Don’t Get Ripped Off Buying Parts
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Term
performance parts
Performance parts are special car parts that make your vehicle go faster or handle better. People often use them to improve their cars for racing or just for fun.
Car
2020 Ford F-150 Platinum
The 2020 Ford F-150 Platinum is a fancy version of Ford's big truck, offering more comfort and features than the basic models.
Term
OEM parts
OEM parts are the same parts that were used to build your car. They are made by the company that made your car, so they fit perfectly and work just like the originals.
Brand
Ram
Ram is a brand that makes trucks, and they are known for being strong and good for heavy work. Many people use them for towing and hauling.
Brand
GM
GM stands for General Motors, a big car company that makes many different brands of cars and trucks, like Chevrolet and GMC. They have a lot of different types of vehicles.
Part
injector
An injector is a part of the engine that helps deliver fuel to the engine for it to run properly.
Part
injection pump
An injection pump is a part that helps send fuel to the engine, making sure it gets the right amount at the right time.
Part
torque converter
A torque converter is a part that helps the engine and transmission work together smoothly, especially when starting from a stop.
Term
turbo
A turbo is a part that helps the engine get more air, which makes it more powerful by allowing it to burn more fuel.
Term
diesel performance market
The diesel performance market is where people buy parts to make their diesel engines run better and faster. This can include things like adding a turbo or changing the exhaust system.
Car
Cummins 5.9
The Cummins 5.9 is a powerful diesel engine used in trucks. It's known for being tough and lasting a long time, making it popular for heavy-duty work.
Company
Industrial Injection
Industrial Injection is a company that makes parts to help diesel engines run better. They focus on improving fuel systems for trucks, especially those with Cummins engines.
Term
horsepower
Horsepower is a way to measure how powerful an engine is. The higher the horsepower, the faster and stronger the car can go.
Company
Air Dog
Air Dog is a company that makes parts to help diesel engines use fuel more effectively. They focus on filtering the fuel to keep it clean.
Company
Fast
Fast is a brand that makes parts to help improve how diesel engines use fuel. They focus on making the fuel system work better.
Part
water separator
A water separator is a part that keeps water out of the fuel so that the engine runs smoothly. Water can cause problems in engines, so this part is important.
Term
common rail fuel systems
A common rail fuel system is a way to deliver fuel to a diesel engine. It helps the engine run more efficiently and cleanly by spraying fuel in a fine mist.
Term
low pressure fuel systems
A low pressure fuel system is a way to send fuel to the engine at a lower pressure. It's simpler than high-pressure systems and is commonly found in gasoline engines.
Company
Cummins Forum
Cummins Forum is a website where people who own Cummins diesel engines can talk to each other, share tips, and ask questions about their engines.
Term
hot shots
Hot Shots refers to a brand of products that you can add to your fuel or oil to help your vehicle run better. They are designed to clean and protect the engine.
Term
DEF tank
The DEF tank is where you put a special fluid called Diesel Exhaust Fluid. This fluid helps clean up the exhaust from diesel engines to make it less harmful to the environment.
Part
oil supply line
An oil supply line is a tube that carries oil to different parts of the engine. It helps keep the engine parts lubricated so they don't get damaged from friction.
Car
Ford F350
The Ford F-350 is a big truck that can carry heavy loads and tow trailers. It's popular among people who need a strong vehicle for work or outdoor activities. When people mention it, they often talk about how well it can handle tough jobs.
Car
Porsche 911
The Porsche 911 is a famous sports car known for being fast and fun to drive. It has a unique shape and is built to handle well on the road, which is why many people love it. Sometimes, people talk about it when discussing how cars perform in different weather or situations.
Term
tuning
Tuning is when you change the settings in a car's computer to make it run better or faster. It's like giving the car a performance upgrade.
Term
Power Stroke engine
Power Stroke engines are powerful diesel engines made by Ford for their trucks. They are designed to handle heavy loads and are known for being strong and reliable.
Term
head gasket
The head gasket is a part of the engine that keeps oil and coolant separate. If it breaks, it can cause serious problems, like the engine overheating.
LIVE
Welcome to the Diesel Podcast presented by DFC Diesel.
Vinny, welcome back to the Diesel Podcast, how were your holidays?
Man, we had a blast.
It was nice and chill this year.
Usually, I got like 30, 40 people to show up at the house.
And you're just going 100 miles an hour trying to get everybody
fed and entertained.
And it's a little more mellow this year, so we enjoyed it.
And I actually got some golf clubs for Christmas,
so I'm pretty excited about that.
Sounds like you had a good one.
Yeah, how about you guys?
It was good.
It was pretty low-key, it was extremely warm here in Colorado
for all of December, so there was no snowy Christmas.
It was like spring kind of.
And I was excited to get back in the groove of 2026.
There's a lot of cool things to look forward to.
But I was sitting around the other day
and I was browsing Facebook.
And I was seeing some of the Facebook groups
I'm a part of for Dermax or Powerstroke or Cummins,
different ones.
And people asking a lot of questions about,
should I buy from this place?
Should I buy this part or this horrible situation happen?
And I thought of you, because you've worked in diesel
for 20-plus years, I'd say, at every level, right?
From installs, e-commerce, the shop level.
I mean, everything.
And so I thought, I need to get Vinny back on.
And we need to talk about how to not get ripped off
buying truck parts.
So you have a lot.
It's a fantastic topic and one
that I'm extremely passionate about,
because at the end of the day, I love helping people.
My position, like you mentioned,
has changed a lot over the years.
And I started out as a technician, broke my back,
ended up on a phone behind a desk doing sales,
and then worked as a service rider for over a decade.
And you just see bad situations play out.
And it's almost always when the customer thinks
they're saving money.
And that urge to try and save money almost always
turns into a very, very bad experience.
If the price is too good to be true, it usually is.
And if a shop is selling a product at a certain price
and you can jump online and buy it 30%, 60% cheaper,
that's not even a realistic scenario.
You know from your past where you
worked in a diesel industry.
Profit margins in this industry on parts,
especially performance parts, it's about 20%.
So if you're finding a part 30% to 60% cheaper
than what the shop quoted you, you're in China realm.
You're in, this is some super junk shipped in from overseas
and it's probably gonna be a bad experience.
Where do you start?
Like maybe what I'll do is I'll start like
how I would look for a part or what I would do
and I'll like take off my hat of doing a diesel podcast
and having worked in it for a long time.
So I'll just make it about some other industry.
If I was looking for something, I think the first thing
I would do would be to find other consumers
that are looking for the same thing I am.
And it might pop up a Facebook group
and might pop up Reddit.
I might find something on Instagram,
some page that I follow.
And I kind of get a feel for what's good
based on other people's experiences.
I think the next thing that I would do is then like,
okay, what kind of reviews can I find about this company?
Like, is that the right place to start,
the wrong place to start?
What would you suggest?
I mean, yeah, the reviews is probably the best,
the best point, you know, people are quick to complain
and they're very, very slow to give coup de gras.
So, you know, people aren't running around the internet
saying, oh, this place is amazing.
This place is amazing.
The internet's a pretty negative place.
And so, you see a lot of bad.
So, if you see a company that's getting good reviews,
that's probably a really, really, really good company.
Like, they not only produced a great product,
they shipped it quickly.
They followed up with the customer quickly.
They followed up with an email making sure
you got the part.
That's what earns you a good review in today's day and age.
