Spent 2 hours last Thursday pumping diesel by hand on a farm job in Bakersfield and my arm was killing me, so I went and got a 12V pump for $60. That thing moved 50 gallons in like 5 minutes and I felt like an idiot for not doing it sooner. Anyone else put off a simple upgrade and regret it?
I had to pick between a straight pipe and a muffler delete for my 2015 Peterbilt 579 last month. Went with the straight pipe because I heard it flows better, but after 3 trips hauling gravel near Kansas City I wish I had just done a muffler delete. The drone at 65 mph is brutal and I'm honestly worried about waking up the neighbors at the truck stop. Has anyone else regretted their exhaust choice on a highway truck?
Honestly, last winter I had three straight days where every single truck that rolled in had a check engine light. One was a cracked EGR cooler on a '22 Pete that leaked coolant into the intake, and it took me four hours just to find the damn thing. Has anyone else had a run of bad luck like that where it felt like the shop was cursed?
Bought one of those no-name injector puller kits off Amazon for my 6.0 Powerstroke and the slide hammer broke on the third pull. The threaded adapter actually snapped off inside the injector bore and I had to spend half a day drilling it out. Anybody got a brand recommendation for a puller that won't leave you stranded?
Back when I started at Thompson Diesel in 2018, I'd break down injectors on a bench with a simple hand pump and just guess at the spray pattern. Last month I finally got a Bacharach pop tester after my boss got tired of comebacks from bad injectors. That thing lets me dial in opening pressure to the exact spec every time. How long did it take you guys to switch over to proper test gear?
Back in March I took on a head gasket job on a 2006 Freightliner at a shop near Bakersfield. Owner kept rushing me saying his driver needed the truck by Friday. I cut corners on the torque sequence, just did it fast. Truck came back 3 days later with coolant mixing in the oil. Cost me 14 hours of labor to redo it plus I had to buy another gasket set out of pocket. Now I make every customer sign off on a timeline, no more rushing. Any of you guys had to learn a hard lesson about rushing a job?
Guy was helping me swap a head gasket on a 6.0 Ford in my driveway outside Richmond and he just guessed on the head bolts. Said his Snap-on hadn't been calibrated in 5 years and it's probably fine. I went and rented a torque wrench from AutoZone and found his readings were off by 15 ft lbs. Has anyone else run into mechanics who just wing it on torque specs?
Had a 6.0 Powerstroke that wouldn't budge no matter what. Tried heat, penetrant, even a slide hammer for two days straight. Then I torched the rail boss first and used a long breaker bar at a slow steady pull - popped right out. Anyone else found a weird move that works better than the standard way?
Been turning wrenches for about 8 years now, always followed the manual to the letter on torque specs. This retired fleet mechanic named Dave watched me torque down some head bolts on a Cummins ISX and just shook his head. He said I was going too slow and smooth, that you gotta run the torque wrench fast and steady in one motion or the readings are off. I thought he was full of crap since the click happens either way. Tried his method on the next job and actually checked with a different wrench - the fast pull got me within 2 ft-lbs consistency vs 6-8 ft-lbs variation my way. Now I do it his way every time but still feel stupid for not questioning my technique years ago. Anyone else had a stubborn habit that took a stranger calling you out to fix?
Had to choose between saving $600 on a set of reman injectors or shelling out for new ones from Cummins direct. Picked the cheap route on my '05 Ram 2500 about 4 months back. Truck ran okay for maybe 2 months then started getting this weird stumble at idle. Pulled the codes and three of them were already throwing balance rate faults. Now I get to do the job twice. My buddy at the shop told me not to cut corners but I didn't listen. Anyone else been burned by aftermarket fuel parts on a common rail truck?
Took a 2017 Ram 3500 apart for a clutch job and spotted a hairline crack near the starter mount. Customer said it was making a weird tapping sound for a few days. Anyone had luck welding these up or do you always just replace the housing?
He was shaking so bad I thought he'd strip the bore, but after I walked him through the puller setup step by step, he looked me dead in the eye and said 'thanks for not making me feel dumb' and that honestly stuck with me more than any tool tip I ever learned.
