider allies have far more things socialized, yet are still considered Capitalist societies. The things considered to be absolute needs by a society, are often socialized, and there's nothing wrong with that... Personally I'd be in favor of adding single payer universal health care financing to the list (not the government takeover of health care) just the financing but that's just me. If your house is burning down, would you rather call 911 and have the fire department there immediately to put it out, knowing the cost for this has already been covered by your tax dollars because we as a community decided to share in the risk and responsibility? Or, would you prefer to call around for bids to figure out which "for profit" fire department, has the best cost/response time ratio, as your entire life goes up in flames? Do you honestly believe that you would be able to "keep more of your own money" if all roads were privately owned and you were charged a toll just to drive to work??? Do you think the privatization of military logistics to contractors like Halliburton has been a good deal for tax payers? These are examples of where socialism is a good thing, and there are many examples of where it is not. For example, I don't want the government to build my house or television. Things like that are best achieved through capitalism. The trick is realizing that some things are done more effectively through the public sector, and some things from the private sector and finding balance. Unless we are born independently wealthy, we have to decide as citizens, which things to socialize, and which to privatize. These are the only two options. Most of the time the answer is obvious, but the handful of issues where it is not obvious, are really the only domestic policy differences between the two major political parties. Obviously there are major differences in terms of social, and foreign policy, but that is for another rant. There have been times in our history when we have allied ourselves with left wing Communists to defeat right wing Fascists, and also a time when we had a Cold War against those same Communist allies. Perhaps one of our biggest problems has been a misguided desire to label a nation as "good" or "evil" based simply on their economic system. Perhaps what actually makes them good or evil isn't so much the system they use, but the extent to which their people are allowed to choose it. As Americans, we have 3 main rights bestowed on us. Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. It is my opinion that the things required for Life should usually be socialized (less food and clothing) but things like national defense, and health care for sure. The things necessary for the pursuit of happiness (the things that make life worth living) should be obtained through Capitalism ie: if I want a car, I should work to earn money with which to buy it. And the things required for Liberty could be a combination of Socialism and Capitalism depending on the issue ie: If I'm arrested for a crime and can't afford a lawyer - one will be appointed for me at no charge If I want to sue somebody for wrecking my car that I worked so hard for, I have to pay for my own lawyer, or for my own insurance - you get the idea. When you look at news coverage of the political rallies held by McCain and Obama ask yourself this: Which audience looks more like a cross-section of the country? Which candidate speaks more of "inclusion"? As I said before, what is happening is not a failure of Capitalism... It's a failure of un-regulated capitalism which leads to monopolies. It is a failure to unite around a common purpose. So instead, we have the small fish being eaten by the medium fish, and the medium fish are then eaten by the big fish. Eventually there are only a handful of huge fish remaining who have nothing more to eat - so they starve to death. Look at all of the banks failing, and being bought by other bigger banks for a real time example. In a living organism, such fierce competition, - such un-regulated growth is called CANCER. If your liver is in competition with your lungs - neither wins because your entire body will die of cancer. Un-regulated growth always kills, and that is what is happening to our economy. There are times to compete, yes, competition keeps us strong. What Bush failed to realize however, is cooperation is equally necessary because just like our economy, organic life requires the cooperation of it's organs to serve a higher purpose. If we fail as a nation to become more than just the sum of our individual citizens, so too will our nation die. The truth is, the only way to keep this growth benign, is to control it through government. Yes, government is expensive, and your precious tax dollars are necessary to fund it. Keep in mind though, the only reason your precious dollars have any value at all, is because our big government says so. If you weaken our government, so too will you weaken the value of our currency, and ultimately your net worth. As long as we truly have a government of - by - and for the people, we have nothing to fear from its size. In recent weeks we have even seen the unthinkable; We