You could have the best part in the world,
but if you ship it two days late,
or if it doesn't show up for a week and a half,
or if you don't post a tracking number to an email
the day of the order,
you're probably gonna get a bad review,
even if the part is good.
I've seen this with a very good friend of mine,
Paul, at Complete Performance.
Man, they've got great products,
they've got some great processes in line,
and they just get the worst freaking customers.
Like, I've ordered parts from them for years,
and I don't particularly care when the part gets here.
I have four diesel trucks.
So if one's broke down, waiting on parts,
I got another one to drive.
But that's not the case for everybody in this country.
And so I see these terrible reviews
that Paul and Chris have to field and deal with,
and it's almost always about shipping
or the part was damaged once they got it,
which it's wild to leave Paul and Chris a bad review
because it obviously didn't leave their warehouse damaged,
they're not that stupid,
they're not gonna ship out a box that's smashed to hell.
And so that obviously with common sense,
we would determine that that probably happened
after it left their warehouse
between getting to the customer.
But the customer goes and bashes them with a bad review
and FedEx damaged the part.
So take a lot of that into the process
because you just got some really stupid people
with a very serious lack of common sense
ordering parts online,
and then they get it and the box is damaged
and they bashed the company they ordered it from,
not FedEx, who actually damaged it.
So the reviews is a great way to start
fueling whether or not you're getting a good quality product.
If it's got a ton of great reviews,
it's probably a super great part.
But also take those reviews with a grain of salt.
If it's got five star reviews and two one star reviews,
read them.
If the guy's like,
oh, it's not the color I thought it was when I opened it.
That's an irrelevant review, that's stupid.
Or oh, the box was damaged when I got it.
That's also an irrelevant review.
That doesn't talk to the manufacturer
to who boxed the product.
That's FedEx.
That's whoever shipped it.
So yeah, I go out for reviews.
I do what you said.
I talk to like-minded people.
I'm into archery hunting.
I shoot archery for fun.
So when I'm looking for a new site with my bow,
the very last thing I'm gonna say
when I go into a group looking for advice is,
what's the cheapest X, Y, Z?
That is not what I want.
I want to purchase and have a good experience.
So I go in and I ask guys like,
hey, what site are you using to shoot competition?
I need to be shooting at 15 yards
and I need to be effective at 100 yards.
Oh, well I'm shooting X, Y, Z site.
Okay, well how much was it?
850 bucks.
Well, that's how much my bow cost.
But you know what?
If I want to be effective at 12 yards and 100 yards,
that's the price I gotta pay.
What blows my mind is these truck groups
and you get in there and they're putting up
a picture of their 2020 Platinum
or their 2020 King Ranch or their 2020 Limited
and they're like, what's the cheapest tuner for my truck?
What are you even saying?
Like, how is that your thought process?
Like, you're gonna put cheap junk on a $100,000 truck.
That blows my mind.
Like, I will never ever understand that frame of thought.
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Do you think,
well, there seems to be like two different paths.
I did a podcast in December with Dynamite Diesel Products,
and we were talking about OEM parts.
And I was like, I'd say 99% of the people
I know with a diesel truck, they're not into performance.
They don't know any of the brands that I have on.
They don't know most of the brands like you deal with.
Something breaks on the truck.
It goes to the Ford dealer, the Ram dealer, GM dealer.
They're used to what their part distribution is.
And so they don't know anything about
who builds the best injector,
is the best injection pump,
the best transmission door converter.
They're just used to OEM.
And I think it can be intimidating when you step out of that
because it's like a whole new world opens, right?
Like if you jump on a website and search a turbo for an LML,
how many pop up?
Or for a 03 to 0759,
like how many different brands are there?
And you get all the different language
and the naming and the sizes.
It's super overwhelming.
And I think where you get the information
of what is best can really be tricky.
Because you just said with that 2020 example,
do you want a race truck?
Do you want a street truck?
Or you just need something that performs like stock
that's reliable and you're gonna get different answers
all across the board based on what you wanna do with it.
Yeah, no, you're 100% right.
And the diesel performance market has been so hoared out.
I've been in it for 20 years.
I've developed my favorite brands
based off of experiences.
If I'm selling on a customer a turbo
and that turbo comes back in two or three weeks,
I'm never selling that turbo again immediately.
I always say this funny thing
that's just been kind of my thing,
but you stick your pecker in a mousetrap once.
Like that's not an experience you wanna have twice.
When you got a pissed off customer
on the other side of the counter, it's a bad day.
And I really do cherish people.
Like I love making people happy.
I love selling good experiences.
I love seeing those five-star reviews.
So a bad experience for me is extremely bad
and I will never ever put myself
or the customer in that situation again.
So being a new diesel owner
and my mindset as a new diesel owner,
which was a long time ago,
but my mindset was when something OEM went bad,
the last thing I wanted to do is give OEM a chance
to put another bad thing on my truck.
And so my brain, at 20 years old,
my brain said, well, if those injectors failed
at 35,000 miles on my five nine Cummins,
I'm not putting stock injectors back in it
and I'm gonna nerd out on this fuel system
and figure out why they failed.
In my situation in particular, I got water in my fuel
and so I never wanted to get water in my fuel again.
So I got ahold of Brady from industrial injection
and back then they had two options.
You could get reman injectors or brand new.
The reman injectors were almost half the price.
You know, like we're talking like 2020 or 2005
when I went through that,
I probably could get a set of reman injectors
for like 1,100 bucks versus a brand new set of injectors
was over two grand and I went for the two grand
because I want warranty.
I want something goes wrong with these things.
I don't want there to be any wishy-washy,
oh, you cheered out and got remans
and we don't have as good a warranty on those.
Not saying that's what industrial did,
but in my brain, when I see something
that's half the price,
I know I'm not gonna have as good of an experience.
And so I went for the brand new 150 horse injectors
and then I wanna make sure
that I'm not getting water in my fuel.
And so I, back then there was only two options.
You had air dog and fast.
And so I started looking at the two
and trying to do my due diligence and comparing the two
and it combed down to the water separator
that they were both using.
And in my brain, the one that fast was using
was a better filtering element.
And so I went with a fast fuel system,
but it was a ton of research.
It wasn't like I sat down on my computer
one evening after work and picked out my parts.
I mean, I nerded out on common rail fuel systems
and low pressure fuel systems for a month
before I purchased anything.
And you don't really have to do that anymore.
Back then, all we had was Cummins Forum,
Facebook didn't exist.
Now you got a lot of groups
and a lot of these groups are filled
with really bad information.
Unfortunately, everybody that owns a smartphone
can post on social media.
And if you don't know what you're looking at
or what you're reading,
really dumb people can sound super smart
if they say the right things.
If somebody gives you advice on a Facebook group,
click on their profile and do a little Facebook stalking
and see who they are.
If they don't work in the diesel industry
or they've never worked in the diesel industry,
I probably wouldn't take advice from them.
Find somebody like you or your channel
and watch these videos,
particularly about helping customers out.
And a lot of people that are doing videos
on the internet are trying to sell something.
Very few people are just putting out good information
to try and help the viewer.
So if you can find people that are just posting good content
that are obviously in the diesel industry
or have been in the diesel industry for a long time,
latch onto those people and ask those questions.
Most of them are gonna be helpful.
I mean, right before our podcast started,
I got a random phone call from a Virginia area code
and I thought it was spam,
but I answered it and some old man
that saw one of my videos
and he just had some questions about his L5P.
He was nervous.
Saw a bunch of stuff in the L5P groups on Facebook
that scared him.
