Brief update on our engine replacement saga

[Scott & Heather]

Some of you have been following our engine drama. Recap:

Driving through Louisiana on our way to Florida in January we blew the lower bearings lost oil pressure and coach shut down. Had it towed 70 miles to Baton Rouge where new bearings were rolled in, crank was polished and for $4000 I bought enough time to get to Jack Conrad's place in Arcadia Florida. He has a shop and the tools big enough for me to perform a needed engine swap. We bought what looked like a new engine that came from a school in California. Basically a student demonstration motor that never saw a load. It listed as having 11 hours on it. I had it shipped to Florida, took about two weeks to remove old engine, separate trans, swap over parts and accessories from old engine to new one and installed new engine with trans into bus. Filling with coolant we realized coolant was coming out of bellhousing and also filling the oil pan. Drained all ten gallons of oil all 25 gallons of coolant and threw it all away. My wife and I pulled the engine that night into the next day with Jacks help. I loaded both old and new engines into a uhaul truck and drove them to Pennsylvania and dropped them off at Leid Diesel. I have a month of singing contracts here so it made sense. We are living in a small borrowed travel trailer camper with our little girls while our bus sits in Jacks backyard.

Leid told me today that they've torn the engine down completely (I saw this myself in their shop) and informed me that the engine itself is fine, pistons, liners, rods etc. but the motor was put together all wrong with missing or slipped gaskets, incorrect bolts, etc. so they are rebuilding from the ground up and fixing the mess. The seller of the engine is refunding me $4,000 of the bill. He's a good guy. I highly recommend Nationwide Transit. David has been amazing to work with since day one.

Leid will have my engine palletized and ready by end of next week. At the end of the month, we are renting another truck and taking the engine down to arcadia to put back in the bus and we should be on our way.

There's the latest.

Stay healthy everyone.

[windtrader]

Scott,
Thanks for the update.  What an amazing journey that only a true busnut can undertake. You bought a messed up motor and got very lucky the seller agreed to adjust the price. Hopefully, continued forward progress gets you rolling soon.

Hang in there,
don

[chessie4905]

Leid diesel are great guys. Rebuilt and turboed our 4104. One of few 2 stroke locations left. They do a lot of stationary engine powerplant repairs/ rebuilds.

[sledhead]

Leid's did my 6v92ta rebuilt and did a amazing job so because of that I would go back and see them most years so they could do any work I needed and when they bumped up the power to 350 hp it was a huge difference . Great guys and you should be fine for years to come . Glad to hear things are getting better .

dave 

[luvrbus]

LOL you will close to the month I told you huh,it was a wise choice repairing the engine from David and not your old engine since it has a line bore problem,8v92 have a problem now and then but never much on the lower end unless you feed it propane   good luck

[richard5933]

Sounds like a great engine once it gets assembled correctly. I hope you and your family enjoy many happy miles with it.

[Scott & Heather]

Thanks guys,

Yeah the old engine was truly done. They are crediting me some money for it thankfully.

Richard, I do indeed hope you're right. Will be a peace of mind running around with a new engine.

[chessie4905]

Personally, I would back off the horsepower a little to lower the heating on the hills. So you lose 5 mph on the hills. The lower the fuel input, the longer the engine life, including bearings. Just my opinion, of course.

[Scott & Heather]

Old engine had 750,000 miles on it. I'm pretty sure it was just tired. I like my 500hp. I removed the transmission fluid cooler system and associated heatload and have good radiators and a well sealed airbox. Not too worried about 500hp in a healthy new detroit kept cool behind 40,000 lbs.

[muldoonman]

750,000 miles. Sounds like you got the good out of it.

[Jim Blackwood]

I knew that idea wouldn't get any traction.
Even in a bus, horsepower is highly addictive.

Jim

[chessie4905]

Eventually, durability/ reliability becomes more of a desire after expensive breakdowns.

[DoubleEagle]

I believe I mentioned to him about not going so high on the horsepower curve at least two times, and the problems associated with student dismantled engines, and the need for occasional oil analysis (which would have warned him of the impending disaster), but no deal.
In an Eagle of his MCI's vintage, the horsepower on the 8V92 was set at 400 hp, same on the Series 60, even though both engines are capable of more. Just because the potential is there, it is not always prudent to use it. (Unless you are in a military combat situation where it is okay to let the 8V92 scream bloody murder because Uncle Sam is paying the bill). 

[TomC]

If in fact that engine had 750,000 miles on it at 500hp, you can't ask for any better service life than that out of it. The only 2 stroke Detroit that I've heard getting 1 million miles before overhaul was the 12V-71N with 60 injectors. Good Luck, TomC

[Jim Blackwood]

He's young, and energetic and the HP has a strong appeal while the service work seems less of an inconvenience. That relationship can be expected to change over time.

Jim