Between 705 & 1200 SQ/FT DeeDubz Powerstroke shop

Bob Heine · Mar 30, 2025

DeeDubz said:
IF we end up going back we're gonna stay in DC.

Danny, I highly recommend staying in DC if you decide to visit our nation's capital again and I am really sorry you had such a bad experience.

We had the opposite experience when we visited DC for a week with our travel buddies 40 years ago in late May (1985). We chose a strategically located hotel in DC that was 'reasonably' priced. By strategic I mean it was a half block from a Metro station. We'd have breakfast, plan our day and get on the Metro.

Took the elevator to the top of the Washington Monument and took a few photos of the 'crowds'.

We visited all the monuments (this was before the FDR, WWII, and Korean Memorials were built) and almost all of the museums (Holocaust Museum also wasn't built back then) on the mall. Our travel buddy wanted to see the Vietnam Memorial because her brother's name is on it.

A run-in with the law at the Capitol turned into a fun thing. When I tried to take a photo of the four of us in front of the Capitol, I set up my tripod and before I could even mount the camera, a Capitol police officer approached me and asked for my "Tripod Permit." When I said: "I don't have one," I expected to be arrested and detained in a dark windowless basement room. I asked: "How do I get one?" and expected a complicated process involving background checks and cavity searches. Instead, he directed me to a windowless basement room in the Capitol, where I was quickly issued a Tripod Permit, which I put on the tripod. At that point we were official "Winners" and got to take photos like these:

The West Balcony photo probably doesn't look like a big deal but back in 1985 the west side of the capitol was having work done so you had to show a pass to get out on that balcony. They waved us through like we were visiting dignitaries even though we weren't wearing hard hats. I think we hurt ourselves holding back hysterical laughter. Here's the view of the West Lawn side construction, going on behind the camera location:

It's possible I took too many photos in the Air & Space Museum and not enough of the other museums. Took a photo of Union Station to satisfy my train fetish, the Library of Congress and the Post Office building when it was full of shops and restaurants (I worked for the USPS for a year [minus a day]) but I won't bore you with those. I will leave you with a photo of the mob at the Lincoln Memorial the day we visited...

DeeDubz · Mar 31, 2025

@Bob Heine I think we re going to do a trip but stay there. It was nice but a little too many ppl for me. The day we went it was cherry blossom festival. I heard you could take an elevator up to the Washington monument.

02Xterra · Apr 7, 2025

DeeDubz said:
The family and I flew up to northern Virginia to see some family. This is the Farthest east we've been. Flew out of so cal had a two hr lay over in Atlanta then a small flight to Virginia. We stayed at an AirBnb. Decent place for 6 ppl. One morning we saw a group of deer walking through the yard. Our back yard is nothing but forest. We visited the wife's cousins place. He moved from tx to Virginia to be closer to his grandkids. He lives in a newer development. Lots of ponds around. We took the boys on a short hike. My youngest is a huge fan of turtles. He was pretty excited to see a snapping turtle in the pond by their place. One of our days we took at trip to Appomattox to see where the Civil war concluded. The Appomattox court house is ran by the parks service. It's a free museum. Very interesting place. It was about an hour from our AirBnb.

Nice! Appomattox is about 30 min east of me. I'm sure I toured some of the battle fields when I was a kid, but hadn't made it back there since lol.

And yeaaa, DC is crazy busy, the 'beltway' highways around DC are always a cluster of traffic and/or accidents

DeeDubz · Apr 8, 2025

@02Xterra we were just in your neck of the woods. My wife's cousin lives in lynchburg. We stayed in forest just outside. Id never been to this part of the country.

02Xterra · Apr 8, 2025

DeeDubz said:
@02Xterra we were just in your neck of the woods. My wife's cousin lives in lynchburg. We stayed in forest just outside. Id never been to this part of the country.

Ha, no kidding! Closer than I thought. Forest is a nice area, though it has grown immensely in the last 20 years or so with apartment developments and subdivisions.. It used to just be all farm land.
I've lived here all but 2 years of my 33 so far and really do like it. In an hour I can be in the mountains/and on the Blue Ridge Parkway (highly recommend a drive along here if you guys ever make a trip back!), ~2 hours to some of the major cities in VA or NC if needed, ~4-5 hours to the beach, plenty to do around here if you like being outdoors.