He thought his truck was a piece of crap
and at the end of the conversation,
he's like, I'm putting hot shots in my fuel.
I'm putting hot shots in my oil.
I'm putting hot shots in my def tank.
Is there anything else I should be doing?
I'm like, man, you're doing better than most people.
And so, there's good people in this industry
that are willing to help.
I would just reach out, find those people.
Do your due diligence.
Don't go to a group full of strangers for diesel advice.
That is wild.
I think what's really tough with the pricing,
I think pricing dictates a lot of,
a lot of where people can get ripped off.
And, you know, if I think of having no budget,
like I know there's like a handful of people
if I was going to build a truck
who I'd call and say, what do I do?
And I'm going to be spending 30 grand on a transmission.
I'm going to be spending 100,000 on, you know,
an engine chassis set.
Like it's just going to get really expensive,
but that's not where most of us are.
And the economy in general kind of sucks.
People don't have as much disposable income.
Things are tighter.
And they get in that position where they're like,
okay, do I spend $4,000, $4,500 on a brand new set
of injectors, or do I go to this other tier
or this other line?
And I saw that on some Facebook group.
It was these refurbished injectors
from a company I've never heard of.
And they were priced really low.
And there were a couple of guys that were like,
no, you call this place, you call that place.
But he's in a tight spot, right?
And we all know what that feels like
where he doesn't have $4,500 to go spend
on this brand new set of injectors.
So when we get into that realm
where we don't have the disposable income
to go brand new, how can we avoid being ripped off?
Like we went through the reviews a bit,
see the reviews, gloss over them, read over them,
see if it's about shipping or what it's about.
But then like how do I know where to buy them from?
Like if I go into Google and I type in
like who sells the best turbo,
the top of the list is gonna be companies
who paid to reach me with Google AdWords, right?
And I'm gonna fall into the ones that rank high
due to good SEO and things like that.
Simple list because that's a great,
fantastic, amazing question.
Throw the price out the window.
You're not purchasing new or remanufactured injectors,
you're purchasing experience.
If you purchase the brand new injectors,
you're gonna have a good experience.
If you purchase the remanufactured injectors,
you're going to have a bad experience.
It may not be tomorrow,
it may not be three weeks from now.
Some point in the future,
when you buy remanufactured anything,
you're purchasing a bad experience.
It may be a month or a year down the road,
but if that remanufactured injector
is utilizing a cheap Chinese nozzle,
which I know we're out there,
I get emails about them all the time, you know?
Oh, this is Fu Wang from China.
I sell mass amount of injector nozzle you buy from EM.
Oh, get the hell out of here.
I'm buying American.
I'm buying good quality.
I'm gonna buy Bosch.
It's not American, but it's better quality
than whatever she's selling.
And so I get these emails all day long
for injectors, for turbos,
for anything diesel related.
So I know the stuff's out there.
I know people are purchasing it.
I've seen it.
It led at the diesel shop I worked at previously.
We would install these customer supplied parts
to help the customer.
And it always turned into that customer bashing the shop
when that cheap Chinese part failed.
And so it got to the point
where we refused to install anything
that customers provided.
We'd summed it down the road.
We turned the work away
because we didn't want the one star reviews.
And so as a customer service person
talking to the customer,
purchase the experience that you want.
If you want a cheap experience,
you're gonna have a bad one.
If you want to have a good experience,
it's gonna cost you some money.
I don't give financial advice,
but if I found myself in that situation
where I needed a product
that I maybe couldn't afford today,
I've never used a firm,
but I see it everywhere now.
If it's not an option to get the best quality financially,
but you could do it if you used a firm,
I would say go that route
and just pay that off as fast as you can.
But at least it's an option.
That wasn't an option you and I had
when we were getting into the diesel performance stuff, man.
I mean, you wanted a set of injectors.
You're gonna have to have a couple of thousand dollars
up front.
We didn't have a firm back then.
Dude, I think it's a great option.
Probably not.
Like I said, I haven't used it.
I don't know what the interest rate is on it,
but I can give your viewers a list
of people to purchase from.
I would be looking for companies
that have been in the industry for a long time
because you don't last in this industry
unless you have really good customer service
and you have really good morals and values.
We've, you and I have seen people come and go.
And usually when they go quickly,
their dirt bags are trying to get rich quick.
They don't follow through on the customer service side
of things.
So if I was gonna tell your viewers
where to purchase parts,
thoroughbred diesel, XDP diesel,
diesel power products out of Spokane,
those three companies have been around
for almost two decades, if not longer.
You're probably gonna have a pretty good experience.
I purchased parts from diesel power products
before I ever worked in the diesel industry
when I was just an enthusiast.
Brian Howell took really good care of me,
checked up on me, was sending me a message on my birthday
or that Christmas to check up on the kids
and the wife and stuff.
So when you have people that care that much about you,
you're gonna purchase a really good experience
from those kinds of people.
So thoroughbred diesel, XDP diesel
and diesel power products would be my top three
if I had to name drop just cause they've all been
around forever and I've done business
with all of them forever as an enthusiast,
as a service writer, as a technician.
I bought parts from those people
and they've always done well at taking care of me.
So I feel like your viewers will be just fine
if they deal with those three companies.
It's been really cool with the podcast.
Coming up, gosh, when this airs,
it'll be like the 10-year anniversary
of the diesel podcast.
I was like, wow.
10 years.
I remember the very first episode you and I did too.
It's crazy to think about that,
but I've had a really, I think, fortunate experience
in being able to talk with the manufacturers
and the companies that I have known about for a long time,
but I didn't know them.
I didn't know the voice,
I didn't know the story behind them.
I didn't know their philosophy,
but it's made a big impact on me
and what I would either use on my own truck
or I get messages a lot where people say,
hey, Patrick, what would you do for a fuel system?
What turbo would you use?
Who builds a good transmission?
I need a transmission.
And a lot of times they're not companies
that are like partners on the podcast per se.
It's just people that I've gotten to know.
They know build really good stuff.
I love fast fuel systems.
I always liked them.
I always believed in the product itself,
but being able to talk with Brad and Jake
and different people there,
I really liked that company.
I really like Fleece Performance.
I really like their approach to building products
and how they do it.
I like Dan from Dan's Diesel Performance.
I'm Lenny from Dynamite Diesel Products.
Like I've been able to spend a lot of time with these people
and get to know their brands.
And I hope that when people listen to them,
they're able to get an insight
and it maybe sticks in their memory a little bit
that if they ever need a turbo or injector
or manifold or some fix-it part,
they know a place they can look at and research.
But where this kind of all transitions,
you had mentioned working at the shop level
and people bringing in parts.
How do I not get taken advantage of
if I choose a diesel shop to install or fix my truck?
I have no experience with this.
I've never worked on that side of it.
I don't know if it's maybe they want all payment up front.
Maybe they can't give you a time to do the repairs.
Maybe, I don't know what the warning signs are,
but how do I not get taken advantage of
during an install or a repair?
So that's a super, super loaded question
for a couple of reasons.
When I worked at a diesel shop,
there was a couple of different situations, scenarios
that played into that.
So in the beginning, customer supply part's not a big deal.
We almost preferred it at one point
because it was like, we don't gotta warranty it.
And we would tell them that, like they'd come in
and be like, hey, I bought this turbo online.
Will you install it?
100%, absolutely.
Well, I took it to three other shops and they said no
because they wanted to sell me the turbo
and they didn't want to install
the one that I purchased online.
I'd be like, man, I prefer that
because I ain't gonna warranty it.
