Old timers always told me these motors need conventional or they'll leak, but after I pulled my valve covers the sludge was way less than my buddy's truck that ran Rotella 15w40 its whole life. Anyone else get converted by seeing the inside of a high mile motor?
I had a 6.0 Powerstroke that was acting up last spring, so I pulled the injectors. Rebuilding them myself with new seals and nozzles cost me around $120 for the whole set, but a reman set was like $800. The rebuilt ones ran fine for 3 months, then started stuttering again. Now I'm wondering if I just wasted my time. For you guys who do this full time, do you rebuild or go with remans? What's your rule of thumb on that?
I been doing diesel engine work for about 12 years now and last month I finally hit my 500th rebuild on an old CAT 3406. Every single time I've seen a factory torque spec fail on head bolts or main bearings, so I always add 5 ft-lbs and go over them twice. Has anyone else had factory torque numbers let them down more often than not?
I rolled the dice on a set of reman injectors for my Cummins for $400 instead of $1,200 for OEM, and by the time I paid for a tow from Cheyenne and extra shop time to swap them again, I ended up spending more than if I'd just bought the good ones from the start - anyone else been burned by budget rebuilds?
Had a 6.0 Powerstroke with a slow miss that took me 3 full days to track down. Ended up being a cracked injector cup that only showed up after I pulled the rail and pressure tested it individually. Anyone else fight ghost leaks that waste a whole weekend?
Was I just unlucky with that rusted #8 glow plug hole or should I have just pulled the whole head like my buddy said from the start, what's your cutoff for calling it quits and going bigger?
Was blowing white smoke bad on cold starts for the last 6 months, drove me crazy. Took a whole Saturday last week in my buddy's shop in Tulsa to swap all 8 injectors out, and now it fires up like a dream. Anyone else drag their feet on jobs like this just because they're dreading the labor?
I was swapping out a fuel pump on a 2005 Freightliner last week, and this old guy who used to work for a trucking company in Dallas walked up. He watched me torque the bolts down and said I was overdoing it, that I should trust the gasket more. He explained how he'd seen guys crack housings from cranking too hard, and it hit me that I've been treating every bolt like it's a head stud. Has anyone else had to unlearn bad habits from being too careful?
I used to spend 45 minutes on every valve adjustment with a set of feeler gauges on my Cummins ISX. Then a shop foreman in Des Moines told me to listen for the lash instead. He had me set the first one at .015 and then tap it until I heard the right click. Now I do a full 6-cylinder adjustment in 20 minutes flat and I haven't had a single comeback. Has anyone else tried going by ear on overhead adjustments?
I was rolling down I-40 outside of Nashville last Thursday when my temp gauge started climbing fast. Pulled over and found the fan clutch was completely seized up, bearings shot and everything. Had to call a buddy with a wrecker to tow me 30 miles to a shop in Jackson. Cost me $450 for the part and labor plus the tow bill. Anyone ever had a fan clutch fail that suddenly on a Cummins ISX?
He swore by a quart of Dexron III in the fuel tank every 3,000 miles to keep the plungers lubed on my 7.3 Powerstroke, and after 6 months of doing it the injector stutter is completely gone has anyone else heard of this trick?
The whole shop had that greasy smell of diesel and sweat. I stood there for a solid five minutes watching him work under that load like it was nothing. He said he learned the trick from his grandpa who ran a fleet of old Fords. I get that sometimes you use what you got, but bungee cords on a engine hoist feels like tempting fate. The part I needed was a injector seal that cost me 12 bucks, but the lesson I got that day was free.
Picked up a beat-up ultrasonic cleaner off Craigslist from a shop in Akron that was closing down. Ran a set of crusty HEUI injectors through it and got them working like new instead of spending $4k on replacements. Anybody else grab secondhand shop gear that actually worked out?
I was at a truck stop outside Flagstaff last Tuesday and instead of checking the fuel pressure first, he swapped the starter, alternator, and batteries before finally asking me for help, so has anyone else seen people skip the basic tests and burn a whole day on parts that were fine?
I did a coolant filter and oil cooler job on a 2015 Ford F-250 last Tuesday in Austin. Before the swap it was running 230 degrees on the EOT vs 195 on the coolant on a hot day. After the new cooler and a flush the temps dropped to within 10 degrees of each other. Anybody else seen that big a difference on these trucks or was mine just especially clogged?
Used to do timing by ear on my older trucks, just guessing and going by the sound. Last month I got a digital inductive timing light from the NAPA in Tulsa for around $80, and it's way more accurate. Took me maybe 15 minutes to set the injection pump on a 5.9 Cummins right the first time instead of messing around for an hour. Anyone else hold onto old tools too long before upgrading?
Last week I had a 2014 Peterbilt come in with this weird intermittent power loss. It would run fine for like 20 miles then just fall flat on its face. I checked fuel pressure, changed filters, even pulled the turbo actuator to test it. After six hours of poking around I finally found a tiny chunk of rubber clogging the fuel return line back near the tank. It was a piece of old hose that must have broken off years ago. Has anyone else had a small trash piece like that drive them crazy?
Been at this since the early 90s and I can tell the difference from 2010 onward - guys plug in a $500 scanner, get a code, and throw parts at it without ever looking at the engine with their own eyes. I watched a kid spend 3 hours swapping sensors on a Cummins ISX in Nashville last week when it was just a chafed wire hidden under the harness. Has anyone else noticed the younger guys skip the basics like checking oil pressure or doing a cylinder cutout test first?
Has anyone else run into these shadetree field repairs on fleet trucks or is it just me seeing this stuff more often?
Found a blown fuse hiding under a corroded wire loom that looked fine from the top. Took three test drives and a call to my dad before I spotted it. Anybody else ever waste a whole day on something stupid like a fuse?
It ended up being a tiny piece of trash in the check valve at the transfer pump. Bled the system like ten times before I pulled the pump and actually looked at it. Anyone else ever had something that simple turn into a whole weekend project?
I was grabbing coffee at a Love's outside of Cheyenne last Tuesday when I noticed a driver working on his old Freightliner in the parking lot. He had the injector pump spread out on a newspaper on the ground, using a butter knife to pry off the delivery valve holder. I walked over to ask if he needed a hand and he just laughed, said he'd been doing it this way since 1998. Turns out he was a retired fleet mechanic who still refused to buy the proper tool for the job. He had the whole thing back together in under 20 minutes and the engine fired right up. Has anyone else seen a roadside repair that made you cringe but also kind of admire the resourcefulness?
Everyone I know swears by that Diesel-Kleen stuff but I've had better luck with plain acetone at $12 a gallon for clearing injector deposits. Has anyone else actually tried it on a high-mile Cummins or am I just getting lucky?
The customer's truck had a classic low power complaint and the pump was showing 500 psi on the stand test. I was looking at a $2200 reman unit with a core charge or about $400 in parts and seals to rebuild it myself. I went with the rebuild, spent a full Saturday on the bench, and got the pressure back up to 3100 psi. It's been running solid for three months now. For those of you who've been in this spot, when do you decide a rebuild is worth the time versus just installing a new unit?
Customer's F-350 with a 2005 6.0L came in with a blown head gasket and suspected cracked heads. The quote for a full rebuild with studs and new heads was pushing $8,500. I found a low-mileage used motor from a salvage yard for $4,200. We went with the used engine to save money, but after three weeks it started showing the same low power and white smoke. Now we're back to square one with a bigger bill. Has anyone else had a used 6.0 turn out to be a total gamble like this?