noise."Mechanic: Post-Repair Diagnosis · 12:33am Apr 13th, 2021
Alright, kids, grab your favorite beverage and settle in while the Admiral tells you about the best kind* of diagnosis to do!
We’re talking about the diagnosis after a repair is made. An expensive repair.
And they’re both Fords.
___________________________________
*not actually the best kind
We’ll start with the 2011 F350 Super Duty 6.7 Diesel. Your basic white work truck, really. And it is a farm truck.
One of the new guys pulls it onto the alignment rack. That’s got little ramps that take you up to the runway, they’re not overly steep. Super low cars have problems with it, like Corvettes, but it’s not that steep an incline.
The Ford couldn’t make it up. Didn’t have the power. Mind you, it’s a 6.7L diesel, I don’t know how many horsepowers those have but it’s way more than, let’s say, a badly-abused Chevy Sonic which can make it up the ramps. Basically, all the horsepowers and torques were going into the transmission, and very few of them were making it out.
I didn’t diagnose the thing, but I was tasked with putting the valve body in it, which was supposedly why it wouldn’t go. One of the new guys pulled the transmission pan and transmission filter off to get it ready for me, I went to the computer and read through the instructions twice because I am not a transmission guy, and then followed the instructions exactly.
We’d gotten a complete valve body from some performance company, and all that had to be done was bolt it up and plug it in, which was good. It would probably behoove me one day to learn to rebuild a valve body, but I really don’t want my first go at it to be on a paying customer’s car. There’s a lot of little springs and check valves and whatnot that all need to be in the right place or it won’t work like it’s supposed to.
Aside from taking out the wrong bolts at first (I looked at the diagram wrong, and there’s a lot of bolts), it was really easy. Got the pan back on, filled it with fluid, and then discussed with the boss about reprogramming the strategy.
In a nutshell, the part came with a 13 digit ID and a 8 digit strategy (IIRC). I assume that those numbers are related to benchmarks performed on the unit (I know some newer diesels have calibrated fuel injectors, and when you put in a new one, you have to tell it the new calibration ID). He said that the aftermarket part didn’t say you had to (it didn’t come with instructions on its own), and we couldn’t do it with the Snap-On tool, so he said to drive it and see what happens.
It wasn’t happy. Shifts were wrong, and it really didn’t like fourth gear. Only upshifted into fourth once, and then never again. It’d just rev up, then give up and go to fifth.
So we got the Ford scan tool, I reprogrammed the ID and strategy to match the new valve body, and took it for another drive, and it shifted flawlessly. Well, except into fourth.
At that point, my manager remembered that maybe fourth had been bad on this truck for a while, and of course it was better than it had been because now it could climb up the alignment rack.
It did set a code for not having fourth gear, as well, so he suggested that I ought to diagnose it. Mind you, after a thousand-dollar repair.
I dutifully printed out the diagnostic flowchart for the code, and set to work inspecting and documenting.
In a nutshell, the flowchart is split into two different inspections. First is electrical, because that’s easiest. Can the transmission control module make the appropriate commands, and if it does, do those commands get to the transmission (i.e., is the wiring okay?) It also checks the circuits internal to the transmission for opens, shorts, and checks the resistance of the solenoids and pressure switches.
Took about an hour, and I was able to determine that all the electrical stuff worked as intended.
Next step was to remove and inspect the valve body, and assuming that it passes, the failure is deeper in the transmission: something in the clutches or gears or whatever other magic goes on in there.
My manager didn’t want me to go further, since odds were we’d determine that it needs a transmission rebuild to have all its gears, and we sent it on its way.
Kinda frustrating, but then I didn’t diagnose it before putting the valve body in.
Next comes another F350, this one a 2008, and it’s a crew cab dually.
I first looked at it a couple months ago, it had an intermittent misfire on cylinder two. 6.4L diesel, an engine I’m not terribly familiar with and honestly don’t want to be.
On the plus side, it’s a diesel, so we don’t have to worry about spark on it, just fuel and compression. Single-cylinder misfire is going to be one or the other.
Our scan tool was weird and not entirely helpful; the misfire counter wouldn’t always count misfires even when it obviously was misfiring, and sometimes it would just dump 300 of them on the misfire counter all in one rapid go, then return to not counting them at all.