And they're like, what do you mean
you're not gonna warranty it?
You didn't buy it from me.
So I got no skin in the game.
Like we're gonna bolt it on.
It's four bolts, a v-band clamp,
a drain and an oil supply line.
As long as it leaves here,
not leaking oil and making boost,
we did our job and we did it correctly.
Two times, I won't say the name of the company.
Two of those turbos, the turbine housings
that were casted in China cracked
and cut the customer's trucks on fire.
One of them burned to the ground and he lost everything.
The other ones, they were able to get it out
but the truck was almost a total loss.
Like we had to put a new cab on it and everything.
Both were 6-0 power strokes.
And so kind of internally as a company
looking at how catastrophic that was,
we kind of got to the point where we were like,
we're never installing that company's parts ever again.
Like we will not touch them with a 10-foot pole.
Somebody shows up here with them, turn them away.
Luckily, those two customers were cool.
We were able to show them what happened.
Obviously a cracked casting
has nothing to do with installation.
Neither one of those customers tried to sue us
but it was a big red flag.
It was a bad experience that we as a business decided
we were not gonna install that company's parts ever again.
And there's not just one company
shipping garbage around this country.
There's a lot of them.
If it's not one of the companies,
I would feel pretty safe saying
if it's a company that you haven't had on your show,
the customer probably shouldn't be doing business with.
There's a really good Facebook page
called Diesel Shop Owners Group
and Paul Rutledge put that group together.
Paul and Chris Rutledge are very moral and ethical people.
They're not gonna sell you a bad experience.
They're not gonna recommend somebody to you
if they're not good people.
And you don't get to stay in that group
if you've ever screwed over a customer
or a customer felt like you screwed them over
and you couldn't justify it, you're out.
So anybody in that group is probably pretty safe
to do business with as well.
Between you and I and the companies you just mentioned,
we can point people in the right direction.
So hopefully they land on your video and they see this
and reach out to you or me.
And we can save them from a bad experience,
but there are a lot of shady people
in the diesel industry, man.
And it's at a shop level to answer your question,
how do you not get screwed by the shop?
If they want all the money upfront, that's sketchy.
That's very, very sketchy.
I never, as a service writer,
I don't wanna get all the money upfront
because what that inevitably does
is it creates a situation where your truck
is gonna sit at that shop for a very long period of time
and you're probably not gonna see it again
because they got their money.
So you always wanna keep a little bit of something
on your end of the table.
It is not abnormal for a shop
to wanna deposit to cover parts,
especially if it's a very high volume shop
like where I worked where we're doing 60, 70 trucks a week.
You order $1,000 worth of parts for 70 trucks
in one week, you're playing with bankruptcy.
Like that's scary.
If none of those people come and pick those trucks up,
you're out of pocket 70 grand plus payroll.
That's a bad situation to put yourself in as a shop.
So if the shop's asking for a deposit,
they're probably smart.
They've probably been in business for a long time.
If they don't ask for a deposit, that's scary
because it's most likely a fly by night,
one or two tags, a couple of buddies that got together
and started a shop, they're not good businessmen.
They don't have good business habits,
good business practice.
And so those are things to look at.
And I wouldn't have thought of that
had I not worked in a shop environment
and dealt with other shops stealing work from me.
And that's how they would do it.
Oh, well, that shop wants a deposit.
Oh, Vinny's asking for a deposit.
We won't ask you for a deposit.
We'll float the parts, we'll take care of you.
Or we want everything upfront.
And so those are situations that I had to deal with
and navigate with customers.
And at the end of the day,
I told the customer this,
they would take our, I gave everybody an estimate.
We were 100% transparent, there was nothing to hide.
I'd give them an invoice, parts labor.
They would run around town,
take it to five other fly by night shops,
try to get them to beat our price.
And they would come back to me and then sometimes,
sometimes I'd never hear from them again,
they just take the cheaper shop and that's fine.
But sometimes they would come back and they would say,
hey, why are you $1,000 more
than this guy down the road?
Well, a couple of reasons.
First of all, we're sitting in a 33,000 square foot facility
with 22 drive-in bays and 18 technicians.
So that's not nothing.
Also, you as the customer, if this part fails,
what do you expect?
You want me to send a tow truck for free?
You want me to answer the phone on a weekend?
Do you want me to answer the phone after hours?
That's all valuable.
That's not, none of that is free.
Toe trucks are not free.
My time as a service rider is not free.
I didn't own the company,
but if the customer wanted me to answer my cell phone
after hours and wanted me to talk to him on the weekend
through a problem, I'll sell you that experience.
That's $1,000 more than the guy down the road.
That's not going to answer his phone after hours.
He's not going to answer his phone on the weekend.
And he's definitely not sending a rollback for free
if something goes wrong.
And so when I presented that to the customer that way,
they would almost always pay the extra $1,000
because it's what you expect as a human.
You want to be taken care of after a large
financial transaction.
So back to the whole, what's the cheapest thing for my truck?
I'll never, ever understand that mentality
because I just, I don't live there.
One of the things with shops that I have
a little bit of experience with that I look for,
like I know things can get hectic, right?
You got to cab off or yours, you know,
there's going to be some clutter, you know,
in a bay, right?
There's going to be some of that.
But I always look for how it's laid out, if I can see it.
Like, I think sometime last year,
I think you'd said, hey, does anybody know a shop
in New Jersey?
I'm looking for, you know, I have a customer up there
and I don't know how many people that are going to hear
this podcast live in New Jersey, but
I had visited auto works diesel
in Caldwell, New Jersey a long time ago.
And it's a little shop, nice little town.
And it was like almost surgical,
their layout of how they were doing things.
And everything was in bins and the technicians,
you know, had gloves on and everything was put.
It was just, it was watching like a production.
And I remember seeing that and I'm like,
I would bring my truck here.
I would, if I even had to put it on a flatbed
and ship it to him, I would send it to those guys.
It was that impressive.
My brother has a, he bought a 78 F-250
and he wanted to do a Cummins conversion,
NV5600 complete like restoration of this truck.
And I'd heard about a shop here in Colorado
about three hours south, through the podcast actually.
And like we drove it down there
and I got to walk through it and see it.
And it was the same thing.
Like it was very segmented where
the race trucks were built over on this side.
The repair was here.
This is how everything was organized.
The bathrooms were clean.
The lobby was really nice.
It just, it made you feel good about spending money there
and trusting them.
If they're like putting this much effort into
is our lobby comfortable?
Am I greeted?
Is like the way still like all the things
that you guys go through,
like are they put in the correct spots and organized?
So I think that's something, if you could see it
and kind of get a feel for the environment,
that might factor into a little bit as well
as far as do I want to give them
$5,000, $10,000, $50,000 to do this job.
100% yeah.
Yeah, you walk into a little dingy shop
and everything's greasy
and the toilet seat's got toilet paper on it.
You know, if they don't care about their facility,
they probably don't care about your truck.
You're just a paycheck to them.
And that's never where I'm going to spend my money.
You know, that's now that I no longer work
in a shop environment, I take my trucks to a shop
because I don't have one here on my property.
I actually don't even have a concrete slab
to jack a truck up on and check ball joints.
If I wanted to, it's just my property's all dirt.
And so the shop foreman that worked at the shop
I previously worked at left and started his own shop.
And the thing that's valuable to me about them is
he is hands down the most meticulous dyad guy
I have ever met in the 20 years
I've been in the diesel industry.
