BrunoWilimek

I am not too familiar with 7.3 dignostics as I only became a diesel tech after the 6.0 came along. I inherited this low mileage Fire rescue truck from an indy shop. The other diesel tech got it first. It had a right bank circuit code, so it went back to the indy shop and they put a UVC harness on that side(we recommended an inspection first, but they just put the harness on instead). Now it is back, he is pulling the cab on a 6.4, so unable to return to it and I got it, no more DTC's, but still running rough above idle, blue smoke when cold and the exhaust smell makes your eyes water, even in the cab(with doghouse off). I monitored PID's before getting into the complete diesel performance diagnostic checks and MFDES is 20.87. Baro is 4.36v, EBP is 13.9psi, FuelPW is 2.96ms, ICP is around 500psi, MAP is 0hz, 14.06psi and 1.40v. It stalls when attempting the cylinder contribution test. The oil level is good. I found a previous posting that said a perfect MFDES is 8-10mg and "allowable" is 6-12. 14-16 means it needs injectors. Before continuing the diagnostic checks on the chart, I thought I would run it by you guys to get your opinion. Could it just be bad injectors or should I be looking elsewhere?

Thanks a lot to Brad Clayton , who e-mailed me the best ever 6.4 build-up parts list with awesome colour(Canadian spelling) pictures that include the part numbers, no less. That was definitely a great time-saver. He has it in PDF format for anyone else who is interested. Thanks again, and hats off to you, Brad.

This is a great aid to cab-off operations. Now, does anybody have the added items for doing head gaskets on an 08 F250 4X4? It would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

I've seen that screen too, on Dec 23rd. I put a new APIM in a 2011 Edge and had to program it. I used the IDS and had to go through inford and sevice pubs/sync etc. and use a USB chip and hook the IDS to the USB post etc. That screen stays there even after the key is turned off and the doors are opened. Too bad we couldn't just program it using that screen. It would cut out a lot of hoopla.

The other diesel tech here had just put and EGR cooler in an E350 cuve van to cure a losing coolant concern. Hotline told him to start with the cooler and go from there. Well, nobody told the tech that they kept driving it until it wouldn't go ant further. Anyhow, turns out there was a hole in one of the pistons and the injector in that cylinder filled the crankcase with fuel. Lots of smoke and noise, but nothing too dramatic when it just finally quit. The same tech had one grenade at his previous dealer and it filled the dealer's lot with smoke. Lots of noise on that one too.

You are correct, Jim. I thought I was pretty familiar with the SYNC system and updating, etc after sucessfully programming a new APIM for a failed unit about a year ago, then taking the SYNC course. That did little to prepare me for the 2nd generation SYNC 2011 Edge that I just recently completed before Christmas. The APIM was toast on this one as well. Diagnosis was simple, as was replacement of the APIM. The new one actually worked, but needed to be set up and programmed. We had just received our new Panasonic Toughbook IDS about a month ago, and this was my first try at SYNC since then. It took me some time to go through the "service tips" you mentioned above. Every time I thought I had everything set, I found it didn't work, and as the internet was exceedingly busy, several attempts failed, due to timing out, leading to re-trying to get to the right place at inford. All this to get to the "SYNC tab". Finally, after 2 tries at changing the last setting failed, I hit the tab, and here was a totally unfamiliar looking SYNC programming page. I had to read the shop manual to figure it out. Eventually, I did get it up and running, but man, what was Bill Gates thinking? SYNC and the OS of our computer are both by Microsoft, so why did so many security and privacy settings need to be changed? Why shut off the firewall? Why did the final programming screen look like an IDS program, yet have to be accessed through inford? What kind of known issues with SYNC programming were referenced to in the pre-amble to a holine contact? Why did I have to download the update to a USB key after IDS was already hooked up the the USB port with the male-to-male USB cable? I did contact hotline about some of the issues and was told they were always looking to streamline SYNC programming. That would be nice.

