DwayneGorniak

7.3L engines have reusable head bolts. Installation Install head gasket over dowel sleeves and onto the cylinder head surface. Install the cylinder head. Take care to not damage the head gasket. CAUTION: Do not use too much engine oil on the threads or damage to the threads and poor sealing may result. Do not use anti-seize compound, grease or any other lubricants other than engine oil on the cylinder head bolt threads. They will affect the true torque value reading of the bolts. Lightly lubricate the cylinder head retaining bolt threads and flanges with clean engine oil. Install the cylinder head retaining bolts in sequence and tighten to the specified torque in three steps. Refer to the following illustration. Remove the Rotunda Cylinder Head Lifting Bracket 014-00932 or equivalent. Install the four inboard fuel injector hold-down bolts and tighten shoulder bolts to 12 Nm (120 lb-in). CAUTION: Failure to follow the next step of this procedure could result in bent valves, causing severe engine damage. Rotate the engine until the mark on the crankshaft vibration damper (6316) is at 11 o'clock to prevent valve damage when installing the rocker arm. Install the rocker arms and push rods (copper end up). Tighten the rocker arm bolts (6A527) to 27 Nm (20 lb-ft). Install the fuel injectors. Lubricate the injector O-rings with clean engine oil. Carefully push injectors square into bore using hand pressure only to seat the injector O-rings. Position open end of Injector Replacer T94T-9000-AH2 between fuel injector body and fuel injector hold-down plate, while positioning opposite end of tool over edge of cylinder head. Align hole in tool with threaded hole in cylinder head and install bolt from tool kit. Tighten bolt to fully seat fuel injector in bore, then remove bolt and tool. Sorry the illustration did not come through, but you torque them in sequence to 65ftlb, then 85ftlb, then final step to 105 ftlb.

And maybe hoists to do cab lifts whenever they needed to repair the trucks. Oops I forgot, They built them so good they don't need repairs, right? LOL.

I'd still rather see a gas powered 20hp Honda compressor mounted securely inside the sevice body than this crap we see. But then again, I would like to see Ford bring back the 7.3L and we all know when that will happen.

I hear ya. One other point I forgot to mention was that some of these pieces of equipment can give you gain time with a high quality outcome. But I don't believe that would be true in the EGR flush case. High quality diag and repair is needed more than an intake manifold enema!

Jim, I agree with you about 90%. I believe just like you that the egr flush thing is a total waste of money on the shops behalf and the customers. You must always fix the root cause of the concern. Most of the time that results in educating the jackass behind the wheel on how to operate his chipped up, jacked up, juiced up friggin diesel properly and it is not a good thing to idle these friggin things out at the rig site from evening to morning so that his heated friggin seats are nice and toasty friggin warm just to keep his fat friggin ars from getting hemroids! And I can't stand places that use flushes as fixes, because there is no such damn thing as a "mechanic in a can". However, if you are in a flat rate industry you must buy flat rate tools to do flat rate jobs efficiently and high quality tools to do high quality jobs. They both go hand in hand. A little off the diesel subject: you can use a garden hose and a sh!t load of time to flush a cooling system inefficiently or you can buy a Wynns Extend coolant flush machine that flushes the entire system including heater core and every single coolant passage in the engine. A garden hose is not very efficient if you get where I,m going with this. Same for transmission flushes: the Wynns machine is incredible. You are flushing the entire transmission, torque converter, cooler lines and cooler itself. A 100% flush of all chemical in the system verses a partial flush that leaves crap still in the system. Anyway, my point is that there are some really good pieces of flush equipment out there for doing "manitenace" only. And flushes in some cases are a really good thing for PREVENTATIVE MAINTENANCE! But flushes should never be considered a FIX! Damn, I'm almost as long winded as you are Jim.

Even so, I would still say they are full of sh!t!

You know, I'm gonna try it just to hear the ping. But I have a feeling my flat rate instinct will keep me doing it the way I am now. But you have me curious.

Condemn the bitch! And don't forget to get your intercooler steam cleaned. If there is any diesel fuel in it which is quite common when the type of failure you just had occures, you could have another runnaway on a new engine. Trust me I've seen it happen. Had an apprentice that used to work under me that didn't listen about steam cleaning the intercooler and imagine what happened?

They should be frickin illegal!

Turbo V-band clamps: An air hammer head that is one inch in diameter on the face of the band around the v-clamp and just a pull of the trigger on the air hammer and the clamp jumps right off. No need for penetraing fluid and no damage to the clamp. Another trick: when replacing turbo's, put a lock washer between the bolt head and the steel sleeve of the turbo hold down bolts and they won't cease on again. Makes the turbo's alot easier to remove down the road and you won't have to torch them damn critters out again. When installing turbo's: put only one hold down bolt on driver side in loosely to start with. Use that bolt as a hinge to line the Y-pipe up and tighten the Y-pipe before you put the other two bolts in. Then pull the turbo down into place. Just some little tricks to make life easier for everyone. Hope you enjoy them. One more: when installing egr coolers, get two intake bolts from a core 6,0L engine and cut the heads off them. thread them into the cooler and use them for dowls to put the egr to intake gasket in place. It also helps for lining up the intake and no glue or mess. And I'm all ears for any other tricks.

I use my air hammer with an air hammer head in it that is about one inch in diameter. Just a pull of the trigger on the face of the band around the v-clamp and it jumps right off the pipe. Doesn't damage the clamp either. If you use a punch or chisel in the air hammer, you will make a mess of the clamp. No need for penetrating fluid either. Just a little rappity rap and whala.....snap. I think I will start a new topic about quick tricks for sick litres.

