Matt Saunoras

What a fucking mess. There's not a drop of coolant in this one.

This hits the nail on the head. Lead by example

I've gotten a few from other dealers since I posted that, they're running out locally

The part number is changing but there aren't any coolers with the new part number yet! Don't you just love this stuff?

Finished up the customer pay HPFP. Up sold exhaust manifolds and wound up finding the horizontal cooler starting to leak. Started on the hot no start, dummy plugs are the worst I've ever seen. Up sold 8 injectors and a turbo cleaning. The truck has sat for a year and it needs some TLC. Word is that 2 ambulances are in need of some injectors, not sure when they'll get here.

Both my service and parts manager both stroll in after 8 every day. Parts is a little closer to my age but by the time he gets in and gets shit checked in it's a half hour wasted. If you're waiting on a part in the order don't expect it before 8:30. I'd be in the door at 7 every day except there's no one there to let me in (I've asked for a key but why would a tech need to be there before management? That would make too many people look bad....)

Both my service and parts manager both stroll in after 8 every day. Parts is a little closer to my age but by the time he gets in and gets shit checked in it's a half hour wasted. If you're waiting on a part in the order don't expect it before 8:30. I'd be in the door at 7 every day except there's no one there to let me in (I've asked for a key but why would a tech need to be there before management? That would make too many people look bad....)

I can't get my last 6.4 shortblock paid for either. Diag is spot on, all outlined in the hotline contact. I have a feeling the discrepancy is in the labor ops but that's beyond me. I've done all I can do. I can't believe my service manager continues to have a job. He does so little throughout the day it blows my mind

Got word of this earlier in the week. Needless to say I'm waiting until October to buy my remaining 4 fuel injectors

When you think about EGTs and how oil flow abruptly stops at engine shut down it's not hard to figure out why turbo bearings coke up like they do. I really don't think post shutdown coolant flow is going to help a whole lot, most of the damage is probably done right as soon as that oil stops flowing.

A137 is obsolete I believe. Check Ebay for it though, I've seen them on there numerous times. edit - nevermind, clearly it's not obsolete

Last week we had a competing dealers service director call the parts dept one day (anonymously) inquiring about the shops diesel tech. Naturally parts gives out my name thinking of a job to be sold. Parts guy warns me and not even a minute later I get paged to take a phone call. The guy beats around the bush for a while asking if I'm content with where I'm at or if I knew any other diesel techs. At the very end of the conversation I finally had to ask him where he was calling from (after he mentioned 28 bays). It was a large dealer less than 20 miles away in Ohio. Made my day and solidified my case. Once again, I am the hero for not leaving. We can't get techs either. We have a brand new building going up with 5 car racks and 3 truck racks. They want us in there by the end of October and we've had an ad in the paper for 2 months now. No hits, no maybes, nothing. No asset students on the horizon and nobody I can personally think of that I want to work next to. Was I so out of line for demanding a 40 hour guarantee? Not anymore apparently.

Gotta love this fleet of ambulances. Got one towed in yesterday half torn apart. Secondary tensioner pulley froze up, threw the belt, lassoed the idler pulley standoff and snap. Got authorized for a front cover, water pump, both rad hoses, all 5 idlers, 2 tensioners/belts and the fan blades. Done this evening and back on the road tomorrow. Waiting for authorization on a 6.4 high pressure pump/exhaust manifolds. Got a 6.0 F-series hot no-start and 6.7 pickup fuel tank that's sucked in. Pile it on.

One more secret and I'm done. Reloading ammo is something I've been doing for a few years now but recently I haven't been able to find the time to shoot. I'm sitting on about 800 rounds I've loaded my own and more components than I know what to do with. The rifle here is my Savage 12 VLP 22-250 wearing a custom barrel, trigger and bed job. I've used it in the past to compete in my clubs score matches but anymore I just shoot it now and then.

Anyone ever spun a dual boost pickup turbo with their fingers? To me it felt much different than the brass bushing turbos we are used to.

I say "I don't know" several times every day because it's the damn truth, I know very little perhaps just enough to get into trouble. Every single day I run into something I never saw before, we all probably do occassionally just less frequently the longer we do this. I also like to use my truck as a baseline for what I can expect out of a 6.0. 100k miles, 50k of them are my own. It's never overboosted, never overheated, never really given me any major problems since I've done all the "upgrades". It did need a FICM and it's got half its original injectors. Those ones are getting changed within the next month, none ever went totally bad just a little stiction when it's cold. Under warranty (long before I owned it) it had a center housing replaced which is still in the truck. Still on stock headgaskets/bolts and I won't change them until they need it. The ones that have never had any repairs are rare. Keep on top of them and they'll usually last a while, let them go and be prepared for it all at once.

