DamageINC

The 6.4 engines I've replaced, I never used the brakets at all.. I just ended up chaining the engine at a couple strong points and then using a ratchet-strap from the hoist arm to the lowest-hanging point on the engine and ratcheting the the engine up until it was level. It actually works REALLY well. Dave

Is there a possibility that this "limp mode" you're talking about is nothing more than a sticking VGT causing low boost and therefore a heavy loss in power?? Dave

As painfully unrealistic as this sounds, we had a guy at the dealer who was, although very eager to learn and good with following directions, one of the dumbest people I've ever known. Either way, he was watching me struggle with a rusted EGR pipe once and as a joke I told him that I think I need a Metric Adjustable Wrench. He told me he thinks he has one in his box... and then goes looking for it. 5 minutes later I hear him ask a tech a few bays down if he's got one he can borrow... The same kid was asking my once how underdrive pulleys help for performance and after explaining their function, he says "oh, that's cool!" After thinking about it for a good 30 seconds, he asks me if that same principle applies to superchargers and pulley sizing to generate more or less boost, and I told him "yep, that's dead on." Then he asks if they make any products like that to overdrive your camshafts, to help you get more rpm... ...seriously. Dave

The sad truth is that the Constitution, I fear, will become nothing more than a napkin to wipe up the mess left by all this crap we're dealing with right now. -Dave

Have a customer in with a 99 windstar, initially in for a no-start. No fuel pressure, power at the pump, yadda yadda, stuck a pump in it and it was mint. Now he's back complainint of a LEGIT intermittent long-crank (5-6 seconds) and I've found it's because the fuel pressure sits at about 5-10psi right off the bat, and takes about 3-5 seconds of cranking before it finally jumps some more and starts. I suppose the new fuel pump could be at fault but the vehicle has 133k miles on it and other components are obviously aged.. any chance a bad fuel pressure regulator could cause this, or something making the fuel system bleed down after sitting for a bit? Dave

Yeah I went that route today first thing and decided to run a jumper cable right from a battery terminal to the starter. thing starts up every time like that, the starter connection was corroded to shit. Unfortunately, the entire starter broke when I tried to remove the cable so now it gets a new starter too, lol. Either way, I think this is going to take care of it. Really appreciate the input from everyone though, I'm glad I was on the right track instead of going down some weird ass road that i don't belong on, hehe.. Dave

I can't spend a long time checking this truck out because it's low on the shops priority list right now so I only get 15-minute peeks at it at a time, lol.. (I have a 4.2 Audi A6 in a million pieces right now) Either way, the problem is definitely with the fact that the FICMLPWR and FICMVPWR voltages while cranking aren't high enough to start the truck up. The sniff of "fuel" bumps the rpm up enough so that the alternator gives it a little boost and then it sees 11.5v or greater, FICMSYNC goes "yes" and the thing stays running afterward. If I stick a plug-in battery charger on the truck and set it to "Jump Start", it hits the system with about 16 volts for the jump start and this truck starts up EVERY SINGLE TIME with the jumper plugged. Both batteries on the truck test out fine (they're 800 cca batteries) and it's still in the 50's (farenheit) out here. I am gonna give the wiring a little once-over here, starting with the FICM relay and pins and move on from there. Any chance that the FICM itself could be the cause of this? Dave

I remember once on an E-van I had an injector that wouldn't seal to the nipple on the oil rail and it caused a no-start. It was very easily found via an air test through the ICP hole (it was an '04 model I think) but my cranking ICP was around 300psi if I remember correctly. Dave

