Banks Power Pac

[NAMVET77]

I had a Banks Power Pac system installed in my 04 Camelot (8.3 Cummins) when we bought it in 04.  I  had the exhaust temp gauge go out on this trip.  I called Banks and they said the power pac system was discontinued 10 years ago and there is no replacement for the system.  I was very disappointed when they told me there is no replacement system.  There is no repair of the control box.  Actually the control box is filled with potting so there is no way to get to the circuit card to try and get someone else to repair it.  Soooo, I had to remove the system.  Now I am back to the original Cummins system.  Less horse power, less torque, less MPG.  Bummer.  This is just info for anyone who has the system.  I wish there was something out there that was comparable.  I have bought a Exhaust gauge and installed it so I can watch my exhaust temp and run by the gauge, especially on grades. 

[JDCrow]

This is on my to do list

 

https://www.usdieselchips.com/cummins-isc-8.3/

And there’s also these

https://bkdiesel.com/i-30497580-8-3l-cummins-injector-60hp.html

[Tim-AZ]

44 minutes ago, NAMVET77 said:

I had a Banks Power Pac system installed in my 04 Camelot (8.3 Cummins) when we bought it in 04.  I  had the exhaust temp gauge go out on this trip.  I called Banks and they said the power pac system was discontinued 10 years ago and there is no replacement for the system.  I was very disappointed when they told me there is no replacement system.  There is no repair of the control box.  Actually the control box is filled with potting so there is no way to get to the circuit card to try and get someone else to repair it.  Soooo, I had to remove the system.  Now I am back to the original Cummins system.  Less horse power, less torque, less MPG.  Bummer.  This is just info for anyone who has the system.  I wish there was something out there that was comparable.  I have bought a Exhaust gauge and installed it so I can watch my exhaust temp and run by the gauge, especially on grades. 

Doesn't you replacing the pyrometer have the system up and running again?

Tim

[NAMVET77]

Tim,

The sensor on the Banks system goes to the control box then out of the box to the gauge.  The box is bad so that sensor doesn't work any more.  The gauge will only work with the control box.  I had to buy a new gauge which comes with a new sensor, then run the sensor wire all the way to the gauge on the dash.  

Don

[NAMVET77]

JD,

Does the chip plug into the OBD port?  I currently have the Silver Leaf plugged into the OBD port by the drivers seat.  The chip is a little pricey.

Don

[klcdenver]

I have no experience with a Banks. I put a Ag Diesel Solution on my ISL400 and very pleased with it. The people there in support or very nice and helpful 

[JDCrow]

6 hours ago, NAMVET77 said:

JD,

Does the chip plug into the OBD port?  I currently have the Silver Leaf plugged into the OBD port by the drivers seat.  The chip is a little pricey.

Don

That I don’t know. I haven’t pursued it much farther than the ad.
 

Also, I believe the AG diesel is the same chip.

[Dr4Film]

Don,

I am a little confused with your posts.

I had a Banks Power Pack installed by Banks on my previous Windsor back in July 2013 well after they stop selling the kits for the ISC engines. They still had some for the ISB engines back then. I purchased the kit from an owner who had ordered the wrong kit for his truck engine but never returned it. Got it for 50% off.

When Banks went to install the kit, the Ottomind was DOA. But they still had a few in stock so I purchased one. Everything worked great until last year on our way home from Workamping in New Hampshire the EGT & Boost gauges became erratic and eventually they both quit working. However, the engine still had plenty of boost and power. I tried disconnecting the connector and spraying both ends with contact cleaner but no joy. I sent Banks an email in regard to the symptoms and their response was that the wiring harness for the gauges has been compromised somewhere between the Ottomind and the gauges.

Also, there have been two times when I had to use the Bypass Adapter which returns the engine back to "stock" because of temporary problems. The first time was while in California in 2017 when I had an electrical problem with the house battery bank negative cable which caused a power failure to the Ottomind. I didn't realize it at the time what was going on, but when I looked down at the Banks gauges, they were both dead. So, I just used the Bypass adapter to finish our trip. Later after doing some reading and research with the wiring schematics it mentioned that there is a 5-amp fuse somewhere. But when Banks installed the kit, they never told me where they placed this fuse. Well, two years later when inspecting the crack in the exhaust manifold, I discovered a fuse holder laying on top of the rear of the engine near the back of the transmission. I opened it up and VOILA, it had a blown 5-amp fuse which I replaced and the Ottomind came back to life.

The second time was on our trip up to New Hampshire back in 2021. After driving nearly 1400 miles from Florida and four days of traveling, the day we were to arrive at our Workamping jobs, we stopped for a break and some lunch at a rest stop on I-495 in Massachusetts. When we went to leave the rest stop I had very little boost in the engine plus the Banks gauges were dead again. Coasted over to the side of the road and decided this was not the area to diagnose what the problem maybe so I inserted the Banks Power Pack Bypass plug first and it worked. We arrived at our Workamping jobs later that day. During the summer, I started to troubleshoot the problem and found a corroded negative terminal end on the Banks wiring. I replaced both the positive and negative ends of each wire, and the Banks came back to life.