DeeDubz · Apr 9, 2025

02Xterra said:
Ha, no kidding! Closer than I thought. Forest is a nice area, though it has grown immensely in the last 20 years or so with apartment developments and subdivisions.. It used to just be all farm land.
I've lived here all but 2 years of my 33 so far and really do like it. In an hour I can be in the mountains/and on the Blue Ridge Parkway (highly recommend a drive along here if you guys ever make a trip back!), ~2 hours to some of the major cities in VA or NC if needed, ~4-5 hours to the beach, plenty to do around here if you like being outdoors.

My wife an I could totally live out there. We're pretty established here. It's amazing how dark it is out there at night. We drove back from dc at night 3.5 hrs. Not too many street lights. It's a lot of back woods small mom and pop gas stations. I did notice quite a bit of apartment complexes. Compared to so cal they looked nicer.

02Xterra · Apr 9, 2025

DeeDubz said:
My wife an I could totally live out there. We're pretty established here. It's amazing how dark it is out there at night. We drove back from dc at night 3.5 hrs. Not too many street lights. It's a lot of back woods small mom and pop gas stations. I did notice quite a bit of apartment complexes. Compared to so cal they looked nicer.

Oh yea, the star gazing around here is pretty great! A bit north of Appomattox there is a campground, James River State Park, that's designated as one of the 'international dark sky parks' so a lot of people will head up there with telescopes and whatnot as there is no light pollution. Those apartments might look nicer, but they're getting thrown up so quick, they're pretty shoddy, thin walls, etc unfortunately.

DeeDubz · Apr 19, 2025

The family and I went to the Socal Airshow last weekend. We had pretty good seats but it was hot af and very little shade. Once the F35 started flying low my youngest who's autistic was having a hard time so we made our way out. On the way we ran into my wife's "old ship". The bell 412 is the new rescue that the sheriff is using. She used to fly on the old ship with the sheriffs as a flight medic. It was nice she got to see some of her old partners. My oldest son wanted me to do some pull ups for the Marine Corps. There was quite the crowd of ppl standing around. There were a few ppl that went up and did pull ups while getting yelled at by a DI. I stood in line got my *** chewed by a DI. I ended up doing 16.5 when I request to dismount the pull up bar. The wife said my son was very happy to see his old *** dad bang out a few pull ups.
Coachella kicked off last weekend. This weekend is the 2nd week of Coachella, then stage coach the following weekend. During these days we just hunker down at home. If you got anywhere via the freeway there a lot of traffic. We have a shopping center with a bunch of fast food restaurants near the free way. Lots of hipsters passing through on their way out to the desert. Ive been neglecting my pools salt cell. Every 6 months your suppose to decalcify it. I haven't done it since we've had the pool. Its really not that hard of a thing to do just a pain the ***. The base I purchased on amazon for $10. The local pool supply wanted $45. I put one part water one part acid into the cell. After 10 minutes it came out looking brand new.
Just the bearnecessities, Thursday while at work we had a bear on campus. I had received a txt message from my wife saying there was a bear on campus. This week we were doing testing at the academy and expecting a Chief from the state to inspect our academy. Campus PD were driving up and down the campus with sirens trying to get the bear off campus. Next thing you know it walked right by our tower were we had our fire props. There was chain link in-between us and the bear. I think if had come into our area we'd just lite the vehicle fire prop and it would probably take off or blast the thing with a hose stream.
Now that im semi retired I just got put into a position at the college helping run the fire academy. I can't work over 220 days a year which im totally fine with. It will defiantly kill us in taxes but im pretty happy with something keeping me busy.

DeeDubz · Aug 1, 2025

Some non garage related things. Ive been super busy with work and finishing up school. Haven't had much time in the shop. It's been really freaking hot too. Now I have my own office cubical for work. Right after the academy finished up I finished up my AS. Personally I didn't really wanna walk but my wife wanted me too.... About 300 ish ppl got their degrees. I was mentioned in the Presidents of the colleges speech. I was pretty shocked. Even more shocked when I walked on stage I was handed flowers by my wife who's an administrator. She sits with all the other big wigs from the college. She got up handed me flowers and told me "don't kill me _____ got them for you". It just so happened that the President bought them for me as a joke. When I shook his hand I couldn't help but laugh and tell him "ya Got me!" I didn't have them long I have them to one of my wife's faculty.