Sorry, should have mentioned that my FICM M voltage stays at 48 and SOMETIMES dips to 47.5 momentarily. I know that's an important PID but I've heard that they're basically find unless they go below 47 volts at any time so I haven't looked into that yet. Also, ICP voltage is about .2 KOEO and jumps to almost 2.0 volts while cranking. Once started, IPR hovers at around 24-25% at idle so I don't think I have a legit ICP issue either. In fact, I think I'm a retard because for whatever reason I thought I was getting FICMSYNC. Now I go out and fudge with it and low and behold, no FICMSYNC now. Cranked it for a while and then magically after about 30 seconds of trying on the 3rd attempt, FICMSYNC goes 'yes', and boom, it starts up. I shut it off, and now no more FICMSYNC while cranking again. My other voltages for the FICM are getting low while cranking, I'm having trouble keeping them about 10.5 volts, but "M" voltage is looking good.. Dave

Hey guys! How's life in dealer world? I'm off in indieland now, haha, but it's been good to me. Until recently, at least, lol, I have a new friend in the form of an EARLY build '03 6.0 pickem'up. Here's the scoop. I've had some time to spend with this thing and finally was able to verify a solid crank-no-start while cold condition. I don't have an IDS available to me so my data monitoring is not really up to par with what I'm used to, but either way, the only code in the system was a P0603. I don't think the vehicle has a programmer, but I haven't had an opportunity to ask the owner. While cranking, ICP ramps up almost immediately to anywhere from 1200 to 1700 psi. I have good FICMSYNC and SYNC as well. RPM signal is good, no apparent problems with the cam/crank sensors. Cranking RPM hovers around 200. One thing I have noticed that kinda makes me anxious is that, even though ICP responds and builds quickly, it takes a good 10 seconds of cranking before I have base engine oil pressure (according to the gauge on the dash). I fail to see how that is going to cause a no-start if I still have good ICP... (I almost fail to see how I can even have good ICP with low base engine oil pressure to begin with so I haven't spent any time exploring that possibility anyway, lol). Here's the kicker though - I can spend minutes cranking this thing and get absolutely nowhere. But if I give the turbo inlet a little sniff of brake cleaner, it fires right up and runs it's ass off. And it will continue to start up just fine afterwards until you let it sit for a while again. I have replaced the GPCM with a known good unit just to take that out of the equation, even though it passes a glow pplug test and there were no codes for the GPCM anyway. I'm asking the diesel gods here for guidance and hopefully someone here can shed some new light on this truck and maybe give me some new paths to go down. I have VERY little experience with the early build 6.0's and understand that their programming strategies vary from what I'm used to dealing with on the later models. Thanks again for your time guys!!! Dave

Turns out that the cause of death was actually food poisoning. He ate a 12 year old weiner. Hey-o!!!!! Ok ok ok, but seriously folks, he's not going to be cremated, seeing as he's 90% plastic anyway. Instead, he'll be melted down into lego's so kids can play with him for a change. BA-ZING!! You're took kind, too kind.. ...seriously though, Michael Jackson has written some of (and been a part of) the most influential music of the last 30 years, there's no doubt about that. Hell, Van Halen wouldn't have made it out of a garage if it weren't for him. It's a shame that his music and performances were overshadowed by his obscure lifestyle choices. It's hard to gauge just how guilty the dude was, but he certainly put himself in a position to be criticized so it's hard to feel too sorry for the guy. Still a shame that he's dead though. My father actually recorded/engineered a couple songs for him back when he was working for Motown, I haven't had a chance to talk to him yet but I'm sure he'll have some interesting stories for me, lol... Dave

I suppose it might sound kinda redundant, but at this point I'd seriously consider just changing the oil with something that you *know* is the correct kind of oil, and using a Ford filter/cap while you're at it. It seems like this job has already worked itself into the "non-profitable" section of shop life, so covering your absolute basics right now is never a bad idea. Just because a customer swears up and down that they used 15w40 doesn't mean that they actually used 15w40. It could be 5w40 for all we know! Dave

Personally I've always used engine oil to lubricate the threads (and I always blow out the threads with compressed air before installing the bolts) and I very rarely encounter any chattering.. In fact, I think ever since I started blowing the threads out with air, I don't know that I've ever had chattering bolts anymore. The key is to JUST LUBRICATE the threads, not coat them so the bolt is dripping. If the bolt is dripping oil, then it can pool up at the bottom of the thread hole and cause a hydralock condition until enough fluid seeps past the threads and then you'll get that chattering. Dave