I would wonder if one of the valves was not opening. It would still have compression if the exhaust valve did not open, but as no exhaust could escape, it would be like a plugged catalytic converter, thus accounting for the wet plug.

Wow I love it. An old Datsun with an electric motor blowing the doors off the gas powered competition. Simply awesome.

I remember one of my first HP cover off jobs, while I was removing the IPR, the screen fell of and dropped into the opening under the pump cover. I couldn't find it but don't think it could cause any damage as it's too large to get sucked up the oil pickup.

+1

For the rough running concern at 1/4 tank, have you inspected the pickup to see if the "umbrella" at the bottom is still there, especially since the tank was serviced recently? I see you mentioned it sounds like it is hydrolocked when started and owner says he holds accelerator to floor to get it to run smoothly. Sounds like a flooded engine to me. It might be a pain, but could you remove the glow plugs and crank it over when cold using the pigtail near the passenger side battery and watch for white fog or liquid fuel from a cylinder(s)?

We have rusty ones here and what I do is to loosen them first with my 1/2" long-handled ratchet and short sockets, then use my high powered Blue-Point air ratchet to finish the job. I have a 1/2" to 3/8" reducer that is only 1/8" thick to allow me to use the 1/2" sockets on my air ratchet. Works every time.

If the kit is similar to the ones I have replaced in the past, it comes with extra parts not required if you are only replacing the sector shaft seal on the truck. You only use the parts neccessary to re/re the seal. 3 additional things come to mind. 1)To remove the seal, remove the pitman arm and snap ring. Replace the pitman arm on the shaft in the same location temporarily. Start the engine and turn steering wheel lock to lock a few times. Usually the pressure built-up will pop the seal out. 2)If the snap ring has come out of the groove already, causing the seal to pop out and leak, the groove is damaged and you will need a new gearbox. and 3)If the shaft is rusty at the sealing area, the new seal may not cure the leak. You then have 3 options. 1)Disassemble the box far enough to clean the shaft using strip emery paper. 2)Replace the shaft or 3)Replace the Box.

The problem is with the design of the fittings. Steel rings in an aluminum housing exposed to the elements causes galvanic corrosion which fills the groove that the ring would be pushed into by the disconnect tool. The plastic disconnect tools are too flimsy for all but brand new fittings. Even the aluminum one I bought (AST # 8023) is sometimes unable to get them apart. To prevent having to replace the rad for the 2 fittings there, you can sacrifice a new remote mounted tranny filter from a 2008 Super Duty(mounted under the bellhousing on some of them). It has 2 of the fittings on it that unscrew and are identical to the ones on the rad. The 2003-2007 remote filter assembly complete is another option if you are trying to get the lines apart there. Both of these filters cost around $80 Canadian, so should be cheaper in the USA. I fought with one of those fittings for close to an hour once and decided it was easier to break them apart and replace them than to get them apart if they were that badly corroded. CLR may help to remove the corrosion if you can get the fittings soaking in it. Just unscrew them from the rad and/or filter housing. If the fittings absolutely refuse to come apart, then replacement of the lines and fittings is your only option. Good luck with them.

I hate maintenance too. Had I known that after 30 years in the trade and being a Senior/Master/Diesel tech that the majority of my work would be repetitous oil changes, I could have gotten a factory job for more money and less hassles. Oh, wait, all the local factories have closed down now, so I would be unemployed. Never mind. I would much prefer straight out repair jobs also as I seem to be hard-wired to want to fix things that don't work or don't work properly and get a lot of satisfaction for doing so. I look to the example set by my father. He was a hairdresser who didn't want to be one. He was in school on his way to being a doctor when his mother made him quit school to help with the family business. She told him "I don't need a doctor, I need someone to help me in the hairdressing shop." Undeterred, my father said, if he was going to be a hairdresser, he was going to be the best one he could be. I still get women coming up to me who used to get their hair done by my dad, telling me nobody could do it as well as he could, and he has been dead for almost 30 years now. Therefore, I make sure I keep up with the training, do the best job I can do, even though I may not like some of the work coming in my bay. I have not yet found any other career that I would care to switch to, although I keep checking the want ads.