My wife found a deal on some ring cameras. We have a few spots where our og cameras don't view. I added a spot light cam on our power pole in our front yard. I put it up about 14 ish feet. It has a solar charger. I get a pretty good view of my front yard. Added a stick up cam pointing to our front door.

Also finished up my two yr renewal process for my ccw. It was an all day class. Pretty painless, we had two great instructors. I think everyone passed. We had some interesting characters in the class. The guy that sat next to me brought his interrupter with him. The guy was the owner of a bio tech company. Pretty nice guy just odd.

DeeDubz · Aug 1, 2025

Non garage related post. Wife an I took an Airplane to Denver. We both had never been. We stayed downtown proper right across the street from a courthouse. Our hotel had a nice chill spot on the roof. We did a lot of walking. It's a very cool town. There were a few parts where there were a lot of bums. The premise of our trip was to go see Incubus at Red Rock. We watched a few concerts on tv that were playing at the red rock. We met up with some old medic school friends. Overall a great trip. I had no idea Denver airport was sooooo busy. Both the wife an I have TSApre and its a good thing we did the line to go through TSA was long even for Pre. It went by quick but murphys law my wife had an important work call to take right as we were getting through security. Her carry on got held for a moment by TSA... they thought she had over the limit on liquids. Some advice try avoid Denver airport for lay overs ect. They have a lot of issues with weather. The night we got there after we landed they had some storm come in and they had an all stop for several hours. That flight impacted our friends getting out here. They ended up waiting in the airport for 6 hrs before they were able to board and get to Denver.

Xti04 · Aug 1, 2025

Flew into Denver a few years to meet some frineds and go snowboarding. Was 29 degrees when I left Knoxville and 40 when I got to Denver. Hit 70 west and it was like driving straight up the side of a mountain as soon as you get out of town. Of note my best meal of the weekend was at the Mcdonalds in the airport. Colorado not known for their food best I can tell.

DeeDubz · Aug 1, 2025

@Xti04 We stayed in the valley of Denver. We drove south a bit to meet up with a homie but he was busy. Sadly we didn't experience any Hills other than Red rock. There was nothing but great food in Denver. Even at the airport. The wife an I sat at pizza bar right by our terminal. Freaking great pizza and drinks. We visited a pizza joint that makes Chicago style deep dish.

M.Brane · Aug 2, 2025

Been through clusterfuckerado a couple times. Beautiful area, but road construction everywhere, and vehicle problems took all the fun out of it.

DeeDubz · Aug 4, 2025

This weekend I had some time to kill. The F250 is still leaking oil at the CCV. Maybe I didn't tighten the bolts enough. To access the CCV I had to pull the bypass kit. Once that was out of the way I could see one of the studs and a nut that I could check. The problem was I couldn't get a socket on it. There's a fuel line going over the damn thing. You can see it in the last two pictures. There's a yellow looking washer where the nut is. The only thing I had was an American Crow foot.... I think the nuts a 10mm. I got the smallest crow foot which was a 3/8s. It was loose. I was able to tighten it a little bit. I sure the damn things still gonna leak. I need to replace it with a motorcraft ccv. I used some cheap amazon knock off.

DeeDubz · Aug 18, 2025

I had to pull my orange tree yesterday. It's only 4 or 5 yrs old. It had been looking like **** the last month but I thought it might survive. We ll replace it in the spring.
I finally bought a chicken coop door to their roost. I had secured the coop itself as good as I could but between the skunks and possums it was a never ending battle. They never harassed my birds but they do roost up off the floor at night. The door I got online via Home Depot. It's been sitting in my garage for a week. Finally had some time and cooler weather to install. I had to mount it on the inside. The outside didnt have the height for the door to fully open. I programmed it to open at 530 and close at 8pm. At the moment it's battery powered but I had the option to use a plug. I need to run an outlet to the back side of the shop. Im not going to do that till it cools down.