Dayyyyyyyyyyyum. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- NEW YORK (AP) -- General Motors filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Monday as part of the Obama administration's plan to shrink the automaker to a sustainable size and give a majority ownership stake to the federal government. GM's bankruptcy filing is the fourth-largest in U.S. history and the largest for an industrial company. The company said it has $172.81 billion in debt and $82.29 billion in assets. As it reorganizes, the fallen icon of American industrial might will rely on $30 billion of additional financial assistance from the Treasury Department and $9.5 billion from Canada. That's on top of about $20 billion in taxpayer money GM already has received in the form of low-interest loans. GM will follow a similar course taken by smaller rival Chrysler LLC, which filed for Chapter 11 protection in April. A judge gave Chrysler approval to sell most of its assets to Italy's Fiat, moving the U.S. automaker closer to a quick exit from court protection, possibly this week. The plan is for the federal government to take a 60 percent ownership stake in the new GM. The Canadian government would take 12.5 percent, with the United Auto Workers getting a 17.5 percent share and unsecured bondholders receiving 10 percent. Existing GM shareholders are expected to be wiped out. Albert Koch, who helped Kmart Corp. through its Chapter 11 reorganization, will serve as GM's chief restructuring officer. Administration officials, speaking on condition of anonymity in advance of Obama's public remarks, said they expect the bankruptcy court process to last 60 to 90 days. If successful, GM will emerge as a leaner company with a smaller work force, fewer plants and a trimmed dealership network. President Barack Obama is scheduled to address the nation about GM's future at midday from Washington, and GM CEO Fritz Henderson is to follow him with a news conference in New York. GM also revealed Monday that it will permanently close nine more plants and idle three others. The Pontiac, Mich., and Wilmington, Del., assembly plants will close this year, while plants in Spring Hill, Tenn., and Orion, Mich., will shut down production but remain on standby. One of the idled plants will be retooled to build a small car. Seven powertrain and parts stamping plants will be closed starting in June 2010, while one stamping plant will be idled in a standby capacity. GM's filing comes 32 days after a Chapter 11 filing by Chrysler, which also was hobbled by plunging sales of cars and trucks as the worst recession since the Great Depression intensified. The sale to Fiat means Chrysler could be out of bankruptcy within the government's original timeframe of 30 to 60 days. Chrysler's plan gives a 55 percent stake of the new company to a union-run trust for retirees. Fiat gets a 20 percent stake to Fiat that can ultimately grow to 35 percent. The U.S. and Canadian governments get smaller pieces. The third of the one-time Big Three, Ford Motor Co., has also been stung hard by the sales slump, but it avoided bankruptcy by mortgaging all of its assets in 2006 to borrow roughly $25 billion, giving it a financial cushion GM and Chrysler lacked. GM will move forward with four core brands -- Chevrolet, Cadillac, Buick and GMC -- and cut four others. The company plans to cut 21,000 employees, about 34 percent of its work force, and reduce the number of dealers by 2,600. GM said it was finalizing a deal to sell Hummer, and plans for Saturn are expected to be announced within weeks. "There is still plenty of pain to go around, but I'm confident this is far better than the alternative," said Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich. "It's a new beginning, it's a rebirth, it's a new General Motors." GM, whose headquarters tower over downtown Detroit, said it believed the filing was not an acknowledgment of failure, but a necessary way to cleanse itself in an orderly fashion of problems and costs that have dogged it for decades. Trading of GM shares was halted early Monday after they plunged Friday as low as 74 cents, the lowest price in the company's 100-year history. The News Corp. unit that oversees the Dow Jones industrial average said GM will be kicked out of the index on June 8, along with Citigroup Inc. They will be replaced by Travelers