Back in the "gravy eighties" it was normal for the service department to "carry" the dealership. That is, the work going through the shop paid for all the overhead in the dealership. Before the warranty wars in around 1985, 1 year 20,000 km warranties were the norm, so lots of retail work came through the door on fairly new vehicles. Warranty labour times paid well as they were figured out for the use of hand tools only. Techs who bought air tools could do the jobs much faster than warranty times and therefore owning air tools was a money making propsition. All this with labour rates less than 1/4 what they are now. Any profit made by selling new or used vehicles was pure profit. Times were good. By the early 90's, with the recession and all, money was beginning to get much tighter at many dealerships and car companies, so even though labour rates went way up, less profit was made. Warranties of 3 years/60,000 km meant that there was a lot more warranty work being done as the quality had really not kept pace with the longer warranty times. The dealerships could no longer boast that the service department carried the dealership and profits on sales also declined as incentives became the norm rather than the exception for the big 3 as Japanese sales and quality were a big jump ahead of the Americans. Fast forward to the present and we are in a much changed environment, where warranty work has decline drastically due to a marked increase in quality.(Yeah I know the 6.0/6.4 keep us hopping, for now anyhow) but otherwise, many new vehicles make it to the end of their 3/60 with little or no warranty work needed. The Japanese had it figured out long ago, that it was easier to train their customers to always return for scheduled maintenance, as their (formerly) better quality vehicles required so little in the way of warranty work. Belatedly, Ford, and their competition likely, realized that the only way to return their service departments to profitabilty was to retain their customers through scheduled maintenance and the report cards are the way they are working at doing this. You can look at them as a nuisance, or, you can embrace them as a useful tool to bring in more retail work. I choose the latter.

This is a better image showing exactly what is taking place. In a properly timed engine, the relationship between the CMP and CKP is fixed. The falling edge of the CMP signal (the red line after the first peak where it hits the white horizontal centreline) should cross the 0 axis within the negative portion of the 11th tooth pulse to the left of the CKP minus 2 teeth area (start counting from right to left to the left of the gap in the sawtooth pattern, counting only the lower tips of the sawteeth). In my recording, the negative CKP pulse is 20, which indicatesa base engine timing change or out-of-postion CKP trigger wheel.

This is my first experience actually using the scope to record a pattern. I was hoping someone has seen this pattern before and can help interpret it. The truck was towed in. It had run rough and then stalled at an intersection. I originally had all 8 injector codes as well as the P2614. A FICM fixed the injector codes. I went through the PP test for the P2614 and came to the end and it said "replace PCM". I did not like that choice, so didn't do that. The wiring tests and looks OK. Although the CMP tested OK for resistance and there was no rust under the mounting surface, it had a slightly loose metal tip and damaged o-ring, so I replaced it. Hotline thinks it could be a loose cam gear or tone wheel issue, but not likely a PCM. RPM is steady at 125 cranking. SYNC is yes and ICP and IPR are normal. [/img] Any thoughts on the pattern? It looks like a normal pattern illustrated on previous posts, but seems to be missing teeth. I am able to perform a relative compression test successfully, so likely trigger wheel is OK according to previous postings. I am printing the "Guide for using the IDS Oscilloscope" for reference, and will try to look at the CMP peg with our borescope. I will keep you posted on my findings.

We service an 08 F350 flatbed(or is it a 450)with the 6.4 that has factory dual tanks. Until I saw this truck, I didn't know this was an option on these trucks from the factory. Maybe it's only available on a chassis cab. It has the factory switch and all the lines and frame-mounted splitter, just like used to be available as an option on all Super Duties when the 7.3 was the engine choice. Likely the cost of buying the separate parts would be excessive, but a wrecker might have a complete unit equipped with this very useful option.

I made sure to give our parts manager a list of new parts required right after doing the online 6.7 course. I guess it's a matter of the right hand telling the left hand what's going on and sharing important information. Around here I am the guy to do that as I hate looking like an idiot in front of customers because someone dropped the ball.

