Brad Clayton

The flat rate system really gets the wheels turning in the 'ol brain, huh?

I've gotta few tricks I do on these to make life easier, some you may know already, like removing the air cleaner as an assy to service.

I pull the fan shroud as one piece by removing the radiator brackets and unclipping the battery positive cable from the radiator support and pulling up, this gives you enough room to pull the radiator forward and slide the shroud up and out in one piece.

When I have to do a ICP sensor on an early build after I have removed the heat shield on the rear of the HOP, I reinstall the large (13mm) bolt back into the head loosely and I slot the shield from the side. Then upon reassembly you can simply slide the shield under the loose bolt and after installing the other two bolts simply tighten the 13mm bolt.

We have our oil in bulk tanks so in the interest of saving time during an oil change I loosen the oil filter then drain the old oil and while the new oil is being pumped in I change the filter.

Thats it for now, oh by the way 3 spins for 35 bucks so far.

It truly is amazing how much abuse a car can take and still run.

Ford's modular cam timing problem is as follows: 1 tooth off vehicle idles rough but runs great off idle, 2 teeth off runs rough all time, 3 teeth off you bend stuff. I've seen many of em right from the factory one tooth off. You kinda have to bite the bullit to check it though.

saw the same message today on fmc home page merc V official merc replacement.

i was told by a bulk supplier that was in the shop one day that merc sp was going to go vehicle wide for all former merc applications so who knows whats next.

been there twice (two diferent dealers) took a while to get back out of the position was I was in it but I'm finally just a plain old stay in my bay, mind my own business, tell everybody to use the shop manual or call the hotline, tech.

When I started as a tech and filled out a job application, if there was more than one application on the sm's desk, then you had to compete for your job. Now a dealer has to steal techs from other dealers with crazy incentives. Really wild how times have changed.

The funny thing about the whole situation is that the dealer principle still thinks that qualified techs are a dime a dozen. If he has one diesel tech and he walks, then thats a real eye opener for the higher ups at the dealer. Gets expensive sending your diesel customers to the nearest competing dealer.

my life seems pretty uneventful after reading this.

customer came in the other day with an '06 for its first oil change. I could tell this truck was this guys new baby and he was well versed in 6.0l tech from surfing the web (a double edged sword to say the least). He causually asked what boost the truck should make due to fact that he couldn't get a true figure from the gage in the cluster, I'm assuming, i said no problem. I grabbed the NGS+ and headed for the truck and the dude almost freaked out on me. He must have told me a dozen times that he didn't want a reflash or any tampering.

Reminds me of the time I had a umbilical hernia. The nurse came in to shave me and I made damn sure he knew it was hernia in my belly button and not further down if you know what I mean.

funny stuff there, cheered me right up after a hard day.

just spoke to the hotline today concerning egr codes after this flash, was told to remove the iat2 and see if sooted up like the egrs get, if so clean and recheck. also he said the tsb's and pced were pretty much a wild goose chase if getting codes after 06e17, said program was to input sensitive and they were coming out with, you guessed it, another update.

after doing every torqueshift recall i could get my hands on (serious moneymaker) i can get trans out way quicker than turbo. every truck around requires cutting the manifold to up pipe bolts, so that gives me plenty of time and room to handle the y pipe.

You can always tell if a truck that came from our shop with new turbo was put on by me. I always turn the y pipe clamp around. only one in the shop that does. hey ford says it's ok then i'm down.

Have a similar situation with an '03 I did cab off heads on. When I started it and it ran for a bit the trans dipstick vibrates so bad you can't read what it says on top of it. It belongs to the state they could care less so I let it go. Truck ran so bad before repair that I'm not sure if it is something I created or not. This is the only one I've seen do this so far.

I had a '03 come in backfiring thru the intake. No problem get out the WDS power balance says #7 bad. Pull right valve cover and all rockers and pushrods look ok, uhm. Run relative compression #7 down 12%. Pull fender liner trim a/c box and pull glow plug, compression 420 psi. What the heck?

WDS lied to me, pulled left valve cover and #8 exhaust rocker was shattered completely in half and push rod looked like a boomerang.

I work in a very small shop (converted Subaru dealer yea) so the truck has to go out while waiting for parts. On the way out the truck goes quiet still skips but no more popping noise. Thought about it for a minute but it was 1 o clock on a Saturday so I left for the day.

Parts come in, cab came off, both cylinder heads off, then I found the reason for no more noise. The #8 intake rocker split also. Well now the truck is in a million pieces and I only have one bay and parts have to be ordered. So I decided to put the truck together as far as I could, both heads back on (one new) intake, turbo, fuel system, harness, ect, up to the left valve cover. All head bolts and rockers were installed and torqued to initial 65 lbs ft. But I didn't want to torque out of sequence so I stopped until new rocker came in.

New rocker came in torqued all large headbolts then I read the last step in the process and I felt sick. I still had to tighten the 5 small bolts at the top of the head, which are now buried under the intake, turbo, fuel system and harness!!!!!!!!!!! One step forward and three back.

Well truck is done and I'm here to tell you it is the fastest 6.0l I have driven yet.

One last note the fuel gage was on empty when I started it and I was cussing the customer, until I realized I forgot to plug in the connector under the left rear of the cab.

The 6.0 liter has got to be the most finiky powertrains Ford has used in a while. Customer comes in with egr stopped up with soot, talk to the customer "sir are you letting idle?" yes, well you can't do that. Comes in with turbo frozen, or valve jammed sideways in head "sir are you letting sit around without driving it?" yes, well you can't do that either. Comes in with lousy fuel mileage "sir are you running the engine hard with your foot to the board?" well guess what you can't do that either. We will give you a set of specific instructions on how to drive your rig, now go home and study hard, and by the way enjoy your new truck.

The salt here is an automotive nitemare to say the least. We get about the same time for cash jobs but they are mostly town trucks with these gigantic plow frames in the way and hydralic hoses and belt driven pumps everywhere. I seem to agree with the majority here, sometimes a short cut just isn't worth it.

I have always pulled the engine, but I hear guys talk when I am at school about how easy it is in chassis. Just curious if they were right.

looking for information on other ways to replace the oil pan other than removing engine from f-series.