Cos. and Cisco Systems Inc. The index's rules prohibit it from including companies that have filed for bankruptcy. The bankruptcy filing represents a dramatic downfall for GM, which was founded in 1908 by William C. Durant, who brought several car companies under one roof and developed a strategy of "a car for every purse and purpose." Longtime leader Alfred P. Sloan built the global automaker into a corporate icon. GM first sought help from the Bush administration and Congress last year as it was in the midst of being staggered by $30.9 billion in losses and seeing its cash resources shrink by more than $19 billion. Consumers, worried about the economy and the future of GM, shied away from the company's cars and trucks this year even after President George W. Bush promised loans and Obama followed through with billions more in assistance -- plus a stiff set of new requirements GM was ordered to meet. When GM failed to do so by a March 31 deadline, Obama forced out CEO Rick Wagoner and replaced him with Henderson. Wagoner served at the helm since 2000 and was the face of GM when he first flew on the company jet to ask Congress for aid. After a firestorm of negative publicity, Wagoner rode in a hybrid Chevrolet Malibu from Detroit to Washington for a second set of withering questions before lawmakers. But that amounted to only a sideshow as the automaker's financial position worsened. Its revenues plunged almost 50 percent in the quarter ended March 30 and it racked up another $6 billion in losses. The Henderson-led GM faced a government-imposed June 1 deadline to restructure, slash costs and modify contracts with its union and dealers. But meeting most of those demands, plus a late agreement by many bondholders to swap portions of the $27 billion in debt they are owed for shares in a new GM, were not enough to prevent the court filing. In fact, it was an all-out sprint to Monday's filing, as GM quickly sought to nail down deals with its union, bondholders and sell off brands and along with most of its Opel operations in Europe in an effort to appear in court with a near-complete plan to quickly emerge as a leaner company with a chance to become profitable. The German government on Sunday agreed to lend GM's Opel unit $2.1 billion, a move necessary for Magna International Inc. to acquire the company. The Canadian auto parts supplier will take a 20 percent stake in Opel and Russian-owned Sberbank will take a 35 percent, giving the two businesses a majority. GM retains 35 percent of Opel, with the remaining 10 percent going to employees. In the U.S., the UAW's ratification of concessions, announced Friday, will save GM $1.3 billion per year. The new deal freezes wages, ends bonuses and eliminates some noncompetitive work rules. It also moves billions in retiree health care costs off GM's books. In exchange for its ownership stake, $6.5 billion of interest-bearing preferred shares, and a $2.5 billion note, the trust will take on responsibility for all health care costs for retirees starting next year. Higher health care costs alone accounted for a $1,500-per-car cost gap between GM and Japanese vehicles. GM will offer buyouts and early retirement packages to all of its 61,000 hourly workers as it plans to shrink overall employment. The company also has about 27,000 white collar employees. In contrast, GM employed 618,000 Americans in 1979, more than any other company. GM earlier outlined a plan to cut about 1,100, or 40 percent, of its dealers by the end of 2010. It also plans to shed about 500 dealerships that market the Saturn, Hummer and Saab brands. But just cutting labor and overhead costs won't be enough to save the company. It also has been working to streamline its engineering and design, as well as standardize many parts so they can go into multiple models. The once powerful GM earns a place in history as the largest U.S. industrial company to file for bankruptcy protection, and the fourth-largest company overall to do so based on its $82.29 billion in assets. Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.'s September 2008 bankruptcy filing is the nation's largest with $691 billion in assets, and likely served as a catalyst for GM -- and Chrysler's -- downfall, as it hastened the erosion of credit markets, making it more difficult for consumers and dealers to finance new vehicles.

