Matt Saunoras

seen a few VGT solenoids surge under load. kind of like a cylical surge under moderate boost

7.3 absolutely pouring fuel from the rh line. If I ever thought there was a chance of diesel catching fire it was this one. I couldn't see in the engine bay for 10 minutes while it smoked.

I don't know what to do about diesels. As much as I'd like to learn I fear I'm never going to be able to use them to make money.

Please no one ever put all you guys in the same room together

I'll be honest.... I have no idea how anyone makes a flat rate living with diesel work. I look at these labor times and for anyone like me starting out it's simply not possible. I take pride in shit being fixed right but my paycheck suffers big time. Am I supposed to wait out flat rate? Is it ever possible it'll go away?

Nothing in my bay except a new Norco 2 post engine stand with a 6.4 ready to be "reassembled". Looks like the oil pan can hold quite a few parts

who pulls a boat out in reverse and how is that even possible/necessary? Is there a detune strategy to keep anyone from trying to pull in reverse? I'm sure something like that could be programmed into the PCM to keep from destroying the transmission. The hitch is on the rear for a reason.

bah! someone walked off with the chain for the engine crane! so guess who had to go to the hardware store and buy a $30 length of chain!? I pulled the shortblock with the 6.0 headbolt method. Not sure I wanna try that with a complete.

I'm going to get the appropriate tools to make accurate engine measurements. I've got a feeling this won't be the last time I encounter this. (unless I leave the profession) My complete will be in tomorrow, I'll probably go in sat to try and finish up. In the meantime I'm still building my cart. Welded on some cord hangers tonight. Almost ready for paint

Too bad you don't need short ones for an 04. I have a pair sitting here useless to me.

That's a tough call. The temp sensor is a good indication and it's what I go for first. I have quickly pulled EGRT2 temp sensors out of a hot engine to confirm that the carbon is wet with moisture and pretty quickly lightens up as it dries out. It also stands to reason if a vehicle has coolant loss, no external leaks (we know where to look by now), no elevated oil level or intermix, then the coolant has to be going somewhere. Another thing I am noticing is a bright shiny blotch on the cooler tubes that seem to indicate coolant has washed the carbon from the core. similar to when you find a suspicious clean spot on a 6.0 cooler. You've gotta watch just looking at staining on the outside of the cooler. There are many other external leaks that can leave stains on the cooler body. The rad hoses and even coolant tube between the coolers can leave dried residue around. If I think about it tomorrow I'll snap a pic of a horz cooler I just did that has spots washed clean on the core. cust complained of coolant loss and that was it

Alright, lucky for me, the situation has been temporarily resolved. My contact with hotline has been flawless the entire time and I think that may have saved my ass. I told them yesterday I didn't have the appropriate measuring tools for evaluating the cylinder bore and I believe that bought me some time, I feel like such a jerk for using that as an excuse but it's the truth. thankfully I am in constant contact with other "real" diesel techs in the area a was able to borrow a bore gauge over night. #8 was over spec by .002" right at the top of ring travel at the 12/6 o'clock position. it was barely in for taper but it became pretty obvious that #8 bore diameter was several thousandths larger than the other cylinders. I couldn't come near duplicating #8s diameter in any other cylinder. I spend most of the afternoon talking to hotline and filling out prior approval. They approved a 6007 which I think is a complete. Our engine stand woes will be solved too. The problem actually made it to the owner and we have ordered the norco 2 post engine stand with 6.0/6.4 adapters. Now all I have to do is get warranty to pay for this. Believe me, there will be plenty of pictures taken before this thing is tossed in the crate.

Line pressure gauges are your friend. The PCC tap is on the right side behind the intermediate servo cover. You should be able to control the PCC through IDS and watch the line pressure to verify it's what's commanded. I've diagnosed a few harsh engagements this way when the solenoid body is the issue. Solenoid bodies are pretty common in 5R55w/s. I'm not sure in this instance though, the dtc kind of leads towards a solenoild open internally.

Well the offending truck is sitting outside right now, it's on the schedule for tomorrow and I don't have a rack to use

I am seriously digging my own grave. This 6.4 is annihilating me. It's way beyond what me or our shithole shop can handle. I was going to put pistons in it and found some heavy scores in the #1 and #3 rod bearing. sure enough the crank journal has a few marks in it that can easily be caught with a finger nail. Hotline says I need to put a crank in it and hone the cylinder walls. One problem. I don't have a fucking engine stand, cylinder hone or even a damn bore gauge. I admit, I could have easily purchased my own hone and gauge several years ago in preparation for this exact moment in time. Just like I've got my small tool box jammed with essential shop tools that came on my dime. So I approach the appropriate higher ups with the good news. I need an engine stand....and I need it yesterday. What does this accompish? I don't know yet, but there's no engine stand on order.

