Live from the Car Care Studios, it's the CNC Auto Show with your personal on-air and online automotive service advisors, Aaron Clements and John Ryan Mooney. So climb in, buckle up and enjoy the ride on the CNC Auto Show. And we do welcome you to the CNC Auto Show and I am Aaron Clements and our co-host today is the most knowledgeable machine shop person that I know.
And that is Michael Rivers of Bose Machine Shop. Michael grew up in the automotive machine shop business and has a huge amount of knowledge and today you can take advantage of all of that knowledge and ask Michael machine shop questions and car questions and whatever other questions you want to ask. And along with that we'll also be sharing some do-it-yourself car tips. A lot of people enjoy working on their own vehicle and many of them do it just like they for the same reason they do gardening. Some do it because it saves money but others just do it because they enjoy it. It brings back memories of when they used to do car stuff or do-it-yourself items to their car with either their dad or their mother or someone in their family or someone that they loved and they just enjoy doing it. I don't do it so much because I do it all week long but I have other hobbies that I do to clear your mind and I'm sure it's the same way for various people that work office jobs and doctors or lawyers.
You'd be surprised at doctors and lawyers and people that just wouldn't think like to get their hands dirty. Absolutely. Again it brings fulfillment because you finished something and it turned out good. Michael I'm sure glad that you're here with us today. I want to remind everybody that Michael has been in the machine shop business many many years and if you do work on your own car from time to time it is hugely important to build a relationship with a good machine shop person. Whatever area that you're in you want to find a machine shop that you can call and ask questions and I do that quite often with Michael. I might run into a car that has an engine that has an unusual look to it like maybe a camshaft load worn off and I might say Michael have you run into a lot of these that's been doing that?
And he may say yeah yeah it has to do with oiling problem because this port gets restricted and does not let oil to that particular item so and I appreciate all that feedback you give me on a regular basis Michael. Thank you. Okay whenever mentioned you give us a call at 800-224-9090 you can also call 8635-800 and you can also watch us live on Facebook you just go there and tune right in you can listen on iHeart a lot of other ways that you're able to catch us. We'll start this thing out with a tech tip quiz and among the other items the tech tip quiz we'll get a quiz winner we'll get a I answer the tech tip quiz official winner coffee mug and we have one over here somewhere but it's pretty sure it's a big deal.
I smell that here. It is a big deal. A gentleman named Ken won I think Ken was in Maryland I believe he said and he wants to wait on the new t-shirts that are coming out so we are and Ken if you're listening we ordered the shirts. Okay here's the question Johnny owned a 2002 two-wheel-drive Chevy truck with a 5.3 Vinco T as he was performing a DIY project he put something on the truck that cost him under 20 bucks and it caused him to lose his truck his home and his wife. What did he put on his truck that cost him under 20 bucks and why did it make him lose his truck home and wife if you know the answer you give us a call and again that number. Seven oh six eight six three five eight hundred or eight eight eight hundred two two four nine zero nine zero give us a call okay Michael I think we're to get right on down to the to one of the tougher questions that that comes up with somebody that's working on their own vehicle. And it's that person's worst nightmare is is the dreaded broken bolt.
Boy that's a real problem. We don't want to talk about the words that are normally said immediately after the broke bolt that probably wouldn't be good. You know it's like they say every 20-minute job is one broken bolt away from becoming a three-day ordeal yeah advice I have is if you're not really skilled at it you know maybe you need to break you know back off drop back develop a better plan maybe get somebody that has some experience because. You can get into some big stuff I've seen people have to pull cylinder heads off and and all sorts of things sure normally somebody to skilled at it if you take it to him they can repair it no problem but if you get on it and. You drill sideways or off-center or something like that it may be beyond they can't do anything with it after that I've seen people bring cylinder heads in that they've tried and not only did they drill through the bolt but they drilled like through the head through the part of the exhaust port and into a water jacket you know so at that point it was.