Thought I'd chime in again and mention that I just had an '05 F-50 with 116k miles on the clock. Not only did I break my 1st spark plug - I broke 6 of the bitches, hehe. I'm not at a dealership anymore so I ended up snagging the Lisle tool.. very satisfied! I like the fact that you don't have to pound on the porcelain, but rather just push it down. It's also nice that there aren't any replaceable parts and you don't have to wait an hour before taking the pulg nubbies out. I'm sold! Dave

I always yank the LH motor mount. Dropping the left side of the engine makes getting the right side valve cover out MUCH easier. And actually, jacking up the left side of the engine (with the mount out or loose) makes removing the left side valve cover a lot easier too, if I remember correctly. (I haven't done one in about 6 months, hehe) Dave

I've seen a lot of the covers with the left side (engine right side) ear for that shield just completely ground off. The cover gets removed very forcefully and then that ear gets lopped right off, lol, but it drops right back into place without even the slightest fight. (I know because I've reinstalled a few covers that were missing that ear). Dave

I was gonna say, this almost sounds like you've got a leaking injector or something. I'd fear that there's some more serious base engine damage at this point, a manual compression test is absolutely in order at this point. The last leaking injector I had completely melted the #3 piston and there was only a 7% loss in relative compression. (Manual compression showed only 100psi VS the 400+ the other cylinders had). Dave

Well I came to work the other day and the owner basically just ordered an HPOP for it, he figured that it's got 200k on it and it's probably time to be replaced anyway. So I stopped looking into it and tossed it in when it showed up the next day. Same story, however - resivoir drains down to about 4 inches below the plug and it only runs for a few seconds (until the resivoir runs dry, basically). I'm noticing that it's taking a decent amount of cranking to even achieve base engine oil pressure, and sometimes it won't even move the gauge needle until it starts to fire over. I really think that the low pressure pump is just shitting out (which I mentioned earlier this week) but I'm so limited with my 7.3's that I wanted to lean on some of the heavy-hitters here before going through with anything. I'll let you guys know what I find though, I think the LPOP is coming out of it today. Anyone has any other ideas, I'd love to hear 'em Dave EDIT: Even though it was full, I added another 6 quarts of oil and it starts up (still takes a long time to build obase oil pressure) but it actually stays running now. So maybe a cracked pickup tube? I didn't notice any aerated oil but the fact that it's heavily overfilled and runs fine now makes me wonder, lol.

I was attempting to remove the cover to check the standpipe for cracks and unfortunately there's a MASSIVE PTO bracket keeping me from accessing 2 of the bolts that hold it up. I pulled that plug on the resivoir and cranked it over, it took over 10 seconds of cranking for the oil level to reach the top. And as soon as you shut it off, it drains down to about 4 inches below the top again. I hate to sound like a retard here - but what does this all mean? Lol.. Dave

Actually, I just checked that before I got on here. There is NO screen anywhere to be found and the oil level was about 3.5 inches below the top of the resivoir. This was after the vehicle sat overnight and before any attempts to start it were made. There is a check valve under that cover, correct? As far as the ICP goes, I tried running it with the ICP disconnected and the issue stays the same. Starts slowly, runs for a few seconds, and the shits out. TONS of white smoke, by the way, when this thing gets running after the initial engine puke-out. I'm really worried that this might be an issue with base engine oil pressure too, I was hoping that you wouldn't mention it, haha! Enjoy the vacation if we don't hear from ya today!! Dave Dave

Well Bruce, I had a few minutes here to fudge with it. I unfortunately can't get it running long enough to do a KOER test at all, currently it will only run (like dog shit, mind you) for about 10 seconds, you've gotta keep your foot in it to keep it alive at all. I brought up some basic pids and found that it initially took about 5 full seconds of cranking for ICP to go anywhere past 0 psi (I don't have voltage readings for you at this time). Eventually, it built up pressure and started firing over at around 400 psi, and once it got running, the ICP made its way up to about 3500. The IPR vas very erratic and didn't really maintain anything steady, I couldn't let it idle on it's own and don't wanna bank on IPR readings made while my foot was practically on the floor. It does seem to continually take a bit long to build ICP though, sometimes up to 5 seconds to finally make it up to about 400 psi. I did notice that the ICP sensor in the left head looks relatively fresh (the shop just bought this truck last month) and even so, the connector terminals were very oily. I cleaned them up and dried everything out but haven't replaced anything yet at all. I am extremely limited with my 7.3 diagnostics so any help here would be awesome. What's the best way to go about checking to see if the resivoir is going empty? Dave

