I was out in Bakersfield last month on a 2015 Freightliner Cascadia that kept losing power on hills. After 3 hours of chasing codes and testing injectors, I finally swapped the fuel filters even though the gauge said they were fine. Has anyone else had a bad filter that didn't show up on the pressure gauge?
I was reading a thread on the Cummins forum and a guy said his truck lost power climbing a grade in Colorado last summer, turned out the cups were cracked but it never blew white smoke or sounded rough, has anyone else run into a silent injector cup failure like that?
The lifter valley was so clean I could eat off it compared to the sludge bomb I pulled apart from a truck that ran conventional its whole life, anyone else seen results like that or was I just lucky with this particular engine?
Had a 50 year vet at the shop in Tulsa tell me to always oil my threads before torquing head bolts. I figured he was just set in his old ways. Two years later I did a 6.0 Powerstroke job bone dry and snapped three bolts in the block. Spent 14 hours drilling and extracting them. That guy knew what he was talking about after all. Has anyone else had an old rule come back to bite them?
Back in 2005 I had to choose between rebuilding my old mechanical Detroit or swapping in a Series 60 electronic. I picked the 60 because of fuel economy and it paid off at $1.50 a gallon savings on my route to Toledo. Has anyone else made the switch and regretted it?
Was helping a buddy rebuild a 6.0 Powerstroke last month and he watched me start torquing. He stopped me and asked if I'd ever read the TSB on bolt stretch. Turns out I was going too fast and not letting the bolt relax between passes. Probably explains why I had two head gasket failures I blamed on tuning. Has anyone else found out they've been skipping steps on basic stuff for way too long?
I went with the dial indicator cause it was $50 instead of $400 and figured I'd learn more. Took me three tries to get it right but now I actually understand how injection timing works. Anybody else stick with the old stuff and regret it?
He pulled me aside after a job in Des Moines, showed me his gauge reading 380 psi on a warm 5.9 Cummins versus 290 cold, then asked me to explain the 90 pound difference, and I couldn't say a word... has anyone else had a seasoned guy humiliate them with basic thermodynamics like that?
Three months ago I ordered a set of reman injectors for a C15 from a place out of Texas. They looked fine on the bench, got them installed, truck started and ran rough from the get go. I spent two full days chasing air in the fuel system, swapping lines, checking return line restrictions. Turned out three of the six injectors had bad pop pressures right out of the box. The supplier blamed me for installing them wrong and wouldn't take them back. Lost the $600 for the set plus two days of labor I could have been making money on another job. Any of you guys had luck with any particular reman injector vendor?
Was hauling a load of pipe and the #6 injector return line just let go at 65 mph. Had to coast to the shoulder and patch it with a chunk of hose and two clamps I keep in my box. Anyone else ever had a high-pressure line fail out of nowhere?
Last week at the shop, a guy who runs 40 trucks told me he spends 15 minutes checking each rig before they roll. He said catching a loose belt early saves him 3 hours of downtime later. Anyone else skip the small stuff and regret it?
So I took on a 2006 F-250 about 2 months ago. Guy wanted me to do a full rebuild on his 6.0L. I figured since I was in there I'd save him some cash and go with aftermarket heads instead of OEM. Big mistake I think. Got it all buttoned up and fired it up and it ran great for about 3 days. Then I started seeing coolant weeping out around the head gasket on the driver side. Torqued to spec, used the updated studs, everything. Pulled the head back off last weekend and the deck surface looks just a hair wavy compared to the OEM one I had sitting next to it. Has anybody else had bad luck with aftermarket castings on these 6.0s? I'm thinking I gotta bite the bullet and get OEM heads now.
Used to think the old 3406Bs were dinosaurs until a shop I worked at in Dallas got a 2023 truck in last month. The wiring harness alone took me 4 hours to trace a simple sensor fault, and I'd take a mechanical injection pump rebuild over that headache any day. Anyone else finding the newer emissions stuff makes diagnostics way harder than it needs to be?