DeeDubz · Sep 16, 2025

2016 Duramax showed up in the shop last weekend. My best friend had a CEL. Code P203B Reductant Level Sensor Circuit. He'd had the code a few weeks. A local shop offered him a $300 to diagnose... All the research I did showed it was time to replace the def heater in the def tank. I had done this on my F250. I figured I could do the same with a duramax.
He asked me if id be willing to help him fix it. Prior to this I told him if theres issues with your truck let me know we can probably fix it. This was after the took his truck to a local shop to get his shocks replaced. He spent a couple grand replaced. Truck got dropped it off sat night. Sunday Morning I started to get into it.
1st after trying to pull the def cover off I found out real quick I had to pull the steps off. 6 bolts 2 that were hard to get at. The def cover was the biggest PIA. You take the bolts off the def cover on inside of the truck 13mm. Then the cover is suppose to suspend down and you should be able to lift it off the two hooks that face outboard. The one closest to the motor wouldn't comply. I think something bent the hook not allowing it to slide off. I pulled the T40 bolt instead to drop the cover. The problem was one of the bolts was stripped and I couldn't get out. I thought I was dead in the water. There wasn't enough room to cut it or tac a nut to it. The bolt was toast so I just pushed really hard on the T40 socket and was able to back it off. I was able to find a 13mm bolt to replace it with. Now the def tank is not being held by anything. I pulled a jack to support the tank. It was about 1/3 full. Got the cover off and lowered the tank slow partially to be able to pull the wires and hoses off which weren't too bad.

DeeDubz · Sep 16, 2025

Out with old in with the new. I put the tank on my cart. I cleaned it best I could with air and vacuum. Really didnt wanna chance getting the tank contaminated. New def heater was 200ish. Slipped right in. Def is soooo corrosive no wonder these things don't last. I used my jack to rest the tank on while I make all the connections with the new heater installed. The cover wouldn't clip in with the strap fastened to the truck. I tried it and tried it but It wasn't going on. Decided to pull the strap and cheat a little. Install the strap to the cover prior to bolting it back on. The cover needed a little modification to accommodate the hook. After that I remounted the side steps. Homie came by a few hours later. I probably spent 2ish hours doing this.

M.Brane · Sep 16, 2025

All the **** I see in the the quest of DPF/DEF makes me wonder if it's even worth it. Maybe 6.0s ain't so bad after all.

SMOKEYBEAR · Sep 17, 2025

DeeDubz said:
This weekend I had some time to kill. The F250 is still leaking oil at the CCV. Maybe I didn't tighten the bolts enough. To access the CCV I had to pull the bypass kit. Once that was out of the way I could see one of the studs and a nut that I could check. The problem was I couldn't get a socket on it. There's a fuel line going over the damn thing. You can see it in the last two pictures. There's a yellow looking washer where the nut is. The only thing I had was an American Crow foot.... I think the nuts a 10mm. I got the smallest crow foot which was a 3/8s. It was loose. I was able to tighten it a little bit. I sure the damn things still gonna leak. I need to replace it with a motorcraft ccv. I used some cheap amazon knock off.

I just did mine on my '19. Did a bunch of reading and research on different options, '23/'24 Motorcraft CCV is what I decided on. It's a simpler version and physically smaller.

DeeDubz · Oct 5, 2025

I purchased some parts for the truck this week. New Bilsteiin shocks both front and rear and body mounts. I ran out of work gloves after working on my buddies duramax. I probably paid way too much for these Milwaukee gloves... 50ish bucks for 12 pairs. I throw them in the trash once they get dirty. I started with the rear shocks. Took the old ones out. They were cheap im glad I replaced them. It's like I had no suspension at all. The rear shocks came compressed I the box. I cut the tie that kept them compressed and then used a ratchet strap to compress them to install. The tie didnt compress them enough that they would fit. The rear didnt go too bad. The front wasn't too bad either but I had to pull the tire off and take off the wheel well cover. The old ones came out pretty easy. Since I took tires off I figured Id rotate my tires. Drivers side once I took the wheel well cover off I could still see the ccv is leaking... I think in a few weeks im going to get a motorcraft replacement. Im sure it will fit and wont leak. All in all it took me about an hour. I think next weekend I'll start on the body mounts.