Like perfect example, I bought a 6.0 power stroke,
low miles, then sitting in a barn for years,
which is scary, that's the worst.
Like a low mileage garage kept diesel trucks
scares me more than a high mileage truck
that's towed trailers every day
because at least it was working.
The fuel system was running.
There was no stagnant fuel in the tank or the lines.
That's ideal.
Like if people are buying purchasing used trucks
you want the high mileage truck
that got driven every day
that got oil changes, you know, once a month.
You don't want the truck to sat in a barn for five years.
As cool as it sounds or as neat as it is to post up
a 30 year old truck with 27,000 original miles
that is a terrible situation.
I bought this truck.
It was a dream truck for me.
05 four door long bed, single rear wheel,
Harley Davidson F 350.
I've always wanted one.
I love that interior.
I love a four door long bed and they're rare.
They're very rare.
So I bought it knowing I was probably gonna have problems.
Drove it for a little while.
Sitting in a stoplight one day and the truck just dies.
Fire's right back up.
Something's wrong.
No check engine light, no codes.
So I take it to the shop.
I take it to my buddy Chris
at Quality Auto Salvage here in Georgia.
He goes to the truck, drove it every day
for two weeks, could not replicate the issue.
Checked everything that could possibly cause that issue.
Cam sensor, crank sensor, FICUM.
Everything that could cause a random 6.0 cutoff,
fire back up, no codes.
Everything checked good.
He refused to throw parts at my truck.
Even though he knew the top five things
that could cause that situation,
he did the right thing
and he didn't throw parts at my truck.
He told me to come and get it.
Keep driving it until it becomes more of an issue
or until it leaves you stranded, which sucks.
I don't wanna be stranded.
But that's what you're looking for
when you're trying to find a shop to work on your truck
is somebody that's gonna be honest and say,
hey, I cannot replicate or find the issue.
Therefore, come get your truck,
drive it till the issue becomes more persistent
and then we'll figure it out for you.
If a shop calls you and says we think
or it could be or in the past it was,
get your shit out of there.
Get the truck out of that shop and don't go back
because that's when they load the parts can
and they just start firing
until they accidentally get it right.
And I've seen that happen the entire 20 years
I've been in this industry.
I've been very lucky to work at some very good shops
with some really talented diagnostics people.
And they are hard to find.
I have a list of shops that I've kind of built
in my head over the years
that I really trust to help customers
because our customers aren't just sitting here in Georgia
they're traveling around the world
they're traveling around the country
they're traveling to Canada
they're traveling down to Mexico.
I was talking to a guy yesterday in Yucatan
with an F350 with a 73 in it.
So, when he was calling to ask
if he should put this part on his truck
that the shop down there told him to put on there
and I was like, absolutely not.
That thing's gonna leak oil, it's gonna be a nightmare
you're gonna have a bad experience, don't do it.
So I'm always happy to help.
If people watching this video
are looking for answers to questions
I love answering questions.
I will, I refuse to go to bed at night
until all my Facebook messages are answered
all my text messages are answered
all my emails are answered.
I cannot go to bed with notifications on my phone screen.
So, if anybody wants to reach out
I don't know everything.
I am an expert at nothing.
I know a lot about diesels
I know a lot about the industry
I know a lot about manufacturers
I know a lot about shops.
I'm always happy to help
if anybody has questions
they can reach out.
Common question we get from you guys a lot is
hey, I need a diesel engine.
I either, you know, I can't wait this long to get one
or normal place I get stuff from it.
It just takes too long or I don't
they don't have the parts in it that I need.
Maybe my truck's not stock or I tow heavy with it.
I don't want to go back with just a stock engine.
DFC diesel is a sponsor of the podcast.
We worked with them, you know, hand in hand
on doing episodes answering technical questions.
They have a complete lineup
of Cummins, Duramax and Powerstroke
remanufactured engines
that are set to a standard of ISO 9001 2015 standards
which is a huge deal in the aftermarket
and there's certain levels of quality testing validation
that are required for that.
So, you know, when you get one of those engines
the type of quality that's built behind it
with an industry leading warranty
that's really comprehensive.
And, you know, the other thing with that
is, you know, sometimes the options that are out there
it's just it's a basic OEM engine.
You want a little bit more
you don't want to have the same failure again.
So there's a bunch of different series of engines
that they have from core, street, tow haul
and also the speed of air series
which we've covered on the podcast before.
There's a lot of really cool benefits to it.
And if you have questions about that, reach out to them.
If you don't know the type of engine
that you're looking for.
If you go to dfcdiesel.com
there's a ton of info there.
You can send an email or you can reach out to them.
Also, they're working with speed of air pistons
which it's the only piston that pays for itself.
And there's a lot of really cool technology behind it.
So you can add that into your build
and be able to get better fuel economy,
you know, increased power, increased torque
and better engine life out of it.
You know, some of the most common engine applications
or series of engines that they have with that lead time
a lot of them are in stock
or they have really short lead times.
So you can check your favorite retailer
or go to dfcdiesel.com, check them out
to see what's in stock, see what you can get.
If you have questions, maybe you want to do, you know
something that's outside of the normal series of engines
they have tons of choices for rods, cranks, pistons,
valve train upgrades, tons of different things.
So if you're in the market, definitely make sure
and hit on over and check them out.
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One of the things I really look forward to,
you reminded me of it,
is I like when my point of contact
at a shop is opinionated.
Like you're very opinionated on parts.
Kat from Siskiw Diesel's really opinionated on parts.
Other people are.
And when they're like that, you know,
if I went to you and said, hey Vinny,
I'm looking at part X, but on my truck
and you're like, dude, that sucks, don't run it.
I won't even sell it to you or don't even buy it.
You need to run this one.
I know that that's because of experience.
Or if I went to Kat and said, hey Kat,
will you put this on my truck?
She's like, absolutely not.
I will not use that.
This is the one I'm gonna use.
This is what you need to do.
Then I know that, one, they have an investment
in their business to have like experience with it
and they're pointing me in a direction.
So I don't like, if I ask questions
and it's just kind of wishy-washy or it's like.
Yeah man, we'll throw it on.
Yeah, we don't care.
Yeah, bring it in.
We'll throw it on there for you.
Not a big deal.
Yeah, that's scary.
That means they don't know anything.
And they shouldn't be working at a diesel shop.
Yeah, it's, I guess it's kind of,
it's hard to do that, right?
Like we know because we've been around it
or enthusiasts for a really long time.
But when I think back to when I was new,
I didn't know anything.
I think the first part I ever bought, gosh, it was like 2008.
I think I got it from Thoroughbred Diesel.
And it was just because I found it, you know,
like it popped up and it was a smooth kind of experience.
But the one thing in 2026 that absolutely scares me
more than any other part on a truck.
I'm sure you have a lot of information with us.
Is tuning.
Because in the past, like if we go back a long time,
I'm not gonna name companies
or talk about what kind of tuning or anything like that.
But you had like a handful of places that were really good.
And sometimes they would specialize in Duramax or Ford,
power strokes or Cummins.
And they were tuning, you know, big race trucks
or tuning daily drivers.
You had a problem.
You could reach out to them.
They had a phone number, a social media presence.
There was accountability.
And then it became like the wild, wild West
with what people like to do to their trucks now
where there isn't, the big names aren't doing it.
They don't want the cases.
They don't want the felonies.
They don't want to go bankrupt.
They don't want to deal with any of that stuff.
And that space has been filled by places
you may not know.
You may not know who's doing the tuning.
