Friend is broke down MM 66 I-95 S. Carolina

[Nick Badame Refrig/ACC]

I Folks,

Could anyone recommend a Detroit diesel repair shop?

He is at mile marker 66 north bound I-95 South Carolina'

98' H3-45 with S60. Lost power and oil psi. He found oil all over the engine and dripping everywhere.

Thanks
Nick-

[luvrbus]

Nick have him use www.truckdown.com to find someone isn't that close to St.George SC ? I think WW.Williams is going to be his best shot,your friend is lucky if it was Aug the fire dept would be there

[Nick Badame Refrig/ACC]

Thanks Clifford!

Tow is now in route.. It looks like WW Williams is the closest..

Thanks!

I think he may have blown a turbo line or something because the whole engine is soaked with oil.

The S60 didn't shut down by it's self... He noticed all the smoke and pulled over and also noticed the oil

psi at 20.

10 miles earlier, he fueled up and let the tank go down below a 1/4.  when he first called me when he noticed

a lot of white smoke, I had him replace the fuel filters. It then started up ok and 3 miles later is when all the

oil blew all over the engine.

[chessie4905]

   Maybe the white smoke was the beginning of the oil leak.

[BRUISER]

If you still need help you can call

Bobby (919) 630-0652

He is a portable bus mechanic based in NC but he travels all over

[luvrbus]

Hopefully he just has minor problems like a turbo or fuel pump and didn't loose the cam and rollers $$$$

[Nick Badame Refrig/ACC]

diagnosis is in...

My friend purchased this coach last winter. It's a 98' Vantare' H3-45 with 50,000 miles on it.

It spent most of it's life in a garage and looks like brand new. Even the paint job looks like new!

Well, Detroit mechanic said the coolant has never been changed!! The wet sleeves around the

cylinders are corroded and one cylinder was eaten through with rust causing coolant to enter

the combustion chamber which also built up psi in the crank case blowing oil out everywhere.

Inframe rebuild is already underway.. They gave him a est. around 12 to 15 K for job. He has

already spent over 3K getting it towed 100 miles, and a flight home for his family as well a incidentals.

I feel bad for him however, this is all part of our hobby....

Detroit recommends replacing your coolant every 2 years!

Nick-

[luvrbus]

What a shame one would guess the PO didn't read the 300,000 miles or every 2 years which ever occurs first

[wg4t50]

Sad news for all, BUT you need to be prepared for what ever happens, being towed hone, to a shop and what ever repairs needed.  
I have been very lucky so far, never had an issue on the Road for past 25 years, tomorrow could be the end of luck ?   Either way, I am ready for what ever, I hope.
Its all a game of chances

Dave M

[expressbus]

Be prepared, sometimes even that does not work out to good. In May 2012 on a trip to Nashville, TN I noticed after arrival that the coolant level in my surge tank sight plug was low. It had never been like that since we bought the coach in January 2007. There were no indications of leakage from hoses. Filled the tank back up with distilled water and drove back home. On the following Monday I took the coach to a very reputable, heavy highway repair facility. The problem was one of the cylinder sleeves had sprung a leak at a triple gasket. There were also some vertical scoring marks that should not have been there so it was decided to do an In Chassis rebuild. I got the coach back the first week of June, on a Sunday night at 11:30 PM.

We loaded the coach with clothes and provisions for a planned working trip to San Francisco. We stopped to pick up our Grandson along the way. Drove the coach a total of 245 miles before the engine threw a rod through the block just after topping Black Mountain westbound and going down a 5% grade. Now I've built many gasoline engines and from the looks of the end result I concluded that some tech had been distracted, yes by a damn cell phone call, had crawled out from under to answer it, and went back under forgetting which rod he had last fully torqued.

So the lesson from this story is to stay vigilant during the rebuild process, demand to be informed and allowed to inspect work at critical stages, such as torquing main and rod bolts; installation of the cylinder sleeves and heads; replacing of the engine cradle (yes the cradle was removed in order to clean up the mess from the explosion and facilitate installation of the new re-manufactured engine from Jasper. Oh by the way, it took almost six months to get the engine as the work is done based on the order received date. 8,000 engines re-manufactured each year makes for a long backlog of engines to process.

We made it to San Francisco in time for work. Took just three days in legs of 750 miles, 850 miles and 1,000 miles in our pick up towed vehicle. We don't really want to do that again but it certainly gave us a better appreciation of travel by converted coach!