Sometimes you can easily swap a part from one cylinder to the next one, and if the problem moves, it’s that part; if the problem doesn’t, it isn’t. But there’s nothing you can easily swap on a 6.4L.
I really didn’t diagnose it all that much, just drove it and told my manager that the next step ought to be a compression check. Even if the initial fault was a bad injector, it could have stuck open, hydrolocked the cylinder, and bent a rod. No point in continuing with injector diagnosis if a rod’s bent, after all.
And I thought that was that.
But somehow the manager managed to talk himself into believing it was the injector, and managed to sell the job, and of course I got to do the job. Mentioned it in a prior blog post, in fact.
It’s not the funnest of jobs; you’ve got to take a lot of things off to get to the injectors. It took me the better part of two days to replace them, and when I was done it still had a misfire on cylinder number 2.
Now, that’s at the front of the fuel rail on that side of the engine, and it was possible that it got air in it, air which was trapped there and it would work itself out and start to run better. There’s a way to bleed it, and we didn’t have the proper tool so I kind of improvised—also discovered in the process that the guy’s running off-road diesel in it. It didn’t work like I thought it should work, but I don’t have the experience with this engine to know what normal is.
Customer paid and took it, he had some magical fluid he wanted to put in it that he was sure would make it run better, and it did for a while, apparently. But it’d still sometimes misfire on two, still set the same codes, and finally he brought it back and I got tasked with properly diagnosing it.
I won’t bore you with all the minutae. It’s a high-mileage truck, 700,000 miles or so (1,126,000 km), although it’s not an original engine. Some of the wiring is suspect, and the PCM connectors are partially broken, but I ohmed the circuits and they were all in spec or close enough—number 2 was in spec, and if number 4 is kinda out, it’s working on that one, so it’s probably good.
I also clamped an amps probe around the trigger wire, and number two would make three nice spikes each time it fired, pretty much the same as the others . . . then it would stop, and it would only be one spike, and not a great one, and that coincided with the truck running rough.
The question is, though, is that a cause or an effect? If the truck sees that it’s misfiring on number 2, would it reach a threshold number of misfires and then shut off the injector so it’s not just dumping unburned diesel down the tailpipe? Sometimes finding the documentation of what happens when a code sets or when a fault is detected takes some serious hunting.
At this point, I am suspicious of the PCM connector (especially since it’s so finicky, after having it unplugged to run some tests, when I plugged it back in, the truck wouldn’t even start because too many things weren’t making good electrical contact), and I’m also suspicious of the PCM, but there’s no good way to test it short of putting a known good one in it, and I haven’t got one of those.
And we’re hardly going to order an $800 non-returnable part from Ford to stick it in and see what happens. What other option might we have to rule out all other possibilities?
That’s right, a compression test!
So, finally, manager decides that we should do what we ought to have did from the start and do a compression test on it. That’s not an easy ask, it takes about an hour of disassembly to get to the glow plugs and to disconnect the injector harness connectors. I got most of the way there on Friday, but there was one dumb connector I couldn’t reach and I was getting frustrated and it was quitting time, so I figured I’d deal with it on Monday.
Today was Monday, and I dealt with it. We don’t have a compression gauge for a diesel, which has much higher cylinder pressures than a gas engine, but we do have a 500psi pressure transducer, which when hooked up to an oscilloscope will give us a digital readout.
No, the flatline isn’t the result; I took the picture before we started the test.
One smart thing to do when you don’t know the specs or can’t easily find them is to compare to a known good. I put the tester in 2 first, because that was easy, and if it was a really, really low reading, there was no need to go further (I once tested an Astro van that had so little compression in the bad cylinder that it wouldn’t move the needle on the compression gauge. For giggles, we hooked the pressure transducer up to it and discovered it made 4psi).
My manager noted that he could hold his finger over the end of the hose, which isn’t good.
And so y’all aren’t left hanging, compression on 4 (a good cylinder) was 300psi. Number 2 managed 100psi.
We don’t know exactly what went wrong. Might be a bend rod, might be a bad valve, might be a cracked piston or bad rings. We could do a cylinder leakdown test to find out for sure; for now the truck’s sitting in the same state it was when I unhooked the compression tester. It’s got a mechanical problem, and no injector is going to fix that.