There isn't that accountability.
And it scares me so much
because look at the price of trucks.
Like I'm dating myself,
but I remember finding like a mid-level trim,
maybe even like a Laramie or something,
50 grand, $55,000, four wheel drive diesel truck.
You're not touching that now.
You know, you're 90,000, 105,000, 110,000
for some of those nicer ones.
And I'm like, who am I trusting to tune my engine?
So like, I guess maybe to step away
from the repair a little bit
and kind of focus on the upgrades that people like,
what are your thoughts with not getting ripped off with tuning?
So I'm gonna go a little deeper on this
just to paint the picture
because it is an important topic.
We got out of deletes a long time ago
because a good friend of mine got busted,
phoned me, told me about the whole experience,
sounded terrifying.
Didn't sound like something I wanted to deal with.
We kiboshed it.
We got rid of anything and everything in the shop
that could have ever been associated with deletes.
And cold turkey quit and it hurt, it sucked financially.
That was a terrible, terrible decision to have to make
as a service rider at a shop.
And it put the shop owner and myself at odds.
I was demoted over that decision.
I lost a lot of customers over that decision.
But I didn't go to prison
and I didn't get Hillary Clinton in my bathtub.
But it sucked.
And prior to that decision,
we had never replaced a six, seven power stroke engine ever.
And we were a shop that specialized in power strokes.
Starting in 2020, a couple of years
after we made the decision to stop,
and a lot of the people that you and I both know
that we're doing really good tuning,
they all got in trouble.
They all got fine.
They all got prison sentences or a lot of bad stuff
happened to really good people.
And so you get all these fly by night people
in the industry that are now doing that tuning.
And we are replacing six, seven power stroke engines
left and right, lift or failure, spun crank gears.
Never seen a spun crank gear before that.
Like I'd heard rumors, there was one company
that was just constantly preaching on Facebook
about welding crank gears.
And we're all sitting down here like,
what are they doing up there?
And it was tuning.
It was that shop's tuning that was spinning crank gears.
And I'm not a tuner, but just to very lamely
put that puzzle together.
If you're injecting fuel at the wrong point
of pistons coming up and down,
you can almost create like,
you're putting force against the piston
when you shouldn't be,
which is pushing force through the rod,
which is putting force on the crank.
And as the crank's trying to go this way,
all this fuel's being hogged into the piston
and the crank starts trying to go this way.
And now you have a spun crank here.
So tuning guy, I don't know the exact timing
and injector duration and all that stuff
that goes into creating that scenario.
But I know that that's what's happening
because when we were buying good tuning
from these three companies, we didn't see those problems.
And when those three companies got in trouble
and stopped tuning,
and Tom Dick and Harry slinging tunes
out of their grandma's basement,
wearing tighty whiteies and a white beater,
all of a sudden are flooding the market
and everybody on Facebook's talking about these dudes
that I've never heard of before
and how amazing their tuning is.
And then all of a sudden my parking lot is full of trucks
with those people's tuning on it
with spun crank gears and cracked pistons
and shattered rods.
It's very much, very obviously a tuning issue
because the good people are gone, the hacks are here
and now we're doing repairs
that we've never done before.
6R140 transmissions, we were hogging 820 horsepower,
a stock 6R140 for years.
Dual fuelers, SX-E369, stock injectors,
upgraded intercooler, really good tuning,
eight and a quarter was not unheard of
on a six, seven power stroke.
And we were doing it for years
and we never built a transmission.
We'd never blown up a 6R140.
It just wasn't a thing.
Then Facebook sensation so and so over here
comes out with this amazing 6R140 trans tuning
and I got a freaking parking lot full
of blown up 6R140s.
The saddest part is easy as that is to recognize
from within a shop, the individual users don't see it
on a pattern scale like we do.
And so when I'm trying to tell them,
hey, get the trans tunes off your truck,
that's why your transmission's blown up.
They're like, no man, that guy's got like a,
he's got like a hundred thousand followers on Facebook.
He's amazing.
Okay.
I don't care, keep it.
I just sold you a $12,000 transmission
and you paid a bunch of labor and flew it.
I don't care.
Come back in a month, we'll do it again.
I'm simply telling you this
because I've seen the pattern.
I know what's happening.
I know it's tuning.
I'm trying to save you money
and some of them listen and some of them don't.
And the ones that don't listen,
we made a lot of money off of.
And that's sad.
It's sad that trying to be a helpful person
causes you to lose customers
because they just don't want to believe it
because at the end of the day,
a guy working at a diesel shop like me
for years and years and years,
I only see the bad.
Healthy people don't go to doctor's offices.
The guy that's got a million miles on his LML
and never been in a shop
is never gonna, I'm never gonna see that guy.
He's not my customer.
It's the guy that blew a head gasket
at 30,000 miles with an LML that I had to fix.
And then we studded it and then it blew another head gasket.
And then we're trying to figure out
why these LMLs are blowing head gaskets left and right.
Those are the people I see.
I don't see the people that are happy with their truck.
I don't see the people
that had a great experience with their truck.
I only see the people that had a bad experience.
So I got to put the patterns together
and then figure out,
we got to do all the mystery work
to put this together and figure out
what's causing these repeat failures on a mass scale
because we did so many LML head gasket jobs.
But you and I had a conversation years ago
about LML head gaskets.
And in the comments, 860,000 views later,
we had a bunch of pissed off LML customers
saying that LMLs don't blow head gaskets.
Well, obviously theirs hasn't,
but the ones I'm talking about absolutely did.
So it's frustrating.
It's really frustrating trying to help people
in this industry.
And you got a bunch of keyboard warriors
calling you an idiot
when all you've done is tried to share your experience
to help people save money.
That's why I love to have shops on the podcast
or people who have worked at shops on the podcast
because they're like,
they're in between the customer
who they're the sample size of one, right?
Like they've never had a problem with their truck
in 300,000 miles.
It's the greatest truck ever.
Well, they just have a sample size of what they own.
You're getting who even knows how many per month
or per year,
but you're getting a lot more feedback from them.
But then you're also working with
ever many dozens or hundreds of
aftermarket companies that are in that space.
So you get the feedback from both ends.
And it's a great way to kind of bridge the gap.
That's why I thought you'd be perfect to have on
to discuss like how not to get ripped off.
Would you say like on a positive note though,
is it easier to find out
or is it easier to avoid getting ripped off now
in like 2026 than it was five years ago,
10 years ago?
Yeah, there's this podcast.
This podcast is amazing.
Like I've never been paid to come on here.
You've never, I've never paid you to have me on.
Like this is just a very honest relationship
between two guys that did business together for many years.
I bought parts from the company that you work for.
You sold parts to the company that I work for.
We had a great relationship and we remained friends
after you quit that company.
And after I quit the company I worked for.
And so this is a very honest space.
There's no money involved here.
And when you have, when your viewers
have that available to them,
there are people that pay to be on your show
and there are people that you've interviewed
that maybe had an angle or wanted to sell something
but there's so many honest conversations on here
where there's no money initiative
and that's invaluable to the customer.
Like this conversation is invaluable.
The people that watch this video,
you're just getting raw honesty completely unscripted.
I think you asked me what two days ago if I could do this.
Yeah.
And I don't even know what we're specifically
gonna talk about.
Like this, it doesn't get any more honest, you know?
And it's funny doing the whole YouTube thing.
It's like you're not scripted.
So you say one word wrong
and people just flame you in the comments
and I love it.
Like they don't realize they're just helping us.
