Ezrider

heads were replaced with re-mack heads at 940 current 185 so 245 on remack heads. i think we have a obligation to at least try to save the heads, if i had 900 on my heads i would certainly be much more for the replace it and do the other one out of pocket deal.

oil pan came off today cam and lifters appear to be fine so win there. 

all studs would be replaced. regardless, if the front head ends up getting replaced it would have new studs plan is to replace all studs in the rear head, if we were to be able to extract the broken stud we would also replace the remaining studs on the front head as well. that would be a no brainer. 

i also agree trying to remove a stud in a way to re-use the stud would be different than trying to remove the stud to replace, not worried about damage to the stud itself if you are replacing it. 

my train of thought is mirrored on whats 240 bucks to try vrs what probably 1000 or more for the cyl head and plus labor to remove and install. it seems to me like a worth while roll of the dice. i know today they were needing to get a injector replacement finished that was waiting on parts when my truck came in. then after that my truck gets the priority spot, will check in at the end of the day today and see where we are at hopefully my truck will have gotten some progress made at least hopefully the pan dropped and lifter/cam inspected and progress from there. 

Monday was a holiday here, today is the first day they are back in, if the stud is extract-able it would save a large amount of time. if the stud can be extracted and the cam/lifter did not suffer damage i could see being back on the road well before the end of the week. to replace a cyl head with parts ordering time friday might be a push. if the cam/lifters got damaged from the valve train unloading im most likely hosed till some time next week anyway. 

also if you have been unable to extract even a non broken stud, i mean this in the nicest way possible but i would question your ability.  

i guess another thing to add is the oil pan still needs to be dropped to inspect the cam/lifter as when the bridge yoke guide failed the valve train on that cyl would have unloaded with ceramic lifter could certainly be bad bad mojo there. so i spoke with them again and discussed that probably needs to be the next thing done first as if there is a failed lifter/cam due to the yoke guide failure it would basically mean a complete re-do of the cam job. wont necessarily affect what needs to be done on the topside as far as extracting the stud vrs head replacement but its a big question that may alter the plan of attack here anyway.

spoke with the mechanic as well and he claims he has seen a lot of these failures and has never had any luck extracting a guide that was broken off below the surface of the head if they are at least flush to where he can weld onto it then he would say extraction was likely and that is why his recommendation is to replace the head but that he is certainly willing to give it a shot anyway. and the service adviser also did kinda agree that if we at least make a attempt to extract the stud then and fail then at least we would have piece of mind that it couldn't have been saved. 

i guess i hate to try to push in another direction than there recommendation especially considering the fact that i had not prior done that is probably the biggest factor in them not just telling immediately telling me to bug off as far as a warranty claim. but i at the same time i feel that not spending at least an hour to make a to extract the broken stud first would be kinda foolish when you compare the cost of a cyl head and labor to remove and re install. the cost of an hour or two's labor to make a attempt seems worthwhile to me.

they claim there engine tech here has over 20 years as a mack engine tech

i am not a master tech by any means but if i was at home in my shop and without a potential for a warranty claim i would personally feel comfortable trying to extract the stud myself. just my feeling on it i would ether take a rotary tool with a small diamond bit and try to grind a flat spot in the stud and then attempt to drill and tap a hole in the stud to extract it. the other option i could see being viable beyond the fact i would assume they don't have the ability to do it would be to use a tig welder to attempt build up the stud above the surface where you could get a hold of it and attempt to pull it out. if it was in my own shop at home and i was going to tackle to this repair myself i fee i would certainly make a effort to attempt to extract the stud before condemning the cyl head. 

so i got a call from mack at home first thing this morning, had a rather long discussion with them. it sounds like they are willing to work with me on it. i probably won't get 100% of the costs covered. witch i guess under the circumstances is understandable. but as i told them i am incurring substantially far greater expense than if they had done their due diligence during the initial repair. that they agreed with.

they feel that the stud should be able to be extracted rather than re-place the head witch i tend to agree with. i spoke to mack here about it and they said that they feel replacing the head is the right way to go. as any time spent attempting to extract the stud could be wasted time. i basically said due to the cost/labor involvement in a replacing the head we probably need to spend at least an hour or two to attempt to extract the stud and see if we are making any progress and then make that call from there. 

