Good Shop in Oakland California area?

LBZ

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Fellow Canadian is down there and developed a gnarly knock. Looking for a reputable diesel shop to take his truck to.
 

gmduramax

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Jun 12, 2008
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Don’t really know any places that close to the bay, is he willing to tow it an hour or so more north?

Edit: nvm lol
 
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LBZ

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He had it at all bay diesel in Oakland and they tried to sell him an engine rebuild but couldn’t even tell him what his balance rates were or compression so I dunno.
 

gmduramax

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He had it at all bay diesel in Oakland and they tried to sell him an engine rebuild but couldn’t even tell him what his balance rates were or compression so I dunno.
I would say HMS diesel but they’re usually backed up. Other than that if he can get it to Solano performance center in Fairfield I can make sure it’s taken care of.
 

LBZ

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I would say HMS diesel but they’re usually backed up. Other than that if he can get it to Solano performance center in Fairfield I can make sure it’s taken care of.
Thanks. I reckon Solano is closed till Monday?
If he does end up there who should he ask for?
 
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LBZ

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Buddy had a local come to his hotel with an Autel scanner and did some tests. #8 cylinder was the one doing the knocking. Changed out the injector, still knocking. Cut the cyl out and it goes away.

Ironically I was working on a Z recently that had the same symptoms and did the same - replaced #8. Same result. Had 300psi compression but the glow plug when I pulled it out was soaked in engine oil. The owner didn’t want to put more money into it so I put it back together and kicked it out. Would have liked to have got it figured out as it may have helped this guy out.
 

2004LB7

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Buddy had a local come to his hotel with an Autel scanner and did some tests. #8 cylinder was the one doing the knocking. Changed out the injector, still knocking. Cut the cyl out and it goes away.

Ironically I was working on a Z recently that had the same symptoms and did the same - replaced #8. Same result. Had 300psi compression but the glow plug when I pulled it out was soaked in engine oil. The owner didn’t want to put more money into it so I put it back together and kicked it out. Would have liked to have got it figured out as it may have helped this guy out.
Makes me wonder if it's actually turning off the #8 in the firing order. Which would make it #6 ??? And this why it still had knocking with the new injector. I know EFI live had/has this issue or something like that
 

gmduramax

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Makes me wonder if it's actually turning off the #8 in the firing order. Which would make it #6 ??? And this why it still had knocking with the new injector. I know EFI live had/has this issue or something like that
X2 normally I would swap an injector with another hole to see if the problem follows, or unplugging the injector to see if the knocking goes away.
 
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LBZ

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Well a balance rate would tell you where the issue hole is no? And if that matches up with the area of the noise…….cut it out and see how balance rates change should tell you if you’re cutting out the right hole. Or unplug them one at a time.
 

2004LB7

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Well a balance rate would tell you where the issue hole is no? And if that matches up with the area of the noise…….cut it out and see how balance rates change should tell you if you’re cutting out the right hole. Or unplug them one at a time.
Unless it's the Tech2 or MDI I wouldn't trust it's looking at the right cylinder. Some don't seem to have problems with it but my V2 doesn't read the correct ones. Do you know what was used?
 

LBZ

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An Autel and a snap on. Not sure of models.
I remember some talk about this years ago but I don’t recall if anything concrete was found. I haven’t seen or encountered this issue myself.
Oh and a correction buddies truck is an lly not a Z. Sounds like he’s getting it hauled to the border and he will pick it up from there and figure it out at home. $1300 US to get it there.
 
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juddski88

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Buddy had a local come to his hotel with an Autel scanner and did some tests. #8 cylinder was the one doing the knocking. Changed out the injector, still knocking. Cut the cyl out and it goes away.

Ironically I was working on a Z recently that had the same symptoms and did the same - replaced #8. Same result. Had 300psi compression but the glow plug when I pulled it out was soaked in engine oil. The owner didn’t want to put more money into it so I put it back together and kicked it out. Would have liked to have got it figured out as it may have helped this guy out.
300 psi is low in my book, I'll put $100 on that being the issue. I have a lmm here that has been through hell. Owner was told by another tech that he needed injectors. He bought 8 garbage remans. Hacked them in. Still ran like crap, knocking, intermittent misfires. Brought it to me. Told me to replace the hacked up engine harness because thats what he was told must be the problem. I did that, fixed all the fuel leaks, replaced one of the reman injectors again because it was junk, and got it running. As you tip into it, it starts stumbling and misfiring still. It came to me sounding a little like it had bad intake valve seal. So I check compression on all 8 and found 6 to be 290psi, 8 to be 380psi, and the rest leaked down so fast I couldn't get good readings. Pulled the valve covers and found a bunch of bent pushrods. Checked the crank and cam reluctors for tightness and alignment, they were fine. There's some part of the story I'm not getting, but moral of the story is that even an lmm will still start and idle fine with bad compression and valve leaks.
 
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LBZ

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300 is low I agree. And I only checked one hole. But I’ve seen trucks running fine lower than that. Just down on power and were hazy. But not noisey. That said I only checked the one hole on this truck so it may other issues being it has over 350 miles on it.
 

2004LB7

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More importantly is consistency across all cylinders rather then the ultimate number. And how the measurement was taken along with the tool used can greatly effect the reading. But as long as they are close to each other is what we want
 

LBZ

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Turns out that buddies truck that was knocking when he was down in Cali it was actually #7 injector that failed. 2 different scanners said it was #8.

Really thinking I should invest in a Tech 2. Clearly the aftermarket ones can’t be trusted.
 
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2004LB7

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Turns out that buddies truck that was knocking when he was down in Cali it was actually #7 injector that failed. 2 different scanners said it was #8.

Really thinking I should invest in a Tech 2. Clearly the aftermarket ones can’t be trusted.
Didn't I say that earlier 😛
 

Chevy1925

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Turns out that buddies truck that was knocking when he was down in Cali it was actually #7 injector that failed. 2 different scanners said it was #8.

Really thinking I should invest in a Tech 2. Clearly the aftermarket ones can’t be trusted.

You have no idea how much the mdi2/tech2 comes in handy on these things. If you don’t use it all the time, the subscriptions are overly priced though
 

Dallas S

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Tech 2 will do diag without any subscriptions for the early models

LLY have cyl/firing order numbering issues