Matt Saunoras

For anything to change someone besides me has to care because all my words of discontent have fallen on deaf ears. Eventually there will be a management upheaval when the higher ups realize the current "leaders" have no idea how to run a real shop let alone one with 4 racks and 4 guys. Our store is a sister store to a larger lincoln dealership (where I came from) so I am aware of what it's like to be in a real shop with people that care. I am convinced things won't always be the way they are. The floor is the problem, it's sinking because there is pretty much no support under my rack. Not only is the right side lower but the post leans in a little bit causing an even more dramatic difference when the arms are extended out. The shop is a garbage hole but I'm not ready to give up on it yet. The alternative dealerships in the area are not worth working for, even as a diesel tech I'd be given one rack and no extra space which is exactly where I'm at. I'd have to give up Ford altogether to get out.

The change probably came because they realized that 6.4s are going out of warranty and by the time the clamps break they'll be out

Ford Orange is dexcool compatable, it's the same stuff the mercury cougar took back in the early 2000s. It is not CAT EC-1 rated extended life coolant that international uses. Dexcool is well known as a plasticizer, it destroys lower intake gaskets in many of the popular GM v6s from late 90s to mid 2000s. That large intake o-ring is what would keep me from using it in a 6.0. I can envision that thing getting destroyed I have repaired one 6.0 that was run on a dexcool/gold mix that absolutely gummed up the oil cooler to the point of no return. Visibly it was the most restricted cooler I've ever seen. I have enough gold to last my truck the rest of it's life so gold and distilled water is all it'll ever see. I even went as far as making my own coolant filter out of a 1083 fuel filter just to see what it would catch. You would be surprised how much sand I got out the first time, then less and less every time after that. The coolant in my truck is crystal clear and I plan on doing a drain and fill every 15k

I dropped a superduty last year because my rack is 1 1/2" higher on one side than the other. I wouldn't be surprised if another one falls off or better yet the whole floor collapses before the new shop is built.

I just did a horizontal cooler today too. I'm going to make them claim dipstick tube removal, inlet coolant tube removal and horizontal cooler R&R. None of those OPs overlap each other so we'll see. I ended up flagging 5.7 on the order. If you look in the WSM it has you removing the front studs to slide the cooler into place, actually this worked well, previously I was just loosening the vert cooler. Actually here's a first, never saw a clamp broke but this cooler had a weld cracked and was leaking coolant externally. Plain as day, I even had our other guy look because I didn't believe it

Cleaned a turbo in a 6.0 ambulance today. That thing passed every turbo test IDS could throw at it but I needed a 3' prybar to get the unison ring off

I had one of my own that a customer drilled through a "very important" ground wire while installing a CB radio

I'm just curious if there is going to be an actual fix for these things. There is no calibration update and no design improvements that I know of. A few weeks ago I did a truck that needed its second set of replacement coolers. It had 20k miles and the equivalent of about 60k what is scary is that warranty paid for it without batting an eye

yep someone sent me that link. I'm looking for the best price on a seal kit right now.

Wonder how many sets of tires that thing's been thru. I noticed the goodyear tread pattern right away. I'm pretty skeptical right now.

Right now I've got no trucks to work on but I do have 2 core 6.0 turbos with enough good parts to make one turbo. One turbo has a good compressor wheel and nothing else, the other one is dusted to hell but the turbine/center housing look great. I made it as far as getting both compressor wheels off but stopped there until I can find out more. I know there's no service procedure but someone out there is rebuilding these things. I'm going to talk to a few people and if I decide to go forward I'll take some pics along the way. I know for sure you can get a seal/bearing kit from garrett.

can you even change bulbs anymore in the new instrument clusters? I haven't had any out for any concerns

just tuck those airbags up in the headliner and pull the bulb

Thanks, I'm happy with the way it turned out. As much as I'd like to show it all off I'm currently looking for a grill or outdoors A/C cover to keep the dust off of everything.

If I had to choose between econolines and doing nothing I'd still pick the e-series.

we've been dead so naturally I get a chance to catch up on all the little projects I've got going on. Here's the welding cart I made. Today I added the diamond rubber mat Got my TIG last week so I've been practicing that for the last few days. I'm waiting on one 80 cu/ft cylinder of argon to come in and I'll be ready to attach the tanks.

I was this close -> <- to getting a 650 coolers side job last week. Nothing ever became of it though. Never even got to look under the hood of a MD yet.

I usually try to get them to rotate in the rocker box first. When they're corroded enough though I just pick them out in pieces. I find pushing the new ones in is usually just as hard as getting the old ones out.

In all seriousness I get a 30 hour/week guarantee and I collect it frequently anymore. Basically I get paid 6 hours a day to fuck around and fix shit regardless of what gets charged to the customer. I can turn four eight hour days but if I don't do shit on the 5th day then I'm screwed once again, that happened last week. The harness repair was a freebee because it was an ambulance that they needed right away (I know which one it is and it's getting a harness next time it's in). It ended up being an intake stud in the wrong location that managed to poke it's head right up dead center into the middle of the wire loom directly under the turbo intake duct. #4 was shorted out and it was causing low/high codes to be randomly thrown for 1,4,6,7. #1 and #6 were skipping at idle.

I had an econoline harness beat me up pretty bad for an injector concern once. What was worse was being forced to trace the short and repair it. It is a nice idea but the price of the tool would never justify the cost. I don't think I've ever pinned out a ficm harness on a truck.

yeah I've been doing a lot of 6.7s too. Radiators, egr coolers and turbos. The turbos have gotten much easier with time.

That reminds me, It hasn't snowed for a few days and I need to unlock my manual hubs

Well the truck is back. Blew the power steering pump shaft seal and made a total mess of the engine bay. It's getting all the lines/cooler too as they are rusted to hell. No mention of the oil pressure concern, I'll assume for now it's fixed.

I remember reading a post on the FMC boards about the EOP pigtail holding oil and causing concerns after the EOP sensor was replaced. I'm not sure if it's a load of BS but when I rechecked my sensor this morning it had oil in that weeped back down out of the connector. Ultimately I replaced the filter, cap, sensor and pigtail and let the truck go. ICP was what I expected during the roadtest. Also the truck was a late 04 with the wavy rail. Sorry I wasn't clear in my initial post. When the truck lost oil pressure at the stop light it was the gauge on the instrument cluster, not a manual gauge (which I hooked up later and couldn't duplicate a concern)

This truck was towed in with contribution codes, glow plug codes and an underboost stored in memory. Cust states it would not start but eventually they got it running but no oil pressure was reading on the dash. Also it was missing badly so they had it towed in. I came to me with ECT at 110°F and I didn't want to road test it because #5 was occassionally dropping out and even overfueling at times. Put a few injectors in it, glow plug module, cleaned the turbo and threw in a known good EOP switch because the old one was leaking through the connector. Runs so good I actually forgot about the oil pressure concern. Drove it 10 miles or so and it's fine until I'm almost back to the dealership. At a stop light my oil pressure gauge drops to nothing, rev the truck up and it pops back up. Get to the shop and while it's running I'm wiggling and pulling the harness every where I can grab. No change according to the asset guy. Shut it off, throw a gauge in the EOT hole and repeat the exact same roadtest, nothing, it's making 25 psi at a hot idle. Back in the shop, pull the regulator and it seems fine. Then I start wondering about the aftermarket oil filter cap. The filter element is loose from the cap but it appears to be the right one. I've never actually had a problem with an aftermarket filter so I don't know, but I changed the oil anyways and drove it 20 more miles with nothing. Could the filter cause this? I've changed a lot of switches for the same concern. I'm thinking now my known good switch isn't so good.