Matt Saunoras

I finally broke $26/hr flat rate and got a 40hr guarantee. This area is notorious for low wages. When I worked at Lincoln all the original guys (15-20 years) were stuck in the low low 20s and the asset guys coming out of school were going flat rate at $12.00/hr. We couldn't recruit a sack of dirt. This is why. When I was moved to the shop I'm in now I got $14/hr flat rate. I still made that same amount the first year I got senior master too. The guy I worked with got $15/hr and he didn't have one cert, none of them did. That was around the time when they started requiring certs for warranty work. So guess who started doing trannies because he was the only one certified? Trans work at $14/hr? I was happy to prove myself but eventually I got sick of it and told them to fuck off. I was seriously ready to leave the profession. So I got a little more money and it was worth it for a little while until I started doing trucks all the time. That's when other shops started knocking on the door and better offers were out there, I didn't even have to look. Rather than go shopping I merely mentioned to them where I could go and what I could make, they matched it without blinking an eye.

I've heard the number .050" thrown around but I can't remember who told me that. Based on my eye-o-meter alone I think that is a good estimate.

Okay I did get the whole story. The short version is I put an injector in this truck 5k miles ago. I did notice while driving it that it didn't feel like it was on stock tuning but the cust says it was. Didn't think anything of it. Customer still says this this thing is stock and its rarely ever turned up because he tows a lot with it. Come to find the turbo was stuck and the oil seal is starting to leak possibly indicating an overspeed condition. The cust finally says this truck regularly makes 30+ pounds of boost. Well it shouldn't if its stock. Case closed. Also the new pushrods are noticeably shorter, unfortunately I have no way to measure them

The block is clean, I scotch brited it this morning and while there are still some roloc marks they aren't as bad as I thought. The deck is flat too, I don't have .001 anywhere on the surface. I sent the heads out to be resurfaced so all I can do is take it from there. I am installing new pushrods in this engine also. I will try and measure them and snap a few pics if they are indeed shorter like I posted about before.

Well the aftermarket is studding 6.4s now too and I have read somewhere where the stud holes are cracking into water jackets and allowing coolant to leak out around the stud. That I can believe but I have never heard of that or any other problems related to head studs installed on a 6.0. We all know it would be cost prohibitive to redesign the 6.0 headbolts to a stud design. If international says it warps the block we have to either believe them.... or not... but either way they just got themselves out of any liability. The 6.4 uses a similar block size as the 6.0 but it has larger M16 headbolts with more clamping force, it has already proven it will handle much more cylinder pressure without lifting the heads. These hot rod diesel guys know, they have to pay to play, we won't warranty any of this stuff but we won't turn the work down either. I will stud my truck when the time comes.

I will know more tomorrow how bad it is once I clean it up. I can see the grinder marks easily but I'm not sure how deep they are.

If you are going to use a chemical flush whether it be VC-9 or fleetguard restore you need to make sure to get it (and the contaminates you loosened up) all out or you do risk plugging the new cooler up shortly after. I typically don't chemical flush every cooler job that comes through the door. A good water flush and top off with straight concentrate will be better than the truck has seen in a long time. If there's a lot of sandy grit and rust water laying around then a chemical flush is a good idea. I always flush after the repair and I never put the T-stats back in until the water is clear and I'm satisfied that there isn't a whole lot left inside. Not too long ago I bought my own hose, a faucet for the end of the hose and various adapters to make the flushing process so much simpler. It was well worth it

I am digging this thread back out. I am doing a set of headgaskets right now on a truck that has already had headstuds installed about 50k miles ago. It has pretty clearly lifted the right head again. The left headgasket looked fine. I just got the cab off and the heads off today so I didn't really get a chance to clean anything up and check for flatness. All I know is the heads and block were roloc'd to hell and back. The heads are getting sent off to be machined next week.

I thought I was the only one who put 14.5qts in a 6.0 or 6.4

What's weird is all the other relays are black 5 pins. This is the only 4 pin in the BJB. I believe this truck just came from the auction possibly even sold not running. Drove it down the road and immediately I can feel the front axle u-joints are frozen. It's got a vibration at 20mph, goes away and comes back at 40. I need to look at the rear driveshaft u-joints too. Sold balljoints, maintenance, and everything else. Got a set of 6.0 headgaskets coming in Friday too.