Like I said it's a you know even even people that are skilled at it you know there's no guarantee that you're going to turn out good you know and that's one of the things that we tell someone if they bring a vehicle in that's got a broken bolt one of the first things out of my mouth is I can't promise and I can't. I can't promise you will be able to get it out so there's no way to do that there's sometimes there's whatever reason the way the boat is broken the drills going to angle to a different spot but the common procedure and add to this. If there's different things I'm missing but what I always try to do is level off the bolt just a little bit you can normally do that with a dremel carbon tip bit and you can level it off and then you can spike the bolt as close to the center as you can get it. And then use the correct size drill bit and we were talking about this one time before and you said one of the secrets is a really sharp drill bit is that right?
Sure you know once bits get some wear on them they tend to want to walk or not cut evenly side to side. You know you want it to cut not hang and you know it's just you need good bits you know first and foremost when you're dealing with broken bolts you want to put everything you can in your favor because you know there's so many things that are out of your control that might go wrong. Yeah three four five dollar drill bit or even if it's ten bucks that's cheap compared to what you may go through if you don't get the bolt out and but again that's one of the worst things I can think of that can happen to even a professional automotive technician is a broke boat. Now that gives me a chance to mention PB Blaster because I always recommend spraying a bolt down with if it's one that's got some rust on it or you suspect that it's going to break spray it down with PB Blaster real well and let it sit for a little bit. And it will permeate through the threads and it will dissolve some of the rust and then use more of a bumping action instead of just a good solid pull and many times a professional just has to feel of what's going to make it come off. Might be able to shock the bolt a couple times you know take something flat and bounce off the head of it you know if it's a spot you can get a little heat on it you know maybe put a little heat on it and sometimes that'll help draw the penetrate in so like I said you definitely want to take all the steps you can to try to avoid it and if it does break.
That's a terrible thing but we did want to take time and cover broken bolts real carefully because it again it can be the most dreaded thing and do it yourself or can can do so take every precaution to keep that from happening and. It's a I'm here with Michael Rivers we need to make a quick pit stop as soon as we get back on the road will answer some automotive questions will be going to John and he's got a issue with a Dodge truck and we're we're also discussing common automotive questions do it yourself questions that people may have so give us call 800-224-9090 will be right back. Let's head back down to the car care studio with Aaron Clements and John Ryan Mooney as we navigate the covert 19 crisis O'Reilly Auto Parts is dedicated to serving you we've been deemed an essential business so our doors will stay open we encourage you to buy online then pick up curbside together we're committed to getting through this. Stock Car Boy he the best driver in the land he said that he learned to raise the stock car by running shine out of Alabama.
Demolition to be in the bakery is easy money on the bank. And we're back with you and that was pretty quick I'm Aaron Clements here with co-host Michael Rivers and we're back on the road ready to answer your automotive questions and we're also discussing common car questions give us call 800-224-9090 you also watch this show live on Facebook. I do want to lay the tech tip quiz back on the table we didn't get an answer to that yet and this is kind of huge for somebody to win a tech tip quiz so here it is. The question is Johnny owned a 2002 two-wheel drive Chevy truck with a 5.3 Vinco T as he was performing a DIY project he put something that cost him under 20 bucks on the truck and it caused him to lose his truck home and his wife. What did he put on his truck that cost him under 20 bucks and why did it make him lose his truck home and wife and our producer come in here and took a couple of guesses and I told him I could tell him but I'd have to shoot him.
So come up with the answer. Okay we're going to go over to John. John welcome to the CNC auto show and what can we help you with?
Good morning Aaron. Yes sir. I'm going to try the tech tip quiz but I got the wrong answer and got an air conditioning question for you.
Well which one do you want to do first? You name it. Let me get it out of the way. I'll give you the wrong answer on the tech tip. John you know we got to put you on stage man. Alright John be still.
Alright now tell us the answer to the day's tech tip quiz. Okay he put his girlfriend up on the hood, took a picture of it and his wife found out and he lost everything. So she took the house from him. Oh she took everything. Well the trunk was in his name John. She couldn't take the trunk. Oh yes she can. Oh she can get the trunk.
She got a good lawyer. Alright John that means that yours is a possibility but that is not what happened because the title to the trunk was in his name and the lawyer just wasn't that good so he ended up holding on. He didn't lose his truck on that one John. Lost everything else though. Oh no!
And of course it being on Facebook wasn't the smartest thing he's ever done. Alright John what is the air conditioning question that you have? Okay Aaron I went down to, my dog's drawing goes 224,000 miles on it now and Thursday I was down in Biloxi and the air conditioner was blowing just, I don't know if you can call it cool air or just air. I mean it just flat wasn't working.
