JSHTech

These damn plastic retainers on this engine have been a plague from the moment I started. I can't understand why they feel the need to make them fit so damn tight, and be so damn brittle at the same time. Especially the cam sensor harness that snakes down the front cover. It relies on those clips to be held away from certain chafing destruction against the belt. I manged to save one and break the other during removal. I figured I'd share my solution for anyone interested, and if anyone else has a different method share it! Since the hole for the retainer is threaded, I found the correct bolt 6mm x 1.25 I believe. Then I took a 10mm washer and ob-longed it. I had to heat it with the torch until it glowed, otherwise it split in the vise. And there you have it installed. Secured, and reusable with out fear of breaking. Hopefully it holds up, if not, well damn ford for designing it this way in the first place.

So far assembly is going along...well. Except for one issue, the RH head gasket is backorderd until damn near eternity February 17th. This is per my parts monger. Apparently there was some sort of design change? I don't know exactly, but I do know that I have a short block installed and half built up and I'm wondering why the hell he didn't know about this earlier. I don't know what to do. I think he's looked around other dealers for a possible gasket in stock. I'd rather use an "old" part rather than have it down for another month. Any ideas on what I can do with this?

So far its looking like short block only. But I'm going to comb over those valves. No oil leak on mine but I will add that the vacuum pump had completely failed. Customer had mentioned no power assist brakes and loss of 4x4 all on the same morning it started knocking. I'm not even 100% sure what the internals are supposed to look like but I know I just got a handful of broken plastic pieces and some metal shavings when I took the cover off the pump

I haven't yet but I plan on it. Did you remove the valves or were the cracks visible with them installed?

They told me the same for causal part.

That's kind of what I figured. I knew the valve issue was fairly common, but a bearing failure of this magnitude with such low miles...its a little out of the ordinary. If anyone has done a short block buildup on one these, I'll take any tips or tricks . And what's the best gasket kit to have? From my quick look today I guess there's a few to choose from and some are recommended for "in vehicle repair only." I'm not sure what the difference is or if it really matters. I'll hopefully have chance to look into it more tomorrow.

The answer to that little riddle would be spun crank bearings. Every single one except the #5 bearing in the thrust cap. Now the for the back story. 2012 F250, came in knocking like mad, running rough, low oil pressure warning present with engine running. It would run for a few minutes then sputter and stall out. Cyl 5+8 contribution codes, cyl 5 misfire code. Oddly power balance did not show any cylinders dropping out, and relative compression showed only a 3% variation on cyl 7. I did do a manual comp test. Can't remember the results, as I'm not at work, but all cylinders were at or above the 300 psi spec. So at this point I didn't think it swallowed a valve. Oil pressure was 20 psi at idle, and 35 psi at 2K RPM, this was all with EOT at 55F. I couldn't keep it running long enough to hit operating temp, and honestly I didn't really want to. Also, it was -20F the day I brought it in. The pressures were with in book spec, which seems quite low for me. Dropped the oil pan before I pulled the cab and engine and found this: Further tear down revealed the bearing failures. The picture doesn't show it well, and I'll add one tomorrow, but the sides of the bearing were, for lack of a better word, folded over: Notice where the seam between the bearings is located. This is how they were when I pulled the cap, and I could also grab them and spin them around the crank with the cap off. A shot of the crank with the bottom bearing removed . I also found this present on the bank 1 head, and in cylinder 1+2 pistons. I saw that and immediately thought "That's coolant residue" followed by "Where the hell is it coming from?" After I spoke with the hotline they informed that there have been a handful of bearing failures similar to this. They also enlightened me in regards to my mystery coolant residue. The engineer stated that condensation can form in the exhaust manifolds after engine shut down, and given their unique location on this engine, that moisture can drip down into any cylinders with their exhaust valves open. That moisture can track its way to the glow plug tips, collect there and drip onto the pistons. The rust on the manifold provides the orange color of the residue on the head. That bit of information certainly raised some questions for me, but it does seem to be an explanation. Sorry if this is long-winded, but my major diesel repairs are few a far between, and this one seems like a nice find to share. Has anyone else encountered this residue presence? Or the seemingly un-explainable bearing failure? Oh and one last kicker, this truck has only 12,000 miles and 2 oil changes already documented.

Looked at the truck, and nothing was out of the ordinary.

Haha, thanks for the responses. This guy is DEFINITELY one of those "I already have it figured out because I read a couple forums about it" type. I will post back my findings, if any.

"Plaintiff’s wife then did proceed to wage attacks on Plaintiff’s mental capacity and did materially question the status of both his manhood and their civil union..." That article gave me a much needed laugh.