Well I believe I passed the test. Not overly difficult I'm just not used to looking at a larger truck. The one truck was an International 7600 and the other was a Hino. Both medium duty box trucks. I looked at the Hino and it had a burned out left low beam, right headlight was out of adjustment, and it had a busted spring in the right rear brake chamber. When you pressed the brake down you could hear it bind up and pop. Everything else was fine on the truck. They had us measure some pads, shoes, drums and rotors on the bench. Then I looked at a few air brake components set up on a test stand and identifed the concerns. I took kingpin measurements on the International but it had pretty much no play. I should get my new inspection license in about a month but we won't be doing larger inspections until we're in the new shop.

I did my first 6.7 waterpump today. Not the funnest job I've ever done. Yesterday I had a lovely 6.7 cold side duct blown apart. You know, the one that's a 3-4 day direct ship from the manufacturer and the one I told parts to stock because I've changed 3 or 4 now. Yeah well guess what, I had a "pre-owned" one laying around and that truck is not here anymore waiting for the damn thing to show up.

I'm about done fishing for the year atleast in the boat that is. I'd like to do some late season trout fishing in october. I love walking streams to get away from it all, when the trout are all gone there's always smallmouth bass to fill their places. Most places are unbothered if there's not a road nearby. For bass in streams I will seine my own baitfish to use. It gives you a distinct advantage. Then of course I'm still teaching myself to TIG weld usually on weekdays for a couple hours after work. Argon is not free though and you go through more gas than any other weld process. TIG is very costly for just a hobby but winter is coming and I'll be going stir crazy after the first month.

Yeah my current drivers license (non-CDL) limits me to vehicles under 26,000lbs. Actually I am not allowed to drive a vehicle with air brakes unless I have a medical card. I am going to have to get one of those for sure but I'm not sure about pursuing my CDL at the moment. It would be nice but it's going to take some time and some training. I called one of my old asset instructors and it turns out he's the one giving the test. I told him everything I've reviewed and he assured me I'll be fine. He'll even help me with the headlight aimer

I'm not going to lie. I've learned a lot more by watching videos on youtube. Don't get me wrong, I rarely take advice from internet videos but seeing some repairs performed and watching some air brake tutorials helped me envision bigger trucks a little more. I feel a lot better about the test now, I'm pretty sure if you set a truck in front of me I could identify most of the basic components and criteria for inspection. I think I'll be fine as long as they don't make me use the headlight aimer again

Nope, can't say that I do. I know the specs for lining thickness but to actually check them on a vehicle? No idea. I am aware that there are slack adusters on the back side of the service brakes but I can't say I actually know anything about adjusting them in. What about checking kingpins? This is another concept I'm unfamilar with

I am going after my medium/heavy duty inspection license for Pennsylvania and was wondering if anyone here services or inspects trucks in this class? In PA my catagory 1 inspection license allows me to annuallly state inspect any vehicle under 17,000 lbs GWVR. Anything above that needs a semi-annual inspection and you must have a catagory 3 license. This license allows you to do anything 17,000 and above plus all trailers rated at 10,000+. What messes everything up is that F-550s fall into this class and I frequently service trucks this size. Right now no one in the shop has a cat 3 license and even if we did the shop does not meet the requirements for an inspection station. The new building will however and they're trying to get 2 of us certified Now I don't do anything medium duty but I passed the written part of the test last week. Next Friday I've got to take my hands on tactile exam and quite honestly I have no idea what to expect. I've read the manual cover to cover and took the 2 ford web courses on air brakes but other than that.... From what I've learned over the years we're typically tested on a subject long before we know anything about it. When I took my first state inspection test for cat 1 I was 6 weeks into automotive school and never worked on anyones car but my own. Atleast there was some instruction though. We looked at and took measurements on brake rotors, pads, shoes etc (all on the bench) and did an inspection of a car already hoisted for us. Didn't pull wheels or anything requiring tools so I hope the test is similar to that. Anyone have any insight on what I should be looking for? 80% of the inspection process is similar to a light truck but it's the systems I'm unfamilar with that worry me.

We have the Norco 2 post with 6.0/6.4 adapters. I am very proud of this engine stand and it never leaves my area, if I could I would marry it. Now if we could just get a decent engine crane...

Would you guys assume that any gas in fuel has resulted in metal in the fuel, even if the truck still runs?