Coming home yesterday it was blowing ice cold and I don't know how that can happen. It either works or doesn't work. Have I maybe got a sensor or something going bad? Well I can tell you the most common thing that can make one work very nicely one minute and not work at all is the next minute. I would say the two more common things would be either the AC electric clutch which all that clutch is on the front of that compressor is an electric magnet and the computer will ground the wire. It normally keeps power on it most of the time. It goes through some circuits but it keeps power. But when the computer looks everything over, and I mentioned this before, you don't cut your AC on anymore. You request AC and your computer decides on if you get AC. So what can happen is the computer is supposed to ground that wire and if that wire was to be grounded but the electrical clutch be too weak or something wrong with the clutch or for some reason it's not grounded like it should be, then the compressor won't come on at all and you'll just get a slightly cool air because of what blows into the car.
That's one common thing. We do run into some relays that can do that. Make it work one time not the next. There are some computer issues.
I mentioned you're just requesting air. You're not turning the AC on. So the computer may have looked at something it didn't like. There are certain trouble codes that can be on cars that may, just kind of a wild thing throwing out. For instance, if you're passing a car and you're in wide open throttle, the computer would want to cut everything off to give you as much power as it can. So it would cut the AC off. If that computer received a signal saying you're demanding wide open throttle and you're not doing that, it would cut the AC off. So there's no doubt you've got an electrical issue somewhere. You're probably going to have to narrow it down a little bit more to make it easier for a technician to find. Find out if it does it on a long trip. Find out if it does it right after you start it up.
Just any details. So I'd recommend getting a little book, a little notepad, putting it near the car. And every time it don't work, write down the details.
Been driving, cranked it up this morning, didn't work, normal temperature outside, as much as you can. That will make it easier to find. Okay. And you can check that out after I get some notes on it, right? Oh, definitely. Even before notes, there's a lot we can tell.
Because, for instance, if the computer thought something was wrong, it would have kept that code, even though it may not even set a light on, but the computer may have seen something wrong and stored it. So, yes, we definitely can either before or after the notes. So you say the word. Okay. Well, thank you very much, Aaron. Hey, John, I really do appreciate you giving us a call. And sorry about the tech tip quiz.
All right. I'm here with automotive machine shop expert Michael Rivers. We need to pull over for just a few minutes, run inside, take a quick break. We'll be right back. Don't wiggle a toe or anything, because we will be right back ready to answer your automotive questions. And we'll be going to Joe and some others right after we return.
It's time for more good stuff with Aaron Clements and John Ryan Mooney. The CNC auto show is brought to you by the battery shop on YouTube developed by Clarios. The battery shop features DIY videos on battery installs, technical tips and battery technology. It's a great resource for car battery information. That's the battery shop channel on YouTube. I told you we'd be right back. Thank you for waiting. I'm here with automotive machine shop expert Michael rivers, and we're back on the road ready to answer your automotive questions and discuss common car questions. Give us call that number 800-224-9090.
You'd also watch us live on Facebook, listen on iHeart or, uh, or a lot of other places, all of the normal stuff you can go to and listen to us. Okay. We are, uh, covering questions and Michael let's go straight over to the phones here. Uh, we will go over to Joe.
Joe, welcome to the CNC auto show. And what can we help you with? Good morning, Aaron. How are you today? I am doing very well. What can we help with?
Well, I want to get this right quick. I'm at the farm and I'll be down in the dead zone pretty quick. I want to take a stab at the tech tip quiz. Okay. You say you're going down to the farm? Yeah, I'm on the farm now. Oh, you're on the farm now. What kind of animals you got out there on the farm?
Beef, cattle, beef, cattle. All right. Yeah.
And I imagine you getting ready to work pretty hard taking care of those, um, be putting in fence posts today. Oh wow. Okay.
I'm going to lay this tech tip quiz back out. So, uh, everyone I know the question and I, I just, um, Joe, I just, I, I, I feel like you can do it. So before we start, I'm going to go ahead and put you on stage real quickly. All right.