I’m glad I’m not the guy who had to call the customer and tell him that.
This time there’s a moral!
Be sure you know what the problem actually is before starting repairs, if at all possible. Sure, there are some pattern failure jobs where swapping parts is a good first step (ignition coils on a Ford Triton come to mind), but not in the case of expensive or time consuming—or both—jobs.
Funny. Our '92 7.3 IDI has been giving us trouble for a couple of years. Fires up proper when cold, but if you're moving a moderate load few miles (~4 tons or so), it's either keep it running while parked or pop the hood to let the damned thing cool off for 20 minutes or so.
A neighbor advised inspecting the injector pump for debris buildup. Pulled the pump cap, nothing. Brother fired it up later. (Thank God it still ran after that. I'm a fabricator, not a certified engine mechanic!) Don't know if anything was fixed or not, but at least it still moves.
this sounds like so much fun..
and i know you don't want to know a hole bunch about auto transmissions but i have a site that may help you out a bit.
One thing I love about being the computer guy for a *group* of computers. (oh, and users) Part-swapping to identify what's going wonkers, and the ability to wipe-and-rebuild in under two hours. "Well, we swapped things around and the problem stuck with the computer so ZAP! Fry that sucker and see if the rebuild works."
What would you recommend for a good mechanical failure on a Winnebago Outlook (built on a E350 chassis) that will take a couple of days to fix? I plan on the return trip from Orlando in Farmer Bruener to be sidelined that way, and them trying to take the train back to Kansas City.
Ah, more fun mechanic times with horse pictures,...joy!
5496601
DBAN + G4L = problem goes away, or it's hardware.
If it is not broken, fix it until it is!
derpicdn.net/img/view/2013/1/5/203109.jpg
Well you know how back in the good old days, they'd make a part and it simply had to measure to a certain tolerance or else it got rejected at quality control? Well some genius at Ford figured that they could just not reject any transmission solenoids, making them to whatever tolerance, and simply grade them (from, say, 1 to 9) and write the numbers down. Then program the computer with those numbers, so it knows how much it needs to compensate for the shittiness of the solenoids. That's the jist of it. I mean, it works, and from a manufacturing perspective, it really is a genius move. In fact, the only reason it sucks is because you can't just use a regular old scanner to input the numbers. And that wouldn't even have been hard to do, but you know, then they had to find a way to increase the billable service hours for their dealers. lol
On transmissions: an awesome place to start is the Precision Transmission channel on YouTube. Richard Crich does the best job of anyone I've ever seen explaining the guts of these things.
5496601
My family had an e350 with the V10, which is a pretty typical motor for the cutaway chassis builds like motorhomes, and we only ever had two problems:
The heater feed pipe in the valley, under the intake manifold, started to piss out coolant, after vibration rubbed a hole into it. Took about a day for us to replace at home, and then a few weeks later it threw out a spark plug (we changed them all while we were in there, not knowing the threads in the head were weak from the factory, it needed a helicoil fix.
But if you have a few springs and valves left over after the rebuild, it's great because they must be extra and not required, right?
3 forward and 1 reverse means it technically has a fourth gear at this point, right? Oh, wait, yeah, not quite how the customer will see it. Right.
"differently taxed" diesel?
Thanks for the stories, pictures, and moral. :)
Sorry about the wasted time and effort at the shop, though.
Transmissions can be so fun. I still remember the 3 gear ones. Forward, Stop, back.
Sisters husband is currently redoing his auto box.
Found out the reason it wouldnt go into 3rd, was because the securing pins were missing on two of the controller solenoids. Which are supposed to be prevented falling out by a mild steel bracket.
Not sure if the bracket was there.
Oh well, at least the solenoids are still there and work.
I once worked a ticket at my job where because we jumped to a conclusion - a hospital had no internet or phones for almost 36 hours while we chased ghosts. Ended up getting into the paper for all the wrong reasons that day.
Sounds like my assistant boss and someone within your shop have a lot in common. When irritated - which is easy to do - he gets laser-focused on getting the problem out of his face. Not solving it; getting it to leave. A not insignificant part of my job has become keeping an eye on what my assistant boss has been/is doing so that I can come in after him and say, "Well, actually, what you want to do is..."
