Last May we spent just over $10,000 on exhanst manifold. a new head, turbocharger,and after cooler core. Our fuel mileage has jumped from about 8 to 9.6 driving down from Illinois on I-74 to I-75 then on down to I-10 in Florida. If you've driven any of that you know the hills seem to be never ending. Once in Florida and level roads we got up to 10.6! We are pulling a Malibu and keep the fuel up near the top until the price jumped. the 8 mpg was pulling a PT Cruiser that's a lot lighter. With no leaks in the intake system the whole thing ran smoother. It did hills without shifting. Feeling pretty good about the money spent! ^.^d
Turbos go bad with too much boost & heat, that's a given. What engine is that, and what caused the head to have to be replaced? Mileage when the work was done?
Engine will be the Cummins C 8.3 liter.
Always fun when an improvement/repair works better.
Only way out of the coach bucks is to drive the $'s out of the coach in use...
Maybe for you high rollers, but 10CBs for an "improvement/repair" seems a bit much. Perchance, this was a high mileage coach, with not much service, and the driver had "his foot in it" often? :-\
Head itself was OK except for the many bolts broken trying to take the manifolds off. Decided that since Cummings had the mounting holes in little ears rather than into solid block material the cost of trying to get that many out without breaking the ears off was too high. Compare new valves and seats, injectors, etc with paying for someone to try to take the broken stuff out with no guarantee of any success. The exhaust manifold had shrunk to where the ports wouldn't line up with the new head. Kinda a when it rains it pours. Took it in originally for oil and filters and valve adjustment. Coach has 167,000 on it.
Wow that's s chunk of change! Isn't it strange how "these engines last thousands of miles in big trucks" kind of like my 6 coach bucks for an CAPS injector pump at 80 K miles.
"Bubba's R.V. Repair" has this illusion we are all packed with the coin of the realm. The only honest one was a shop we stopped at, since I knew I had a noisy valve. The head tech said, "these coaches freak my guys out, they're afraid that they're going to screw other things up." I found another shop in Flagstaff where the guy said, "we don't care, an engine is an engine". They put down carpets, wore plastic over their shoes, and got the valve train adjusted! ^.^d
Larry...the new head has the same "ears" or did Cummins improve the design....?
Hans
Be thankful that you are getting more power and better economy. I got hot water for my 9.6 CB's.
Mike L I agree with you but would add that all MH shops assume every owners name is "Warbucks" :))
Larry,
Any idea why all that stuff needed repair. I can tell that my exhaust manifold has shrunk, but there are no leaks or broken bolts, so I am not about to touch it. I have thought about pressure testing the after cooler to see if it has a leak.
8.3's ,while reliable, are not in big rigs. A m11 is at the lower end of heavy duty Diesel engines on a chart and were used in some big rigs.
As far as I know
"Take me down to Coach Buck City, where the money's green and the coaches are purty."
This guy is good, if I would of had a swig of beer in my mouth it would have exited my nose! Now I just have to stop the music from playing in the background of my mind. Please take me home.
Rock on
I'll have to look tomorrow to see if this one has ears. Two of the broken bolts were laying on the block. Don't know how long they'd been broken. The exhaust manifold would have been OK if it didn't need to be taken off. Of course, then it wouldn't fit back on the new head. I had often wondered about the after cooler having leaks due to the persuasive display at my service dealer. Just never got around to it. The only think that went from one thing to another was the broken bolts leading to the head. A tech noticed a small hole rubbed in the after cooler and it was soldered then tested. Did I mention about raining and pouring?
Your fuel savings will pay for that new top-end in no time.
Hope you enjoy it.
only perfect machine has no moving parts.
SOB's ISL's have had fuel pump issues, similar coach bucks.
Hans, yes the new head has the same old "ears" as the original one. So much for experience-driven engineering.
Well, looks like another 160K miles before it may have another failure...... So, if 8k miles per year that should put you at 20 years plus ... :o ;)
When I had the head gasket replaced in our U270 they broke 5 bolts, the old timer in the shop put the on his bench, ground the bolts flat with the head, center punched the bolts, drilled them to a thin shell and used a cape chisel to remove the bolt threads, I took the manifold to the race shop and had Joe surface it and elongate the holes, went together with no leaks, this was at a Cummins shop,there arn't many old timers left to work on the old mechanical Cummins, total bill $1785.00
This is the method I have used in repairing heavy equipment. My brother broke one of his exhaust studs on his C7 cat when changing the exhaust gasket. I used my portable welder and removed it while still on the engine. People that don't know this trick are amazed.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uwbb9Oj7VAg
Changed out many a head bolt on 335's using a buzz box Lincoln
tig heat, quench, often works too
Wasn't a problem that there was no way to get the broken bolts out, the problem was a time factor and cost per hour factor. Didn't want to send the welder's kids through all four years of college so opted to send the dealer's kid through one semester.
Here we come to Nac and spend moan-ay, moan-ay...hey guess what...get fixed...