watched as Republicans embraced SOCIALISM to try and save the credit markets. Who'da thunk it? We watched as Bush's "anti plunge" task force quietly used treasury funds (tax payer dollars) to buy massive shares of stock to falsely stabilize the Dow industrial average, and make things appear better than they actually are. We watched as a bi-partisan bailout of Wall Street to the tune of 700 BILLION dollars was strapped on the backs of our children and grand children. A Socialist move proposed by Republican Treasury Secretary Hank Paulsen, who, by the way, used to run the legendary and troubled Wall Street firm Goldman Sachs, and who, by the way, just assigned a 35 year old Buddy of his from Goldman, to administer the $700 Billion, of which we now know 10% will go toward bonuses for the executives of these failed institutions. Is this the fault of those Liberal Democrat Bastards? Well, they did fail to stop Reagan's quest to de-regulate all industry. They failed to stop the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act of 1999 which really de-regulated the financial industry... Hell some Democrats even supported that abomination. And they failed to stop Reagan and Bush from busting labor unions starting with Patco in the 80's which directly had the effect of weakening the working class whether they be union or not. But it sure wasn't the desire of most Democrats to go down this road, and as I remember, they actually tried to stop these things from happening, until they ran out of political capital and had no choice but to sit back and watch it happen. So how did Reagan set these events in motion and beat the Democrats so handily? It is because he was able to articulate a Conservative argument more effectively than the Democrats could articulate a Liberal argument at the time. He convinced people that their government of-by-and for the people, was actually their enemy, a concept that still echoes in the minds of conservatives to this day. Because he was able to do this, Reagan was able to become one of those few transformational presidents who actually changed the course of the nation. Prior to Reagan it had been nearly 50 years since a President was actually able to truly transform the nation, that being the Liberal Franklin Roosevelt, who's "New Deal" public works endeavor pulled us out of the Great Depression by making the government the employer of last resort, and by enacting the regulations that prevented the cancerous consolidation of wealth and ultimately another Great Depression for generations. It has been 29 years since Reagan took office... 29 years since last we had a truly transformational president. It sure seems to me at least, that President Elect Obama has turned the table again, and is now able to articulate a Liberal argument more effectively than any current Republican can argue for Conservatism. And as such, he has the potential to actually change the direction of the country, I sure hope so. Just as Reagan had the support of "Reagan Democrats," Obama has the support of "Obamicans." It's not because Liberalism is necessarily superior to Conservatism, It is just that currently - Obama is more effectively articulating his argument, it is because he is currently winning the ultimate debate in the minds of independent voters. And what's even more impressive, is Barack Obama actually understands this concept of being a transformational president. He was asked in a press interview who he thought the last 2 transformational presidents were, and he actually answered correctly: Franklin Roosevelt, and Ronald Regan. This of course offended Bill Clinton deeply, but Bill just didn't understand the question because he wasn't able to transform anything, and was guilty of most of the same sins anyway (as well as some new ones if you know what I mean) This ability to persuade independents by most effectively articulating a party's, argument is the Capitalist free market at work. It forces the minority side to improve itself so it can come back and compete again another day. This is how we improve ourselves, this is how we grow intellectually, and as a society. Obama didn't require any intellectual Socialism to win this argument, he only needed his mind, the kind of mind we only see emerge once every 30-50 years, so for God's sake give the man a chance will you? He has the potential to unite us, Republicans and Democrats and Independents. Only united will we dig our way out of this hole. Only united will our generation succeed in preparing the next to accept the torch when we can run with it no longer. Only united can we achieve our potential, not just as Americans... But as humans, and live up to the promise of leaving the next generation with a better nation than we received. May President Obama serve as a post-partisan agent of the people's will. - May he unite us, yet occasionally shove liberal legislation down the throats of conservatives. May he lead our nation back to peace and prosperity. May the conservatives use this frustration to drive them in rebuilding their party to one that serves normal working people. And may God bless the United States of America. ~Jeff Eichen