However, as I stated earlier in the post, on the trip back home to Florida the gauges became erratic and eventually quit working BUT the Ottomind was still working fine and still is to this day with the new owner.

When reading other Banks Power Pack owners posts on various forums the average lifespan for the Ottomind has been in the 8–12-year range.

So, my confusion lies with your statement that the EGT gauge quit working. Just having the EGT gauge quit doesn't necessarily mean that the Ottomind quit. Did you really mean to say that the Ottomind completely failed which causes BOTH the EGT & BOOST gauges to quit thereby rendering the Banks Power Pack completely useless?

[JDCrow]

38 minutes ago, Dr4Film said:

Don,

I am a little confused with your posts.

I had a Banks Power Pack installed by Banks on my previous Windsor back in July 2013 well after they stop selling the kits for the ISC engines. They still had some for the ISB engines back then. I purchased the kit from an owner who had ordered the wrong kit for his truck engine but never returned it. Got it for 50% off.

When Banks went to install the kit, the Ottomind was DOA. But they still had a few in stock so I purchased one. Everything worked great until last year on our way home from Workamping in New Hampshire the EGT & Boost gauges became erratic and eventually they both quit working. However, the engine still had plenty of boost and power. I tried disconnecting the connector and spraying both ends with contact cleaner but no joy. I sent Banks an email in regard to the symptoms and their response was that the wiring harness for the gauges has been compromised somewhere between the Ottomind and the gauges.

Also, there have been two times when I had to use the Bypass Adapter which returns the engine back to "stock" because of temporary problems. The first time was while in California in 2017 when I had an electrical problem with the house battery bank negative cable which caused a power failure to the Ottomind. I didn't realize it at the time what was going on, but when I looked down at the Banks gauges, they were both dead. So, I just used the Bypass adapter to finish our trip. Later after doing some reading and research with the wiring schematics it mentioned that there is a 5-amp fuse somewhere. But when Banks installed the kit, they never told me where they placed this fuse. Well, two years later when inspecting the crack in the exhaust manifold, I discovered a fuse holder laying on top of the rear of the engine near the back of the transmission. I opened it up and VOILA, it had a blown 5-amp fuse which I replaced and the Ottomind came back to life.

The second time was on our trip up to New Hampshire back in 2021. After driving nearly 1400 miles from Florida and four days of traveling, the day we were to arrive at our Workamping jobs, we stopped for a break and some lunch at a rest stop on I-495 in Massachusetts. When we went to leave the rest stop I had very little boost in the engine plus the Banks gauges were dead again. Coasted over to the side of the road and decided this was not the area to diagnose what the problem maybe so I inserted the Banks Power Pack Bypass plug first and it worked. We arrived at our Workamping jobs later that day. During the summer, I started to troubleshoot the problem and found a corroded negative terminal end on the Banks wiring. I replaced both the positive and negative ends of each wire, and the Banks came back to life.

However, as I stated earlier in the post, on the trip back home to Florida the gauges became erratic and eventually quit working BUT the Ottomind was still working fine and still is to this day with the new owner.

When reading other Banks Power Pack owners posts on various forums the average lifespan for the Ottomind has been in the 8–12-year range.

So, my confusion lies with your statement that the EGT gauge quit working. Just having the EGT gauge quit doesn't necessarily mean that the Ottomind quit. Did you really mean to say that the Ottomind completely failed which causes BOTH the EGT & BOOST gauges to quit thereby rendering the Banks Power Pack completely useless?

Looking more like I’ll spend the $1000 for new 60+ hp injectors rather than electronics 

[NAMVET77]

4 hours ago, Dr4Film said:

Don,

I am a little confused with your posts.

I had a Banks Power Pack installed by Banks on my previous Windsor back in July 2013 well after they stop selling the kits for the ISC engines. They still had some for the ISB engines back then. I purchased the kit from an owner who had ordered the wrong kit for his truck engine but never returned it. Got it for 50% off.

When Banks went to install the kit, the Ottomind was DOA. But they still had a few in stock so I purchased one. Everything worked great until last year on our way home from Workamping in New Hampshire the EGT & Boost gauges became erratic and eventually they both quit working. However, the engine still had plenty of boost and power. I tried disconnecting the connector and spraying both ends with contact cleaner but no joy. I sent Banks an email in regard to the symptoms and their response was that the wiring harness for the gauges has been compromised somewhere between the Ottomind and the gauges.