I was working on a C7 Cat in a feedlot outside Amarillo last month and tried pre-oiling my Donaldson air filter with the recommended amount of aero oil. Within 50 hours the restriction gauge was pegged and the filter looked like mud. Swapped it out and ran the replacement dry just to test, and after 80 hours it was still clean and pulling good numbers. So did I just waste money on oil or is there a specific environment where pre-oiling actually helps? Anyone else seen this split before?
I swapped in a reman VP44 injection pump on my 24-valve 5.9 back in March thinking I'd fix a stumble and maybe even pick up a MPG or two. After 800 miles of highway driving, my mileage dropped from 18.5 to 16.2, and it still stumbled cold. Turns out the new pump's timing was way off from the factory, and I had to recheck the gear and housing alignment. What's your take on trusting reman vs. sending yours out to a specialty shop in a place like Ft. Worth?
I keep showing up to jobs where the last guy drenched the intake with ether on a warm engine that just has a weak battery or a bad glow plug. That stuff can bust rings and wreck pistons if you overdo it. Had a guy last month in Nashville who killed a 5.9 Cummins doing this. Anyone else seeing this short cut causing more harm than good?
Picked up a used Hunter rack from a shop going out of business near Dallas and now I'm doing alignments for half what the dealers charge, has anyone else had luck buying used shop equipment?
Before, it would crank for a solid 10 seconds before firing. After that one injector, it fires right up in like 2 seconds. Has anyone else seen that big a change from just one injector or am I imagining it?
I was stuck on a 2015 Cummins ISX at a Pilot in Billings, Montana last month. This truck had a rough idle that just would not clear no matter what I did with the injectors. This retired mechanic in his 70s walks over, sees me scratching my head, and says 'check your crankcase pressure first before you touch anything else.' He was right, it was a stuck ring on cylinder 4 the whole time. That one tip has saved me about 6 hours of chasing ghosts since then. Anyone else run into an old school guy who dropped a knowledge bomb on you like that?
I was doing a 6.0 Powerstroke injector job last month and figured I'd save a few bucks on a puller set. The slide hammer part bent after two pulls and the third injector wouldn't budge. Had to borrow a Snap-On set from a guy down the road and it popped right out. Sometimes you really do get what you pay for. Anyone else have a cheap tool fail at the worst time?
Ran into a retired fleet mechanic named Hank at the Cummins dealer last Tuesday, and he told me he never pulls a head without first shooting torque numbers on every single bolt cold. Said he caught three cracked blocks that way over a 40 year career... just by looking for uneven readings before he even touched a wrench. Made me wonder how many times I've yanked a head off without checking the baseline first, has anyone else ever tried this approach?
I had a routine oil change and filter swap on a 2018 Freightliner Cascadia lined up. Should have been a simple 2-hour job, but the oil drain plug was seized on from a previous shop using too much thread locker. Spent 4 hours with heat and a breaker bar to finally get it off, then found the oil filter housing cracked. Had to wait for a parts run, then did the full service in the dark in a gravel lot outside of Wichita. Anyone else deal with a simple job that snowballed into an all-day fight over something dumb?
I've been running conventional 15w40 in my 7.3 Powerstroke for 12 years now. A young kid at the shop last week said I'm losing power and fuel economy by not switching to full synthetic. He showed me his oil analysis reports from two different intervals on his 6.0, said his wear metals dropped by half. I always thought synthetic was just snake oil for high mileage engines. But now I'm looking at a 3 mpg difference between our trucks doing the same hauling route. Is he right or am I just old school stubborn? Has anyone else switched after years of conventional and seen real numbers?
Picked up a used Autel scanner off Craigslist for $300 and it flagged a bad injector on a Cummins that I was about to rip the whole top end off for. Anyone else rely on cheap diagnostic gear or am I just getting lucky?
He said letting the Jake brake rattle at low RPM is how you crack a rocker housing, so now I'm second guessing every downhill I've taken in the last 5 years, anyone else hear that before?
I was down in Baton Rouge last weekend visiting family and stopped at a salvage yard called Pete's Old Iron off Highway 61. They had a 1987 Cummins 6BT sitting in the back that looked like it had been there for years but the block was still in great shape. The owner let me pull the head for $150 and it had practically zero scoring on the cylinders. Has anyone else stumbled on a good find like that at a smaller salvage yard?