One of the greatest, which has become a local joke, and one that makes me cringe every time I consider the potential outcomes, was a customer who was looking for a fairly minor, unevenly distributed, and variable texture in their paint. "Just rub some dirt on the fresh paint."
In theory that would do exactly as desired. In practice... Well, the longer we go without hearing back from the customer, the safer I feel.
.
5496565
Hmm, can’t think of anything off hand that would cause that. I assume it cranks but won’t start when it’s hot?
Maybe? Or could be there’s air bubbles getting in and when it’s hot, they expand or something . . . I’m honestly not much of a diesel tech.
5496566
Yeah, it was a treat
I’ll check it out! I could stand to learn more about how automatic operate, even if we’re not doing internal repairs. Helps to know what happens in the mystery box when you’re diagnosing it.
5496601
There are some huge advantages when you’re dealing with one fairly standard group of things, whatever those things are. Reason I’ve got three Caravans with the same body style, I can transfer parts between them. Did the same with S-trucks before that, and full-size 70s and early 80s GMs before that. My Olds kept getting new alternators, ‘cause when one failed on one of the trucks and I was short on cash, I’d steal the new one off the Olds and then replace it later.
I’ve even done my best to standardize a set of tires that’ll fit across the fleet; the snow tires on my current Caravan have been on two Caravans before this one, a Grand Marquis, and a Chevy Astro van.
Some of that’ll depend on parts availability and shop availability. 5496732’s suggestion of that dumb coolant pipe under the manifold is a good one, depending on how accessible the top of the engine is (likely a multi-hour repair on a van, what with getting access to it). Something in the rear end could be expensive and/or time-consuming, depending on what it is (and they might not know until they tear into it). Depending on the year of E350, blown out spark plug’s a good one. Common failure, proper fix is to bore out the hole, re-tap, and put an insert in.
What could also delay the repair is an independent shop that’s busy, only got one bay they can fit the thing in, has to get the tool from their other location, etc. We have that problem all the time—we service a number of cube vans, high-top Sprinters, etc., and while we’ve got four service bays, there’s only one that those will fit in. If something else is already there, you’re gonna wait, or (depending on the repair) the tech is going to be fixing it in the parking lot. Even if we like you, most of us won’t be fixing it in the parking lot if it’s raining.
5496647
The more I suffer at work, the more cute horse pics y’all get.
5496679
lol, I don’t know what those words mean. The only way we’ve made a problem car go away for good was to crash it.
5496698
Exactly!
5496722
Yeah, I kind of figured it was something like that. When I hooked up the IDS and entered the numbers, the first thing it said was that those weren’t on the computer, and it was going to try and look them up, which kind of worried me. Luckily, it found them.
I suspect, from a non-engineer POV, that there’s also some element of quick-learning in programming in the right numbers. Like, the TCM doesn’t have to figure out over time what pressures it needs to make the right shift, it has a starting point that it can apply to the algorithm it already has for that trans and how the customer uses it. Certainly, it was a lot happier with most shifts after I entered the correct ID than it was without it, although aside from fourth it did hit all the gears it was supposed to with the wrong calibration in it.
Barked the tires on one fifth-gear shift, even. Probably that’s not part of Ford’s normal shift strategy.
Some of that’s on the scanner manufacturers, they can get that info from the OE if they want to pay for it, but most of them don’t. Really frustrates me. Heck, our ‘feature-loaded’ Snap On Verus will talk to Spartan and Harley, but not Saab. I think my old Genesys would talk to Saab, ‘cause it had the Euro package.
How they present the data is sometimes frustrating, too. Admittedly, the same holds true with most factory tools as well; the only good one I’ve used is Ford’s, as much as I hate to say that.
5496732
Yeah, I’ll have to give that a look. I don’t want to do internal trans repairs, but it wouldn’t hurt to know more about what goes on inside them to diagnose problems better. We’ll do some electrical repairs in-house, but usually send out rebuilds to a proper trans shop.
That heater pipe sucks. I think on the vans if you’re creative, you can pull it out without removing the intake, unless there’s a bolt I’m forgetting about (there might be). With the doghouse off, you’ve got room to pull it back, at least. Not an option on the pickups; intake’s got to come off on those.