02Xterra · Oct 5, 2025

I replaced the body mounts on mine almost 2 years ago; man, it made a world of difference... I didn't realize how bad it had gotten! I went with the S&B's

DeeDubz · Oct 7, 2025

@02Xterra I went with Beech lane body mounts. Looking back i probably should have gotten S&B. My buddy just did his body mounts on his 11 F250. I want to say he put S&B on and hes not happy with how much noise they make.

02Xterra · Oct 12, 2025

DeeDubz said:
@02Xterra I went with Beech lane body mounts. Looking back i probably should have gotten S&B. My buddy just did his body mounts on his 11 F250. I want to say he put S&B on and hes not happy with how much noise they make.

Huh, I hadn't noticed any different noise after I installed mine. My rear-most cab mounts were completely gone, so any bump it jarred the whole cab something terrible.

DeeDubz · Nov 22, 2025

We had some crazy winds the other night. So cal has been cold and wet the last week. Wife an I got in the spa the other night. We put the umbrella up to keep the rain off us. Well I guess I forgot to put the damn thing back down. I've done that before on windy days and it's been fine until it wasn't. Yesterday morning the wife txt me and said we have a problem... yep our umbrella was at the bottom of our pool. He was not happy. It took me about 30mins to get it out. No damage to it or the pool. It did make a mess. The weight that holds it down was just dirt. right as I pulled it out the bag ripped and dumped a little dirt in the pool. I ran my pool vac most of the day it's pretty clean now. The bags that were in the base were broken, thankfully I had a new set in the shop from an umbrella we didnt use the base for. I went up to the hardware store and got 4 backs of all purpose sand for the base. All back in service. Happy wife happy life.

M.Brane · Nov 22, 2025

When we were racing at Willow Springs every time there would be at least 1 team chasing their canopy through the paddock. We had a few destroyed ourselves. You learn real quick to remove the covers overnight in the desert.

DeeDubz · Nov 22, 2025

This week I received a new prompt on my dash for my F250. Drive to clean exhaust filter. I had started my truck in the am to warm it up prior to leaving to work. I get in the truck and that's what it said. Just about got to work and a new prompt came on "cleaning exhaust filter". I couldn't regen at the time. Left work around lunch time.... Truck sat for hours before I even pulled out of the parking lot it started "cleaning exhaust filter". Thankfully I was able to work remote the rest of the day. 20 min trip on the free way was enough to clean it. I was afraid that If I didnt do the region soon the truck would go into limp mode and id have another set of problems. The crappy/good thing is that my commute is 3ish miles. My truck doesn't get a lot of mileage these days. Especially freeway miles. I tried to initiate a manual regeneration while I was at work but I didnt have my scanner. I thought I might be able to do it without but having an XLT I don't have the ability to without a scanner.

M.Brane · Nov 23, 2025

Short tripping is not good for DPFs. Even with parked regen eventually the filter will go bad. $$$$

DeeDubz · Nov 25, 2025

Split some fire wood yesterday. It's suppose to rain this weekend. Im trying to clear up this area but I probably wont finish it until after the holidays. My boss wants to come by and snag some wood for his outdoor fire pit.
Ive been wanting a two post lift forever. I finally got one. Well at least I ordered it. Looks like it's gonna be available for pick up Dec1 or 3. The bummer part is Im gonna need a trailer to get it home. I have a few homies that have trailers. I think getting it off the trailer is gonna be a pisser. Shipping weight Is half a ton. I have a 2 ton cherry picker... It sure would be nice to still have my skid steer. I think my friends are more excited than me. One of my bosses not the top dog wants to get a lift installed. I told him to bring it on over. Not to confuse but I have 4 bosses..... One signs my payroll, one is in charge of my class I teach, then the HBIC (wife) who's in charge of my dept... then the main boss.. the top dog.
More updates to follow.

Xti04 · Nov 25, 2025

I used an engine hoist to lift mine off the trailer and to standup the columns by myself. It was a 10k lift. Good help is hard to come by. I had to borrow a trailer too, to get my lift home.

DeeDubz · Nov 26, 2025

I got a few buddies that can help if they're not busy. I sold my trailer but My buddy Rob will let me barrow his. He said if it's too big a deal he ll bring his skid steer over. I have an engine hoist as well.

