One more day till vacation.

How much for the engine job?

Got the Tool box moved to a new location, a 760 series Snap-On box doesn't move as well as a 1000.

Going back to the wrenches?

Not at all, bought a new place on 6.5 acres instead of 100x150. I've got grand plans of a shop at home that does not turn a profit.

Hell yea. Where did you buy at?

Last amg engine we quoted was a different one than this but ran 75k.  Like I said, it's totaled.  

Nobody seems even slightly concerned about the situation.  They all appear to understand it was run dry, and we don't know how long.  It is quite strange to me that it failed so suddenly without any warning.  I guess it's possible that it was wrecked, restarted and left running for quite some time, but typically our engines are quite tolerant of that.  They also set cam adjustment faults readily without oil pressure, and this one did not.  

I suppose that they could ask to have a teardown performed, and it's  possible the trans locked up, but it never lost the transmission, it just stalled, and the car rolls freely when pushing it, plus with the heat I felt on the pan and the balancer, I imagine it seized a main bearing.  It never made noise....  I'm no expert, hell I don't even remember dealing with any other locked up engines.  It's just not common...

Congrats on the new place slows2k!

I don't consider them particularly hard.  Drop the front subframe with engine, trans, front axle and catalysts.  Unbolt from trans, lift engine off and then swap differential to new engine,  other parts, replace motor mounts because you can and put it all back together.  It's a little over a day's work.

Our engines are stupid expensive and always have been.  A basic V6 might be $30k+.  We rarely do engine swaps.  Most we do are aftermarket warranty jobs with salvage yard engines which are pretty cheap because there is little demand for them.  We just don't see much catastrophic failure  that wasn't caused by outside influences.  

Sprinter engines have become relatively inexpensive by necessity I suppose.  A fuel system failure will set you back $12k, but the whole engine as a remain is but $13k. Fleet work has different needs, and even for a mere $1000 they'll opt to repair instead of replacement because hey that's $1000.

It's seventy nine thousand dollars.

They found a salvage unit for $25k.  Yeah that ain't happening.

It was pretty dead today, and I didn't make shit this week.  

One of the newer guys was complaining about how much it sucks and I gave him a rosy, sugar coated view of our world.  How we get to lay around in air conditioned comfort and surf the internet, occasionally score a free doughnut.  Work on your own car whenever you want, and they pay me not to come to work for like five weeks a year.  It's fucking great!  I look at all those empty bays in that shop down the street, with their shitty craftsman tool boxes, no computers and most importantly no air conditioning.  Fuck that.  I've got it made.  You might be taking things for granted, because you don't appreciate how good you have it.  Now shut the fuck up and go work on that warranty problem, you might learn something.

WOOOOOOOOOOOO vacation time is here. Now I can work on my own stuff.

Thanks yo I'll post some pics when I get caught up

Moving from M'boro to Rockvale. Still Middle TN. About 4 miles longer drive to work.

Nice area there. Congratulations. I'm surprised that land is still affordable.

Affordable is relative, prices have gone way up in the past 4 years. We spent a few months looking for the right place, bought it then listed our old house. Got a contract in less than 2 weeks for full price and nothing towards the buyers closing. It's good to be in a sellers market for a change.

Most stuff on the south side is crazy priced is what I was meaning. I know some people up there and they all have said their places have gone through the roof in value. We have a friend that moved back home because she couldn't afford to live up there and she is a dental hygienist.

This was at the local dealer I use. Pretty bad ass. He said they are one of the top HK shops in the country. $2300 nice.

We are looking to come out positive on selling our previous home, we also paid 4K over asking to get the place we are at, since there were multiple offers.

Edwin IL?

link

The place I work at has two air conditioned shops and yet I still get stuck working on vehicles in the parking lot. Been there 9 years and still the best I can get is the parking lot.

I spent 3 days in the parking lot trouble shooting a crank no start condition on a semi. The entire fuel system checked out good. Turns out it was the ecm and the troubleshooting tree had nothing in it about the ecm.

Air conditioned shop. What is that?

Do you not have a laptop or any computer diagnostic tools for that semi? Any ecm controlled engine that has crank but no start problems the first thing I do is plug in and check for camshaft and crank position sensor signals, accurate readings from the other sensors and look that it actually is trying to inject fuel. When there is no ecm showing up to communicate with it's a dead giveaway. Troubleshooting guides always seem to suggest the ecm is infallible but I've changed out a pile.

That was the thing, I could connect and get all of the values that I should have when looking at it. The guess is one circuit in it fried and took out the injector drive circuit. The other bad part was that I was able to get it to start at random points on the first day but not very often which did not help figuring out the issue. Still at the end I could connect to the ecm.

