The Trip from Hell Final Update

[Ken Thompson]

On 9/25/2022 at 11:36 AM, Simplysmn said:

If you find a engine I will get you a good rate on shipping. Just let me know the zip code and I'll get you a Quote. Is yours a mechanical pump? I  might know of a complete engine but it is mechanical pump. 

Val, 

I have found an complete ISL 8.8 engine. It will need to be shipped from Visone RV 243 Fields Lane  East Bernstadt, KY 40729. It will be shipped to Trisand Truck Shop 460 N. Danebo Ave. Eugene, OR 97402. It will probably be ready to be picked up Thursday or Friday. You can contact me directly at ken@kenthompsonconstruction.com or 503-880-5343

Thanks

Ken Thompson

[Guest Ray Davis]

We have 2 guys here that need engine replacements.  Both are on this thread, and no one knows who they're talking to.

You may notice the OP will have author on his posts.  Might help us know who's who.

[Ken Thompson]

1 hour ago, Ray Davis said:

We have 2 guys here that need engine replacements.  Both are on this thread, and no one knows who they're talking to.

You may notice the OP will have author on his posts.  Might help us know who's who.

Thanks Ray, it seems my thread has been hijacked! No big deal, but like you say, it's getting confusing as far as who is commenting about which one.

[Ken Thompson]

I had Allison do a power curve check on my trans and torque converter. It will require a new calibration from Cummins and the stator changed in the torque converter. Mine has the TC419 and needs to be changed to TC421. I haven’t figured out how much their shop wants to change it. It looks easy enough to do myself. They also recommend having the transmission dyno’ d. I personally think this is just Allison trying to get more $$. Once the stator has been changed and the new calibration is loaded on it, why would you need to dyno it? Is that just to verify that the changes went right? I may or may not spend that extra money. I hope your not in Florida!

[FishAR]

13 hours ago, Ken Thompson said:

Thanks Ray, it seems my thread has been hijacked! No big deal, but like you say, it's getting confusing as far as who is commenting about which one.

You jumped in another guy's thread. This is your thread:

 

 

[Ken Thompson]

1 hour ago, FishAR said:

You jumped in another guy's thread. This is your thread:

 

 

Sorry, I’m technologically retarded sometimes 

[just_john1]

Yea Ken this is my thread you are more than welcome to share it with me.  Sorry for your problems, I can identify. I guess misery love company. It looks like I'm going to have to find someone who will take it off my hands. I haven't found an engine and have no place to put it and Seattle is a long way from home. I'm going over next week to get my stuff out of it and hopefully I can find someone worthy. 

[Tom Cherry]

MODERATOR's COMMENTS.....TAKE THEM PROFESSIONALLY and NOT AS CRITICSM....

I posted the following on the thread...around Mid Afternoon on Sunday.  So that the various posters that were throwing out "get an engine here" could help.

Check out the last post on the above.  Canadian Source?

All I know is what I read....BUT....maybe helpful

OR if anyone can help on the other thread, please chime in.

There was maybe 2 or 3 posts and THEN.....all the activity CEASED on that post.  It all ended up here.

And if you read the comments, some the "critiques" went downhill from there. 

From a Moderator's perspective, we have been "Merging" Topics as there have been way TOO MANY similar topics.  Such as "Light Burned Out" or "Where is the Light Fuse".  If anyone has been following the Moderator's COMBINED "IOTA SAFETY HAZARD" topic, we have merged at least four (lost count) separate NEW posts into this one.  All the info that is needed to swap out, find a replacement, semi trouble shoot, etc. is in that topic....which is over 8 pages.  Otherwise we would have had at least 6 or more separate and ongoing disjointed topics.  NOW.....the "counter" to that action or trying to keep things organized is that new folks "don't know" and new topics get more "attention".

A deliberate and thoughtful decision was made NOT TO MERGE the CUMMINS !SC 350 with the TRIP FROM HELL topic.  Many of you know my personality....and sometimes a bit of comical sarcasm.....  Maybe we ought MERGE the TWO....and then rename it ...FAILED ENGINES THREAD FROM HELL.....but not gonna do that.

The Original OP has apologized for switching over here with his comments.  There was no intentional HIJACKING.