Blue come in. He ushered you up to the stage, blew his trumpet. And here's the question. Johnny owned a 2002 two wheel drive Chevy truck with a 5.3 vent code T as he was performing a DIY project. He put something on the truck that cost him under 20 bucks and it caused him to lose his truck home and wife.
What did he put on his truck that cost him under 20 bucks and why did it make him lose his truck home and wife? And Joe, all eyes are on you. What is the answer to today's tech tip quiz? Well, let me, let me straighten out my hat here. Oh yeah. I look good.
Take the sunglasses off. Oh, okay. Okay. They're all right. Here we go.
You can, the only thing I think you can do for 20 bucks on a vehicle is put a bumper sticker on that. Uh huh. Yeah.
It's um, well, you can also put a gallon of gas in there right now. Yeah. All right, Joe. Um, I am a, oh man, I just, the, um, well, no, the judges, uh, when they, they kind of get, they have an arrow when the arrow on yours went down.
When they, uh, when they did that, but Joe, that was a good shot. Good. Very good try. Well, I'm going home and go back to bed then. No, no, no, no.
You got to get them fence posts on. Get to work, man. All right. Thank you. Hey, thank you, Joe. Appreciate the call too. Yes, sir. All right. Bye bye. And we, the number to call is 863-706-8635-800.
You can also dial 800-224-9090. And Michael, some, we, we, uh, we carry a lot of pieces of equipment over to you, but one of the things that we're always, always real careful to do is when we're doing a clutch job, we always bring the flywheel to you to have it turned. Why is it important to have those flywheels turned? Well, it's a lot like, you know, brake rotors and brake drums. You have a surface that the brake rotors and brake drums, you have a surface pads run against on a flywheel. You know, you have clutch disc ones against a similar surface.
And as it wears, you get hot spots, uneven, you know, the surface, it just, it becomes almost blistered and slick to a point. If you don't have something done to break through that top layer and get back to a smooth surface, you're liable to put the clutch in, it's liable to slip, it's liable to chatter, any, any sort of thing. And it's quite a bit of work to get to the clutch today in today's vehicles. And it's not that much to have it done. So you better off, you know, a little insurance goes a long way. It just ensures a top notch repair.
Yeah. And, and something like that, something like a clutch, uh, it's, um, it can be a little bit fun doing it the first time if you enjoy working on vehicles and doing it, but it's, it's not going to be any fun to do it the second time. And, um, I do know that of course with a professional shop, we pretty much have to, because we, um, there's no way we can take a chance on having to do something twice. Not only is it bad for the reputation, but it's, uh, it's bad for the company to have to do something twice. So one of the things I want to do, I won't, uh, I don't mind telling people when they're doing a do it yourself project, I want to let them know ways that it can make it turn out well for them because I don't want, um, I don't want somebody well, either that listens to the show or comes to the shop and do something to their vehicle.
And it turned out bad. I like to help where we can. And if you work on your own vehicle and you're going to install a clutch on your own vehicle, I definitely recommend going ahead and pulling the flywheel off, taking it to, uh, have it at your machine shop, whatever area that you're in. And I mentioned having a good relationship with a machine shop. Ours is with Bose machine shop, but have a good relationship with them so that you, you feel good about taking it in and, and, uh, and, and getting it done and being able to ask questions and all that stuff. So, um, Michael, I think that, um, I think that that's a, that's a great idea to do that. And I'm going to mention one other thing that don't pertain to the machine shop side of it, but while you're there, if that rear seal has any seepage at all, go ahead and do it because you're right there at it. All right.
But you won't see that until you pull the flower off. Okay. How about if we go over to a ball, welcome to the CNC auto show. And what can we help you with? I am on a real sketchy, uh, scale, uh, cell connection in the middle of Texas. I'm listening to you on I heart radio.
Uh, let me give you my question. I had my cylinder head done down at Bose. They did a great job, 93 a cord, but I wondered he did a crack test on that aluminum head.
And I'm used to iron heads being magnaflux. How do you do a crack test on a aluminum head? Well, on aluminum, you're right. You can't magnaflux aluminum, but what we do is we seal off all the water ports and then we plug compressed air into the system. We have a regulator where we can set the pressure, whatever we want it to.