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normal to see a little smoke on hard acceleration. Your ICP is bias though and should be replaced... probably the connector too. And doing so may even reduce the smoke, but you will never get rid of all of it.

I'm another strong believer in Chriopractors /forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/thumbup.gif

I'm thinking it's a good thing. This way, if weak links are discovered, Ford can impliment immediate production line changes without getting into a long political pissing match with another company. How many years have they ignored leaking bedplates when having the engine builder simply run beads of silicone during engine assembly could have saved MILLIONS. Oh thats right, 6 years AND COUNTING. I think if things are built in house it's more likely the warranty Nazi's can actually use their data to push for the improvement of designs, rather than the bending over of technicians. /forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/2cents.gif

Found em... shop.blackwidowdiesel.com They have bellowed up pipes for both generations of 7.3's

Oooooh - Holy hardons Batman. I like that setup a lot /forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/thumbup.gif I wonder which years / turbo that fits?

Quote: 18694 2003-2006 F-SUPER DUTY/2003-2005 EXCURSION/2004-2006 E-SERIES - LACK OF POWER AND/OR DTC P2263 OR P0299 AFTER TURBOCHARGER REPLACEMENT - SERVICE TIP SOME 2003-2006 F-SUPER DUTY, EXCURSION, AND 2004-2006 E-SERIES VEHICLES WITH A 6.0L DIESEL ENGINE MAY EXHIBIT A LACK OF POWER AND/OR DIAGNOSTIC TROUBLE CODES P2263 OR P0299 (TURBOCHARGER BOOST SYSTEM PERFORMANCE) AFTER TURBOCHARGER REPLACEMENT. TO SERVICE, CHECK THE OLD TURBOCHARGER TO MAKE SURE THE TURBINE WHEEL IS STILL INTACT. IF THE TURBINE WHEEL IS MISSING, CHECK THE EXHAUST TUBE BETWEEN THE TURBOCHARGER AND THE CATALYTIC CONVERTER FOR THE MISSING TURBINE WHEEL. THIS WHEEL IS OFTEN STUCK IN THE DOWNWARD BEND JUST BELOW EYESIGHT LEVEL. REPAIR AS NECESSARY. EFFECTIVE DATE: 06/24/2005

Quote: EBP was maybe 40ish psi under wot. I was thinking cat so thats why I unbolted it and ran it without. no change. I assume you unbolted it where the downpipe meets the cat? What if the downpipe itself is plugged from, Oh - maybe a turbine wheel from the prior turbo that the other dealer replaced? Just an idea, but it sounds an awful lot like one I dealt with a few years ago on a RAV. After raising holy hell and running it up the flag pole - a SSM was actually published about this. On mine, the wheel was about 16 inches down the pipe, out of view, but upon removing the pipe and trying to drop a golf ball through it, nothing came out the other end. After taking a chop saw to disect it, the Minneapolis training center now has a show and tell item for their Diesel classes. Not only did I lose my ass, I couldn't even keep the trophy /forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/rolleyes.gif

+1 especially the horizontal one Quote: Also found coolant in oil pan, however it appears to be coolant that was put into system to perform leak testing and not coolant that has mixed with oil while engine was running, make sense? Not really, you mean just by filling the cooling system and pressure testing you had coolant enter the oil pan??? If that's the case an egr cooler alone wouldn't explain it, more like a front cover cavitated and/or oil cooler problem

Sure it was... I know I'd rather drive them than work on them /forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/drinkingdude.gif

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A couple years ago I spent my Saturday off resealing the intake on my mom's 5.0 Mountaineer and fighting rusted/broken off intake bolts. I charged her my hourly rate for labor (not the door rate) because she insisted on paying me something, and figured I was doing her a huge favor. Big mistake, she complained that it was more expensive than she thought. I guess no good deed goes unpunished. I now refer her elsewhere.

I finally got one and took a picture

I just finished one today that had bad thermostats AND a cavitated front cover behind the water pump.

I think you're on the right track. I had one about a year ago. See THIS POST

I bet "C"

Yesterday our sales department had us turn a new Edge SEL into an Edge "Limited" with a simple emblem swap. And they wonder why people don't trust car salesmen

Yeah, but at least in America's big back yard you don't have to get prior approval to wipe your butt like we Yanks do.

Congrats Aaron!!! I cant wait to hear how it goes.

They rust through in the states that put salt on the roads in winter.

Quote: I glass beaded an old rusty set of dikes That is both cruel and offensive /forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/smirk.gif

not no, but HELL NO

Disclaimer: Officially I discourage this kind of stuff for the same reasons as hotline. /forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/grampy-jim.gif Unofficially: If you think 99 software would work, check out TSB 99-14-7, it lists lots of Tear tags and their descriptions. But I would highly recommend saving your current ids session and starting a new one if trying such a thing, this way if it doesn't work, you can just resume the old session and do a pmi to restore things to normal. Another idea is plug the variable resistance gauge tester into the tft circuits to fool the pcm into thinking TFT is normal and then you may be able to run your tests. FWIW Even though this is a good customer, I'd tell him you won't work on this modified vehicle, because doing so may involve changing things that open your dealer up to more liability than it's worth ie: emissions tampering ect (pcm calibrations are emissions devices). /forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/readthis.gif Better to nip this in the butt now - before he makes a habit of creating "Junk Yard Wars" inspired shit boxes and coming to you to pick up the pieces. If you give him an inch - He will take a mile.