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Unpopular opinion: that old timer who taught you is probably wrong about glow plugs
I was working on a 1996 Ford 7.3 at a shop outside Phoenix last year, and this 60 year old mechanic named Chuck told me to always replace glow plugs with the exact same brand. I asked him why and he said "because the computer needs them to match." I did some digging and found out that's total BS on those older IDI engines as long as the resistance is close. Has anyone else had a mentor pass down a bad habit like that?
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spencer6641mo ago
Used to swear by OEM only but this makes total sense now.
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Oh boy, this brings back something. I had this old guy at my first shop who swore you had to warm up a diesel for exactly 7 minutes before driving, no more no less. He'd stand there with his watch and everything. I found out later that was just a habit he picked up from some old truck he owned back in the 80s that had a bad injector pump. Drove me crazy until I finally just started ignoring him. But yeah, I've seen plenty of stuff like that where somebody learned one way and just never bothered to check if it was still true or even made sense.
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