DeeDubz · Dec 6, 2025

Lift update: I got a phone call from Home Depot telling me that my lift showed up. But they didnt accept it. While unloading it off the truck to the store it fell and broke the hydro reservoir. They didnt accept it and it was sent back. But they ordered another lift and it should show up in in a few weeks. Even when I get it I probably wont get to it till sometime next yr. Im probably gonna have to cut some sections out of my concrete and go deeper. I think my floor is 4". I think my lift requires 6. I'll probably do the concrete work myself. Im a few weeks away from winter break from work. I'll have about a month off from work. I think I'll probably get the concrete done by then. After all that I'll have to wait a month for it to cure.

DeeDubz · Dec 12, 2025

I picked up a few things from Home Depot last week. A new magnetic light, a jack post, oil catch and a new weed sprayer. It's my 3rd sprayer. They don't last more than a couple of yrs. Also I picked up some RM43 from tractor supply and was shocked that the price had doubled. I used to be able to get a gallon for 45 bucks now it's over a hundred. I burned through my last cut disc. I had an old umbrella and a pool pole that I needed to cut up to fit in the trash can. Finally got around to putting up the Christmas lights.

DeeDubz · Dec 17, 2025

Lift update: During my lunch break picked up my buddies dump trailer. I made good time and decided to just go to Home Depot and pick it up and then drive back to work. I had just over an hour from the time I got to the store. Sadly I waited at costumer service for 30mins. Then they brought me back to inspect the lift. Looked fine to me. I told them that I had a dump trailer 14ft with low sides. All the employees were shaking their heads on how to get it in the trailer. After 10 mins I was told to go park over in the pro section for loading. 20mins later a manger came out and told me that they didnt feel comfortable loading it. They were afraid that they would damage it. So instead they offered to ship it for free. It's gonna show up on a flat bed truck next week. I'll probably be able to get the delivery driver to drop it on my apron at my shop. I'll be able to get it inside from there.

While I was waiting in the pro line, my F250 threw a CEL for P2471 exhaust gas temp sensor circuit high. It's probably time to replace the sensor. Today im going to do fuel filters on the truck before I head out of town this weekend.

DeeDubz · Dec 18, 2025

I was able to get to my fuel filters for the power stroke. But it didnt go as planned. I have 3 that I change out. I usually let the filter by the tank drain a while before I take off the fuel filter cap. It's got a petcock to release the excess fluid. While it drains I did the filter on top of the motor and the bypass kit. I try to change out around 15k It might be a little early. Once I finished the ones in the engine compartment I went to pull off the one by the tank. Well the plastic nut in the bottom is a 1 1/4 socket as Im rotating it the damn thing breaks and lets out the last bit of diesel out.... It was still super tight for some reason. I don't like to get plastic **** super tight so that was weird. I was able to rotate it using a big pair of channel locks. Once I got it off I was thinking WTF am I going to do now. I don't have a spare cap, I can't drive my truck and I don't have any other vehicle to drive. Wife's busy at work. I txt a few ppl and no response. I see theres one in stock at autozone town. I could walk there but it would take me an hour or two round trip.
Then I remembered my former medic student lives on our st. I hit him up and sure enough he's off and said no problem he could take me to autozone. The guys a good kid. He didnt go the fire route like most medic students do. He decided to become a sheriff deputy. I think he's way better off doing what he's doing and he still has his medic license.
He picked me up and it was a 10 min drive round trip to autozone. They had the part already on the counter. We were in and out. Once we got back I had to pay the beer tax. We had a few then I got my truck back together. I had the petcock hand tight. As tight as I thought was good enough. When I went to prime the system I heard fuel dripping. I looked underneath and it was coming out of the petcock. I had to tighten it even more with some pilers. Nice little mess I made and the shop smells like diesel. Oh well the thing is road worthy and I can drive to work without getting a ride.

Xti04 · Dec 18, 2025

Nothing like the frustration of a plastic oil or fuel filter housing. I have seen many that feel like a gorilla tightened them. Had a couple break even when using the appropriate tool to remove them. Makes me glad that my local parts store is less than a mile away and delivers.