Also, there have been two times when I had to use the Bypass Adapter which returns the engine back to "stock" because of temporary problems. The first time was while in California in 2017 when I had an electrical problem with the house battery bank negative cable which caused a power failure to the Ottomind. I didn't realize it at the time what was going on, but when I looked down at the Banks gauges, they were both dead. So, I just used the Bypass adapter to finish our trip. Later after doing some reading and research with the wiring schematics it mentioned that there is a 5-amp fuse somewhere. But when Banks installed the kit, they never told me where they placed this fuse. Well, two years later when inspecting the crack in the exhaust manifold, I discovered a fuse holder laying on top of the rear of the engine near the back of the transmission. I opened it up and VOILA, it had a blown 5-amp fuse which I replaced and the Ottomind came back to life.

The second time was on our trip up to New Hampshire back in 2021. After driving nearly 1400 miles from Florida and four days of traveling, the day we were to arrive at our Workamping jobs, we stopped for a break and some lunch at a rest stop on I-495 in Massachusetts. When we went to leave the rest stop I had very little boost in the engine plus the Banks gauges were dead again. Coasted over to the side of the road and decided this was not the area to diagnose what the problem maybe so I inserted the Banks Power Pack Bypass plug first and it worked. We arrived at our Workamping jobs later that day. During the summer, I started to troubleshoot the problem and found a corroded negative terminal end on the Banks wiring. I replaced both the positive and negative ends of each wire, and the Banks came back to life.

However, as I stated earlier in the post, on the trip back home to Florida the gauges became erratic and eventually quit working BUT the Ottomind was still working fine and still is to this day with the new owner.

When reading other Banks Power Pack owners posts on various forums the average lifespan for the Ottomind has been in the 8–12-year range.

So, my confusion lies with your statement that the EGT gauge quit working. Just having the EGT gauge quit doesn't necessarily mean that the Ottomind quit. Did you really mean to say that the Ottomind completely failed which causes BOTH the EGT & BOOST gauges to quit thereby rendering the Banks Power Pack completely useless?

Richard,

Good to hear from you.  I thought you had the Banks system on you Windsor.  My gauges (EGT and Boost) stopped working just prior to getting to San Diego 3 months ago.  I contacted Banks tech support and told them what happened.  They told me to look for the fuse.  So I finally found it and it was blown.  So I replaced it and soon as I turned on the engine it blew again.  SO, I tried it once more and the same thing happened again.  SO, I was back on the phone with Banks again.   They said if there was no obvious shorts in the wiring the control unit was bad (short on the circuit card) and there is no repair or replacement for it.  I checked the wiring and there were no identifiable shorts or cut wires.  There was no by pass plug given to me when it was installed at the dealer when we bought the coach new.  I took the control box out and had a good friend look at it (he is a electronic expert) and can fix anything.  The inside of the box was completely potted.  So the circuit card inside could not be trouble shot.  Banks said there is no replacement and they didn't have any in stock  They said it has been out of production for 10 years.  So I removed the harness and plugged in all the original connectors in.  I checked the harness for any possible problems and didn't find any.  The system has been on the coach for 18 years and worked great for the whole time and never had any problems with the system.  I have only driven 10 miles (changing camp grounds) since I have removed the complete system, so I really don't have a feel how the coach is going to run yet.  Next week we start heading home so I'll know soon how the coach runs without help.  I still have the whole system and will look further into it when we get home.  Not that it will do any good but I'll have all my tools and supplies to better check it out for any identifiable issues.

Since I didn't have a EGT gauge any more I decided to install a new EGT gauge.  Unfortunately the EGT gauge that was in the Banks system wouldn't work because the sensor went from the exhaust manifold to the control box then to the gauge.  So the gauge was getting the iinput from the control box.  Banks confirmed that.  So I had to buy a new gauge that came with a new sensor.  I bought a digital gauge so there would be no guessing on what the temperature was.  The biggest pain was running the wire from the manifold to the dash.  Got it all done and it works great.

Don

4 hours ago, Dr4Film said:

Don,

I am a little confused with your posts.

I had a Banks Power Pack installed by Banks on my previous Windsor back in July 2013 well after they stop selling the kits for the ISC engines. They still had some for the ISB engines back then. I purchased the kit from an owner who had ordered the wrong kit for his truck engine but never returned it. Got it for 50% off.

When Banks went to install the kit, the Ottomind was DOA. But they still had a few in stock so I purchased one. Everything worked great until last year on our way home from Workamping in New Hampshire the EGT & Boost gauges became erratic and eventually they both quit working. However, the engine still had plenty of boost and power. I tried disconnecting the connector and spraying both ends with contact cleaner but no joy. I sent Banks an email in regard to the symptoms and their response was that the wiring harness for the gauges has been compromised somewhere between the Ottomind and the gauges.