not yet, if i don't have anything tomorrow morning i will go that route. I've been trying to give them the benefit of the doubt. figure Friday was collecting there facts then the weekend now they have had today to review it assuming that they have gotten all the information they need. I'll start tomorrow by stopping by the dealer where my truck is and confirm if they are requesting any more additional information. If not will be followed by call to home dealer. If still no answer from them yet then I'll go to the customer satisfaction hotline.

kinda sucks being over the weekend esp with this weekend being a holiday weekend up here and I'm not someone that sits around very well, I always am doing something normally so I'm kinda bouncing off the walls here with my hands tied. 

well end of the day today, mack dealer here closed today due to Canadian holiday today. but original dealer open. called them at the end of the day looking for a update on the claim. no news to report, good bad or otherwise. was hoping at least they would make whatever decision they were going to make so first thing tomorrow we could get going on the repair. 

starting to get quite tired of being stuck in a hotel room loosing revenue spending money on the room ect. 

my truck has a slight coolant seep at a water pump gasket. only looses about a gallon of coolant every 2 months still leaves a pretty good white trail on the engine. i would think that much coolant loss external would be very noticable. 

i wish the n-14 was a factory option in a ch that would have been a nice combination

i am dealing with a snapped bridge guide right now, i personally have never heard of or seen a broken valve stem in my life, i have seen bent valve stems. typically caused by a loss of valve train control (to many rpms) and the valves float then causing a interference between the piston and valve, or the other common cause would be if the stem sticks in the guide typically a result of overheating.

i would imagine that if a stem actually broke the resulting damage to the piston. cyl and head even possibly the rod would be quite severe. 

i hope it does not drag out as well. And yes truck down gets very costly very fast. so far the original Mack dealer has had the better part of 1 business day to make a decision. truck came in on the hook Thursday afternoon, they took a look at it right away but it was 9:30 or so Friday morning when they got there conclusion together, call to the original dealer have current dealer e-mail reports ect, 10:00 am, now the warranty process starts. rather unfortunate that we are now over the weekend, and a long weekend here i really hope i can get a answer Monday, although if they need to collect any more additional information from the current dealer then that won't happen till Tuesday. if i don't have an answer by mid day Tuesday then it will be time to pull out my dueling gloves and demand satisfaction. 

i would not say they have failed me yet, they still have a opportunity to make it right, no one is perfect the best mechanic can make a mistake or overlook something they shouldn't have. i hope they make it right. 

this truck was purchased from someone i knew he had all repair records for his ownership some from before, well documented in-frame rebuild done at a mack dealer roughly 1 year and 50-60k miles before i bought the truck, witch was basically pistons liners cut counter bores (drooped a liner was the reason for the in frame) rods and mains and re-mack heads 6 new injectors and a few other ods and ends.

had it not been for this recent inframe though i likely would have chose a 3/4 replacement engine+ new turbo and injectors for a 3 year guarantee when the it ate the camshaft, it wouldn't have been a ton more money than what i paid for the cam job. i think my cam job all said and done everything replaced + new windsheilds came out to a parts list just shy of 10k and total invoice just shy of 14k i think the 3/4 replacement engine was pretty close to that price so the additional money i would have spent would be cost of the injectors and turbo and labor but from what i could see with the engine as apart as it was everything still looked great. i figured if i replaced everything in the valve train i would have a better engine as you cant tell me they don't reuse any parts on there re-mack engines. 

When I had this work done, I had it done with the intention of being thorough and complete, to not have any issues for a long time. The truck today has 1,185k miles on it, was 1,17x,xxx on it when this work was done. The engine had an inframe at 94x,000, done at a different Mack dealer shortly before I purchased the truck about 3 years ago. I think I purchased it with about 97x,xxx on the clock. My intention was to do everything and I should not have to worry about anything for at least 300k miles or more. But here I am with 4 weeks of work on the truck after the repair broke down. 

Just now, kscarbel2 said:

Volvo wants to be at the center of your world and be the only person to touch your truck.

With that theme in mind, when the original Mack brand dealer was doing the work, installing thousands of dollars of genuine Volvo parts, did you go against any of their recommendations?

no i did not. i authorized every single item they asked me about, also they had said i had a couple bad rockers they could replace the bad rockers i opted to go for complete assembly's i also told them seems how the oil pan was off i wanted a new oil pump installed. a few of the u-p rollers were shot as it was the up lobes that failed i told them i didn't want just the bad ones replaced i wanted them all replaced. they also said the ceramic lifters are ok to re-use and i told them i cant see putting old lifters on a new cam. so not only did i replace everything they recommended i authorized more than they recommended. 

