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  1. R

    I think I'm in for a nightmare, broken exhaust bolt, rearmost driver's side in an '86 e350

    I'm really hoping to not drill because it's never worked out for me. Inevitably the drill doesn't go in straight and center due to poor access, it takes forever and you end up with a mangled head, the stud still there, and you still have to pull and take to a machine shop.
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    I think I'm in for a nightmare, broken exhaust bolt, rearmost driver's side in an '86 e350

    Looks like it's broken flush with the head. I guess that means pulling manifold and risking more broken bolts. Hmmm. Never thought of welding, though I don't know how tight the bolt end is. Generally I have a problem with them breaking when trying to remove the manifold, in which case the bolt...
  3. R

    I think I'm in for a nightmare, broken exhaust bolt, rearmost driver's side in an '86 e350

    I know the standard is drill, easy out, and bolt end comes out. For me it's never worked and I've always had to pull the head after hours of cursing and sweat. And being in a van body, I'm not even sure if I can fit a drill in there if I tried. hate the idea of pulling a head, for the same...
  4. R

    One more hard start after sitting, but this one's different

    I've heard this before, and I find it pretty surprising. I've had a number of vehicles equipped with the Bosche VE pump and my current Volkswagen has just over 410K and the pumps work fine. You might have to replace the cover seal at some point or the shutoff solenoid, but the pumps just don't...
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    One more hard start after sitting, but this one's different

    That's such a strange issue - ohm ok but still don't fire? I thought they either worked or burned out. I'll check each out across a battery - I'm not big on throwing parts at a problem to see what fixes it, not when there are other options. And while I realize that pump and injectors are long...
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    One more hard start after sitting, but this one's different

    I wondered about that, but what exactly can go wrong with a pump where it runs fine otherwise but has a hard time starting cold? Judging by the enormous cloud of smoke when it starts, it is squirting fuel into the cylinder but it's not igniting. Maybe when cold it doesn't have enough pressure to...
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    One more hard start after sitting, but this one's different

    My understanding is you can get the problem like mine if you get air in the injectors or injection lines, as the air compresses rather than popping the injectors but the only place for fuel go bleed off is the return line and I blocked that. Air in in the fuel line causes the run and stall as...
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    One more hard start after sitting, but this one's different

    Well, clamping off fuel filter return line and nada difference this morning. What's so striking is how easy it starts with just a little poof of ether - a second of cranking to suck it in and she starts right up. If it was air in the injector lines you'd think it would take more than that. I...
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    One more hard start after sitting, but this one's different

    No smoke when flooring. Timing hasn't been messed with. When you first start up it starts to fire in one cylinder, and then another and then another and then starts, runs rough for a second or two then smooths out. Just not high idle until I've driven a block or two. When I'm cranking there is...
  10. R

    One more hard start after sitting, but this one's different

    It's progressively getting worse. 7.3 in a 89 F250. Bought it with hard starting problem, that wasn't that bad but suddenly a week ago a lot worse, even though I've been trying to fix the problem. It had 2 bad glow plugs screwing up the controller, so I thought that would be it, but nope...
  11. R

    Weird brake problem 89 F250

    Hard to believe but the month old cable is shot. I pulled it out and you can barely move it in the sleeve. What crap they make these days.
  12. R

    Weird brake problem 89 F250

    The rear cables have springs? I didn't know that. Still, the front cable has a large strong spring where it terminates with the rears, and that spring isn't strong enough to pull the cable back. I have to wonder if lubrication should be required on a new cable, but I'll give it a shot.
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    Weird brake problem 89 F250

    The parking brake is extremely simple, but it's got me scratching my head. I originally had a problem with the front brake cable hanging up and not releasing the rear brakes completely, like staying perhaps 10% engaged. I tried adjusting it and fiddling with the main return spring but it would...
  14. R

    Smoking

    And my understanding is that with turbos you essentially get more fuel/air due to boost, more power, more combustion, more work, and the excessive temps generated is what blows heads. You read about it all the time with turbodiesels; you work them hard eventually you have to replace heads. I've...
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    Smoking

    I was only a couple thousand feet so I doubt that was it. I've installed pyrometers on turbodiesels because you can overheat those heads leading to cracking because they're usually aluminum heads, but I've never heard of N/A diesels having overheat problems unless cooling system issues.
  16. R

    Smoking

    While driving my 6.9 E350 motorhome through the mountains, I noticed that flooring it on steep hills creates a continuous belching of black smoke as long as the pedal is fully depressed. If it was a turbo model I'd suspect a fault in the turbo creating not enough air pressure but since this is...
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    idiot light or gauge, which to believe?

    6.9 N/A. I'm hoping I dont need the fan clutch. Testing it, its pretty stiff, not much freewheeling, no signs of leaks, although its damned old. I already gave it a new T stat. Hard to say if the cooling system is underperforming; I'd expect a steep climb, buried pedal, and hot day would bring...
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    idiot light or gauge, which to believe?

    I'm in the middle of taking my E350 motorhome on her inaugural trip into the BC interior. We did a fair bit of climbing today with the longest, steepest section several kilometers long, outside temps about 28 C. During this climb the temp gauge, which usually sits at about 1/4 to 1/3 deflection...
  19. R

    Anything special about the 12 point bolts for the timing gear?

    Sure, but it still functions to hold it in place. When I shut off the engine and removed the cover, all 3 bolts had fallen out yet the drive gear was still firmly in place.
  20. R

    Anything special about the 12 point bolts for the timing gear?

    That Rockauto options looks great, thanks!
  21. R

    Anything special about the 12 point bolts for the timing gear?

    Well, I found the grade 8 bolts and popped them with no problems, with a dab of locktite. But I sure wonder about the engineering and specificity of the fasteners; the driving gear has a steel dowel right into the pump drive and 3 of these hardened suckers to hold it into place. I know the...
  22. R

    Anything special about the 12 point bolts for the timing gear?

    I'd need it by tomorrow, so that's not in the cards, but thanks. According to the above link, it seems they are designed to allow tighter torquing. I'd guess that the required 25 ft-lbs on an ordinary hex 5/16 fastener would be excessive, although that says nothing about bolt hardness, just how...
  23. R

    Anything special about the 12 point bolts for the timing gear?

    I worked too long and too late today and ended screwing up. Replaced the injection pump and got everything together, lines bled and finally got it started. Ran great but started making intermittent ticking noise. then a loud clacking. Shut it off right away, and immediately knew my mistake. I...
  24. R

    6.9 motorhome giving new grief

    Well, things got complicated. I decided to pull the outlet ball valve, because since it determines pump internal pressure, if it sticks, pressure will build in the pump until the internal transfer pump can no longer drive the plungers. As it turned out, it was full of a bunch of crap. The ball...
  25. R

    6.9 motorhome giving new grief

    I thought that light was just to indicate water in the system, although the water separator doesn't exist in my rig... I've run two cans of seafoam through the IP, and FYI it only has about 100k miles on it. Do they really need rebuilding after such little use? The original fault that kept it...
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