Cleaning the stud is key when your using shielding gas. Any mild steel wire or rod will weld to stainless fine, just the weld and base metal will lose the stainless properties. When you introduce carbon (from C02/Argon gas) that pretty much does it for stainless.

I agree, you can't go wrong with name brand. If you ever have problems with your welder you'll be much better off dealing with a reputable company like miller or lincoln. MIG takes some getting used to when pulling studs, it generally takes a few times to get the weld to bite good. Say you're pulling an M8 stud. I will build the stud back out just enough to grab it with an 8mm extractor bit. I don't mess around with trying to fit a nut, the less weld on the part the more chance it's going to hold. 110v is fine but now that I've switched up to 220v I'll never go back. Also I highly recommend picking up a small 40cu/ft tank of C25 shielding gas. Be warned. Once you are the guy with the welder you've opened yourself up to untold amounts of "hey can you fix this?" here's some pics to sweeten the deal

Hotline nailed it on my 6.4. That's why I ask questions, I'm still learning. One of the turbos(my guess is high) is putting oil in the intake and pressure in the crankcase. #8 ran 30psi low on manual compression and 1% on relative. All the rest came out 390psi and 0%. Finally got a chance to pull the left head off this evening. All the pistons on that bank are starting to round edges right under the intake valves. #2 is actually the worst with very noticable damage, #8 is second. There is a pretty good amount of metal transfer to the cylinder head all around the intake valves. I am going to pull the other head tomorrow. All my 6.4 failures up until this point have been catastropic. This one is borderline. I'm wondering if I'll have to put pistons and heads in this thing? during normal working hours I put EGR coolers and a rad in a 6.7

with no where for the oil to exhaust the pump will make pressure even if it is weak. Is the IPR fully closed when it's only making 1525psi?

try and restart your session. I'm having hit or miss injector cancel buttons on both 6.0s and 6.4s with the VCM II

GRRRR! I'm trying to work with hotline on my 6.4 but it's not going well. They seem to think my engine ingested some of it's own oil and that's what's causing #8 to read 30-35 psi low. I think the oil in the cac and turbo is from the excessive blowby caused by #8 being low. I ran the fuel in the oil test multiple times and my oil is not growing. I've got a feeling I've got a washed down cylinder wall but they don't like that idea. They want me to remove the up-pipes from the vehicle and re-run my crankcase pressure test. I also mentioned to them that since I've been driving this vehicle #2 STFT has gone from +5 to +10 in 2 days.

I hate drilling and quite frankly, I suck at it. You can't beat a MIG, I've done V10s with more broken than not and all come out with nice clean threads. The 6.4 I'm looking at is 30psi low on #8. Hotline says that's enough to cause my above spec blowby. This thing also does have a lot of oil in the intake and turbos. Don't know why yet

I looked at a 2011 F-250 today that's coming back in a few weeks. The customer says this has been an ongoing issue since about 18k miles. The truck now has 56k. It has a closed CUDL from another dealer and the cust states an FSE was involved. So far this is what I've found. -Another dealer replaced a RF outer tierod end, track bar balljoint, steering damper, steering box, and installed aftermarket caster shims in the front end. I haven't verified alignment yet but it looks like the knuckle is kicked way negative. - The tires are BFG all terrain, load range E set at door sticker recommended 65 PSI, same tires as I run on my truck. The shocks are original Rancho FX4 shocks. I am getting a significant amount of movement out of the upper draglink joint and a very slight movement out of the upper track bar bushing. Balljoints do not have any play. -RF caliper is sticking and I'll address that issue when it returns too.

Alright the 6.4 I am looking at does infact have high crankcase pressure. 12 in/water at 3000 rpm fully warmed up. Customer states the lower hotside boot keeps blowing off, the first time it blew off a lot of oil came out of the cac. relative compression showing #8 down 1%. hotline wants manual compression test results. Otherwise the vehicle runs great, no DTCs, short fuel trims all +/- 5. Makes 32 psi of boost. It is a warranty job and I've been doing pretty good keeping our warranty numbers in line.