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?
I was finishing up a Cummins ISX rebuild for a fleet customer in Omaha when my foreman handed me the work order number. It was number 500 for my career. I started as a helper in 1998 and never kept count until about 10 years ago when I hit 200. Just surprised me how fast the numbers add up when you stay consistent. Has anyone else had a moment where a milestone snuck up on you in this trade?
Picked up a supposedly rebuilt injector pump for my 7.3 Powerstroke off a guy on Craigslist in Des Moines, looked clean in the photos but when I bolted it on it leaked like a sieve from every seal. Turned out the thing was just painted with no actual rebuild work done, cost me a full Saturday of tearing it back off and waiting for a real one from the shop. Anyone else get burned by a fancy looking part that turned out to be junk?
He said it just bakes into carbon and makes things worse, so I tried it anyway on a rusty F-250 manifold last Tuesday and spent 4 hours extracting snapped studs. Has anyone else had better luck with just heat and a impact gun?
Honestly, last month I had a day that made me question if I was cursed. Three separate trucks rolled in with blown turbo lines before lunch, all different makes and all leaking in different spots. The worst part was the third one, a 2015 Freightliner, where the line was hidden behind the manifold and took me an extra hour just to get a wrench on it. By 2 PM I was covered in soot and ready to call it quits. What's the most ridiculous repeating issue you've seen in a single shift?
I was at All American Diesel in Tulsa last month and two old timers nearly came to blows over whether you should crank the engine without fuel to oil the turbo first, so which side are you on, pre-lube or just fire it up and let the oil catch up?
I spent like 4 years using the old pry bar and slide hammer method on 6.0 Powerstroke injectors... fought with them every single time. Last month my buddy loaned me his OTC injector puller for a stack of a hundred bucks. First job I did with it took me just over an hour instead of the usual 3 plus wrestling. Makes me wonder how many knuckles I could have saved if I just bought one sooner. Anyone else have that one tool they put off getting for way too long?
Pulled a set of 6 injectors out of a 6.0 Powerstroke in under 2 hours and not one of them snapped or even gave me trouble, and the customer actually showed up with hot coffee and a smile, anyone else ever have one of those weird perfect days where the truck gods smile on you?
Went with the Cummins because the Cat rebuild had a 6 month wait on parts. So far it fires up every morning at 5:30 without a hitch. Anyone else been burned by parts availability on Cats lately?
I was hauling a 15,000 pound excavator on my rollback and tried to creep forward for a McFlurry. The extra weight killed my clutch on a slight incline and I sat there blocking the whole line for 20 minutes while my partner threw cones out. Has anyone else had a light load turn into a nightmare at the dumbest possible spot?
Bought a top-of-the-line rebuild kit for a HEUI injector off a 6.0 Powerstroke last month. Figured spending the extra cash would be the safe bet. Got it all together, fired it up, and the damn thing started stuttering like crazy. Turned out the o-rings in the kit were the wrong durometer for the pressure. Had to tear it back down and swap in some standard ones from a different supplier. Cost me 4 hours of labor on a Saturday. Has anyone else had luck with those cheaper all-in-one kits instead?
Literally broke on the third injector on an old 7.3 Powerstroke and I had to wait 2 days for a real loaner from Matco. Anyone else get burned by cheap tools and learned your lesson the hard way?
I was hauling a load of produce down I-5 near Bakersfield when I heard a pop and saw fuel spraying everywhere under the hood. Pulled over quick but the engine started surging and died within 30 seconds. Turned out a rubber fuel return line had dry-rotted and burst. Cost me $12 for some new hose and a couple of clamps at a parts store a mile down the road, but the tow was $200 and I lost half a day. Any of you guys ever carry spare fuel line in your truck just in case?
I used to always use a standard click-style torque wrench for cylinder head work on my Cummins 8.3. Then I read a post from a guy in Tulsa who said the click type can be off by 15 ft-lbs after enough drops. Now I use a dial torque wrench from Precision Instruments and check it against a calibration bar every 3 months. Has anyone else had issues with click wrenches giving inconsistent readings on critical fasteners?
Bought one of those Chinese pop testers off Amazon last month to save some cash. Worked fine for about 8 tests then the gauge started reading 200 psi low and the needle was bouncing all over. Took it apart and the internal spring was already shot, just cheap pot metal inside. Anyone else had better luck with a specific brand or should I just bite the bullet on a Snap-on?