We normally check them at about 50 pounds, which is way over what your cooling system normally operates at. And then we check it like you would check, uh, for a leak in a tire. You know, we spray it with a soapy solution and look for bubbles and that sort of thing. And you do a visual inspection. A lot of, a lot of times you'll have a little superficial crack in an area that, you know, it just doesn't hurt anything. And other times you have cracks that are in problem areas that lead straight to a water jacket. And once you pressurize and you spray it, you see where the leak's coming from. We even do that on some cast iron heads because, you know, you have porosity issues and stuff such as that and magnaflux will show a crack, but it won't show pinholes or porosity or that sort of stuff.
So each procedure has its place. That makes sense. I'm bringing the car back from Phoenix, my grandson's car.
He had his first accident, blew the airbag, smashed in the radiator. It's an old Jeep Cherokee that's not worth fixing there, but I can fix it back in Augusta. So I'm on a 2000 mile road trip and it's been at it almost all night. So Aaron, I will probably see you for an air conditioner recharge. Absolutely. We're very happy to do that, Paul. Hey, you have a safe trip coming back. And, uh, and we really do appreciate the call. Thanks for the call. Appreciate your show. Thank you guys. Thank you. Okay.
The number to call is 800-224-9090. And we have a, uh, an unanswered tech tip quiz that we desperately need an answer to. So if you have that, give us a call. We also lay in out some DIY tips for people that love to work on their own vehicles. We want it to be successful for you. We also want it to be a safe, a safe way to do it. As you're, as you're working on your car. So we'll probably throw out some safety tips.
We'll be right back after this message. Welcome back to more of the CNC auto show with Aaron Clements and John Ryan Mooney. The CNC auto show is brought to you in part by Dorman products, featuring the largest selection of direct replacements for failure prone turbocharger system parts in the business. Learn more at Dorman products.com. And I'm here with automotive machine shop expert, Michael rivers. He is co-hosting the show and we are answering automotive questions, machine shop questions, whatever type waste you want. We're also given some tips on do it yourself services because so many people enjoy working on vehicles herself.
Some do it and they don't enjoy it, but some actually enjoy it. And, uh, we, uh, we want to help. We want to give you some tips on ways to make things turn out right. All you have to do is dial 800-224-9090. You can also listen right here on WGAC or you can listen to our heart radio. You can also watch us live on Facebook and we, uh, we, I want to lay that tech tip quiz back out there. I would love to see an answer to that.
I need some help with it. Uh, Johnny owns an old two, two wheel drive Chevy truck with a four 5.3 Benco T he was performing a DIY project. He puts something on the truck, cost him under 20 bucks and it caused him to lose his truck home and wife. What did he put on the truck?
It caused him, uh, well, it costs under 20 bucks and it caused him to lose his truck home and wife. If you know the answer, give us a call. You could be a winner. Uh, again, 800-224-9090.
Okay. Um, Michael, what's some of the things if someone was doing a head gasket job themselves. Now, of course, somebody doing that needs to have a little bit of spare a good bit of experience on the car, but what would you recommend doing to a head once they have it off?
Well, you know, first thing is to establish, you need to have the head check. Of course, a lot of people say I've got a blown head gasket when actually it could be a cracked head. You know, so of course sometimes you can pull the head off and see the blow gasket and say, wow, there's the problem. But even then I'd recommend having it tested because most times when a gasket blows either before or after it, there's some overheating involved, which could cause the head to crack. Definitely cause it to warp. Uh, you want to, and it's hard to, you know, even if the head's not warped, it's real, really hard to clean the surface and get the type surface that today's gaskets call for.
So, you know, I recommend even if a head's slightly warped, just to skim it on the surface of the machine, get a really good, slick, smooth finish, ensure proper seal, you know, and like I said, you definitely don't want to put a cracked head back on. Yeah, because many years ago you used to have the engine block was normally made out of cast iron. The engine heads were made out of cast iron and those would swell and contract at the same temperature.
So everything kind of worked together. But now you have the cat, uh, sometimes cast iron block, sometimes a certain aluminum alloy, and then you have, uh, other type metals for the cylinder heads and they're swelling and contracting at different temperatures. So you do get a rubbing action. And if you don't have the proper finish on that, you're going to rub away the head gasket. And also you have your straight steel bolts.