I agree. I would be looking at short fuel trims when the engine is hot and pick on the injectors.

thanks Jim. That was another part in the decision. I love electronics and challenges. Even though there are times I feel like robot on sick litres, I wouldn't be a Technician if I didn't love it.

Well call me a chicken Sh!t or whatever you want, but I decided that all of you guys are stuck with me. I really had to think about things and weigh the pro's and con's. I figured I make pretty darn good money and things aren't allways as bad as they seem. My dealer principal told me a while back that his door was allways open if I ever needed to talk. So I took him up on his offer and He allowed me to vent, which is what I really needed. It landed me a nice raise which I did not expect or really ask for. The other parts of my decision were that I work Monday to Friday, eight to five, I allready have every night and weekend to spend with my family. And I have major job security and I don't have to worry about work if the oil patch slows down. It was all the damn politics that were getting to me. We resolved some of these issues and I relized That sometimes it's good to just vent. Very similar to your situation Steve, It's good to know how valuable you are sometimes. Therefore the itch is now gone.

Thanks Keith, I like your perspective. My heart has been in this trade dearly for all these years, but now my heart is looking for something else. I've become restless and itchy. We'll see what happens when I chat with the D.P. And who knows Jim, if this doesn't pan out I just might come knocking on your doorstep. That's if you havn't become itchy and moved on yourself. Maybe, hugh?

Jim, if I go into a service truck I would hardly be home and I would have to work hollidays and long weekends at times. Thats why this job is so appealing. I have a wife and three year old son. And I will obviously have to work some overtime past five, but that's at least time and a half. i also forgot to mention that they are waiving the three month probationary period and putting me on the benefits right away. I know my dealer principal will come after me with more money, but it's the future I'm looking at.

I have a job offer in the gas compressor field that is quite desireable. They are offering me more money than I make now per hour, three weaks hollidays vs. two now, RRSP plan and pension plan that the company matches dollar for dollar with what I put into it vs. nothing now, safety boot allowance vs. nothing, every long weekend and holliday off vs. being open on long weekends in the summer, and better medical, dental and eye glass coverage. I would be working in a 50,000 square foot shop monday to friday eight to five overhauling Waukesha V12's, Caterpillar V16's and other similar engines. Straight time plus real overtime earnings at time and a half. It will amount to about 20 grand a year more than I make now with the overtime in peak times. I have to provide just basic hand tools up to inch and a half, basic air tools and my own 3/4 " drive socket set. The shop supplies everything else from torque wrenches to big air tools and all specialty tools. There is all kinds of opportunity with this company to move up the ladder and get paid more as I do that. I used to be a Shop Foreman in this trade and I make more on the bench now. In this trade: as you move up the ladder, you are rewarded less financially by being offered sallary when you get into management positions. The stressfull part for me is that we lost our other diesel tech and I hold the burden of carrying the diesel certification for my dealership on my shoulders. I have one weak to decide and I know my dealer principal will take this personally. He's just like that. I will be leaving the dealership in one hell of a predicament. It's one of those opportunities that I feel if I pass it up, I will probably regret it for the rest of my life. I didn't plan the timing like this and I keep telling myself that I have to look out for number one. The other factor is the fear factor of the unknown and being in this trade for so long. But I live by the theory that you will never know unless you try. Just a stressfull decision.

That's about the norm I get on the manual test I do. Sometimes a little higher. I still prefer the manual tests. I find the Air management test passes EGR valves too easily. I can make them fail alot more on a manual test.

Look in the 2008 service manual For 6.4L SuperDuty Jim. Go to engine and then scroll down on the left side to cab on engine removal procedure. It will make you sick, I'm sure. It makes me sick.

Holy crap! I am dead serious. I am getting extremely tired of this crap and seriously looking at a new career. I can only imagine the SLTS time for this. (When they come up with it)

We just had our shop meeting tonight and I made some headway today. While the dealer principal was in the shop looking at my new hoist being installed, I struck up the conversation of insurance with him. He informed me that our shop does have insurance on technicians tools and it is for one hundred thousand dollars. Quite seriously, he looked at me and said he knew that some of us techs had as much as twenty thousand tied up in tools. I laughed and and proceeded to tell him that I alone had eighty thousand in tools and the other diesel tech had the same amount. He almost hit the floor in shock. He had absolutely no idea that we invested that much into our career. I told him I spent six grand last year alone. So anyway, He got the point and decided he was going to look into insurance companies and see what kind of plan we could get into. I may be a persistant bugger but it allways seems to pay off.

http://automotive.mytelus.com/automotive/autonews/index.spy?cmd=view&artid=82916 Check this out!

A slight decrease in power and fuel economy for some of my customers and myself. I run the Ford cetane additive in mine though, and it does make a difference. She has that extra little snap and bark to her when I run it. I havn't really tried to figure out the fuel economy difference though. I think that when I run the additive I am more concious about how I drive and that more than anything probably is what gets me the better mileage. But a deffinate difference in power. A buddy at work runs the additive in his two farm tractors and he cannot believe the difference. He says his tractors really snort with the additive. Keep in mind that ultra low sulphur fuel has less BTU's and is is less volatile than the fuel we ran last year.

I just threw two in my glove box this morning also.

You know Keith, this conversation comes up quite regularly here at shop meetings. I hope your shop or your techs had insurance for the techs tools. Up here in Canada most techs cannot afford insurance for their tools and most shops are too cheap to help them out. I would be devastated if something like that happened to my tools. I would never be able to replace them. Good luck to all you guys and I hope you are looked after.