Question for the other techs here

[3100 MPFI]

When I worked for Pepboys on Long Island, I started at about 10-11 an hour for installer, messed up my back and went to the desk at the same price.

When I moved back to texas, my boss was begging me to go back into the shop as a mechanic and was going to pay me 22 per mechanic hour. I had to move, so that is why I did not take it.

I did not have any schooling (only have a high school diploma). I only had experiance that I had learned pretty much in that shop, and from working on my own cars, but he saw that I knew what I was doing, and even when I was working at the desk, he still had me do some of the more expensive, or rare cars (a couple of rolls royce, a old corvette, etc.)

Basically, he was tired of Nagel fucking things up (remeber him, Brian?)

[prophiseer]

Bit of an update on all this, as I finally got pissed-pissed off today . . . All week I've been swapping a motor in an '01 Lightning, not an easy task by any means; truck was bought by our shop owner to fix and put on the lot to sell. It was bought with a trashed motor, so . . . anyhow, fool goes and gets another motor from a junkyard, typical Ford truck 5.4L - not another lightning motor. So, there's a whole bunch of part swapping and etcetera between the trashed motor, and the bonehoard replacement. Anyways, I finally got the replacement back together today, and fire it up. After dealing with the dry-knock it had at first (thankfully went away after a few minutes), the motor had a dead-dead hole . . . So I determined that #4 coil wasn't firing, so I yank that back out, and decide to pull the plug and check compression on that cylinder. Nothing, 0psi; but the cylinder has suction . . . we know what this means, right? Anyhow, I proceed to do a leakdown test, and hear something rattling around inside the cylinder, great. I let the shop owner know what's going on, and I head on to trying to fish whatever is in the cylinder out . . . turns out to be a small 8mm bolt. Guess who got blamed for it being there? And for sure, I know that I didn't let a bolt fall into a runner, and she wouldn't have fit through the plug holes, and besides, I remember every step through this whole process, and I KNOW I didn't drop a bolt. Seeing as how this is a junkyard motor, it wouldn't surprise me if it was there when this motor rolled into the shop. We've got to pull the head off now, but by now, I'm just over it, irritated at this headache of a week long job, so I just demand "Where's my raise?" This fool responds "You don't deserve a raise." so I bring up my ASE's and he responds 'that don't mean shit.' So, I started playing stupid, asking him how to pull the drivebelt off, what I've got to do to drain coolant, disconnect the fuel lines, etc. If my knowledge don't mean shit, I can play really stupid.

I'll be looking even harder for another job next week; my days are numbered there.

[geoffinbc]

WTF. If the motor is from a yard tell your boss to blow it up his ass. Especially since he was the tool that bought it and never inspected it first hand.

With the speed and lack of detail the yard guys pull motors who the hell knows what got into it.

Also how long is this 8mm bolt? Is it even possible for it to get past a valve?

The thing I love about my job is I am 1 of 2 welders and I am the most senior. Also by manager/boss does not know ANYTHING about welding so I make all the calls. Alhough on the other hand he is a glorifed salesman who does not know a thing about management. So its kind of win lose situation.

[prophiseer]

Well, the bolt looked as if it had broken in half, but the half I managed to get past the exhaust valve was the side with the flanged head, it was only maybe 1/4" long (although, I have no idea where the other half got to). Honestly, I really don't see how it got past the intake valve, not with that broad flange on the base; it certainly didn't make it back past the exhaust valve, either (and didn't destory the plug, which I thought was odd). Either way, it's BS plain and simple. As I told him, the bone motor I had to remove the intake assembly, which I did in one piece (lower and upper, plus the fuel rail, coils, etc.), which left me with the intake plains and the top of the block. First things first, I blew out the intake runners and then shoved rags into them, which weren't removed until the motor was back in the engine compartment, and I was ready to put the Lightning intake back on. I'm sorry, but there's no way I'm going to allow myself to be careless on a swap that's taken 4 days so far. I started around noon on Tue, and spent the last half of the day tearing the trashed motor down for removal, Wed morning was spent removing the motor (by myself - which is a chore on Ford), Wed afternoon I was striping the trashed motor and the bone motor and swapping parts (same 5.4L, unbelievable how much crap is different), Thu morning was spent finishing up swapping stuff and prepping the bone motor, afternoon I was dropping it back in the hole. Fri morn was bolting the motor back up and fired it up around 12, the rest of the afternoon was determining what was causing the dead hole.