Also, there have been two times when I had to use the Bypass Adapter which returns the engine back to "stock" because of temporary problems. The first time was while in California in 2017 when I had an electrical problem with the house battery bank negative cable which caused a power failure to the Ottomind. I didn't realize it at the time what was going on, but when I looked down at the Banks gauges, they were both dead. So, I just used the Bypass adapter to finish our trip. Later after doing some reading and research with the wiring schematics it mentioned that there is a 5-amp fuse somewhere. But when Banks installed the kit, they never told me where they placed this fuse. Well, two years later when inspecting the crack in the exhaust manifold, I discovered a fuse holder laying on top of the rear of the engine near the back of the transmission. I opened it up and VOILA, it had a blown 5-amp fuse which I replaced and the Ottomind came back to life.

The second time was on our trip up to New Hampshire back in 2021. After driving nearly 1400 miles from Florida and four days of traveling, the day we were to arrive at our Workamping jobs, we stopped for a break and some lunch at a rest stop on I-495 in Massachusetts. When we went to leave the rest stop I had very little boost in the engine plus the Banks gauges were dead again. Coasted over to the side of the road and decided this was not the area to diagnose what the problem maybe so I inserted the Banks Power Pack Bypass plug first and it worked. We arrived at our Workamping jobs later that day. During the summer, I started to troubleshoot the problem and found a corroded negative terminal end on the Banks wiring. I replaced both the positive and negative ends of each wire, and the Banks came back to life.

However, as I stated earlier in the post, on the trip back home to Florida the gauges became erratic and eventually quit working BUT the Ottomind was still working fine and still is to this day with the new owner.

When reading other Banks Power Pack owners posts on various forums the average lifespan for the Ottomind has been in the 8–12-year range.

So, my confusion lies with your statement that the EGT gauge quit working. Just having the EGT gauge quit doesn't necessarily mean that the Ottomind quit. Did you really mean to say that the Ottomind completely failed which causes BOTH the EGT & BOOST gauges to quit thereby rendering the Banks Power Pack completely useless?

Richard,

Good to hear from you.  I thought you had the Banks system on you Windsor.  My gauges (EGT and Boost) stopped working just prior to getting to San Diego 3 months ago.  I contacted Banks tech support and told them what happened.  They told me to look for the fuse.  So I finally found it and it was blown.  So I replaced it and soon as I turned on the engine it blew again.  SO, I tried it once more and the same thing happened again.  SO, I was back on the phone with Banks again.   They said if there was no obvious shorts in the wiring the control unit was bad (short on the circuit card) and there is no repair or replacement for it.  I checked the wiring and there were no identifiable shorts or cut wires.  There was no by pass plug given to me when it was installed at the dealer when we bought the coach new.  I took the control box out and had a good friend look at it (he is a electronic expert) and can fix anything.  The inside of the box was completely potted.  So the circuit card inside could not be trouble shot.  Banks said there is no replacement and they didn't have any in stock  They said it has been out of production for 10 years.  So I removed the harness and plugged in all the original connectors in.  I checked the harness for any possible problems and didn't find any.  The system has been on the coach for 18 years and worked great for the whole time and never had any problems with the system.  I have only driven 10 miles (changing camp grounds) since I have removed the complete system, so I really don't have a feel how the coach is going to run yet.  Next week we start heading home so I'll know soon how the coach runs without help.  I still have the whole system and will look further into it when we get home.  Not that it will do any good but I'll have all my tools and supplies to better check it out for any identifiable issues.

Since I didn't have a EGT gauge any more I decided to install a new EGT gauge.  Unfortunately the EGT gauge that was in the Banks system wouldn't work because the sensor went from the exhaust manifold to the control box then to the gauge.  So the gauge was getting the iinput from the control box.  Banks confirmed that.  So I had to buy a new gauge that came with a new sensor.  I bought a digital gauge so there would be no guessing on what the temperature was.  The biggest pain was running the wire from the manifold to the dash.  Got it all done and it works great.

Don

8 hours ago, klcdenver said:

I have no experience with a Banks. I put a Ag Diesel Solution on my ISL400 and very pleased with it. The people there in support or very nice and helpful 

Ken,

I'm going to look at alternatives to the Banks system.  My engine is a 350 ISC engine.  Do you have to plug in a chip or a piece of hardware into the OBD test port?  I have the Silver leaf system plugged into the OBD port now and that works pretty good but it only gives you readings you set up in the system.  It doesn't give you any more HP or Torque.

Don

[klcdenver]

It does give you more HP. It has a 3 settings. It is a plug n play in the fuel rail. Call Ag Diesel Solutions and they will tell you what to expect. It has a 30 day money back guarantee if you do not like.  If you keep it has lifetime warranty. It helps with power and mileage. On my ISL400 I have gained on average 1.5 MPG at the worst.