Now what? Horrible clanging engine sound

[luvrbus]

Make American buy you a new turbo 2 turbos something is wrong in their rebuilding process.If you see any damage to the compressor (the cold side) like blades chipped or broken tell them to pull the blower and replace the after cooler and blower

good luck my friend 

[Oonrahnjay]

Clifford, my friend, you are, without any doubt, truly a bus Yoda! ...

But after looking at the turbo, it does indeed appear to be that. ...  
Anyway, that's the update. More to come later...

    There's something in my mind, too.  Since Craig mentioned it, I went back and looked at 0.04 on the first video again.  It's really hard to tell on a video the loudness, type, source of a sound but it sure seems to me that there's something flaky about that pulley/dampener.  
    It looks for sure that you're in for a turbo change (ditto Clifford's advice to be sure that there's not something killing those turbos), but I'd sure check that pulley/dampener very closely.  One of my most costly lessons was learning the folly of just assuming that you only have *one* problem at the time.
    I hope it is only the turbo, George (and I'm sorry that you've got that) but I want this repair to be the END of your problems.

[luvrbus]

The balance pulley on the camshaft looks good to me what you are seeing is the gap in the pulley those are not solid on the backside

[Geoff]

It is frustrating trying to figure out what is going on with a few video clips.  If I was there I could trouble shoot what the problem is in a few minutes.  It could even be the blower lobes hitting each other.

[chessie4905]

They don't keep moving with engine shut off.

[Geoff]

They don't keep moving with engine shut off.

When the engine shuts down, it is still is moving, and even rotates backwards against compression.

[twostick]

But after looking at the turbo, it does indeed appear to be that. Or at least the turbo is certainly one of the problems we're seeing. The exhaust side of the turbo was essentially just free-spinning and loose.

Can you clarify this statement?

Exhaust free spinning and loose as in the exhaust turbine will turn while you're holding the compressor turbine stationary? If that is the case the turbo is FUBAR for sure.

If the shaft isn't broken and the fins aren't torn up from contact with the housing or trash going thru then you just described a perfectly normal turbo.

Kevin

[TomC]

What looks like the cam pulley going wobbly is just the balancing weight behind the pulley going around

[gumpy]

What looks like the cam pulley going wobbly is just the balancing weight behind the pulley going around

Ok.

I went and looked at my 6V92 and my cam pulley doesn't stick out at all. This one looks like it's out about 2 inches from the block. In slow motion, it looked like
the pulley itself was wobbling.

[luvrbus]

It looks to be about 1/4 of a inch from the front plate that is normal for most but they do make different weights for different cams and drives

[DoubleEagle]

It really looks to me that this whole situation brings up some important points:

1. This has got to be the most horrible break-down situation ever in a bus conversion on the merits of expense, frustration, and duration.

2. Clifford's judgement about mechanical problems is very hard to beat. He should write a book about common problems in conversions. I would buy more than one copy, it would be the Old & New Testament of Conversion maintenance.

[luvrbus]

It really looks to me that this whole situation brings up some important points:

1. This has got to be the most horrible break-down situation ever in a bus conversion on the merits of expense, frustration, and duration.

Yea it is George keeps his cool through out the saga,with me 3 months in Farmington I would have lost it 2 months ago  ,it is not going to be but a few days then the weather will start to get crappy 

[Geoff]

I am waiting for the final analysis.  Somebody screwed up.  Was it the rebuilder or the installer?

--Geoff

[Geom]

We have finally escaped the soul-sucking black-hole grasp of Farmington!!

To their credit American got a (new?) replacement turbo (from AZ) to the shop here next-day (this morning).
And to their credit, the shop here got the turbo installed in surprisingly good time.

We fired her up this morning, although it was a bit rough, with 7 or so attempts to finally get it awake. Not sure if it's normal for a new engine to take this long to start on a cold day. It got to around 25 degrees last night and it was about 45 when we tried. Engine also smoked quite a bit for about a minute or two. Kind of like the old engine used to (not quite as bad), which surprised me.
It loped for a minute or so, then was fine.
When we played with the throttle after it was warmed up, it sounded great!

There was no rattling, or banging and the smoke cleared up well.

So we prepped for take-off and away we went, just hoping to make it out of Farmington this time.

We made it to just west of Albuquerque. It was a long day and it was getting dark so we've stopped there for now.

And it got quite a work out!! Several steep ascents, descents, and all in between.
It seems to be running great now. Now sure for how long  ,  but how it behaved today was exemplary.
The temps stayed locked at 170ish through all of it. It climbed all of the hills, including a really steep one on 371 out of Farmington (in first), like a goat. For the remainder of the trip, a kick down to second and we were climbing at about 45-53 on moderate climbs, and once crested third would cruise at 60ish without effort.

I'm hoping that the turbo issue was a fluke, although it doesn't fill me with great confidence that it happened 100 miles in. But I suppose if it had to happen, better at that spot than completely stranded (no where near a shop) and I was glad that the two shops were on the ball.

This process has been without a doubt a ... less than pleasant experience. But hopefully we're through the worst of it and can enjoy owning a bus again. I'm trying to put together a summary of this, if for no other reason than just digesting it mentally.

But I hadn't realized just how much I love and missed driving this thing, and today it was good to just go for a drive.

Thanks again all for the help and advice.

[luvrbus]

That is about normal for a 6v92 starting in those temps without a block heater plugged in George,American probably got a turbo from Turbo Resource in Az, Tom builds a good turbo enjoy the ride