But it is honest at the end of the day
whether we slip up and say something wrong or whatever,
but yeah, the fact that this exists,
this did not exist when you and I
were getting into the diesel industry
or when we were, not even the diesel industry,
when you and I were just enthusiasts
and you were trying to race your truck
and I was trying to sled pull with my truck
and we were learning this stuff hard.
Like we would buy injectors from somebody
that we thought was reputable
and then two months later,
they were out of business
or we got tuning from somebody
that everybody was worshiping online
and then three months later, they were out of business
and that was a scary time
because I'm not made of money.
Like there was a point in my life
where I made a lot of money
but I still didn't wanna waste it ever.
And so the fact that platforms like this exist is awesome.
The scary thing is the Facebook pages
like I frequent probably 70 different diesel related
Facebook pages between Powerstroke, Duramax and Cummins
and I see so much bad information posted on it.
Like people just worshiping brand X intercooler pipe kit
and I'm like, bro, I've installed 30 of those things
and every single one of them was different
and every single one of them didn't line up
and every single one of them,
we had to beat the heck out of it with a hammer
to get it to fit
or we had to throw the boots that came with it away
to buy boots that did work.
But I see these guys on Facebook just bold face lying
saying it popped right in, it fit perfectly.
And I'm like, there's no freaking way.
There's no freaking way.
I got 30 bad ones in a row in a shop environment
and you just bought one in your driveway
and it just fell right into place.
So that's a little bit scary
but easily enough, it's avoidable.
So if you're in the Facebook groups
and you feel like you're getting bad information
and you feel like you're not getting honest answers
and you feel like you're getting sold a marketing line,
reach out to Patrick, reach out to me,
reach out to Patrick and he'll get a hold of me
or somebody, if you're having an issue with turbos
we know good turbo people.
If you're having an issue with injectors
we know good injector people.
The big thing that I would look at
and this kind of just came to me as I was talking
if you're looking at a company
and you're looking at spending a lot of money with them
see if they're on LinkedIn.
I follow a lot of diesel companies on LinkedIn
and none of the sketchy people
that I've dealt with in this industry are on LinkedIn.
And if they are on LinkedIn, their accounts are dead.
Like they haven't posted in years.
They've never, they're not on there every day.
Like I follow fleece performance on LinkedIn.
They are commenting, posting active every day.
SNS Motorsports, they are commenting, making videos
putting stuff on LinkedIn every day.
You have nothing to gain by putting content on LinkedIn
other than being accountable to your peers in the industry.
Because you put something on LinkedIn as a manufacturer
and it's not perfect or factual or good.
You're gonna get called out
by other really good companies that are active on LinkedIn.
It's not like Facebook.
Like Facebook and Instagram and TikTok
they're popularity contest.
Anybody will say anything on there for views
and likes and clicks.
Not LinkedIn.
So if you wanna like weed out some of the BS
in the diesel performance industry specifically
and you're looking at parts from a company
jump on LinkedIn, search that company.
If they don't show up or if they show up
and they're not active
probably a pretty good way to gauge
whether they're reputable or not.
You just reminded me of a conversation I had
with a shop owner.
And he had been listening to your podcast
for a really long time.
And some of the guests you've had
I've decided to carry their product lines.
And he had sent me a picture
of one was for fuel additives and some other ones.
And I think what you just mentioned there with LinkedIn
like I didn't come into this conversation
even thinking about it from a shop perspective.
But if you do have a shop
and you're looking for how do I not get ripped off
offering parts to my customers.
LinkedIn would be a really good way
cause it does like I just recently got on there
like last year and it does.
It takes away a lot of the drama
and the like click farm stuff and everything else.
And it's really just about where to find
places that are solid.
I'm not sure if like an enthusiast
would jump on there and look
but for somebody that's in the industry
that would be a great place to start
and be able to see those kinds of things.
I think the other part you mentioned
I'm really passionate about content.
And I'm not just saying this specifically
about the diesel podcast.
Like I do listen to other truck podcasts.
I do find value in what they say.
I find value in your channel.
I really like what you do.
There's other people
that are really solid content creators.
But when you like I had someone mentioned to me
it was on I don't remember if it was on our Instagram
or what page we have.
But he said I don't buy a product
unless a company has been on your show
and they've been on and I've heard them talk.
So and I never even thought of that.
But he obviously looked at it like
you're gonna be on for an hour.
You can't really hide for an hour.
There could be a curveball I throw you.
There could be something I ask that you can't
you don't get from a magazine ad.
You don't get from a PA announcement.
You don't get from a billboard.
You don't get from a t-shirt or hat or something like that.
Like you have to hold a conversation for an hour
or when you do a video and it's 30, 45 minutes long
like you can't hide from the camera.
You can't hide from the content.
And so that's a great way.
And I love how kind of legacy media it is dying out.
The old way of it is like I'm sure you know
like with your parents or uncles or older people
like they would buy stuff based on like
you get a mailer like a piece of paper in the mail
and like a coupon book and they would buy it, right?
Like I remember that stuff and I'm like
there's no depth like what's it made out of?
How does it work?
Why'd they think of making this product?
How does it install?
What is it good for?
Like you need an hour to talk about that
or at least 20, 30 minutes to be able to do that.
So I think the point you made is extremely valuable
and I mean the world saw it during the last election.
It determined, podcasts determined an election
and in some part I don't know how much
but when you're willing to engage for like an hour.
I agree with you.
100% on that.
I seriously believe what you just said.
Yeah.
Yeah, Joe Rogan saved that election.
Sean Ryan saved that election, right?
And this channel is gonna save people money.
Like you cannot hide from the, like you said
the camera, you can't hum on this show
and spew BS for 35, 40 on a nowhere
and not get caught.
Like it's just not possible.
And so I think this is a very valuable place for enthusiasts.
I think it's a very valuable,
like the biggest thing that I see
in this industry right now.
You know, I didn't know where I was gonna go
or what I was gonna do
when I quit working at the last shop that I was at.
And I did the same, like you said
about a year and a half ago I got on LinkedIn
and that's where I started seeing
where LinkedIn falls in the world of social media.
It's not a social media site at all.
It's a site for professionals to get their name
out there and to get hired by these companies
and that's not what I use it for.
You know, I use it to vet manufacturers.
I use it to vet people that I'm selling parks for.
Like it's how I decide
if I take somebody serious or not.
And unfortunately there's gonna be some people
that take advantage of that.
But at the end of the day really good marketing
sells really bad parts.
And that's unfortunate because there's some people
that are very talented at marketing
slinging garbage in the diesel industry.
And it's videos like this
that are gonna set people apart
and hold people accountable.
And the crappy thing is in today's day and age
we can't just call out and say,
hey, company X, Y and Z are garbage
because you get sued for slander or something like that.
But it makes it hard, like especially with what I'm doing
you gotta be careful, you gotta tiptoe.
Like you wanna just say the quiet part out loud
and be honest to save people money.
But at the same time you got everybody's sue happy
and got an attorney on speed dial.
And it's just, it's a hard part,
it's a hard ethical mountain to climb and stand on.
Because while you're trying to save customers money
and sell people a good experience
you do have to worry about getting sued.
And the Sean Ryan Dan Crenshaw thing
is a perfect example of that.
But Titan in the podcast industry
and he's got a dude trying to sue him for being honest.
Like that's the reality of the world that we live in.
We don't get to be honest without consequences anymore.
Yeah, yeah, I think I agree with you.
