Technomadia Update: A Visual (and Video!) Tour of our 8V71 Rebuild

technomadia · August 20, 2013, 01:08:55 PM

Greetings All --

We've been mostly avoiding the forums lately since the tone here got a little uncomfortable for us a while back.

But I know that a lot of you will really enjoy seeing the epic blog post we just put up today, detailing with dozens of photos the story of our 8V71 engine rebuild. Cherie even created a video slideshow of the highlights too for those wanting the short version.

Here it is:
http://www.technomadia.com/2013/08/rebuilding-an-8v-71-detroit-diesel-engine/

All the posts about our rebuild project are here:
http://www.technomadia.com/rebuild

We not only did a full out-of-frame engine rebuild, we also followed OneLapper's example and upgraded to a new 5" muffler, and BarnOwl's and added a Hayden transmission cooler.

There were lots of other big and little repairs tackled along the way too - and in future posts we'll be going into some more detail on them, including sharing our final analysis of just what failed in the first place.

Thank you all for your support throughout this process here on the forums, and especially directly via telephone and email. We got a lot of great advice from a lot of awesome bus nuts.

Anyway, cheers!

- Chris

Kevinmc5 · August 20, 2013, 02:50:49 PM

Looks and sounds great.

So nice to see you up and running. Bet it feels great. No worries for a long time.
Good luck.

Kevin & Traci

chessie4905 · August 20, 2013, 02:58:47 PM

Thanks for the rebuild pictures. Thoroughly enjoyed them. It's a good adventure for current and future members to look at and realize that having a conversion is not for faint of heart when &@%% hits the fan, especially out on the road, far from home.

bevans6 · August 20, 2013, 04:15:39 PM

I thought your essay was superb. Thanks!

Brian

opus · August 20, 2013, 04:43:30 PM

If you're gunna do it, do it right! It looks like you did, congrats!

Oonrahnjay · August 20, 2013, 07:27:36 PM

Quote from: bevans6 on August 20, 2013, 04:15:39 PMI thought your essay was superb. Thanks!
Brian

Yes, well prepared and written with good visuals (photos and videos). It should be useful for people going through similar rebuilds in the future.

pete36330 · August 20, 2013, 10:18:42 PM

Well now that your adventure is done,,
HOW MUCH DID IT COST??

Nick Badame Refrig/ACC · August 21, 2013, 03:33:44 AM

Quote from: pete36330 on August 20, 2013, 10:18:42 PM
Well now that your adventure is done,,
HOW MUCH DID IT COST??

Chris, Maybe Pete is asking costs because he would like to reimburse you??

Nick-

Emcemv · August 21, 2013, 04:21:30 AM

Chris & Cherie

I've been following you guys all the way through this, many ups and downs but you made it through it! Really excellent summary on your web site. I've learned alot from this, thanks for doing it!

Bruce

Seangie · August 21, 2013, 05:30:18 AM

C&C -

Thanks for posting this! It's awesome. Great job writing Chris - Simple and uncomplicated. Great contribution to this hobby/lifestyle.

Keep up the good work and hope to see you all running down the road somewhere. Would LOVE to hear that bus run in person.

-Sean

TexasBorderDude · August 21, 2013, 06:36:12 AM

Congratulations C&C! Glad it all worked out for you.

I got mine on the road too, 32 hours on the engine, 1,300 miles on my N-70's driving across Texas at 70-75 mph and 7+mpg. I was truly fortunate to have Luvrbus's help and my rebuild came in just under 10k.

Good luck!