I was always the guy who said changing oil every 10k miles was fine. Then I sent a sample from my 1998 Cummins to Blackstone Labs last month. The report showed high copper and iron levels that pointed to bearing wear I could not see. Now I'm doing every 5k miles and using a better filter. Anyone else get humbled by an oil analysis?
Watched a guy named Ray at a depot in Birmingham drain his oil at 20 degrees and it looked like molasses, so I asked him what he ran and he told me straight up he switched after a batch of injector failures taught him the hard way.
I was working on a 2005 F-350 out by the industrial park in Reno that was blowing white smoke on cold starts. The owner had already thrown two sets of glow plugs and a FICM at it. I was about to do the same thing until I got a good look at the number 3 injector cup with a borescope. There was a hairline crack letting coolant seep into the cylinder overnight. First time I found that instead of the usual injector or gasket stuff. It made me realize how much time I waste chasing parts cannon fixes. Now I always start with a coolant pressure test and a bore scope on any Powerstroke that smokes white. Anyone else find weird causes for white smoke that aren't head gaskets?
I was rolling through Nebraska last Tuesday and saw the temp gauge climb past 230, figured I'd top it off at the next stop. By the time I pulled into a Love's, the water pump had seized up and threw the belt. Any of y'all ever get away with patching a leaky rad hose on the road instead of replacing it right away?
I trusted that cheap stick torque wrench on a Cummins ISX head gasket job and it broke at 90 ft-lbs, so now I'm out the $40 plus an extra afternoon drilling out the broken chunk, has anyone else had a tool failure that cost way more in time than the tool itself?
I keep a log of every job I do in this little notebook my grandpa gave me. Last Friday I was flipping through it and saw I passed 500 full engine rebuilds. Not counting minor stuff like head gaskets or injector swaps. 500 complete tear downs and builds. That number surprised me because I never thought of myself as someone who did that much work. Started out just helping my uncle in his garage back in 2008. Now I'm 37 and apparently I've been busy. It matters because each one taught me something new about clearances or torque sequences or what not to do. Anyone else ever look back at their numbers and get caught off guard by how much you've actually done?
I picked up a $30 injector puller off Amazon for a job on a 6.0 Ford last Tuesday. Figured it was a steel tool, how bad could it be? Well the threads stripped out on the second injector and I spent over an hour trying to get the damn thing off the injector stud. Had to cut it off with a die grinder, then drive 45 minutes to the local machine shop to have them extract the broken piece. That little shortcut cost me $85 in machine shop fees plus a whole afternoon of lost labor. I should have just borrowed my buddy's Snap-On puller or bought a quality one from the start. Anyone else get burned by cheap Chinese specialty tools that just waste more time than they save?
Last month I did oil samples on three fleet trucks that everyone swore were fine based on exhaust temps. Lab results showed high fuel dilution in two of them even though they ran smooth. Anybody else think we rely too much on what we see and hear instead of hard data?
Been working on a 6.0 Powerstroke last week and kept having the high pressure oil rail o-rings pop out during install. Tried greasing them, tried freezing them, nothing worked for more than a few seconds. Then an old buddy from my shop days told me to try a little bit of silicone lubricant instead of assembly grease. It's a bit thicker and holds the ring in place way better. Got all four seated on the first try after that. Has anyone else found a better trick for keeping those little rings from rolling out on you?
I was working on a 2005 Freightliner frame last month and the bolts were absolutely welded on with rust. I had my old air hammer that I've used for years but it just wasn't cutting it. A buddy let me borrow his needle scaler and I figured I'd try it before buying one. The needle scaler actually broke the rust loose on 3 bolts in about 10 minutes. I ended up buying a Chicago Pneumatic one for around 120 bucks. Anyone else run into this choice and have a preference between the two?
Saw a kid at the shop last week just zipping down injectors in one pass on a 6.7 Cummins. I asked him about the three-step torque pattern and he just shrugged. On those engines if you don't seat the hold-downs in stages you can bend the injector body or crack the bore sleeve. Had a 2015 Dodge come in two months ago with a misfire that traced right back to that exact shortcut. Has anyone else noticed this getting more common with the younger techs?