Matt Saunoras

Yes that's what I'm going to do, same with a second set of side bearings. It appears the Dana 60 ring and pinion kit comes with selectable shims so I might as well make an attempt at setting it up correctly

Got the rear out of the ambulance, inner bearing has been spinning on the pinion for a while destroying the shim. So now I get to set up my first Dana (no tools obviously). I ordered an extra pinion bearing so I can make a dummy out of it.

I've gotta put, at the very least, pinion bearings in the rear end of the ambulance. The driveshaft u-joints were toast and I was really hoping that was all, no such luck. Also looked at another 6.4 today that needs a egr valve, housing, EGT13 and a primary belt tensioner. I haven't sold an EGR valve in a 6.4 in over a year, now 2 in a week.

I saw that lock and lube coupler and was thinking about getting one. I think I'm the only one in the shop who actually owns a grease gun (or 3) and uses them on a regular basis.

That's interesting about the 11-14 dual boost turbo. From what I gather they can't handle much performance tuning before they go south, looking at the size of the turbo overspeed is surely what's doing them in. I've read about the 15 turbo swap but not sure of the specifics involving what's required. Also, if anyone hasn't noticed the 6.7 VGT solenoids are the same as a 6.0. I've been taking all the ones off the core turbos and saving them. And I went in today and worked on the ambulance, put the whole right bank in, new standpipe and HFCM. Smoked for a while but ran just fine. I think the #7 cylinder survived for now.

Bruce the injector cups were all brass and the copper sealing washers didn't show signs of leaking combustion gasses. I've never seen a stainless cup or compression seal. I did get it running tonight but didn't get a chance to drive it yet. It's too crazy around here. SPW'd a number 6 injector in a 6.0 only to find out on the post road test I'm getting wild fluctuations in the heat coming from the dash vents. Ruined my cooling system pressure gauge on that one. Waiting to see if they want to buy headgaskets. Pulled the number 7 injector out of the ambulance. Nozzle is split but no pieces missing. Borrowed a borescope to at least check the piston, it looks okay, all the edges are still sharp. Sold the whole right bank plus a HFCM. Also got word that the rear end needs checked when I'm done with that. Got a 6.4 outside that's getting an EGR valve and housing, ball joints, front driveshaft, BPA switch, shift lever. It has a leaking upper rad hose and an oil dipstick that's broke off in the tube but the customer thinks he can handle that.

Thanks for the input Bruce. I'd gladly install 8 injectors but I doubt the truck is even worth that. There weren't any reman injectors in there but #8 had a long lead, not sure if it came with that from the factory being a 2002 MY. All the O-rings were very hard and deteriorated, hard to tell what color they were originally. Finally working at getting the number 7 injector out of my 6.0 ambulance too. Also got an SPW #6 injector on an 06 F-250 and another good customer of mine bought my stage 2 turbo plus he's having me put in a Banks Technicooler in his 07 F-250. Since I'm supposed to be the tranny guy now too I looked at an 07 Edge that has pretty bad torque convertor shudder under lockup. Plus the 10 fusion I'm supposed to overhaul.

I'm bench testing these 7.3 injectors today. All of them are holding good vacuum but 4 and 8 are losing quite a bit of air from the spill ports. Not sure if I should call them or not, all the others are sealed up tight.

Pulled these 7.3 injectors tonight. Wow, some of these o-rings are really bad. Most of my bottom orings are completely destroyed and I don't quite understand that. I have 2 middle orings that have some wear on them. Cylinders 5 and 6 I believe had to be leaking oil into the fuel.

I would bet .100" endplay is enough to send that crank trigger wheel into the block causing it to rub. Is this truck a ZF6?

Interesting, last rh valvecover I did rolled right up over the rocker box. Didn't try to pull it from either end, just straight into the valley.

Bruce I'm not really familiar with much of anything 7.3L but I will pull all the injectors and have a look at the orings. I have seen the top oring blown out causing a lack of ICP but never the one separating fuel and oil. We shall see

Looked at another 7.3L today that's consuming oil. This ones an 02 F-350. Verified on the road test that the thing smokes bad and is definitely burning oil. To my surprise the turbo outlet is dry. As bad as this thing smoked I was thinking turbo for sure. Ran my crankcase pressure test and it passes also, very little blow-by for over 200k miles. No oil in the intercooler. Pulled my fuel filter and the fuel was bluish black in the fuel bowl, hmmmm. Took a fuel sample directly from the frame rail pump, it's clean and clear. I am going to pull and bench test the injectors. I have never done this before but I'm going to give it a try. Cust wouldn't spring for all 8. Also a 6.0 ambulance got towed in. I'm guessing the number #7 injector nozzle is split. Misfiring and smoking badly. The smoking gun was the WIF code stored in the PCM, pulled the bottom filter and there's metal and a nice little glob of water laying in the bottom. There's a couple other trucks coming in too so I should be busy for a while, oh yeah and our tranny guy is leaving and there's a 10 fusion here for an overhaul. Who's gonna do that?