And that's another tip. Uh, if you're doing your own heads, be sure to check because high probability, if it's any type of modern vehicle, you're going to have stretched steel bolts and you want to replace them. Uh, because they actually, when the, when they heat up, they expand to keep the constant pressure on the head. So things like that are, what's very important to, uh, create a successful job, but I highly recommend if you're doing a head gasket, take it to a machine shop, let them resurface it and check it for cracks and use your judgment on a valve job. Sometimes let the machine shop, uh, give you their opinion on whether you should or shouldn't do a valve job. You know, some people have, uh, you know, just coolant loss or building pressure in the coolant system, stuff like that. Cars running fine for the most part, maybe have a light miss when it's cool. But once it warms up, you know, you can tell that it's burning the coolant off.
It was creating a skip. So, you know, that being the case, you might skip a valve job, but a lot of times people run these things so hot that, you know, and blow the gasket so bad that the car won't even run anymore. So, you know, at that point, you're really taking a gamble, not doing a valve job.
You know, so I've seen, I've seen a fair amount of people, uh, cost a cylinder head that might be a thousand extra dollars, uh, in order to save a $95 record pool. So, uh, I would recommend, Hey, you ready to go to the cause? Sure. Let's do it. We'll go here to Chris. Hey, Chris, welcome to the CNC auto show.
And what can we help you with? Good morning. Yes, sir.
I have a speed sensor, uh, on 98 Nissan frontier. That's giving me trouble coming out. Oh, you can't get it out.
Oh, without, uh, without question. Uh, if you hadn't already did this, uh, I would spray it down really good with PB blaster and let it set for a period of time. And you can usually after sets a little bit, you can usually bump it just a little bit. And if it's one that you can twist a little bit, you may even twist it some. And in most cases I've had success with getting them to come out.
After that, uh, you really wouldn't be able to apply heat of course, because of the material that it is. Uh, but I would, that's the steps that I would take. Oh, and if you'll, um, I hope, I hope you get to tune into the second hour because we're going to do something with PB blaster called wicking. So you'll, uh, you'll have to tune into that if you can.
And I'll mention why we like to use the PB blaster. Thank you, sir, for your time. Oh, great call, Chris. Thank you. The number to call is 7 0 6 8 6 3 5 800.
You can also call 800 2 2 4 9 0 9 0. We're coming up with tips and talking about things that people can do theirself. And one of the things that comes to mind for me has to do with the air filter.
Uh, that is something someone could change. I mean, it's, uh, in most cars, I say change, but there's always some, uh, some weird stuff come up, but on most cars, they make air filters fairly accessible. Now, if you like to do your own air filter, I would strongly recommend making sure that you don't let any dirt or debris fall down in the, uh, in the area where the air filter is.
Uh, if there's a little bit of stuff down there, go ahead and wipe it out real good. Look up in the tube, make sure it's clean up that way. Put the new and get a good quality air filter. Not every air filter is created equal. Some of them let can let extra debris come through and that can cause extra, uh, carbon inside the intake manifold. So get a good quality air filter and put it in and also does little snaps.
Make sure they're snapped good because there's cases you, you may have seen that before. Sure. Yeah.
Yeah. You want to make sure you get the rubber gasket down where it's going to seal good because I can speak automotive stuff. It nearly as bad as stuff on the industrial side, but, uh, you know, I see it common, you know, and it's, it's not so much. It can, it can be where the filter is not ceiling.
Right. But any leak in that intake system, you know, allows unfiltered air to go through very bad thing. You can wear out the engine and you can wear it. And also you got a case of, uh, on some cars that can cause the check engine light to come on to some vehicles.
Uh, but the most common problem, somebody say I'm hearing an unusual noise on my car that I didn't hear before. And it turns out to be that, uh, Michael, you're not going to believe this, but we are at the, uh, we're almost out of gas. Uh, gas gauge on the, we do need to pull over. Uh, I want to mention to Joe and the others, uh, that I hope they get to tune into the next hour. Looks like one may have an answer to our tech tip quiz. Uh, I'm Eric Clements here with cohost Michael rivers, our show producer, Mason Rogers. We will fill up the tank at 360 a gallon and be ready to ride again shortly. Thank you to all of you that tuned in and a special thank you to all of you that called in to ride with us on the CNC auto show.
