Even medium duty engines are getting smaller and more efficient, dictated by advancements in vehicle design to meet more stringent fuel efficiency standards and utilize every inch of available space. This has a direct impact on access to servicing vehicle engines. Jeff Del Rossa, founder and president of ProMAXX, talks about current trends impacting technicians when they are servicing and repairing broken components on engines, and what the industry can anticipate in the future.
Transcription of interview:
Erica Schueller, Fleet Maintenance: Welcome to VSP News: Uptime Update. I am your host Erica Schueller, Editor-in-Chief of Fleet Maintenance magazine, covering all maintenance, all vehicle classes, all management, all the time.
While preventative maintenance is a huge part of vehicle uptime, there are instances when an unexpected repair is necessary. When it comes to engine work, this area of the vehicle can be the most labor intensive and time consuming for technicians.
Challenges working on this area of the vehicle have been compounded by the fact that the area of under the hood has continued to be more compact and difficult to reach. Broken components like exhaust manifold mounting studs or fuel injection plugs are no exception.
We talked with Jeff Del Rossa, founder and president of Promaxx Tool, about the challenges techs face today, specifically when it comes to removing broken components.
Jeff Del Rossa, ProMAXX: Fleet engines today are doing double duty. What’s going on is, smaller engines with more efficiency, but they work harder.
If you take a look at some lift trucks, tow trucks, anything in terms of service vehicles. They have smaller engines to be more economical. The problem is when they work harder, they have higher engine temperatures. With higher engine temperatures, what happens is it’s not uncommon for the manifold bolts to snap off inside the cylinder head.
That presents a real problem. That’s the issue with most fleet trucks, getting the truck back into service. And, more importantly, getting the job done more efficiently.
Schueller, Fleet Maintenance: Companies like ProMAXX have worked to create specialty tools to aid the technician in removing these components more quickly and efficiently.
Del Rossa walks us through some of the options available, and how these tools work.
Del Rossa, ProMAXX: The biggest thing they can do is obviously have the right tools for the right job. Ford V10s, which is a 6.8L, Dodge Hemi, 5.7L and the GM 6062, typically found in a Workhorse engine, cab and chassis vans, those types of vehicles are typically found in fleets. They put out a lot of horsepower for that reason – they’re used for double-duty.
The biggest thing they can do is use our tools to get the asset back in the field, fix the broken stud quickly – within 15 minutes or less – and also reduce the liability and health concerns with leaking carbon monoxide into the cabin.
Using our tools allow the fleet to speed up that job and return the asset to service quickly, and reduce cost for the overall fleet.
Schueller, Fleet Maintenance: Prior to the availability of specialty tools like the kits ProMAXX offers technicians needed to drill out the old component to extract the damaged stud.
Del Rossa provides more details on the challenges techs face currently when completing this engine work.
Del Rossa, ProMAXX: What typically happens today is the technician will try to drill as close to dead center as he or she can. The other challenge is, drilling straight. What most customers don’t realize is when they drill a hole, even slightly off center, the torque required to extract that remnant or damaged stud is about 70 percent more.
The second problem is they’ll use a welder to try and get it out. Welding doesn’t stick to the aluminum head, so they attempt to build a stud and weld a hex nut or something like that to pull it out.
Those are the typically uses. The most common is drilling, and the second is welding. Neither of those work very efficiently or very quickly.
That’s the reason we came out with a tool that gives them dead center alignment and perfect perpendicularity.
Schueller, Fleet Maintenance: As engineering advancements on vehicles continue, we can anticipate even smaller and more efficient engines. Del Rossa shares more insights on what we can expect with vehicle technology, and how this will impact the tooling necessary to work on these vehicles.
Del Rossa, ProMAXX: Smaller engines, diesel engines, multi-fuel, hybrid engines. All those create more heat, more work duties, higher operating temperatures. All these factors drive toward this kind of repair.
Remember, the exhaust manifolds are cast iron. The cylinder head is aluminum. With unlike materials, what happens is the cast iron tries to warp and seize it, conditions itself, changes dimensionally. It’s not as stable. What happens is this puts stress on the bolt, breaking them off. This is more prevalent in smaller engines, which is the trend in fleet vehicles.
Smaller, more economical, hybrid, diesel engines. All of those are going to need this repair sooner or later.
Schueller, Fleet Maintenance: For more information on different tools available to service engines, and remove broken components on these engines, please check out the link below.
Thank you for tuning in to VSP News Uptime Update, I’m your host Erica Schueller.
Until our next broadcast, keep up with this, and other industry topics, by visiting us online at VehicleServicePros.com.
Learn more about tools available to service engines.
