Finally got my bus back on the road!

[belfert]

I finally got my bus out of the driveway and back out on the road this afternoon!  Back in late May or early June I started to dismantle stuff on my engine to fix two oil leaks.  One leak from the oil filter adapter or oil cooler and one leak from the water pump.  I started early in the summer and figured it might take a month so I would be done in plenty of time to leave August 31st.  I ran into tons of problems and we also had one of the hottest/rainiest summers on record so it took far longer than I ever thought.

My bus requires pulling nearly everything on the driver's side rear of the engine to get the water pump out.  I don't care how good a mechanic you are I don't see any way around pulling the transmission cooler out to get the pump out.  The bracket is in the way of pulling the water pump out.

I also replaced a transmission cooler hose and changed the transmission filters and fluid since I found a worn hose.

Things I fixed/replaced:

1. Pulled water pump and replaced seal ring.  Seal ring had been sheared off in one spot when I replaced pump 2007.
2. Pulled off both the oil cooler and oil filter adapter and replaced the gasket and o-rings.
3. Replaced turbo oil feed line as it was badly rusted on one end.  Bryce's fix from 2006 was still good.
4. Replaced all hoses with new ones while I had water pump out.  One split on way to Bussin' 11 and was temp fixed on the road.  Second silicone hose to split to date.  Also put on constant torque hose clamps.
5. Replaced one transmission cooler hose since it was badly worn.  I had to drain transmission so I replaced filters and fluid.  (It was time anyhow.)
6. Replaced two band clamps on intercooler as they broke taking them off.  (rusted all to heck.)

I still have a leak at one of the fittings going into the transmission cooler.  I know a guy who do hydraulics and he said the problem is almost always the o-ring.  The fitting was very slightly loose, but they guy said it can be pretty loose and not leak due to the o-ring.  I got a new o-ring and hopefully it won't be too big a deal.

Brian Elfert

[rcbeam]

Sounds like an ordeal, but nothing like having it all done to your specifications and purring like she should.  Glad you're back on the road.  Can you still make your trip on the 31st?

[belfert]

I see no reason why I can't make my trip on the 31st.

The only two things left are to fix the transmission cooler leak and to replace the water in the engine with coolant.  I plan to fix the transmission cooler first thing in the morning.  The engine was still too hot from my trip at 4:30 pm to do it tonight.  I was maybe going to have my friend fix the transmission cooler, but there was a whole line of drips down my driveway so I don't want to wait until I get over to his house.

I can't believe how long some parts of the engine stay hot.  The oil filters were almost too hot to touch 2 hours after my 15 minute trip.  I'm sure the ATF was still plenty warm.

[belfert]

The transmission cooler leaks are now fixed.  There were two leaks instead of just one like I thought.  Replacing the o-ring on the upper fitting was easy.  All of the fluid had drained down back into the transmission and no fluid leaked out.  The o-ring was in really bad shape.  My friend found the bottom hose was leaking a tiny bit.  He keeps his service truck at home and used a crowfoot to tighten it just a little bit which fixed it apparently.

I'm pretty happy I didn't have to deal with collecting ATF .  The last thing now is to finishing flushing out the old coolant and then refill with new coolant.

[Mex-Busnut]

Congratulations, Mr. Belfert! Maybe catch up with you soon!