Bought a Diesel Pusher

[Shadrach]

I have thought about a Class A for a while now. Converted vans are too small and Class C have no foot room and don't come with a Cummins. I didn't want a gas Class A because of the dog house and the mileage / power. i know you can now buy a Super C built on a Ram 5500 chassis and a 6.7 but that's out of my price range. So a while back I came across a 1994 Rexhall XL3500. It has the 102" wide body and was in decent condition. It has a mechanical 5.9 and an Allison 6 speed. It was priced right because it didn't run. The PO had owned it for 11 years and had driven it as far south as Texas and as far north as the Yukon. It had been all across Canada as well. It was stored about an hours drive from where I live and the owner actually lived near me as well. It was sold new in Texas. Since I am well familiar with 5.9 12 valve engines I accepted the challenge. He told me " it quit" on him while he was in the Yukon the summer before and he had had it hauled home. Not a cheap adventure.

Since it was still cold outside when I bought it I didn't get to play with it much until spring. The owner of the storage lot let me keep it there no charge. I did get out to it several times to do some testing. I checked the fuel filters. There was clean fuel in both of them. He had filled up the tank a few days before it died so I knew it didn't run out of fuel. The tank was now empty as the PO "sold" the fuel to the owner of the storage lot. I cracked the injector return lines and there was fuel coming out so I know it was getting to the injectors. The fuel shut off solenoid worked and the batteries were good. The was no banging while it was being turned over, altho when you are 30 feet away it's hard to tell.

I had it hauled to my buddies acreage and worked on it as time permitted, which wasn't much.

David

 

[Shadrach]

Here are a couple of pictures of my new project

 

[TFucili]

Looks like a nice coach. Update as you go, please.

 

[AHutson]

Very nice looking unit, hopefully you get it going soon and get lots of enjoyment out of it.

 

[Wayne M.]

Wow, what a score!
oftentimes, there will be a starter button back there, did you look?
Indeed keep us posted, staying tuned.

 

[Jim W]

I don't know much about a class "A" but it does look good! Good luck, hope you can get it running over the winter? How are the holding tanks, empty?

 

[AH64ID]

Looks like a great rig and fun project!

 

[mpaulson]

Too bad you don't know anyone at a Cummins dealership to get you some parts and technical advice EH!

 

[Shadrach]

I don't know much about a class "A" but it does look good! Good luck, hope you can get it running over the winter? How are the holding tanks, empty?

They are empty

 

[Shadrach]

Too bad you don't know anyone at a Cummins dealership to get you some parts and technical advice EH!

Yeh That would come in handy wouldn't it

 

[Shadrach]

I don't know much about a class "A" but it does look good! Good luck, hope you can get it running over the winter? How are the holding tanks, empty?

It won't be worked on until it warms up... which means April... maybe

 

[Shadrach]

When I pulled the air piping off I discovered the turbo was "seized". I put a socket on the impeller nut and was able to rotate it but it was rubbing on the housing. I already knew the exhaust manifold was cracked so I pulled the turbo off. Add 2 more items to my list of things to buy. You can run an engine without the turbo attached . It would just be noisy and have no power. it still didn't start.

Since this MH had a 5.9 it also has a rear rad and since the rad was in need of repair I needed to remove it. The rad, charge air cooler and shroud must come out, as in drop down, as an assembly. In this motorhome the rad assembly sits on the same cross member as the engine. I put blocks and a bottle jack under the oil pan to support the engine. First I had to remove the engine fan. The 4" bolts went thru an aluminum spacer and threaded into the steel fan hub. When steel bolts go thru aluminum for 25 years the dissimilar metals seize. Since the fan blade was cracked I sawed off a blade which gave me room to get a long 1/2" ratchet in there to undo the bolts. ( add fan blade to list of things to buy ) It was still slow going. I got 2 out and rotated the fan 180 degrees and sawed off another blade and removed the other 2. Someone in their infinite wisdom had welded the hitch to the cross member for additional strength. This meant the cross member, hitch, rad, cooler and shroud had to come down in one shot. Gravity helped me. Going back in will be another story.