Some of the "cleanup", which will probably NOT be done....takes a lot of copying and rearranging to get things in logical order and we Moderators have petitioned for a raise, but the owner has rejected our pleas.....but said....KEEP MERGING THE SIMILAR THREADS....and KEEP THE PLACE ORGANIZED.  LOL.  That is the truth...and we love the Owner. On a personal note, he has survived IAN with no damages, so far, to his home, "Toy Barn" and business.  GOOD NEWS.... 

SO.....that is the explanation.  

Do NOT jump to conclusions until you go back and do some reading and research.

Thanks for understanding.

 

Edited September 29, 2022 by Tom Cherry
IAN UPDATE - Monacoers.ORG Owner

[Guest Ray Davis]

9 minutes ago, just_john1 said:

Yea Ken this is my thread you are more than welcome to share it with me.  Sorry for your problems, I can identify. I guess misery love company. It looks like I'm going to have to find someone who will take it off my hands. I haven't found an engine and have no place to put it and Seattle is a long way from home. I'm going over next week to get my stuff out of it and hopefully I can find someone worthy. 

Bummer, does the mechanic have any interest in the coach?  As a last resort I have heard of owners abandoning vehicles.        The cost of towing makes it costly for a buyer.  There was a guy some yrs ago on IRV2 that made a giant tow bar and pulled his a few miles home with his Suburban.  Then installed a 454 chevy engine in it.  Really not practical but definitely interesting.

I know we all sympathize with you; wish we could help and hope you will stay and let us know the outcome.

[Ken Thompson]

16 minutes ago, just_john1 said:

Yea Ken this is my thread you are more than welcome to share it with me.  Sorry for your problems, I can identify. I guess misery love company. It looks like I'm going to have to find someone who will take it off my hands. I haven't found an engine and have no place to put it and Seattle is a long way from home. I'm going over next week to get my stuff out of it and hopefully I can find someone worthy. 

That’s too bad. I definitely feel your pain. After mine seized the tappet, I was determined to put a bigger power plant in mine. I know when on vacation your not supposed to be in a hurry, but unless you special order a coach, you only get barely enough power. Maybe that is ok where there are only small hills. Out west we have steep long hills to climb and descend. I didn’t think it would be such a big deal to do a repower. After hours and hours online and making so many calls , not only was my wife ready to shut off the internet, I wasn’t getting very far. Frank was a big help with his enormous amount of knowledge. Finding the engine was only half the battle. No Cummins shop would do a repower. They would only swap like for like engines. Luckily in the 11th hour I found a private shop willing to do it. The engine I found was out of a 45’ Dynasty, so hopefully it will make my 36’ get up the steep hills better, and the 2 stage jake will keep her under control going down. Unfortunately without an engine a coach isn’t worth much. It sucks to have to put so much money into an older coach when you will never get it back. We love our Dynasty, and there was only a couple things we didn’t like. I wanted more power, and the wife wanted a residential refer. Well, she got her refer, and I’m getting my power. Oh, and I also got my bigger toilet as a bonus. Good luck with your coach.

16 minutes ago, Tom Cherry said:

MODERATOR's COMMENTS.....TAKE THEM PROFESSIONALLY and NOT AS CRITICSM....

I posted the following on the thread...around Mid Afternoon on Sunday.  So that the various posters that were throwing out "get an engine here" could help.

Check out the last post on the above.  Canadian Source?

All I know is what I read....BUT....maybe helpful

OR if anyone can help on the other thread, please chime in.

There was maybe 2 or 3 posts and THEN.....all the activity CEASED on that post.  It all ended up here.

And if you read the comments, some the "critiques" went downhill from there. 

From a Moderator's perspective, we have been "Merging" Topics as there have been way TOO MANY similar topics.  Such as "Light Burned Out" or "Where is the Light Fuse".  If anyone has been following the Moderator's COMBINED "IOTA SAFETY HAZARD" topic, we have merged at least four (lost count) separate NEW posts into this one.  All the info that is needed to swap out, find a replacement, semi trouble shoot, etc. is in that topic....which is over 8 pages.  Otherwise we would have had at least 6 or more separate and ongoing disjointed topics.  NOW.....the "counter" to that action or trying to keep things organized is that new folks "don't know" and new topics get more "attention".