DeeDubz · Dec 18, 2025

@Xti04 I had a few options. Some times amazon prime orders show up by the end of the day. I try not to buy parts from autozone or O'reillys. My experience they tend not to have very much OEM/Motorcraft parts. In the heat of battle they'll suffice.

When I left for work this morning I noticed my truck was dripping fuel at the petcock. Not much but it left a puddle. I had to tighten even more with pilers. I figured that I might break... Ever since ive had the truck ive been able to open it with my hand. I did replace the o rings on the petcock hopefully its not too bad when I go to do it again.

DeeDubz · Dec 19, 2025

P2471 Exhaust gas temp sensor circuit high bank 1 sensor 4 came back on yesterday as I was headed back to work after picking up my rug rat. When I got back to work I ordered the replacement via amazon and it showed up this am. I had read online that theres a few issues with this. Potentially my DPF system might be ****. If I don't take care of it now it can put my truck in limp mode. Im headed out to AZ to see my mom this weekend and really don't wanna be stranded anywhere. Wife encouraged me to get on it early. My only concern is that I could break the sensor off while trying to extract and Im dead in the water for a few days and unable to use my truck. Being in connected to the exhaust system its a potential. I watched a few YouTube videos from Powerstroke tech talk with Arod. That dude has save me so much money. He's damn good YouTuber and mechanic. If anyone has a power stroke I recommend following him.
After some coffee I took at look what I was getting into. The sensor is pretty accessible. I tried to see if I could break it loose with a 13mm wrench without rounding the corners. Didn't even move. That means I have to cut the sensor wire so I can fit a 6 point 13mm on it. Now im committed. I sprayed PB blaster on it let it sit for a few. I tried to break it loose with my ratchet but its too short, added a cheater bar and it felt it start to get loose. Did a few more turns then sprayed more PB, let it sit. Sensor came out no problem, Thank god. If it breaks the procedure is you cut the bung off the exhaust, and weld a new bung to it... I ordered on its showing up on Sunday. That was just incase. Im going to take it for a rip today before I go into work. Hopefully this did the trick.

Bob Heine · Dec 21, 2025

DeeDubz said:
I tried to see if I could break it loose with a 13mm wrench without rounding the corners. Didn't even move. That means I have to cut the sensor wire so I can fit a 6 point 13mm on it.

Danny, I see a Snap-On flare nut wrench in your future. I ended up buying one when the Craftsman and Pittsburg versions failed to break the line free. It's the fifth one from the back of the collection.

kbeefy · Dec 21, 2025

DeeDubz said:
On the way we ran into my wife's "old ship". The bell 412 is the new rescue that the sheriff is using. She used to fly on the old ship with the sheriffs as a flight medic.

I have lots and lots of time working on 412's, alot of it as a medevac ship. The flight crew Meds were always great to hang out with.

DeeDubz · Dec 23, 2025

@Bob Heine I knew I was missing something. That's defiantly in my future. Hmmmm now that im thinking about it I might already have a set. It wouldn't have done any good its standard and I need metric. The flare wrench could have gotten it with a cheater. When I broke the sensor free I was using a long ratchet. Hope your doing well bob Merry Christmas!

@kbeefy I never got into aviation. My wifes side of the family was all into it. Her dad was a flight medic for 20 yrs. Her uncle flew and he mom worked for air methods. There was one point in my career I almost had to fly in an Astar with patient because the ship was BLS but we ended up taking them via ground. The ship she used to work on stays pretty busy. It's nice they finally upgraded to a new ship. The one they were using I believe was from Vietnam era. At least the shell was.

Between 705 & 1200 SQ/FT DeeDubz Powerstroke shop

ALLIANCE MEMBER

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Attachments

Well-known member

Attachments

Well-known member

Attachments

Well-known member

Well-known member

ALLIANCE MEMBER

Well-known member

Attachments

Well-known member

Attachments

Well-known member

Attachments

Well-known member

Attachments

ALLIANCE MEMBER

Well-known member

Well-known member

Attachments

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Attachments

ALLIANCE MEMBER

Well-known member

ALLIANCE MEMBER

Well-known member

Attachments

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Attachments

Well-known member

Well-known member

Attachments

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Attachments

ALLIANCE MEMBER

Well-known member

Well-known member