Spark plugs is a common failure. Lock-N-Stitch sells a proper insert along with installation kit, which is a better repair than just helicoiling it, but it’s expensive and you’ve got to be doing a bunch of them to really justify the cost of it. Big advantage is that it’s made of material with the same thermal properties as the head, so you don’t have to worry about it loosening with time. And it’s full-threaded, giving spark plugs a better bite. And it also comes with a bunch of clever guides so that everything will line up like it should.
Unintentionally, Ford fixed the spark plugs ejecting on the 2-valve Tritons with the 3-valve by designing spark plugs that don’t come out, and now there’s a special extractor for them.
5496734
Without personal experience, I have a feeling that while extra parts are okay with engine repairs, they’re not so good in transmission repairs.
It’s even better, it’s a six-speed in that truck, so it’s still got five forward gears and one back, which ought to be plenty.
Yup, and it’s dyed red so the DOT can fine you if they find it in a vehicle driving on the road. From what I’ve heard, if you get caught the fines you pay more than make up for the tax you didn’t, especially if it’s a commercial truck. Dunno the exact numbers, but from some quick googling it’s at least $1k for a first offense. One guy on a forum said in Texas it’s 4k for a first offense, 11k for the second, and for the third they impound and sell your truck and charge you 25k.
5496744
You’re welcome!
It’s a mixed bag. I’m paid by the hour, so if I waste a lot of time doing something pointless, at least I get paid for it.
5496813
You can do that with no gears if you’ve got the right kind of engine. Some marine engines (and other types, I’m sure) can run forward and back, and you can have a drivetrain with no gears, just some kind of sleeve to disengage the propeller when you don’t want to go either direction.
I wish him luck.
I’ve make the same kind of discovery in old manual boxes. One of them, the syncro wasn’t round, it was more of an oval shape, which was why that gear didn’t work. Another one, wondered why it was noisy, pulled it out of the truck and the nosecone was broken off, the main input bearing was gone (well, the races were still there; the ball bearings were all shredded and in the bottom of the transmission).
Some Ford transmissions back in the day had a yellow plug that was for assembly and then fell out into the pan. Wonder how many guys pulled the pan on one of those, found that yellow plug, and tried to figure out where it was supposed to go?
5496859
Ooh, that’s bad. That’s not something you want to make the news for.
5496883
Yeah, there’s a certain type of management style that kind of seems to fall into that role on occasion (or always). Depending on where you fall in the pecking order depends on how much of your problem it becomes. I like to make sure that I document everything just so I can at least say, ‘well, I told you...’ when things go pear-shaped. And at least in the case of diagnosis, especially where expensive repairs are involved, have enough testing so I am sure what’s wrong, whenever possible (it isn’t always; more than one thing can be broken).
. . .
That will produce a result, I guess.
“So I rubbed dirt in the fresh paint like you told me to, and . . .”
Speaking of painting . . .
One summer I worked with a professional painter. Not one of those sketchy jobs you see posted on telephone poles or maybe Craigslist these days. We were doing a farm, and the guy wanted it all done right. Among the highlights:
Painted a pole barn, and the next morning all the bugs who’d been attracted by the yard light were stuck in the paint.
Spraying the bees with the sprayer, with my boss saying ‘picture it painted’ each time he got one. By the time they got the paint off their wings and could fly again, they weren’t mad at us any more.
Unwiring a light (to mask and paint) live, ‘cause I didn’t know where the breaker was. While I was up on the ladder, one of the horses decided that the ladder was a new horse toy.
And my favorite feat of athleticism, accidentally annoying a hive of bees while I was on the one-story roof of a split-level, I ran off that roof, off the garage roof, and down the ladder without ever slowing down. Didn’t get stung, either.
5497229
. .
5497254
DBAN: Derik's Boot-And-Nuke. Scrubs the hard disk very thoroughly and/or quickly, depending on your settings. Works even if the software on the computer is all screwed up. Great for making sure you're starting over from scratch (or wiping the drive before recycling equipment).
G4L: Very nice disk-imaging software. Good for backups, setting up an entire office of computers all at once, or anything in between. You can set up one tested system, grab a snapshot of all the software, and drop it onto any matching computer without having to install stuff individually.