A deliberate and thoughtful decision was made NOT TO MERGE the CUMMINS !SC 350 with the TRIP FROM HELL topic.  Many of you know my personality....and sometimes a bit of comical sarcasm.....  Maybe we ought MERGE the TWON....and then rename it ...FAILED ENGINES THREAD FROM HELL.....but not gonna do that.

The Original OP has apologized for switching over here with his comments.  There was no intentional HIJACKING.

Some of the "cleanup" may be done later.....it takes a lot of copying and rearranging to get things in logical order and we Moderators have petitioned for a raise, but the owner has rejected our pleas.....but said....KEEP MERGING THE SIMILAR THREADS....and KEEP THE PLACE ORGANIZED.  LOL.  That is the truth...and we love the Owner.  

SO.....that is the explanation.  

Do NOT jump to conclusions until you go back and do some reading and research.

Thanks for understanding.

 

Thanks Tom, sometimes you have a thankless job! Keep up the good work.

[jimc99999]

3 hours ago, just_john1 said:

Yea Ken this is my thread you are more than welcome to share it with me.  Sorry for your problems, I can identify. I guess misery love company. It looks like I'm going to have to find someone who will take it off my hands. I haven't found an engine and have no place to put it and Seattle is a long way from home. I'm going over next week to get my stuff out of it and hopefully I can find someone worthy. 

The 2rd post in this thread mentioned Visone RV parts, and the 3rd provided a link to their engines for sale. A little searching on the page finds their Cummins C8.3 bus engine (looks same as the mechanical 8.3 in my 97 Windsor. 

https://rvchassisparts.visonerv.com/cgi-bin/md/M121219/s1.pl?

The pictured engine has been sold but they say they have more for $5500 + $2500 core charge. They're in KY, but someone else mentioned in this thread they handle shipping and could get a good deal. But there's been no updates as to whether you've followed up at all on the help people have attempted to give you.

For a coach with a blown engine, you're likely to have to pay to get rid of it. And I don't know how much you trust the shop where it's at, but if you ran a shop, you could make a pretty penny convincing coach owners their motor is blown and there's really nothing you can do, no motors available, etc., get them to give it to you for nearly free, then spending $5-10K to get a $30-80K coach running.

Edited September 29, 2022 by jimc99999

[Ken Thompson]

52 minutes ago, jimc99999 said:

The 2rd post in this thread mentioned Visone RV parts, and the 3rd provided a link to their engines for sale. A little searching on the page finds their Cummins C8.3 bus engine (looks same as the mechanical 8.3 in my 97 Windsor. 

https://rvchassisparts.visonerv.com/cgi-bin/md/M121219/s1.pl?

The pictured engine has been sold but they say they have more for $5500 + $2500 core charge. They're in KY, but someone else mentioned in this thread they handle shipping and could get a good deal. But there's been no updates as to whether you've followed up at all on the help people have attempted to give you.

For a coach with a blown engine, you're likely to have to pay to get rid of it. And I don't know how much you trust the shop where it's at, but if you ran a shop, you could make a pretty penny convincing coach owners their motor is blown and there's really nothing you can do, no motors available, etc., get them to give it to you for nearly free, then spending $5-10K to get a $30-80K coach running.

 

52 minutes ago, jimc99999 said:

The 2rd post in this thread mentioned Visone RV parts, and the 3rd provided a link to their engines for sale. A little searching on the page finds their Cummins C8.3 bus engine (looks same as the mechanical 8.3 in my 97 Windsor. 

https://rvchassisparts.visonerv.com/cgi-bin/md/M121219/s1.pl?

The pictured engine has been sold but they say they have more for $5500 + $2500 core charge. They're in KY, but someone else mentioned in this thread they handle shipping and could get a good deal. But there's been no updates as to whether you've followed up at all on the help people have attempted to give you.

For a coach with a blown engine, you're likely to have to pay to get rid of it. And I don't know how much you trust the shop where it's at, but if you ran a shop, you could make a pretty penny convincing coach owners their motor is blown and there's really nothing you can do, no motors available, etc., get them to give it to you for nearly free, then spending $5-10K to get a $30-80K coach running.