But, wait, here's where it gets better: I had mentioned to him that he's more than likely going to run into driveability issues with this bone motor as it is . . . a stock Ford 5.4L OHC truck motor runs 9.4:1 compression, the SVT 5.4L Blown Lightning motor runs 8.4:1 compression. The SVT also comes stock with higher flow injectors (not sure how much difference from N/A motors), and higher voltage coils (which were put on the bone motor, along with the injectors). The SVT also calls for special platinum plugs (which were put into the N/A bone motor), which he wanted me to gap at .035" - even thought the OE emissions sticker on the Lightning called for .042 '-.046", in which case I would've gone with .040"). Not to mention, the original owner of this Lightning has put an underdrive blower pulley on, a billet crank/blower pulley, a K&N cold air box and intake, a high-flow MAF, a cat-back Borla exhaust, high-flow single port billet TB (compared to the stock dual-port), and I believe the PCM has been tuned (non OE sticker on it), also. The only reson he got a bone N/A 5.4L was becaus he didn't want to spend the extra $3k for a crate Lighting motor (typical used car dealer thinking). So, who else thinks that this was leading into a headache from the start? If you ask my professional opinion, the compression difference alone is enough to cause issues when the PCM has been tuned for a specific motor, let alone the amount of other differences.

But, whatever, as I ended up telling him, I'm not paid enough to give a rat's ass how this job turns out, and he can deal with pulling the head off by himself - I'm through with this truck.

[Juglenaut]

South Dakota averages in most professions is 65 precentile of national average starting wages. However the Standard of Living in the Sioux Empire Is 60 precentile of national average for living Expenses.

National Average for starting Electronic Techs is 37,000 or 40k with 4 years of experience, 50k with a BA in Advanced Circuits, BAEET Electonics Engineering Tech, BAACD Advanced Circuit Design, even more with experience, Masters EE National average is 85k and of course more with experience.

However being a ET in the midwest I get paid about 65% national ave.

I have a family member that has all of his ASE's and gets 35+ with all the bells and whistles paid at a dealership well except for standard tools he has to buy, anything specialized vehicle specific the company pays for however the company keeps.

[prophiseer]

well, update on this Ford motor crap . . . with everything back together this morning, I ran a compression check on the afflicted cyl vx the others. It was pumping 125 as compared to 145-150 across the board. Not too bad, really, but the motor was still running with a fairly noticeable miss. So, nevermind my recommendation that he just drive on it for a bit, it wasn't setting the MIL - see if the computer can't tune out the fuel trim and ignition advance for just that cylinder. This truck is going to end up on the back lot and sold "as is"; she ain't going to be a front-line vehicle, y'know?

But, nope, he ordered up another bonehoard motor, and I've got to do the swap all over again. Plus, he said to me "Now don't fuck this one up!"

So, I said to myself, alright, I'll take care of his ass - bone motor shows up, and I start tearing everything off of it. Right down to the block - cylinder heads, intake, exhaust, timing cover, timing chain, rear main, oil pan . . . everything. I went upfront and told him I need a master gasket set for a Ford 5.4 motor. He was shocked and demanded to know why, so I told him I wanted to make sure that there wasn't going to be another bolt in a cylinder, no debris in the oil sump, no weak link in the chain, nothing to cause this motor to be a worthless piece of shit like the other one. He was pretty irrate (go figure), and siad I didn't need to tear it all down, just be more careful. I said I was careful as shit the first time through but your ass didn't believe me - now I'm making sure, especially when it's a pain in the ass, I'm not going to get careless. I told him if he's got a problem with it, he can put the motor back together and drop it in himself, it won't phase me a bit, or, I told him sarcasticly, he can take the chance that I might get careless and leave a bolt laying on top of a piston when I put the heads back on. I'm sick of this truck anyhow. Needless to say he had to order the gasket kit, and I hadn't seen his ass in the shop all afternoon.