Husker6.5
135' diagonal 16:9HD, 25KW sound!
My advice on the manifold bolts is based off of personal experience. Had a diesel specialty shop in town, that "knew" what they were doing on the recommendation of my normal mechanic, replace my bad PMD on the IP of the '94 work horse. Evidently, dropping it off that morning, it was started on before lunch and got as far as getting the intake manifold back on (without gaskets!!) and all the manifold bolts back in finger/ratchet tight - then went to lunch. Evidently after lunch their Tech saw the manifold in place with bolts, forgot that they weren't torqued, proceeded to put the rest back together and they called me mid afternoon to say it was "done". Oh, in checking it over, they noticed the harmonic balancer was on its last legs, so they installed a new one, too. $920 bill for parts and labor, my little 6.5TD sitting there among the Kenworths and Peterbilts.
Month or so later, I notice I'm leaving oil drips when I hadn't before. Up on the lift during the (sometimes twice) monthly 2,000 mile oil change, my mechanic notices the trail of oil down the back of the motor, dripping out of the torque converter cover. We all assumed at 174,xxx miles, it was the rear seal going, and at the quart of oil I was using every 1,000+ miles, I could keep putting a lot of oil through it before it could become bad enough to warrant the cost of pulling the tranny to replace the rear seal.
Needless to say, a year and a half later when it cracked both heads and I went to pull them is when I found that the "diesel experts" shop not only hadn't torqued down the lower intake manifold to head bolts, they didn't even bother to (at the least) (re)use the intake gaskets and it was REALLY obvious where the "rear main" leak was really coming from - CDR blowby gurgling out the intake-head ports, down into the valley, then down the back of the motor and out the torque converter cover!
Month or so later, I notice I'm leaving oil drips when I hadn't before. Up on the lift during the (sometimes twice) monthly 2,000 mile oil change, my mechanic notices the trail of oil down the back of the motor, dripping out of the torque converter cover. We all assumed at 174,xxx miles, it was the rear seal going, and at the quart of oil I was using every 1,000+ miles, I could keep putting a lot of oil through it before it could become bad enough to warrant the cost of pulling the tranny to replace the rear seal.
Needless to say, a year and a half later when it cracked both heads and I went to pull them is when I found that the "diesel experts" shop not only hadn't torqued down the lower intake manifold to head bolts, they didn't even bother to (at the least) (re)use the intake gaskets and it was REALLY obvious where the "rear main" leak was really coming from - CDR blowby gurgling out the intake-head ports, down into the valley, then down the back of the motor and out the torque converter cover!
on that sense I am trying to be as careful as I can because I know there's others here who make money doing this, and by no means do I want to step on anyone's toes trying to learn.