If I were you, I would go to the shop and look at it yourself. If you don't know what you're looking at, find a gearhead friend to go with you. Us gearheads usually work for free, or maybe a beer. There are scammers around every corner. The story I got from Cummins was they could repair/replace everything in the ISC or ISL engine except a seized tappet. That had to be done by Cummins Reman department. At that point, they wanted to sell me a whole new engine and would take mine as a reparable core. Obviously if the block was cracked you would need a whole new engine, but if not, it can all be fixed in the coach. I wanted a bigger motor anyways, so that's why I'm working on the ISL for ISC swap. Don't give up yet!

[just_john1]

Ken thanks for the advice. The problem I have is the bus is in Seattle and I'm in Missoula Montana. My wife is in a wheel chair, so travel is very difficult. If it was here I would be able to do things differently. I thinking I should just cut my losses and give it away. The mechanic has a very good reputation so I don't think he is pulling a fast one.

[Ken Thompson]

I'm in Portland Oregon area. If I was closer, I would go check it out for you.

[jimc99999]

On 9/26/2022 at 12:36 AM, just_john1 said:

thanks for telling me about hydrolocked. I thought it had hydro in the word. The mechanic said there was water in the basement (oil pan) and all of the valve guides are stripped. Ken I was wondering where you came from. I knew I didn't answer these replies. Wish I only had a stuck tappet.

That's from the OP, who also mentioned they thought they lost a turbo or something going up a hill. A blown head gasket would cause loss of power and coolant in the oil pan. I've not heard of hydrolocking a running engine with a head gasket failure but I suppose it's possible. You would know if this happened because when you started to lose power you'd have been blowing big clouds of white smoke out the exhaust. 

"Stripped valve guides" makes no sense. A valve guide for C8.3 looks like this, I don't see any threads. They might be seized, but if the head is unfixable it can also be replaced. 

 

The OP mentioned the shop where his coach is has been sold, so it has to go somewhere. There must be decent shops near Seattle. Sounds like Ken has found a decent shop in Eugene, OR but that would be a 300 mile tow/transport. 

Anyway, sounds like OP might have a good deal for someone capable of dealing with these kinds of headaches.

[just_john1]

Anyone in Seattle need a new set of tires? If  I'm going to dump this thing I would like to help someone out. Michelins. 

[dl_racing427]

12 hours ago, just_john1 said:

Anyone in Seattle need a new set of tires? If  I'm going to dump this thing I would like to help someone out. Michelins. 

Man, I just HATE to see this happen to you.
Someone has to be able to get a replacement engine for this rig.

If you do end up having to part it out, I may be interested in the wheels and tires, though shipping across the country would be expensive, it's probably still a lot less than new tires.  Also, it would get me the upgrade to the 8.25" wheels.

[WayneC]

Morning 

I know there can be hiccups shipping across border, and the other issue is finding a shop to switch out the motor, there is a 8.3  rebuild with warranty in Alberta on kijjiji for 13k canadian with warranty, 

Wayne 

1999 signature ceaser 

[Ken Thompson]

19 hours ago, just_john1 said:

Anyone in Seattle need a new set of tires? If  I'm going to dump this thing I would like to help someone out. Michelins. 

What size are the Michelins? Any idea on the year and month stamp on them? Are you selling wheels too?

2 hours ago, WayneC said:

Morning 

I know there can be hiccups shipping across border, and the other issue is finding a shop to switch out the motor, there is a 8.3  rebuild with warranty in Alberta on kijjiji for 13k canadian with warranty, 

Wayne 

1999 signature ceaser 

 

7 hours ago, dl_racing427 said:

Man, I just HATE to see this happen to you.
Someone has to be able to get a replacement engine for this rig.

If you do end up having to part it out, I may be interested in the wheels and tires, though shipping across the country would be expensive, it's probably still a lot less than new tires.  Also, it would get me the upgrade to the 8.25" wheels.

 

[cbr046]

On 10/1/2022 at 3:14 AM, dl_racing427 said:

. . . . I may be interested in the wheels and tires, though shipping across the country would be expensive, it's probably still a lot less than new tires.  Also, it would get me the upgrade to the 8.25" wheels.

Sounds like a road trip.  Have you ever wanted to visit the Pacific Northwest in the rainy season? 

- bob