Ok guys, I don't know my 7.3's nearly as well as my 6.0's and I've got a vehicle here that's been giving the owner nightmares. I've finally had the chance to verify the concern a few times, but unfortunately all I have for diagnostic tools is a Snap-On Solus and I haven't monitored anything yet as far as PID data goes. It's a 200k mile wrecker truck, it belongs to us, so fortunately I can verify the problem every morning. The issue is that in the morning when you start it up, it will crank over and fire up like normal. It runs fine for about 2 minutes aand then it just starts to slowly puke out, idle drops and it will chug and misfire for about 10 seconds and die out. It cranks for about 10-15 seconds again to start, and will be followed with a monstrous cloud of white smoke for the next 5 minutes, and you have to keep your foot in it to keep it running. Once this thing has been running for a good 15-20 minutes, as long as it stays warm, it will start up and run just fine. Using the block heater overnight seems to help a bit, but not much. And ambient temperature here in the morning is in the 50's (farenheit) lately. I really haven't had time to spend with the vehicle so unfrotunately that's about all the info I can give right now, I'll scan it and get some codes later. As it is, once they get it running, it's gone for the majority of the dayand sometimes doesn't return for more than one or 2 minutesuntil after I've already left the shop. If anyone has any ideas, I'd love to hear them! Sorry \for the lack of info, like I said, I'll try to come up with more stuff soon! Thanks!! Dave

This one's fucking great. I kid you not, I remember one time we had a customer DRIVE IN a 1st Gen Expedition stating that the truck didn't steer correctly one day after hitting a curb. He "taped up" the loose parts underneath and drove it in to us so we could check it out. He LITERALLY had a massive wad of duct tape holding the center link to the left inner tie rod and DROVE the damn thing into the shop like that. Dave

This isn't a tragedy or anything but we've all seen some pretty funny things resulting from people trying to fix their own cars when it probably should have been left in the hands of a pro. This isn't "Funny" but whatever, it made me think of crating a thread on it. Guy drops off an '02 Explorer Sport (4.0) with a letter that says "Check engine light was on. I disconnected the battery and now the light is off. Please tell check out." Gee, thanks. I finally get the light to come on, the code thrown is a P0402 (EGR excessive flow). Pop the hood - it's got a nwe EGR valve, and new EVR, and a new (aftermarket) DPFE. Check DPFE voltage KOEO and it's at 5.01volts, lol. This is the 2nd aftermarket DPFE I've seen in a week that's been causing 5 volt readngs. And he botched up his own brake job too by not cleaning anything and he's got about .5mm of pad left on the outside pads, maybe 8-9mm left on the inside. All the money this guy spent taking guesses and not properly servicing the brakes cost him more than he would have spent had he gone to a dealer in the 1st place. (I was forced to install an aftermarket DPFE on an Escape not long ago and it returned the very next day with a P1401 code, sure enough - voltage pegged at just over 5 volts again KOEO. Threw ANOTHER one on it and now it's fine... so far. I was curious at first if maybe the cats were plugged and damaging the sensor but backpressure readings are well within spec so I'm jst gonna go out on a limb and say that aftermarket DPFEs are a waste of time and money.) But I wanna hear some good stories about do-it-yourselfer screwing themselves in the ass when they get in too deep. I remember once we had a 302 E-van get towed in with the oil pan half hanging from the engine, still. The guy thought we wanted too much money to replace the pan so he decided he'd do it himself on his back in his driveway. ...Yeah. Apparently he spent the better part of 2 days getting it to the point where it was at.. Dave