Black smoke and no power

[Gordie Allen]

We were heading to California with our 4104 (third trip to CA). Got 20 miles from home and the power just suddenly went away. Like I shut it off. Engine didn't quit, just puked and blew grey smoke. It idles fine even on high idle. I can rev it 2-3 times with slight white smoke. If I rev it to 1500 rpm it holds for about two seconds and then just dies down blowing dark smoke. It doesn't quit, just won't hold rpm's. If I let it idle for 10 seconds it has normal throttle response for 2 seconds and then dies down again. Had it towed to a big shop and drove toad back home. Is this something simple like fuel supply, or is it likely to be something serious? Hoping to hear from the shop tomorrow. How bad is it?

[daddyoften]

My first guess is it sounds like a possible turbo failure.  Check your air cleaner and make sure it's not plugged
Eric

Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk

[eagle19952]

My first guess is it sounds like a possible turbo failure.  Check your air cleaner and make sure it's not plugged
Eric

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yup....air or fuel filters first.
turbo next.
salted fuel...??

[RJ]

Eric -

No turbo on Gordie's 4104, it's a normallly-aspirated inline 6-71.

Gordie -

I agree with Don - fuel filters first, as it sounds like it's not getting fuel.  Might also check some of the fuel lines for a collapsed hose.

FWIW & HTH. . .

[daddyoften]

Sorry, can't see signatures in tapatalk

White usually means lack of fuel, black is too much fuel or not enough air

Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk

[chessie4905]

Sounds like the flap on the intake closed. Check it and see if it needs reset. Usually only happens if you hit emergency stop, but some have reported it vibrated shut becaused it wasn't reset fully last time.

[OneLapper]

Sounds like the flap on the intake closed. Check it and see if it needs reset. Usually only happens if you hit emergency stop, but some have reported it vibrated shut becaused it wasn't reset fully last time.

I agree with Chessie.  Sounds like the shutoff flap is doing it's job. 

[luvrbus]

Gordie knows about the shut down it cost him one time   sounds like the blower drive is stripped

[Scott Crosby]

There is a blower drive gear on eBay that's in Michigan for $10.  Might be the correct one, that's what my IL671 looks like. http://www.ebay.com/itm/NOSTALGIA-Blower-Supercharger-SNOUT-DRIVE-7-3-4-SHAFT-7-8-COUPLER-671-6-71-/181767881427?hash=item2a5235c2d3:g:W6gAAOSwBLlVc5a~&vxp=mtr

[Gordie Allen]

OK,  I have a confession to make. Clifford was right. I had the bus towed two years ago because it just died. It was the emergency air shutoff flap. This time it didn't die, but I should have checked that the first thing. So I win the dumbest bus nut award. I drove over to the truck shop this morning. Told them what I thought was wrong. I went back, fixed the shutoff and told them thank you for their time. They didn't charge me anything, probably because they felt sorry for my mental deficiencies. I do appreciate everyone's input. This is my support group.

[Scott Crosby]

Mine self deployed at near 70mph on the highway a few weeks ago...

It was spewing massive amounts of oil from the air box... I thought I had major damage until I noticed it slid off the catch.  It ripped a hole in my intake air hose coupler.  I left a strait line of oil on the highway for probably a mile and a good couple of quarts when I parked on the ground drained out of the air box.... I let it drain the oil out of the air box for a few min then started it right up and drove it home.  Since then it's got a few thousand miles and the blower seals seem fine.  No oil consumption or smoke.  The blower had new seals with only about 8 mo and a few thousand miles on them.  I've been carrying a blower rebuild kit just in case. 

It was running so rough and smoking and it wouldn't shut down with the fuel off lever so I went to flip the flapper and that's when I noticed it was tripped so I opened it up.... then the rpm shot up and I nearly pooped my panties.  I closed it again and it shut down.   If I had pressed the clutch in right away that would have helped with the oil sucking so for others that may experience a total loss of engine power with black smoke think about pressing in the clutch right away....  My flapper is now zip tied open.

[OneLapper]

Don't think twice about it!   You've already had your "mishap" for this trip!  It's smooth sailing and rum smoothies for the rest of the ride.

[pabusnut]

Gordie,

You can't possibly win the dumbest busnut award!

I know a guy who forgot to unhook his electric cord as he was moving his bus about 15 ft back from his garage, and ran over the cord with the front wheel which ripped it right out of the bus, and took the bay door to a 45 degree tilt with it!

Shortest, most expensive trip in history!!

Yes! it was yours truly!!!   I did give Luke a good laugh when he found out why I needed the parts!

Steve Toomey
PAbusnut
(now a believer in pre-trip checklist---NO MATTER HOW SHORT THE TRIP IS!)

[HB of CJ]

The infamous emergency trip lever event.  I will NOT tell you a short story when three nice houses got their roofs burned off in a city in the Southern CA central valley when a series of non fortunate events happened including an emergency trip lever being tripped non knowingly.  Put that responding fire engine on scene immediately out of service thus delaying water being put on the fire.

Then the fire went to heck from there.  Seems nobody knew the signs and symptoms of a tripped emergency air shutoff nor had any idea how to reset it.  Seems the new young guys could not even steer.  "No, we don't teach that any more in the fire academy".  Well, perhaps they should have.  The earlier generation were taught that stuff.  The new guys can't manually shift gears either.  Yikes!

[Scott Crosby]

A shut down flapper can suck a lot of oil out of the blower....