08 F250, 33K miles. Customer was in for some other concerns and mentioned the over boost thing to me as a side note. He claims he was at another dealer a few months ago and they reprogrammed his PCM. Ever since he claims the truck is over-boosting. While towing approximately 15k pounds, he says the boost gauge is maxed out, and when he lets off it flutters pretty hard. He claims it never did that before the reprogram...He is coming back next week and I'll dig in a little more, but he already asked me the golden question, "What causes that? Why is it doing it?" and wanted his answers immediately. As of right now I have not done any diagnosis with IDS. He seems pretty bent on the fact that updating the PCM caused this issue. I told him I suspected VGT vanes, or faulty EBP sensor, things along those lines. Unloaded, driving it WOT I saw close to 34 psi, based on the gauge display. That did seem high to me, plus this truck moves along considerably better than an exact duplicate I just drove the other week. But is 40 psi while towing really that far fetched? How about the update causing turbo issues like this? Wondering what you guys have seen in regards to this.

I have one comming in this afternoon to have the calibration loaded. I've already driven a stock Boss 302, and I'm looking forward to what the track key will do for it.

I love it because it's so ridiculously true.

A tech I worked with in our other shop was rebuilding an 8.8 rear diff. in a Shelby GT 500. All finished he proceeded to back out of his bay, until he cut the wheels to turn. The RPM flared but the car stopped moving. He had forgotten to install the pinion gears, but had the side gears and limited slip spring installed. He is a good tech, and in his defense he was removed from the job numerous times through out the day, and then in a effort to speed up the process and finish the job that day, he was appointed a less competent assistant.

I cannot believe that thing doesn't leak oil. But my eyes do not decieve me. And if I had to guess, the amount of dust thrown around that thing would turn any film of oil into some sort of irremovable paste.

Boys aint life a little simpler when you dont have to worry about a few drops of oil contaminating the silicone sealant...

Do you mean mix with the oil? How long does it take for the oil level to become elevated, and what kind of condtion is the DPF in? Once upon a time a hotline engineer told me that it was to be considered "normal" for the oil level to increase 1-2 quarts between oil changes due to the nature of regeneration. I assume we've all come to see and agree with this. Maybe this truck is frequently going into regeneration, and causing the oil level to increase faster than a "normal" truck.

I agree with the heating and cooling process but I use plain ole H20 for the first few rounds. I don't really know what is in the smoke of penetrating fluid as it evaporates, but I'm sure it's not EPA friendly. I use it once the nut has cooled off a bit. Another thing I've found that works well, especially if the fastener has started to break free but still turns hard, is the use of anti sieze. If it's applied while the fastener is still hot it acts kind of like solder and gets sucked in. And the torch/welder doesn't need to be used for heat either. I have a hand held butane torch that generates enough localized heat and works well for this method.

x 3 It seems to me that it is now so specific, if a TSB doesn't fit EXACTLY, it won't show it. Using the third level of boxes works better because it generalizes things a bit more, but I still don't care for it. Maybe in time it will grow on me, but for now, I run it, then check the TSB list manually.

Well darn, I didn't get to view it.

Will do in the future. Thanks again.

Hey thanks! Is that an SSM or what? I ran oasis and it never turned up anything, not that the updated version of the oasis symptom tabs turn up anything anyways...but thats for a different topic. Thanks again.

Alrighty. It's been a little while since I've replaced a HFCM. It's going on a 2004 early build. The replacement part we recieved, 6C3Z-9G282-C, has no fuel heater. I was poking through the WSM and saw that the early build had the fuel heater and the later builds do not. The parts guy says all the numbers supercede to that number and thats the only thing to get. I searched through TSB's and didn't find anything about removing the heater from early builds. The parts guy contacted a few people and they said that we needed to order an updated fuel pump jumper harness. I just want to know if any of this sounds right? Like I said, I've replaced a few but I think they have all been late builds and I probably wouldn't have had this issue. I don't know how much I can trust our parts looker-upper due to the fact that he never delt with diesels until I came here.

I'm sure this discussion has been held on this forum before. I tried searching through old posts but didn't really find much. I made a similar topic on the Ford message boards before, and about 40% of the responses were useful and the rest were a waste of my time spent reading them. Which way do you guys prefer when you do head gaskets, bolts or studs? And which way seems to yield better results. I'm asking because the customer is asking me, and unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it) I don't have the experience to give him a good response. I've done a few of each when I was working with my mentor, but I've haven't done the job on my own yet.