6.4 on the hook, I'm told the customer says the keys lost program, various lights on dash, no crank, theft light flashing. First thing's first, keys don't just lose program. Throw IDS on, great, no communicado with the PCM. Quick look under the hood, someone moved the vacuum pump so that means we were on a hunt for blown fuses, also the PCM connector release levers are broke as fuck. So I dig the tabs out for the body connector, it releases fine, no bent pins or anything looking weird. PC/ED time. Pinpoint test AE or something like that. By now I've wasted an hour only to realize the PCM power relay is gone, gone, gone. Where did it go? Maybe it fell out. For some unknown reason I happen to have a random relay that found it's way into my test probe kit, no idea how it got there but it has 4 pins and it fit in the slots. Truck now runs but runs fucking weird, wrench is on, coolant temp indicator on, fan is screaming and it's idling at about 1100rpm. Shut it off, run KOEO. Pops up 5 or 6 on-demand codes. ECT, EGR throttle plate, EBP, MAF, IAT and maybe a few others. At this point I'm analyizing a wiring diagram with utmost scrutany. None of these sensors have anything in common accept.......AHA!.. they're on the engine! So thinking maybe a v-ref problem I unplug one at a time to see what happens, nothing. Then I remember the screwed up PCM connectors, I greased up the body connector got it plugged in but never realized the main engine harness connector was pulled out just a hair, and that's all it took.

Not when you put it in your fuel tank

The new blue spring you'll get is actually an upgraded part. With a good HFCM it'll typically push the pressure at idle into the 60s

As much as I'd like to I'm not going to mess with him. He gives me 10% over cost on parts and he'll call around the country for me if there's something I want on the locator at cost minus 50%. He does have a little undeserved sense of importance though.....but I think we all do. Not much going on right now. All day today I moved around loose special tools, catagorized boxes and threw a TON of old crap out. We boxed up the workshop manuals too. Getting ready for the move in a few weeks but that's not going off without a hitch. Right now they are proposing putting these 3 big ass workbench oil tanks right in front of my two 18k racks. There is no way this could possibly work. It's already going to be extremely tight if you had a cab off and needed to pull an engine. With these tanks it would be impossible. I am not going to lie it is extremely irritating looking at what these architects have come up with. Clearly no one has ever worked in a shop, let alone one that is too tight to move around. Maybe when it's all done and we can fully see all the shortcomings I will outline the stupidity that ensued. It's pretty damn ridiculous. There is a 6.0 that got towed in for a mystery coolant loss late today. This is one of those trucks that is back every month or so with a leak in a different spot. Headgaskets for sure, not sure if the guy will go for them.

He's so nit-picky it drives me crazy. Every single 6.0 injector core has to be packed up exactly like it came out of the box, black nipple and all.

6.4L vegimatic juicer

Put a MAF and an air filter in that 6.4 with the soot accumulation codes, reprogrammed the PCM, cleared the DPF tables and took it for a ride. Doesn't even need a regen, DPF pressure is great. It's got some kind of aftermarket warranty so I "upsold" a front main seal/oil pump cover gasket just so I'd have something to do today. edit - The MAF that was run with no air filter literally had bugs and pieces of leaves up inside of it. I wanted to snap a pic but the parts guy snatched it up pretty fast. There's a core on those things.

We are dead, not even any light duty stuff to fill in the cracks. I'm looking a 6.4 today for a regen concern, pop the air filter cover off and the filter is missing.

If anyone is looking for an o-ring don't order it from the parts catalog on an 05+, it's listed as the same o-ring as the oil pressure test port on the oil cooler cover. This is not correct. 3C3Z-9N693-KA is the number you want. It will fit all year 6.0s

Billy Bob Clayton

The tune is just gearhead's 8k tow, basically a 50hp no smoke, headbolt safe tune. No compalints so far, there is definitely a nice increase in driveabilty. Not looking to set the world on fire but I do like to play around a little.

Finally broke down and decided to work on my truck today. Did the left bank of injectors to match the right side I did last year. Also put that beast of a turbo in that I posted pics of.

I have a mystery bag of 3C3Z-9C064-CA sitting here. They are green like the ECT/EOT o-ring but I'm not sure what exactly they fit. Anyone know?

Did an E-DOC pipe on a 6.4 by the WSM. Never again, I can't believe I fell for that.

Well I just dug the hole deeper today. Didn't really get anywhere except one ambulance done I started yesterday is done. Tried the reseal on the box, didn't work. For some reason I blew the snap ring and sector shaft seal right out on start-up. I'm trying to get the ring seated back in but no luck yet, before I knew it was 8PM. I'm gonna have to push it outside. Looked at another 6.4 with a coolant leak and a dipstick tube. This thing has new rad hoses I put in back in Feb but it's leaking from something in that area, I can't tell yet. It definitely had a motor put in it, if you run oasis on the truck it had a powertrain warranty cancellation but it's out by time now anyways. The 6.4 manifolds job turned into a little more than I thought. 121k on the clock, almost 7500 hours. Just to cover my ass I took this truck for a ride and pulled up my STFTs. Watched #2 go to +13 and #8 go to +8 as it warmed up. Relative compression? #2 is down 9% and #8 is down 8%. Ran oasis......dieselcare plus til 200k and 10/15. I have never once done a ESP diesel job. I guarantee this thing will fail the blowby test. Another guy I talked to last week dropped his 6.4 off too. RH up-pipe leaking, he brought me some river city diesel up-pipes. This truck is deleted to hell and back. It's got nothing nowhere that looks like an emissions do-hicky