its the simple stuff that makes people crazy

[grumpyvette]

a friend, recently took his 1969 camaro 396 big block into a dealership to get a tune-up and an oil change, and a brake job , the cars stock, except for a 8 quart baffled oil pan and a slightly more radical than stock crane solid lifter cam and headman headers,and traction bars, but as hes going to use the car on vacation (why he took it to a dealership I have no clue)he said he wanted it professionally serviced, but after getting a $700 bill, (hes shocked and pissed off) he starts to drive the car home and the first time he accelerates, the car starts missing badly and smoking out the exhaust, so he limps back to the dealership,which is by that time almost closed for the day, and suggests he leave the car, and they will look it over in the morning, he gets a call, and they say his cars burning excessive oil, hes probably got a bad ring or a failed gasket but they want to charge him to do some testing etc. he gets into an argument because the car ran great before he brought it in for service,the dealership maintains its something he did or a parts failure, hes pissed off, and has the car towed to my shop .......a few simple tests , like checking the oil for coolant revels the problem.......remember he had the oil changed??????
well the old oil filters still there and yes he got charged for the oil change........ I drained 11-12 quarts or more of dark black oil......its rather obvious that the guy that was supposed to drain the oil and replace the filter forgot that part of the job , but he remembered to add the new 6-7 quarts of oil......
after a new filter and 7 new quarts of oil are put back in the car again runs just fine, and hes learned a bit more about both his car and one rather slipshod modern dealerships service department.

NO! he didn,t tell me which dealership

 

[grumpyvette]

just had another good example
my neighbor has a 1971 Pontiac , he did a tune -up and the cars running worse, now than before he installed new plugs, wires and a new distributor cap,rotor, and added a couple cans of carb cleaner to the fuel tank and swapped a new air and fuel filter into the car and did an oil change ./
he calls me over and points out all the stuff hes done and assures me everything's exactly the way he found it, except that theres now new parts......I start with the basics like the timing light and within a few minutes I find the problem, hes simply got the firing order on the distributor out o sequence on two cylinders and its a very common mistake, because Pontiac distributor rotates in the reverse direction from Chevy, an its not uncommon to screw things up on any car when your not really careful.

BTW I have on several occasions seen guys who complain about various oil leaks on valve covers and rear seals ETC.
Used, engine parts will have oil embedded deeply into the micro surfaces.
almost all replacement parts will have a wax or grease preservative coating to prevent corrosion during shipping!
IF YOU simply wipe off oil soaked surfaces with a paper towel, who then smear on the sealant of there choice and proceed to install gaskets,
YOU WILL OCCASIONALLY HAVE LEAKS!
and then they wonder or maybe be in shock when you find the seeping oil leak has returned in a few weeks time!
metal surfaces may look smooth as glass but under a microscope they look like the surface of the moon , with lots of jagged surface cracks, so you really need to wash out the micro lubricants trapped in those cracks with a thin fast evaporating grease solvent and a lint free rag , followed by a second repeat of the process and in many cases a few minutes with a heat gun to dry and evaporate the solvent in the micro cracks ,
STOP AND READ THE SEALANT PACKAGE DIRECTIONS!
you'll generally find some rather amazing , bits of info such as temperature requirements, temperature limitations, what solvents work best to remove the cement or sealant, only after reading the directions, do you then smear the gasket sealant on both mating surfaces before bonding the two gasket & metal surfaces.(and in many cases you use a brush as dirt or oil on fingers prevents a good seal!)
pontiac
http://www.boxwrench.net/specs/pont_265-455.htm

chevy sb
http://www.boxwrench.net/specs/chevy_sb.htm

chevy BB
http://www.boxwrench.net/specs/chevy_bb.htm

426hemi
http://www.boxwrench.net/specs/hemi_426.htm

383-440 mopar
http://www.boxwrench.net/specs/bchrys_B.htm

318-340-360 mopar
http://www.boxwrench.net/specs/schrys_A.htm

ford 429-460
http://www.boxwrench.net/specs/ford_429-514.htm

302-351 windsor ford
http://www.boxwrench.net/specs/ford_302_351W.htm

351 cleveland ford
http://www.boxwrench.net/specs/ford_351C.htm

352-428 ford
http://www.boxwrench.net/specs/ford_352-428.htm

 

[grumpyvette]

I feel both a bit stupid and really good,... stupid because it took me almost 10 minutes to diagnose a problem,a friends really simple car problem and less than 10 minutes to fix a problem hes has had for a couple days and was quoted $800 plus to fix.

his car was puking coolant when it got hot and it looked like it was the water pump because although it was spinning fine and making no noise the coolant flow thru the radiator was very slow, and adding coolant resulted in coolant slowly seeping from what looked like under the water pump, usually a good indicator of a bad water pump, but he had had the water pump replaced less than 40 days prior, the key was being observant, when he had the car checked it was always low on coolant and when it was cold and idling it never dripped until it heated up but it dripped if you added coolant when cold or when it was hot, but the coolant flow thru the radiator was very slow, and the coolant leak was obviously near the water pump, now the slow flow had me thinking defective t-stat and the water pump might be defective, but shutting the car off resulted, coolant dripping only after it warmed up and if shut off , closer examination found a brass plug was barely finger tight allowing the water pump to suck air when the coolant level was low,greatly reducing its efficiency, which it always was because the coolant when hot trickled out around the loose threads until the coolant level was lower than the pump impellers
simply coating the pipe plug threads on the plug and tightening the plug cured the issue
so a potential $800 dealership quote cost him $5 for a new brass plug and a bit of silicone sealant