mrbudge

Just be glad they didn't use a belt. Ever see the gear drive up the front (or back) of a 4-53? The silence is awesome when it all goes wrong. I don't think there is a good solution for a overhead cam diesel, especially when operators insist on idling them all day.

That's why when I got my hoist for at home I installed it myself. Why pay someone to fuck something up for you. I did hit re-bar, and I did use a torque wrench on the bolts. It is sweet to have a hoist at home.

Yeah, probably wire wheeled them while wire wheeling the head gasget surface.

At the last place I worked, we waited for years for a new shop. We finally got one, and it was beautiful. So I had to leave. The old place was crowded, old, sometimes dirty, but it was paid for, so we all benefitted from our hard work. We were always full to capacity because of our relatively small size. In the new shop, all of a sudden we are under a whole bunch of pressure to produce more, because the new shop had to be paid for. The "perks" that we enjoyed as being part of a team in the old shop were replaced by having to feed the new place, so I said bye bye.

I agree that they are toilets (like most old luxury cars seem to be), but remember how nice they were compared to the v8 Continentals they replaced. And could someone explain to me why it is always the high rollers in their fancy luxury cars who are always the ones who won't pay to fix them, so they end up run into the ground.

We have AutoEnginuity, but it is way old. I find it very slow connecting with and communicating with vehicles, but I expect the new ones are much better? One of the guys here has the new Snap On scanner (solus?), seems easy to use on basic stuff, haven't had to use it on anything too tough yet. Mac tool guy is going to let me demo their new unit, which I believe is a re-badged Genisys? I would be using it on non Ford stuff, including body/chassis and OBD. I am not really familiar with aftermarket scan tools, but when I go to help out some other shops with our IDS they are blown away by what it can do. I would not touch a Powerstroke without an IDS.

Shopping around for an aftermarket scan tool. What are your favorites, or what are turds to stay away from?

Now that is saying something! Yes, out of the frying pan, into the fire.

Well, the twelve grand or so, plus labor, for a new motor with turbos, was a little too much. Didn't save that much on oil changes. So we found a minty looking used one for $7000. Cab is off right now, top bell housing bolts are fairly ignorant otherwise. The customer's reason for not getting the oil changed was they never recieved any letters. I think it was a lease truck, why maintain it if it's not mine. Funny, this is not the first truck they leased here, and have maintained all of their other units....

Well I thought engines were at least spun on a dyno to prelube everything and to make sure everything goes up and down and round and round...until one fine day we put in a FQR 4.0l pushrod engine in an Explorer, complete with oil and filter, fired her up, and what do you know, no oil pressure. I guess the oil pump drive rod was still sitting on someones bench in Mexico, because it sure wasn't in this thing. When I assemble engines I will lube sliding surfaces with light grease, because it will not run away while the engine is waiting to be installed, fill the oil filter prior to installation, and if possible spin the oil pump to prime the oiling system. At least diesels usually take considerable cranking prior to starting. Sometimes I think more effort is put into the shiny black paint on these reman disesels than anything else.

We used to go skiing in a converted bus/motorhome. It had a 3208 Cat engine, Muncie trans with a short fourth, and a two speed rear end. The Cat had a powerband about 100rpm wide, so in the mountains you really had to work the tranny and the rear end to keep her boiling, especially in Colorado. Not much air up there for the old Cat to breathe. The motorhome was a converted school bus, so I am not really hijacking this thread.

In the end, it is not the shop that is working on your vehicle, it is an individual human being that is working on your vehicle. The shop may have policies in place that encourage or discourage good workmanship, but it is up to the individual if the job is done well or a hacked up mess. It is too easy to be an anonomous hack hiding in the shadows with no consequences for doing a bad job.

Hands up who knows what the red button on the shifter is, or how to use it. I think it is something that could make a comeback. Now, how could I convert my 9.75.......

And what does a Red Seal get you in Ontararieoooo? Here in Manitobush it gets you nothing, which is ok because you really don't need it to work in the trade.

How about a 2011 F150 Ecoboost. Check engine light on, customer thinks the turbo is not working. She has 56000 kms on the original oil and filter, no oil showing on the stick, left turbo making interesting whistling noises, and right one apparently doing nothing. Base engine sounds surprisingly good, but I am condemming it anyway. I do not want to be married to this gem down the road. Shouldn't that be warranty?

Great news, we are getting our first two new VCM2's any day now, and I much rather would have them tethered to the laptop. Harder to forget in the car that way.

If the pressures are equal on both sides with the compressor running, the compressor is nfg. I am not a GM guy, but I have seen some vehicles that you can hook up both of your guages to the same side (there are two service ports on one side) and then the pressures will obviously read equal. Even if that is the case the low side should drop and high side should rise as soon as the compressor starts, depending which side you are hooked up to. I will often do the touch test on the discharge side, if the compressor is compressing, the discharge line should be HOT.

Tire mismatch sticks in my mind with one of these, although they would bang like crazy I have never seen a halfshaft break. I don't remember a tool to bypass the module, but I just jumpered a couple of wires in the plug when required, don't recall which ones though. You can also just disconnect the module and drive it if required, as long as all axles are attached. Quadra Trac Jeeps acted the same if a driveshaft broke. We had a Grand Cherokee with a 401 as a snow plow, and boy would it plow, until the front driveshaft broke (which happened regularly), then it would just stop. Put in 4wdlock to drive into the shop.

If it is only when the convertor is locked up, make sure #7 and #8 wires are not routed together. Since they are consecutive in the firing order they can crossfire under load, and since #8 is using #7's spark it will be way too advanced on that cylinder. Eventually the piston will burn if nothing is done.

what is scary is that warranty paid for it without batting an eye What is scary is that we just had a claim for the EGR cooler replacement TSB paid at 0 because we neglected to put in our comments that P2457 was retrieved during KOER. And yes the cooler was plugged, and yes it did fix the concern. I think the assessor is pissed because he asked for copys of the diesel diag sheets, which don't exist for a 6.7, and I told him that.

Just did an ESP prior approval for a Fusion rear driveshaft that was $7.00 over cost cap. Now I could have made the claim fit under the cap, but I just wanted to see how they would treat my request. All that was wrong was the hanger bearing was noisy, and not serviced seperately. Well, the request came back three times for more info (what is the cause of the failure, how would I know?) And all for seven bucks. Just in case you were wondering why response time are so bad lately. I have been waiting two hours now for a prior approval on a DPF. This ought to be good

When I was in Australia in the late 80's the cops in Melbourne had problems with street racing. Their solution was to take one of their Holden patrol cars, with a stock 305 q-jet, put a NOS nozzle on the air cleaner hold down stud, and invite the kids to the racetrack to race a cop car. As I recall it ran fairly respectable times for 1988. The rumor was that when they weren't racing it they still used it for regular patrol duty.

Usually start up quite quickly, unless you have a leaking injector, then they never start.

Not that Ford is without problems (they aren't), but we had a Hyundai Santa Fe with a v6 come in on trade. It had a fairly nasty rattle at idle. A belt drove one cam in each head, with a short chain driving the other cam. Well the short chains stretch a little bit, then the cams rattle at idle. This was a low mileage, well maintained unit, just off warranty. It looked like there may have been a provision for a tensioner on these chains, but it was not used. I am guessing it was left out to save a buck. It made me wonder where else they cheaped out.

I wonder how they keep the cats warm enough to work while the engine is off. Can you say another "e" recall.