Like the approach that I kind of take is like
who impresses me like that I see in the diesel space
and then I wanna talk to them.
And if they're not on or haven't been on
it might be a reason why, you know?
Because it all comes back to,
I think maybe I chatted with you about this.
A lot of these, I think I'm at like 800 episodes
or something so they've all kind of bled together
to some extent, but I love helping people.
That's why I do this.
That's why I got into this.
And yeah, it's about trucks
but I learned like early on it's not just about a truck
it's not just about sheet metal and moving parts
like it's a livelihood for some people.
It's a dream for others.
It can sometimes tie into a loved one they had,
a truck they inherited.
It reminds them of their dad or their grandfather.
It's much, much, much deeper than just truck parts.
And I know you, as long as I've known you
you like to help people.
Like that's, I think the foundation of everything
we've ever talked about and you've ever done.
That's why I do it.
So I kind of look for places that you can find companies
you can find guests you can find conversations to have
with people who are like-minded.
And ultimately I don't want to see anyone ripped off.
Like I read horror stories, you know
of people who spend thousands of dollars
and they don't get the product at all if ever
or the trucks a nightmare and it just sits
and I just think with the information
that we have available the way we can reach people
how accessible like you are other content creators are
you can find that information
just helping like one person maybe stop and say
I'm going to read those one star reviews.
What were they about?
Oh, they're about the packaging.
Oh, they didn't include the, the coosie in it
or the hat or the sticker pack or whatever.
So they got a one star.
Well that's different than like the part didn't fit
and you know broke or blew up or something like that.
So yeah, I know my wife has taught me a lot
about actually reading the reviews.
You know, I used to scroll and scroll through
and count them and she'd be like, go in there and read it.
You know, especially with Amazon purchases, like I'm,
I'm the worst, like I'll be cooking dinner or something
and I break a utensil and I'm like, what a piece of junk.
I'm like, go on Amazon and find it.
She was like, well, read the reviews.
I'm like, I don't need a review.
I don't need to read it.
It's got 1200 five star reviews.
She's like, read them.
And I started reading them and man, there's so much
like you can bought farm five star reviews nowadays.
Like that's terrifying.
Yeah.
But yeah, I mean, it's the same for me
at the end of the day, like the thing that gets me
out of bed every day to do what I do is the kid
that inherited his grandpa's truck and grandpa never wanted,
you know, I talked to grandpa 15 years ago
when I was at alligator performance
and grandpa called in and I, you know,
I tried selling them a tuner, cold air intake and exhaust.
He's like, well, you know,
a Ford wanted that stuff to be on there.
They'd have put it on there.
I'm like, Ford's never gonna want that stuff on it.
Are you talking about grandpa?
But now his grandkids got that truck
and he's trying to keep up with his buddy
that's got a six, seven power stroke
and he's got an old 97, 73.
I know everything you need to keep up
with that brand new truck.
And I know the good quality parts versus the BS parts.
I know the parts that are gonna work for 10 years
and longer.
And I know the parts that you're gonna install
that are similar, but they're gonna leak fuel
in three months or they're gonna leak oil
in two weeks.
Like I've been there, I've done it
and I've done it not a couple of times.
I've done it hundreds of times.
And so I hope people see this and reach out
and communicate because I'm like you,
I could care less about the money.
I don't make any money doing what I'm doing currently.
You know, I make money helping diesel shops
and diesel manufacturers with marketing
and stuff like that.
The stuff that I do on my own time
is just 100% effort and zero reward.
The reward is the people watching this
not having bad experiences.
That's the reward.
You know, the people calling and asking about a part,
they're just about to click on and buy
and then they shoot me a message.
I'm like, that's garbage, it's junk, don't do it.
Here's what's gonna happen.
Man, thank you so much.
I'm gonna take that money and spend it on this.
Yeah, that's a great part.
So that's what I do and that's why I do it.
It's 0% financially driven.
It's 100% enthusiast driven and helping people.
Like that's all I care about.
I wanna see it grow.
I want more people to be in diesel.
Like imagine if diesel was more popular
and I think the ownership has grown over the years
but like if it was more mainstream
then there's more people to reach.
There's more conversations to have.
There's unique builds.
There's unique stories that can happen.
And some of the most powerful episodes I've ever done
is when somebody gets emotional on the podcast
talking to me about their truck.
Like a grown man because it's a real emotion for him
and a story of how it relates to a truck
and an experience like I never thought that would happen.
As guys, we don't really get emotional.
We definitely don't show it.
But we're talking about a truck
that has meaning to somebody
and who had it, who gave it to them
and how they've resurrected it.
And sometimes I just get like goosebumps
while I'm listening to this story
and I'm like people need to hear this
and it's because someone else out there
is looking to do the same thing.
Restore an old OBS or maybe it's a truck
he uses for work, he's trying to support his family
and he's at that point where I can't buy
a $4,500 injector set and I don't wanna get ripped off.
What do I do?
Who do I contact?
What are some options?
Pull my injector, send him in.
Is that something that's viable to a good shop?
Maybe save a little bit of money
or I can't afford the core charger.
How does all that work?
Which you don't get in really quick little bits
of information or you don't see it on an ad
or something like that.
So I really appreciate you chatting with me today.
I was excited to do this episode.
It's like the age old question
of how to not get ripped off
with spending money on these trucks
which it's easy to spend a lot.
So I appreciate your insights Vinnie.
I appreciate what you're doing with review diesel.
It's really cool to see the information
you're putting out there.
So keep it up big fan
and I'm sure we'll chat later on in the year.
Appreciate it.
What's happened to be on, it's always a good time
and like you just said,
the emotional side of owning a truck
has never really been a thing for me.
I've always just bought what I wanted
and had what I wanted and my truck
that I have sitting in the driveway right now
I bought what was always a dream truck to me
just to find out that it was previously owned
by Charlie Fish who I really look up to a lot.
Casey Turbos, he bought the truck for R&D purposes
and then sold it to a buddy of mine
and then I ended up buying it from him
and I never knew it was Charlie's truck
until after I bought it.
So while it was something that I probably would have bought
and sold and bought something else at one point
is now something that I'll probably keep
for the rest of my life just because
along to a very good friend of mine
that I look up to a lot.
So yeah, that's the important stuff.
Very cool.
Well, thanks again for chatting with me Vinny
and we'll connect here.
I'm sure throughout the year
with some other hot button topics,
some of the cool things that are going on.
So thanks again.
Sounds good brother, I appreciate it.
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Also want to give a shout out
to some of our Patreon supporters,
Robert, TSW Diesel, Brian, John,
all of our other Patreon supporters,
all of you who subscribe on YouTube and podcast apps,
follow us on social media.
We appreciate all your support here
in year nine of the DC podcast
and look forward to bringing you more of the content
that you want to hear in 2025.
Till next time, keep the shiny side up.
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About this episode
Navigating the world of diesel truck parts can be daunting, but Vinny shares invaluable insights on avoiding scams and making informed purchases. With over 20 years in the industry, he emphasizes the importance of researching reviews, understanding pricing, and recognizing reputable suppliers. The conversation touches on the pitfalls of cheap parts, the significance of quality tuning, and how to choose trustworthy shops for repairs. Vinny's passion for helping enthusiasts shines through as he provides practical advice for both new and seasoned diesel owners.
Original notes
It can be easy to get ripped off buying truck parts or with a shady shop. Vinny Himes has spent 20 years in the industry and we asked him for red flags to avoid when shopping.
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The Diesel Podcast
The Diesel Podcast
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