32 minutes ago, kscarbel2 said:

I suggest you call Volvo Group's Mack brand customersatisfaction hotline (U.S. and Canada) at +1 (866) 298-6586 and start working this problem from that angle as well. It makes a huge difference when dealers know that Greensboro is following this. 

Are either of these dealers "uptime" certified by Volvo? .................http://fleetowner.com/maintenance/mack-reaches-100th-certified-uptime-center

looks like according to the the map neither are certified uptime dealers, defiantly thank you for the mack brand customer satisfaction hotline. at the end of the day today i still have no answer nor have they even called me, being Friday both locations are closed Sat and Sunday mack at home is open Monday but it is apparently a holiday in Canada Monday so they will be closed here Monday.

at the end of the day today i called mack at home that did the work and asked if they had any news yet and the service manager said all the information was "upstairs" and they have not come back with an answer yet. the mack dealer here told me that they requested some pictures and measurements of some things. 

maybe i will hear something Monday?

11 minutes ago, fullfuel01 said:

just a quick idea without real thinking to back my statement. can you just put a pinless bridge like earlier etech have and get going?

i may be wrong on this too but with the Jake brake using a bump in the exhaust lobe rather than a dedicated jake lobe and the spring loaded push rod I'm not thinking a pin less would work. 

55 minutes ago, blackdog2 said:

If you have one or two trucks you dont have a chance buy 25-30 trucks a year then they listen been there done it delt with service mngr since mid 70s when he used to sweep floors at wtby mack they wait till the warranty run out then give you the bill .

they would have to be sweeping the floors for 10 months. this work was done less than 2 months ago. 

well im not going to accept no for an answer they had that all apart if they failed to properly inspect and advise me of repair that is still there liability as far a i am concerned, still have not heard anything back. the parts were off and in there hands, i am potentially inuring far greater expense than had i been advised at that time. 

as far as the valve adjustment that was last done when the repair was made at mack.

to make this situation even more enjoyable, i just found out its a holiday weekend this weekend, would take a miricle to be back on the road today. and apparently Monday is a Canadian holiday. 

truck has 280k miles on re-mack heads done on during a in frame at a different mack dealer about 4 years ago. cam failed on 3 u-p rolllers not on the valve lifters.

here is the story that the mack dealer i am at wrote up, check for noise in engine. remove air filter and remove valve covers found #2 exaust valve bridge laying beside valves. remove jake and rocker assemby. found guide pin for exhast bridge broken off. checked all eahaust jake pins in exaust bridges found all pins worn out. recomending that oil pan be removed to check #2 ehaust lifter roller. recommend replacing all ehaust guide pins on rear cyl head. front cylinder head needs to be replaced as guide pin is broken off too deep in the cylinder head. all jake pins require replacement as well

this information has been e-mailed to the dealer that did the cam job and awaiting a call back from them.

im not really sure how this will play out, they think the worn jake pins are what side loaded the bridge pins. but i was not advised of worn jake pins during the original repair nor did i decline any part they recommended to be replaced. 

so 12k miles ago i just had a cam all new lifters new up rollers and a couple up's and new rocker assembly and oil pump installed in my truck. now on Thursday i was southbound out of Canada loaded and broke a locating stud for a valve bridge. called the dealer that did the work. rightfully so they would not agree to any warranty without first getting it towed to a mack dealer, closest mack dealer being in brandon mb. 1000 dollar cnd  tow bill later my truck got to mack yesterday afternoon they got the truck apart but have yet to tell me a cause, they also tell me that the stud is broke off deep in the head and will likely require replacement of the head as they will have no way to get the stud out.

i sure hope mack makes this right because i didn't spend over 13k dollars having the valve train redone to have a valve train failure in 12k miles. 

hobby farm size tractors go for insane amounts of money. even very old. of course the same age hobby farm tractor probably has more life left in it than the same age tractor that has been used by a contractor for the same number of years. let alone puts it out of reach weight wise of someone that only has a suv to tow with.

A tractor that requires a semi to move it but has surpassed its life span for commercial use can just about be bought at scrap metal price.