DBAN + G4L = scrub the drive clean, then install a pre-tested set of software, all without having a chance to screw it up yourself. You know it should work, so if it doesn't, you have a hardware problem.
5497243
That's right. Cranks fine when hot but won't fire.
5497260
Yeah but like Autel is Chinese ripoff shit. And they could just rip it off for free and give the finger to Ford. I suspect it's more complicated than that. Isn't programming the strategy numbers a part of reflashing the ECU? I think that's what is really the prohibitive part of it. Cuz most scanners don't do flashing. Though Autel claims to, it's really just limited support for flashing some GM cars. And that's it. They had promised to expand support, but that was like 8 years ago now. Granted, I've been reasonably pleased with everything else their scanner can do.
I have a good story for you. After surviving a flood, my Nissan Versa manual had its engine changed. The car is very sturdy, and I had no problems, except for a leakage of gearbox oil. Between spending on repairs and the pandemic, I put that problem aside. When I was finally able to concentrate on the problem, the mechanic identified a possible leakage from the exchange retainer. The problem is that we couldn't find the part anywhere ... not even at the dealership. In fact, they reported that this car would not have a retainer ... but, a hydraulic actuator.
The mechanic did some research and found that, in fact, the Versa gear system is a hydraulic actuator, that´s why we didn't find a retainer to buy on the parallel market.
Now it's a matter of buying the clutch kit, hoping that the low oil hasn't damaged anything in the gearbox (which is working well, just a little bit hardened) and making the repair.
5497278
I wish it would have, but the pipe, and the vee are both kinda wiggly snake shaped, and the intake sits pretty tight into that space, so it'll only pull back about a quarter inch if you don't pull the intake. Pulling the intake straight back is awkward, but not too bad
5497291
Heh, aye, I imagine that does indeed help to smooth things over. :D
5497361
Hmm, I’ve got a computer that might actually work on, at least if I had boot disks for it.
It’s a rebuilt Dell that just doesn’t want to play nice with Windows.
Ooh, that does sound nice. I hate setting up new computers and having to download all the software I want on it. Especially since my internet connection is janky as heck.
5497368
I forget, do 7.3Ls use high-pressure oil to fire the injectors, or did that come along with the 6.0L? That could be a cause. Other than that, I’ve got no idea.
5497374
Yeah, that could be. And I’m not sure why it’s so, because there’s supposed to be an aftermarket standard (J1234 or whatever) but from what I know even factory tools don’t always work with a particular vehicle. Like that Dakota we worked on a while back that our Chrysler programming guy couldn’t make work even with three different Chrysler scan tools.
I used one of those some time back, and it was pretty okay. IIRC, it could talk to a Chrysler TIPM and the Snap-On couldn’t at that time (I think it does now). We’ve also got a G-tool (whatever that is) that the other shop lets us use sometimes, and that had a steep learning curve when I first hooked it to a car and tried to figure out how to make it do what I wanted it to do.
That one wouldn’t talk to Saabs, either.
5497441
I don’t know what an exchange retainer is (that’s not American terminology) . . . what does it do?
Usually, as long as you drain out the oil and refill it you’re okay. Maybe twice, since it was in water, just to make sure you get it all.
5497487
Today I’ve been trying to remind myself of that as I work on another miserable 6.4L. What makes it worse is that the hoist it’s on doesn’t work right, so I can’t lift it up very high, it’s covered in dirt, and my manager is being annoying about it because he watched a YouTube video where the guy did a similar repair on a different truck with a different engine.
5497906
I used the google translator to write this...so, not sure if this is the right world for it. The retainer ("retentor", in portuguese) would be a plastic ring responsible for sealing the gear oil inside the gearbox. Escept that the Versa does not use it inside the gearbox. There are, still, two, but each one in one side of the gear box, conecting to the brackets, i think. The one inside, conecting the clutch kit and the gear box is not used by Versa.
As for changing the gear oil...it already happened...actually, they changed the whole enfine AND clutch...but there is some problem with the clutch, and, now, one year later, it is my problem to solve.
