Building new engine doors

[Seayfam]

Hi guys,
I got a little bored last weekend and started building some new rear engine doors for my bus. I wanted to stay with the stock doors, but they are almost impossible to find for the MC-6. So my question is... What are your thoughts on venting the rear doors? And if I vent them, what are your thoughts on putting the vents in the top of the door verses the bottom? I'm just trying to come up with something that is pleasing to the eye. The 6 is ugly enough in the rear as it is. And next I will be building a stainless bumper. Any ideas are appreciated.

Here are a couple of pics of it right now.




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[Scott & Heather]

Hi Gary,

Love your coach...checked out your blog...super impressed! By the way, is that a typo or did you really put a 560 GALLON Fuel Tank in there?!?!!!!!

I've read that venting the engine doors helps quite a bit. From my own experience, I had a minor overheat issue due to an exhaust leak in the engine bay. Coach kept shutting down due to overheat sensor being set off...so I bungeed the doors wide open and drove the rest of the way no problems at all. I will vent my doors myself someday...Fred Hobe did it...here's a photo:

[Seayfam]

Thanks for the complement Scott!
Sorry about those pictures being loaded sideways. I posted them from my not so smart smart phone.
You did read that right, I have a 560 gal aux tank and a 200 gal main. I can buy fuel bulk here in Alaska and drive all the way down to southern Idaho and still have lots of fuel to spare. Avoiding all the expensive fuel along the alcan highway saves me around $1,000 round trip.

On the rear doors you posted, I see he installed the vents in the lower half of the doors. That is what I would like to do if I have to vent them. I'm wanting to do some kind of graphic design on the upper half of the doors and don't want vents to try and paint over.

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[thomasinnv]

the upper door where you see the graphics in Fred's pic is the access for the blower for the rads. You do not want vents in that door, that would be very bad.

[TomC]

Gary-what I liked about the original 6's was the exhaust coming out the left side of the bumper.  I see you have the block off plate-would be cool if you re activated that louvered rectangular exhaust port through the left side of the bumper.  Good Luck, TomC

[Seayfam]

Tom,
That is the first I've heard of that. I was wondering why the block off plate was there. The funny thing is... I was thinking about running the tail pipe through there. As it is, it is right below that and pointing at the ground. It really bugs me when driving through un paved campgrounds, probably not as bad as it bothers other campers though. I'll have to try and find some pictures of the stock set up.

As far as my doors, I think I will install some stainless vents in the lower part of the doors and keep the upper part unvented. I spent a several hours last night just looking at the rear trying to come up with ideas.

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[Scott & Heather]

Sorry. I'm still sitting here with my jaw on the floor as I attempt to wrap my mind around 760 gallons of fuel capacity. I thought we were amazing having 280 gallons of capacity. I bow to your fuel storage awesomeness.


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[bevans6]

Including the tanks, that's around 6,000 lbs of fuel...

Brian

[Ralph7]

  I think Matt-6 has hand made doors. I would vent both top and bottom, recently  installed flat expanded metal on side doors and working on both rear doors.

[Scott & Heather]

I've thought about making a one-piece door that hinges on the blower fan hinges. One big door...with vents. I'll do it someday...6000 pounds of fuel? Sheesh...so if you pull into a regional airport, you could always emergency fill a small plane haha!...ok that's sobering. 

[Seayfam]

LoL!
Yeah the nice thing about it is... It feels like I gained a bunch of HP by the time I get down south.
But in all honesty, my bus is so heavy, I really don't notice a difference full or empty.

This weekend I'm going to try and get the doors finished and the graphics painted. I'll post up some pics when I'm done.

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[Chopper Scott]

I had my steel supplier bend me up a stainless bumper cover and replaced the drab painted one then I polished it.

Before


After

[Seayfam]

Hi Scott,
That looks really good!!! Your bumper is done exactly how I was going to do mine. I was wondering how it was going to look.

I see you don't have any vents in your rear doors. Do you have any problems with heat?

Thanks for those pics!
Gary

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[RickB]

I'm wondering what the lights on the roof pointing backward are for??? Tailgaters? Wow they look like they'd have you seeing stars if you looked into them at night.

Great fabrication job! Just my two cents here, if you have overheating issues I would:

Make sure that you are running the small pulley
Make sure you have a properly sealing blower fan section (should pull a piece of paper out of your hand around a foot from the intake and also make sure that you have the big radiators.

I'd also Infrared gun the radiators, the inlet and outlet of the water pump and the thermostats at temp and lastly if you have a shutterstat system I'd tee off the air lines to it for the summer.

That might be a lot more than two cents worth though!    Good luck


RB

[RickB]

One more thought... don't the 6's come with smaller blower fans and aren't the actual intakes like 8"X8" instead of the larger ones that came on the 9's? That would be a major refab job to change those I'm sure


RB