Well, Ford finally caught up to their mistake, that it was totally ridiculous pricing half a component at double the price of the whole thing. The only problem is now, they raised the price of the whole FICM. 4C3Z 12B599 ABRM now lists for $823.74 trade price. Go figure that one out. I didn't price the half FICM as it was a retail job, but maybe the price on it has now gone down. That was for an 04 F250. I just got another one towed in with the exact same codes, but an 05 F350. Retail, the FICM is $969.10 and coming out of Edmonton. Go figure.

Any chance the water seal in the connector is damaged? I had a couple of Lincoln LX's(yeah I know it's not even close to a diesel e-van)that would have a "global open" event every time it rained. Global open means all the windows and sunroof open to allow the vehicle to vent on a hot day before you get in. This is normally triggered by the remote keyfob. The main connector for the module that controls the global opening is in the driver's door. If water got in the connector(like when it's raining), a global open event was triggered. A TSB or SSM was supposed to address this issue by filling the connector with silicone dielectric grease to prevent the entry of water. Another tech did this on one of the cars, thinking the problem was solved. The next time it rained, we got the car back with a sodden interior, again and an irate owner. I inspected the connector and found that there were several unused terminals in the connector that had plugs inserted in the hole where the wire would have been, had there been one. The plugs were forced out of the connector seal by the pressure exerted by the grease. This allowed water entry through the now empty holes in the seal. I resealed the connector properly and the vehicle has not been back for this problem since. If water is getting in the connector, it must be coming from somewhere, right? Solve the puzzle of where it is coming from and your repeat problem will likely go away.

We have 2 boys, 7 and 9 years old. My life away from work revolves around them. They love hockey so from September until late March their hockey schedules keep my wife(luckily she is very organized)and I on the road to the arena. We have about 2 weeks off in April before lacrosse season starts and then another 2 weeks til soccer season starts. This keeps us all hopping until the end of June. Our summer is busy too as we love camping. We have progressed from a tent, when there was just the two of us, to a small basic tent trailer, which sufficed until our eldest was a baby. Lacking a furnace, we endured a cold, rainy labour day weekend that was the reason for getting a larger, better equipped tent trailer. Tired of spending 1 1/2 hours to get it set up and unpacked, we bought a used hybrid trailer last fall. It needed some work, but the price was right, so we have been enjoying camping in it so far this season. I keep busy, when time permits, fixing or improving/renovating our home. It was 20 years old when we bought it in 1998, the year we got married and we got it for a great price because it was at the age when it needed some TLC. I try to put family first at home because kids grow up so fast. We have a large country lot with room for a soccer/baseball field, volleyball/badminton net, basketball hoop, 2 hockey nets for road hockey, a 4 hole improvised golf course, etc, so we spend a lot of time, weather permitting, oudoors. There are lots of abandoned railway tracks converted to rail trails in the area, so we bike as well. I had a 2 1/2 bay shop built a few years ago to store and allow me to work on projects, so when money and time and ambition come together, I go out there. My last project was a fully loaded 2001 Windstar with a rotted out subframe. I bought it for $500, stripped some of the goodies from it(16 inch aluminum wheels with brand new Michelins, CD player, visor with universal remote, etc.), put a few hundred into it and resold it for $3500. The good parts went into my wife's 2000 Windstar. I bought another one with lots of km and bad body rot for $200 and srtipped lots of parts from it as well, then resold it for $350.

I don't know about the unibody thing, but I was reading in Satuday's Toronto Star Wheels section that the Taurus SHO engine is being looked at for the new F150. They are talking about raising the horsepower for the truck version. Explorer sales used to be in the hundreds of thousands back in the nineties, but dropped to tens of thousands, mostly due to low fuel economy, so Ford is trying to find more sales with the V4 and V6 powertrains. I may have to trade the old 97 Explorer in if they are as good as advertised.

I wonder if they got their inspiration from watching 6.0's smoke and 6.4 flame throwers?