I hear you on the lack of shop tools/equipment. We used to be in pretty bad shape too basically not equipped to do trucks at all. No engine stand, engine hoist or any heavy duty jacks or lifts >9,000lbs. Anything higher than 10' wouldn't fit in the doors. Since the new shop opened up though they take it a little more seriously (just a little). I was lucky and there were no previous diesel guys so all the special tools are around. Now our old shop is the new show room.

Rotunda 310-193 is the 6.0L fuel pressure tester. Works on E and F-series and allows you to simulate WOT fuel consumption while the engine is at idle by bleeding off a calibrated amount. https://rotunda.service-solutions.com/en-US/Pages/ItemDetail.aspx?SKU=310-193 Also if you have an old 6.4 fuel cooler return line you can make one of these by cutting the line and welding the open end shut. It allows you to adapt to a standard fuel pressure gauge and will work off the fuel bowl or the rear of the head. The banjo bolt is just one of many found on a 6.4

I did bench air check a HPOP with an IPR valve and my jumper harness. Using the vehicles wiring harness would not have worked

Mac rebadges a lot of OTC tools which all of those are. They are definitely useful special service tools but like Keith said the shop should have them. I would check EBay and Amazon first for the OTC versions if your shop doesn't have them. Mac tends to charge more than buying from an OTC retailer. Snap on makes a nice oil/fuel filter flip socket. Also the IPR controller is not necessary. Here's a pic of the 2 jumper harnesses I use the most. The left is for closing the IPR and it uses the wire flip lock connector instead of the 2 tabs on the side. Those can break easily if you're not careful. The right is for powering the 6.0/6.4 HFCM on. This is helpful on both 6.0 and 6.4s to purge the air after a fuel system repair. After doing a 6.4 fuel system repair you can check for leaks with the cab up. On a 6.0 the rear plugs can be loosened to purge air after a head job making sure the injectors aren't dry fired on the initial crank.

Yup that's the secret. The gear end has to drop down from the top. I just put the new one in and it did seem a little easier with the fenderwell out. Also with the fenderwell out I was able to weld a nub on the broken starter bolt and extract it

Had a good one today, one worthy of starting off the new year for sure (not to mention I've been off since last Saturday) 2011 6.7 comes in, 187k miles. Customer was having some starter issues and noticed a starter bolt is missing. So rather than get involved they brought it here. Verified the middle bolt is broken off in the rear engine cover. So I quote starter R&R plus an hour or so for bolt extraction. I pull the starter out which took a while longer than it should because I can't ever seem to remember the "trick" to getting those out. No they just don't fall out like a 6.0 does if you didn't know. Starter is out on the bench and I notice the top ear is broken off and the gear is showing through. Now I took the top bolt out and I didn't hear anything fall so I took a peek up in beside the engine and start to feel around for the ear. Can't find it. I'm guessing as to how big this piece is and I can't really imagine what it looks like so maybe it's hiding in an unlikely spot. Reach my hand back up in there, start touching around the starter hole in the rear cover and I felt something move. AHA! Before I know what happens or even have a chance to think about what could happen the piece of starter falls down into the fucking bellhousing. So as of the end of today I pulled out my first Torqshift 6 to retrieve this surprisingly large ear of starter. I have pics I'll post tomorrow. Jesus what a way to come back to work.

Done it with a partial cab lift many times. Remove the downpipe out the top or just let it drop down and rest on the floor. Then all the up-pipes will come out of the way and just use an engine hoist to remove the turbos. You don't want to disturb the fitment of the turbos or you may end up with a leak. I did it once without removing the turbos but I don't recommend trying it. You can't really see what you are doing and HPFP is a heavy sucker to try and drop in. With the partial lift I try to jack on the core support underneath the radiator as close to the middle as possible. Once the cab is up I'll slide some pieces of wood in between the cab mount and body and let the weight back on the frame. I also loosen the top radiator support bolts from the body, if you get too much twist in the body you can damage the rad.

Very nice, gotta love the 18k rotary

Cut open a couple 6.7 secondary fuel filters today. The collapsed filter is the one I pulled out of the no-start truck yesterday. It's an aftermarket filter unknown brand. The other is a motorcraft with about 5000 miles on it. The bottom filter didn't look so bad, I'm wondering if somehow one got changed and not the other.

All I needed was them to stay away one day so I could shuffle off to Buffalo on Sunday and not worry about anything hanging over. That didn't happen, 12:30 comes around and an 11 F-450 is getting towed in, might as well drop in my bay since its a no start. P008A and P0093 in memory. I can hear the fuel pump humming strong but at KOEO my low fuel pressure switch only goes from low to not low for a split second and back to low. Hook the fuel pressure gauge to the inlet of the secondary filter, turn the key on. Damn near pegs my gauge at 110 PSI. Fuel pressure switch still reading low. Slam a secondary filter in it and fire it right up. Also has a P20BA pending, since it's an inboard mounted tank that actually is mounted inboard it shouldn't take too long to pull it out and see what's up. I'll look at it tomorrow.

I'm all too guilty of feeling bad for customers but at the same time I'm learning that I work for a business that needs a certain amount of profit to keep the doors open. It's not the same shop we used to be in. The dealership as a whole is mostly completed and now needs paid for.

P1102 in a few. Usually accompanied with a regen concern. One had a P0402 in it