5497903
Yeah the J-box (as I call it) is an aftermarket industry standard. The Autel MaxiSys Pro comes with the J-box as its OBD connection. So I have the box, I could technically connect the box to a laptop and do Chrysler flashing (for example) but then I have to pay Chrysler for a subscription to their data and stuff. (And there's not much incentive for me to pay $90 and have to dick with it myself, when the dealer usually handles the whole thing for $150.) I mean, in theory, the Autel scanner should be able to do the same thing, except I think the reason why it's not really a scanner thing is because when that right to repair act passed, and manufacturers had to provide a method of flashing, they all agreed that their public software would run on windows XP. I think a few of them have since added windows 7 support. But most scanners don't run windows... except one Snap On scanner I saw once. An older model, I think it did run XP, probably to be able to do flashing.
5497901
My cousin was talking about that yesterday. The oil-firing at least started with the 7.3 Powerstroke.
(Not the same engine as what I'm talking about, it's the old Navistar 7.3.)
5497913
Ahh, yikes. Sorry about that.
5497967
Hmm, sounds like that’s what we’d call a seal, maybe, if I’m thinking of the part you’re describing.
Hard enough to know for sure even if we spoke the same language, since each automaker often has their own name for a part, even one that’s functionally-equivalent to another manufacturer’s, and some automakers don’t translate their part names overly well into the local language. Not to mention there’s all sorts of mechanic slang as well. I still remember the time I told a customer her car needed a DPFE sensor (which is what Ford calls it) and she asked what that stood for and I couldn’t remember. [It’s Differential/Delta (depending on who you ask) Pressure Feedback—EGR {EGR = Exhaust Gas Recirculation}, and it measures how well the EGR valve is flowing.]
5498035
In my experience, Ford’s flashing system is the best of the domestics. GM’s usually works, except when it doesn’t, there’s a few oddballs that don’t like being flashed. Mid 2000s Colorados, for example. And GM is now charging you an extra fee on top of the other fees to flash each individual vehicle, although you can do all the flashes you want on that one vehicle for no extra charge, so yay?
Chrysler’s been in bed with too many other automakers and come up with too many different ways to make their equipment work with somebody else’s, I’ve only had one experience on a Chrysler that wasn’t a complete disaster, and that’s ‘cause the aftermarket tool guy was on the phone with me and then remoted in to our computer to finish up all the weirdness the Jeep wanted.
Our Verus runs Windows XP IIRC.
It’s not only the scanners, either; Identifix only works on Explorer. Mitchell got tired of Window’s updates breaking their wiring diagrams and finally put in their own viewer, which is nice, except that you have to click through three windows now to print a page.
No idea what our factory scan tools are running. I think Windows 10, but with some Javascript weirdness at least on the GM one. Ford doesn’t have to do that, but every other update they release breaks a function, and you don’t get that function back until the next update.
5498470
Maybe I’m wrong, but I thought the Navistar 7.3 and the Powerstroke 7.3 were the same engine but with different stickers. Or were there internal changes to go along with the stickers?
5498855
Well, on the plus side it made for another great blog post, so there’s that.
5499299
Completely different engines. Navistar designed the 6.9 and 7.3 IDI's and licensed them exclusively to Ford specifically for mid-weight haulers (3/4-ton axles and larger, basically anything sold under the Big Three). Their fuel systems are mechanically driven, indirect injection headers, they're naturally aspirated in stock form. From what I understand, putting an aftermarket turbo on one is tricky without blowing the block (or something to that effect, but I could be wrong).
The Powerstroke was a result of the Ford cutting the agreement with Navistar going into 1995. Officially, it's Ford's design: the fuel system is electrical, headers are direct-injection, and all are factory-equipped with a turbo (3-inch, IIRC), with larger models being equipped with intercoolers. The blocks were (supposedly) designed for the extra punishment that charging boost brings into the equation.
5499300
Hah, indeed. :D
5499341
Huh, I didn’t know that.
There’s a lot of confusion about that engine family (and others, as well). I feel like International was still involved (although maybe washing their hands of it); a lot of the parts for the 7.3 that we get from Ford have the International stickers covered with Ford stickers, and as I recall, the 7.3L engines (the newer, turboed ones) have International or Navistar stickers on the valve covers.
Not that that necessarily means anything, a lot of AMCs outsourced parts, and my Dad’s AMC Javelin had an air cleaner housing with a sticker saying that you should “keep your GM car all GM.”