Odd. must not have been a Cat then. I've had them fail intermittently causing engine to die or no start then start working again. Never had one awake and communicating but wouldn't run though. I had seen a screen shot of one that was running but had current above normal faults on every injector. Injector driver was screwed I guess but it was still running somehow.

It was a Cummins. I only have one fault code and it was for fuel rail pressure.

Been talking to an insurance adjuster.  Said e63 was hit by a guy with state minimum insurance.  The policy would not cover the damage so e63 insurance kicked in.  They approve $25k in repairs.  Body shop spent that and another $12k without approval.  Then we spent five  grand on it and now it needs an engine.  

Body shop says their estimate was off because I disassembled the front end when they gave it to me for evaluation and partial repair.  However they approved me  to do that.  They got all the damaged parts back.  The car sat  with me for a month waiting on a part.  Then it kept getting pushed back in favor of smaller jobs until the owner flipped shit and they repaired it.  It  is now the end of August and the car isn't ready, and likely junk.  

I feel badly for the customer.  I really liked this body shop but they seriously fucked up and mismanaged the job.  

I'm just stating what happened on the first visit, and this one until I determined the engine locked up.  The adjuster asked a bunch of questions and has his superiors all over him about the situation, and I don't believe he created it.  

At this point it needs to be towed away or approved for an engine.  There is nothing more to do with it.

I had twelve jobs open this morning.  Did a couple quick services and estimates, then got parts or approval for four jobs.  I banged out huge hours.

Someone traded in a zl 1 camaro and a 2016 z06 convertible.  Bought a g63.  Dude paid $106k for the vette, it's  eight months old with 4k miles and he got $68k.  If there was any possible way to get that car I would.  I'm trying like hell to get the SM to buy the camaro because he wants a challenger and the zl 1 would be the better car.

106k vette that he got 68k for...

I wonder what that much money being lit on fire smells like

This thread is funny.

Boss is looking at a challenger scat pack.  Black/black 23k miles on a 2016 and I put it on the lift.  Comes with bilstiens, brembos, and  a posi.  Iron block, factory headers, 480hp and auto trans.  

The zl 1 is back from paint touch up.  Black/black 2013, 25k miles, auto, diff cooler, iron diff, aluminum block, brembos, and holy fucking shit long tubes, no cats, full b&b dual mode exhaust, lingenfelter pullies, aftermarket air intake, intercooler reservoirs and maybe a cam.  Minimum 650 hp, possibly over 700.  We can't sell it because it has no cats.  I'm twisting his arm harder than ever.  Fuck that challenger bullshit.  Get the car somebody already poured buckets of money in to, you are stealing it for $33k.    It's a hellcat killer!

The scat pack has the smaller rotors and brembos from the old SRT8. The SRT 392 has hellcat wheels/brakes, but no supercharger, and lower torque capacity trans and rear diff. I was researching them pretty heavy a few months ago. I'll prob end up getting a 70 Challenger since the new ones will never look that good.

Dammit now I am looking at the zl 1 because racecar.  I will need to be more creative financially than I am comfortable with but you know... Fuck it Yolo and omg 700hp.  

I think what got me is that in stock form it beat my c5z by ten seconds on the nurburgring but I'm certain that was brute power and not finesse.

Then again for ten grand I could put hairdryers on the vette and laugh at almost everything.

This is the path you seek

While I dig the zl 1, a turbo corvette is my unicorn car

ZL1s go through tires pretty fast if you run the Pirellis they come with.

this is probably relevant to your interests:   http://www.roadandtrack.com/car-culture/a29798/corvette-z06-trackday-hero/

zl1 will resale for more.

It's been a tough week.  Really slow at work.  Broke my phone on the 23rd, had it repaired locally for $190 and it doesn't work properly because the proximity sensor is inoperative.  Now I have to get another phone from Motorola, transfer data, take old phone back and get broken screen reinstalled and get a refund, then return it for deposit.  I'm done with this phone bullshit.

We ran out of work at eleven, and then almost all the computers went down....  so even if we had it we couldn't do it.  

I'm on sprinters Saturday.  Only have one scheduled.  Bring on the side jobs!

Service on a gt-s.  Couple of other small jobs.  It's dead slow.  I was summoned to a lunch meeting tomorrow and I don't know what it's about.  

Put exhaust manifolds on '92 F150 six bolts broke on the passenger side. Made for a long day.

Looked at the 2000 Expedition, passenger side exhaust manifold so rusted, it has a pinhole leak and all bolts unrecognizable.  Time to sell it.  

