8V71 engine service

[artvonne]

 Okay, so I finally got off my butt and started cleaning the dirty greasy thing. It wasnt awful, but, ya know....


  This goes out to you old salts that been around a while. How far do I go? I am thinking of pulling the motor. The reasoning is, I know nothing about it. I dont know its age, time since overhaul, I dont know beans other than it seems to run pretty good. Lil smoke on start up then clear. Has a minor thunk thunk thunk miss kind of sound on the left side, but its light. Also, its sitting here in the yard not going anywhere for a while, so why not?

  My thinking is pull it out, check the trans, driveshaft, drop box, diff, put in a new clutch, pull the rear housing and check gears, timing, replace all gaskets and seals, coolant hoses, hard to get at high pressure stuff, etc.. And while its out clean up the bay.

  Or not. How much can be checked out without pulling it?? Do I understand the clutch can be replaced by simply sliding the engine back??? I just dont want toget it apart and find myself in over my head. But I like knowing stuff is solid too.

 

[Brassman]

If you pull it, rebuild it.

[artvonne]

  I wasnt looking to overhaul everything, just clean and service, fix anything thats questionable, replace expendables.

[lostagain]

3, 4 years ago, I decided to pull the engine out of my Courier 96 to clean up some oil leaks. I ended up doing a complete overhaul and turboing it, doing the clutch, the diff, etc. Took all winter. I learned a lot, and generally enjoyed it. And found it to be a big undertaking. Good thing I have the time. Probably 4, 500 hrs. Worthwhile though. You can't beat the satisfaction of having done that yourself.

On the other hand, if it runs well enough now, just leave it alone. It will likely run for you like that for a long time. At least use the bus now as is and enjoy it before you get burned out working on it.

JC

[luvrbus]

Paul, if it starts good, runs good, doesn't over heat in a hurry and pumping a bunch of oil from the drains leave it alone.While you have it out pull the injectors and have those tested probably a couple leaking causes the smoke on start-up do a good tune up and if you have the old 2 screw fuel rods chunk those remove the emergency shutdown,replace the rubber connection on the blower and the small seals on the oil feed to the blower and run that puppy.
Fwiw I would pull the drop box and install new bearing those  cost a fortune to rebuild on the road you MCI guys should have a network to ship drop boxes like the Eagle guys good system they have.
I am out of drop boxes you MCI guys have picked me clean over the years lol

good luck

[artvonne]

  Clifford, there was that blower bearing deal a week or so back that wrecked a motor. Any bearings good to replace while its easy to reach??? Anything I can look at in the gearbox?

  I thought I would pull as much off as I could and replace as many gaskets and seals as I can, replace crank bearings, etc... I may never go to Alaska, but I can prepare, lol.

 

[luvrbus]

Paul, if you change the blower bearing do the seals also the guy that lost his engine probably had no screen under his blower you see that all the time blowers with no screens why I'll never know that is what they are for is to catch the flying pieces , don't forget the photos when you pull the blower we would love to see the job your oil bath air cleaners are doing lol sorry I just had to do that 

good luck

[artvonne]

don't forget the photos when you pull the blower we would love to see the job your oil bath air cleaners are doing lol sorry I just had to do that 

good luck

  LOL, you dont let much slip by do you.

[thomasinnv]

there was no screen under my blower, just on top of it. I ordered the screen shown under the blower in the parts manual, but when it came it was the screen on the top. There supposed to be another screen under it?

[artvonne]

I ordered the screen shown under the blower in the parts manual, but when it came it was the screen on the top.

  If the parts book shows a screen under the blower, I would believe the parts book rather than the parts man.

[bevans6]

FWIW my pilot bearing and throwout bearing were toast.  I feel good about getting new ones in.  Someone might be able to replace a clutch with the engine slid back but it wouldn't be me, I honestly think it would be easier and quicker to pull the whole power pack out.  A good time to also change the air compressor, power steering pump, check out the drives, and while you're there pull the back off and check the idler gear bearing and reseal the back cover (what Sean just had done to Odyssey).  You'd have to be awfully bored though.  It will take several hundred hours, the majority spent cleaning building stands, dollys, etc.   I can't say it's a bad idea, since I basically did the same thing, I just had my replacement motor already since I pretty much knew my old one needed to be rebuilt.

Brian

[artvonne]

  Thats some of the stuff I was thinking about, bearings you cannot get to without pulling the motor, bearings or parts (gears) that could fail and take out the motor.

  Its sure nice to get the grime out of there though, I might actually be able to climb in there soon without coming out covered with filth.

  I tried the Armor All and windex trick, ewww. What an ishy mess. Im thinking it might work on something thats more or less already clean, but on heavy grime it dont do much. I bought 10 cans of gunk engine cleaner and carefully pressure washed it. Next I think I will wash it down with mineral spirits to spray out the nooks and cranies. 

  Interestingly, the engine was/is cleaner than everything else, making me think it was replaced at some point but nothing else was cleaned up. The AC compressor had more grime on it than the engine did. Onward through the fog.

  Rather than put some spendy 40 weight oil in it, what could I run in it just to flush it out? Im thinking some cheap 20 or 30 weight with some MMO, let it idle warm and pull the plug.

 

[luvrbus]

Paul. if you have a compressor the air gun with the siphon for liquids is a must cleaning tool they don't make a mess and use very little of the cleaning agent of your choice  JMO

good luck 

[bevans6]

I have never noticed that 40 weight oil was any more expensive than any other oil, but maybe.  Try Walmart, mine carries Techtron 40W CF2 in stock.  $39 for a five gallon pail, that's $1.95 a quart which strikes me as cheap as heck.

Brian

[artvonne]

Paul. if you have a compressor the air gun with the siphon for liquids is a must cleaning tool they don't make a mess and use very little of the cleaning agent of your choice  JMO

good luck 

 Yeah I have all that, and a 5 gallon pail of mineral spirits. Thats how we cleaned aircraft when we annualed/100 houred them, we sprayed em down. But first I had to get through the thick caked on grime. That compressor is shiney grey now instead of grimey black, lol. Lots of blue hoses too, lol.