With the rad out of the way I now had room to get in at the front of the engine. I already had the motorhome up on ramps so I could duck under the back bumper to access the engine compartment. I pulled the valve cover off # 1 cylinder made sure the engine was at TDC ( top dead center ). With the timing pin pushed in I pulled the gear cover off and discovered everything was still in time. The fuel pump gear hadn't slipped and there was no damage. I then pulled the other 5 valve covers of and with the use of a remote starting cable cranked the engine over. The valves were all moving up and down but something with # 3 wasn't right. I discovered a bend push rod. I removed all the fuel lines. Since I have access to all kinds of tools I thought I would insert a Boroscope ( camera) into the cylinder to see if there was any damage. When I pulled out # 3 injector I realized that that wouldn't be necessary as the tip of the injector was damaged. That means the cylinder head has to come off.

One good thing about this old girl is that when I lift up the bed for access to the engine I have an opening approx 4' x 5'. Remove the mattress and the lift shocks and insert a 4' 2 x 4 and you have lots of room.

 

[DavidC]

This is definately getting interesting and costly but it does keep you busy.

 

[Wayne M.]

What a nice job! Gonna be awesome when it’s done.

 

[HPSimpson]

Great possibilities here and pictures of the vehicle to boot, good luck!

 

[GCroyle]

At least this engine has some access it looks, and the cab is staying on.

But where is the red X, the thing, the oh crap part that triggered the no runny no more engine?

Stay tuned, camping season is how many months away.

 

[Tuesdak]

Have you done a compression test? Without a video of it cranking I wonder if the debris from #3 melting down bent or hung some other valves to where there isn't enough compression to start. Maybe take a closer look at the turbo for signs of it eating something. Turbo bearings ruined would give me a bad feeling about the rest of the engine.

Is it reaching minimum cold cranking RPM? High friction from #3 slowing a good starter down?

 

[Shadrach]

I pulled the cylinder head off as I knew they would be damage in number 3 cyl because of the injector tip. It was worse than I thought. The first picture is of a good 12 valve piston at the top of the stroke, in this case # 6 of my engine. Number 6 is the one that gets the hottest as it is furthest from the water pump The second picture is number 1 cyl. I wasn't expecting that one to be bad. Next picture is number 3. It is at the bottom of the stroke but you can see there is a lot of it is missing. There is no combustion bowl left at all. It was pieces of this piston that damaged the injector tip and caused the turbo to seize. The last picture is number 2. You can see material from the piston has transfered to the cylinder wall. Up until this point I have been doing all the work myself, with some advise from my busy mechanic friend. I did need help to lift the head off as it is rather heavy and awkward to get out of the engine bay.

I removed the oil pan to see what was in it. I did find some minor debris. They turned out to be from the top of the tappet ( lifter) that the bend push rod had been sitting in.
THE ENGINE IS COMING OUT. It didn't take me long to make this decision. I will not be doing a full rebuild like I did with the dead engine in my 03 truck. That would just be way too expensive, even with my free labour. I owned that truck for 5 + years and only put about 50k kms ( 30k miles ) on it. Time for plan B

 

[Shadrach]

So why did all this happen and why wouldn't the engine start for me. I sent all 6 injectors to the fuel injection shop and had them checked and to see about putting a new tip on the damaged one. The were all low in pressure. Add 6 new injectors to the parts list. That combined with no compression in the front 3 cylinders makes it no workie. Diesels need compression to fire. Here is a picture of the rad. Lack of maintenance and running with poor cooling ( broken fan blade didn't help either ) and low coolant level helped the engine to overheat. Being a "diesel pusher", in this case with a rear rad as opposed to a side rad like the bigger units have, air flow ins't as good a a front engine unit. It gets real hot back there. That's what causes exhaust manifold to crack and break

A lot of things can contribute to engine failure. The driver being 30 plus feet away, not paying attention to the gauges, being hard of hearing etc all don't help. I know the fan belt was replace the summer before so how hot did it get when the old one broke? I found pieces of the old belt in the bottom of the shroud when I was cleaning thing up.

So what is plan "B". It just so happens that I have a spare engine at my disposal. Buried in the back of my friends shop is a 5.9 from a 97 Dodge 3500 that I bought years ago. It is a 215 HP engine. The MH is a 230 HP engine ( close enough for me ). I will swap over the oil pan, put on the new exhaust manifold and turbo ( they are different anyway ) install the new injectors and get the MH injection pump checked out ( just to make sure everything is OK). Everything will get cleaned up and painted to look real purdy and it will get put in Rex. This will have to wait awhile as my friend is in the process of adding onto his shop so I get to help with all the cleaning up and changes, which it badly needs.

 

[Wayne M.]

Ahh crap Shadrach. Much respect for your work sir! Did the head slide out the back?