PO on 2001 suburban 2500 6.0l Helicoiled drain plug that has a slow drip,  steering box has too much play, so it's on the list.

Already sick and tired of gensets. 4 2700hp 3516b's. Had a friend who also used to work at the dealer come help me last week. We polished the cam lobes on all of them since they've been sitting partially open for a year and found a bad injector lobe on engine #3, cylinder #14 Luckily they are 2 piece cams and we were able to seperate it and get the bad one out the back. Got 2 aftercoolers installed, all the exhaust manifolds, all the coolant manifolds, all 4 jacket water pumps swapped out and all but 8 of the rocker bases on. 82hrs each monday through saturday.

It's 2.5hrs from home and i got back over here this afternoon. No help this week. I still have aftercooler water pumps to change, oil pumps(heavy SOBs), one turbo cartridge, rear crankshaft seals, fuel transfer pumps, fuel and oil filters, fuel manifolds to put on and all 64 injectors to install, clean up rocker shafts and set injector height and valve lash. fun fun

Wow that's got to be something else

I would die having to deal with all that repetition.  On the other hand it sounds like you are killing it!

I'm not sure who is killing who right now.

Got the last 8 rocker bases on today and swapped out all the aftercooler water pumps. Guess I'll start on rear crankshaft seals tomorrow so they're not waiting on me when the generators are ready to bolt back up. Need to get some guide bolts in the morning to slid them back. Flywheels are probably 4-500lbs and a dozen 1-14 bolts holding each one on.

I had a lunch meeting and have been presented with an opportunity.  It would take place in the next few months.  It seemed a bit lukewarm and I have to make a decision but am holding off pending details.  I want to know more before agreeing to sign on.  I've spent my entire adult life in one place, doing the same thing in the same building.  I'm having a bit of understanding and relating to people who have been institutionalized and are facing down a release.  

I cannot get in to details yet, but it may be obvious to people that read this thread regularly.  Only four people know, and I'm sworn to secrecy.  The meeting went about exactly as I expected.  I've rehearsed my responses a  thousand times.  I'm   bit stung by the fact that it seems they have no other choices and are considering me out of necessity rather than merit.  I was once again lauded for having the strongest diagnostic skills in our dealership.  Yet I firmly believe that the person who met with me has strong reservations about me, and honestly I feel likewise.  However given a chance to prove myself is what I've been looking for.  

I'm keeping shit nailed down at home and I've made strides in dealing with issues when they crop up.  I'm better at interfacing with coworkers and clients but I still enjoy busting balls and fucking with people.  It's just natural, and what guys do.  In the past I have rubbed a few people the wrong way, but they won't let go of it....  I don't typically argue with people unless I am certain I am right.  I apologize when necessary.  I am really bad about not taking shit from people, particularly service advisors.  I don't feel like I should.  If they want to be dicks, I'll be one right back.  Perhaps that has been what has been holding me back?  I also tend to not take on other people's problems.  They don't pay me for that, I was not placed in a position to have to do that.  I refer them to their team leader.  If my team leader or foreman ask for help, I am happy to assist.  I do require the chain of command be adhered to.  Otherwise I'd be doing their job for no compensation, and wouldn't be really helping because I'd be concealing a problem that the team leader should know about.

We were slow again today.  I spent three and a half hours replacing a starter for nine tenths.

I didn't really get anything good.  Had a tow in r class diesel with a hydrolocked engine and water damage to the electrical system.  I didn't even bother pushing it inside, I quoted an engine and another five hours of diagnosis and that should be enough to total it.  No need for more work and more estimates that wastes everyone's time and effort.

We got a popcorn machine in the customer lounge.  Because?  Now the whole place smells like popcorn.  It isn't very fitting.

If it's a promotion into management be prepared for techs that are holding grudges to stab you in the back like never before.


Best to iron that out before you say "yes" and it come to haunt you.

Someone called someone an N word, and the "victim" has filed a lawsuit against the alleged perpetrator.  

Changed one turbo cartridge before lunch. Ran to town for some 12" bolts to cut for guide studs and got 3 crankshaft seals changed out. Got the flywheels back on but need to torque the bolts. 840lbs/ft iirc.

Finished the pay period VERY strong yesterday, then started the new one in a hole.  Figures.

Stayed late to put some wheel bearings and brakes on a side job, on the way out I stopped to help my co-worker put coilovers on a Charger Hellcat.  Ended up staying to help until completion, so I got to take it for a spin.  HOLY FAWK that thing is fast!  Been wanting to drive one for a long time now, so it was an exciting opportunity.