Was helping a buddy swap a head gasket on his 5.9 Cummins. He pulls out a little bottle of ARP assembly lube. I'm like what's that for. He just stared at me. Turns out I've been getting inconsistent torque readings this whole time. Fought with stretched bolts and blown gaskets more times than I can count. Has anyone else had one of those moments where a simple step made everything click?
He swore it would wake it up and fix the cold start stumble. Tried it on a customer's truck last month and it ran worse, threw a code for injection timing. Anyone else had that advice backfire?
Saved $400 going with a reman from a shop in Ohio, but after 3 months of chasing a rough idle I'm wondering if I should've just bit the bullet on a factory new one, has anyone else gone the rebuilt route and regretted it?
Went with the junkyard motor from a 2000 F-350 with 180k on it instead of a reman from a shop in Dallas. Six months later it's still running strong, no blowby, and it cost me $2,800 vs $5,500. Anyone else gamble on a junkyard engine and get lucky?
Spent years just using a multimeter and chasing wires by hand, then a guy I trust told me to try a Power Probe on a bad injector harness last week and now I'm wondering which side of the fence you guys are on - do they actually save time or just make you lazy?
I used to think any coolant was fine as long as it was the right color. Then I pulled apart a 6.7 Cummins last month that had been running the cheap green stuff for about 4 years. The cavitation damage on the cylinder liners was BAD, little pitting spots all over. The owner finally switched to the Fleetguard ES Compleat after that and the next tear down at 300k miles looked CLEAN. Has anyone else seen cavitation damage clear up after switching coolants?
He said torque sticks and a breaker bar are the only way to go for aluminum heads, and now I'm stuck heli-coiling a $3,000 engine job - has anyone else fought the urge to use air tools on critical fasteners?
I was there last Friday trying to find a fuel line coupling for a 2008 Pete, and some random mechanic in line behind me just handed me the exact part number off his phone. He said 'you're gonna waste half the day hunting if you don't grab the V band clamp too.' Has anyone else had a total stranger at a parts counter bail them out like that?
He had a 2005 Ford 3910 that kept cutting out under load. Turns out the fuel filter was so clogged you could barely blow through it. Has anyone else had to diagnose equipment in a weird spot like that?
Had a guy maybe 60 years old watch me slap a injector cup seal in dry on a 6.7 Powerstroke. He just shook his head and said 'lube it or lose it, son.' Took me 20 minutes to fish that seal back out after it rolled on me. Now I always use a thin coat of assembly lube on every o-ring and seal, even if the manual says it's optional. Has anyone else had a quick tip like that save them from a do-over?
Been fighting a 2002 F-250 that wouldn't start after a fuel filter change. Tried cranking it over for what felt like forever, no luck. Filled the filter housing with diesel before putting the cap on, cracked the lines at the injectors, and it fired right up on the third crank. Anyone else do this or am I just slow to figure it out?
The sludge in the oil passages was so bad I had to scrape it out with a pick... finally convinced me to switch after seeing the difference side by side with a buddy's truck. Anyone else hold out on synthetics for way too long?
Back in 2008 at a Flying J in Ohio, this grizzled driver heard my Detroit 60 series knocking and said "that number 4 injector is dripping, not spraying." Popped the valve cover and sure enough he was right. Has anyone else picked up weird diagnostic tricks from truckers or old timers?
Had a streak of 6 months where every single truck I touched needed a second trip to fix something small I missed. This week I did 4 full injector swaps and a turbo replacement on a 2015 Freightliner and not one call back. Anyone else have those periods where you just cant catch a break?
I pulled into a truck stop in Nashville last month and watched a guy dump a whole jug of DEF into his Freightliner's diesel tank, and when I asked him why he said the pump handle was blue so he figured it was the same, so how do we get drivers to actually read the labels before they cost someone 8 grand?
I always swore by Rotella 15W-40 conventional in my 2001 F-350 with 280k on it. Got talked into trying a full synthetic by a buddy who runs a fleet shop in Tulsa. Two weeks later I had a knock that turned into a hole through the oil pan. The shop that rebuilt it said the synthetic cleaned out 20 years of sludge deposits all at once and plugged the oil pickup. I learned the hard way that old engines sometimes need that buildup to keep running. Has anyone else had a high mileage engine die after switching oil types?
Been chasing a mysterious oil leak on a 6.7 Powerstroke for months until I calibrated it at a shop in OKC and found the culprit, anyone else ever had a tool throw off their whole diagnosis?
I was in a shop outside Billings last fall and the old timer showed me using a porta-power to break the head loose instead of that $400 CAT specific puller. Has anyone else tried this method or am I just asking for trouble on the next one?
Three months ago I put a set of no-name injectors in a 6.0 Powerstroke I was working on for a buddy. Saved maybe $400 compared to going with OEM or even a known brand like Alliant. Truck ran fine for the first two weeks then started missing and dumping raw fuel into the oil. By the time I pulled them out two of the tips were cracked and one was stuck open. Had to drain the oil three times, replace the injectors again with genuine ones, and the customer was pissed about the downtime. All told I ate the labor cost and the cheap injectors plus the extra oil changes and filters. That $1,200 could have bought me a nice transmission jack instead. Has anyone else tried to cut corners on injectors and had it blow up in their face?
I was bitching about a fuel system rebuild on a 6.0 Powerstroke, taking way too long. He told me to stop rushing and start listening to the truck instead of the clock. Said he's been doing this for 40 years and never once finished early by hurrying. It hit me different because I've been burning out trying to hit unrealistic times. Has anyone else had a mentor say something that made you slow down and work better?
I bought a no-name injector puller off Amazon for $35 thinking I was saving money. First pull on a 6.7 Powerstroke and the threads stripped out clean. Spent all Saturday trying to get the injector out with a slide hammer and ended up cracking the head. Had to tow the truck to a shop in Nashville and pay $400 for them to extract it. Anyone else had bad luck with budget pullers on HEUI trucks?
I was helping a buddy in Nashville last week with a 5.9 Cummins that wouldn't start after a pump swap. He'd just bolted it on and cranked, figured the lift pump would handle it. Took us 45 minutes with a priming tool and a lot of cussing to get it going right. If he'd just taken the extra 10 minutes to manually prime the system first he'd have saved himself a headache. Why do people think they can skip the basics like that?
An old timer named Gerry watched me zip off a set of injector bolts with my impact gun at a shop in Dallas during a 6.0L repair back in 2017 and just said 'you're gonna stretch those threads out by the third time, kid' and now I hand torque every single one after watching him do it right on his own truck, has anyone else run into a stubborn tech who refused to change their methods and turned out to be right about everything?
My friend Jared bought a beat up 2002 F-350 with 280k miles on it for $3500 last fall. The thing smoked like crazy and had a dead miss at idle. We pulled the injectors and found 3 of them were totally clogged up with crap from sitting. After we replaced those and threw in a $40 fuel filter kit, it ran smoother than my work truck with half the miles. Has anyone else seen a truck completely transform just from fresh fuel delivery parts?