Anyone know a place that makes custom charge air coolers?

belfert · April 08, 2021, 09:59:10 AM

My charge air cooler is leaking and cannot be fixed. (Two different places have tried to fix it.) There are no more new ones. MCI sent them to Vintage Parts and Vintage Parts sold them all. The manufacturer of the CAC was bought out in 1994 and I don't have the manufacturer part number.

Anyone know a place that can make a custom charge air cooler? The CAC for my Dina bus is different than any charge air cooler I can find in any catalog. It would cost a ton of money to replumb all of the air pipes to mount a standard off the shelf CAC so I might as well get one made properly. I figure it could cost upwards of $5,000.

I briefly considered starting over with a more mainstream MCI bus, but that would cost me $35,000 for a decent shell and $20,000 to $30,000 in mechanical repairs and materials to do a conversion from scratch again. An MCI wouldn't have nearly as much ground clearance and I would be dealing with air bags instead of torsion suspension.

luvrbus · April 08, 2021, 10:35:21 AM

Roadhouse MFG in Tulsa OK will build you anything and they are not a wimpy CAC

uncle ned · April 08, 2021, 10:49:39 AM

I have a charge air cooler setting here.

What are the size and hose location.

I think it came off a transit with a series 50.

Was going to try to put it on HUGGY but gave up.

uncle ned

belfert · April 08, 2021, 11:31:55 AM

Quote from: luvrbus on April 08, 2021, 10:35:21 AM
Roadhouse MFG in Tulsa OK will build you anything and they are not a wimpy CAC

My charge air cooler is currently at Roadhouse MFG right now. They tried and failed to repair it. They might be able to recore it. Their website says they make custom charge air coolers, but they said they aren't actually set up to do so quite yet.

belfert · April 08, 2021, 01:50:29 PM

Someone from Roadhouse MFG just called me and said they found a core in one of their containers that is the right size for my CAC. They are going to start replacing the core in my CAC tomorrow. The only bad thing is the core isn't quite as thick as the current one.

I know some people don't like to re-core charge air coolers, but I don't have much of a choice since new ones are unobtainable. Perhaps I could find a used one, but who knows if it would be in any better condition?

Busted Knuckle · April 09, 2021, 06:28:27 PM

Brian check with your local Kenworth dealer and ask them for the name of the after market CAC's they sell it's Duracharge, Duralast, Duracool or Dura something!
I needed a source for one for a Setra and they had built them and even gave me the # of Arrow Coach in Denver that had bought all the stock they had. They told me if I could get them the "horns" or my old one they could build me one.
I ended up buying one from Arrow.
But if Roadhouse falls through check out Dura whatever it was!

BK

belfert · April 14, 2021, 04:16:49 AM

I am supposed to get my rebuilt CAC back tomorrow. I guess I'll see how good Roadhouse MFG did with the rebuild.