Luke_IDI
Registered User
Gotcha, thanks for posting those. Mine is probably the same as well--it looks like we have a similar amount of clearance. For some reason I was imagining an obvious notch as opposed to a smooth narrowing. I'll have to check it out. I'm still thinking there might be enough room there to flip the passenger side exhaust manifold, but it looks like it will probably wind up with less than 3/4" of clearance, which sounds a bit tight to me. I think I would enjoy the project of fabricating a manifold for it, especially seeing as R&D sells a flange kit.
Glad to hear of a nice cold start for your rig. And hope it made for a good camping trip! Mine also starts very well, especially after the head job last year. Cranked it up a couple of weeks ago after it sat for a couple of months. I have the glow plugs unplugged as most of them are no good, and I seem to have misplaced the set of Berus I bought months ago, so no glow plugs. Cranks for maybe 2 seconds, then fires. Granted, I'm in the South, so a cold start is 70+ degrees most of the year. But I don't think the glow plug system has ever been functional since we've owned the bus, and we've definitely fired it up cold in temperatures right around freezing. Those old plugs are bugging me--I wish I had replaced them when I had the heads off, but I didn't know about the swelling issues at the time. It does run rough for the first 30 seconds or so, though. I'm guessing I am losing some prime in the injector lines over time and it has to burp out a couple of small air bubbles. When the bus sat for a year, I had to crack the lines and crank until I saw fuel. Then it started right up.
I should also update that over the last several weeks some more stuff has gotten done. After installing the new radiator, the next time I went to crank up the bus, I had coolant pouring from the water pump weep hole. So, new water pump from Gates. The system is finally filled with 8 gallons of Fleet Charge and leak-free. I think I can say that I have as much faith now in the cooling system as I will ever have. New radiator, new oil cooler o-rings, new water pump, new thermostat, block very heavily flushed with Cascade countless times, and a coolant filter plumbed in to the heater core loop. To celebrate, I will post a pic of what the original radiator looked like inside when I pulled the tanks off:
It looked like someone grabbed a handful of potting soil and dropped it on top of the core! Ol' Baby Blue has come a long way in terms of staying cool.
Ah, but I do still need a definitive test on the fan clutch. Did you have to replace your fan clutch? Where did you source a replacement? I know it mounts to the water pump differently from the pickup version.
The AT545 also got refilled with new Dex/Merc. I'm working on plumbing in a temperature gauge following your idea on location of the sender. It sounded like you had a hard time flaring the steel tubing, though, so instead of teeing into the hard line, I'm replacing the elbow coming out of the transmission with a 3/8" Male NPT - 1/2" Male JIC - 1/2" Male JIC fitting, which I found at a hydraulic supply store. (I think those are the correct nominal dimensions. And I think it should fit right where the elbow did.) As you observed, there's enough meat in the unused JIC fitting to drill and tap for 1/4" NPT. I think I'm going to have to tap farther than I already have, and maybe cut off the end of the tapped JIC fitting, to get the end of the sender down into the fluid stream. Should work nicely.
The last couple of things that are nagging me slightly about the bus are some noises coming from the rear half of the vehicle, which I've begun to think more about now that things in the engine bay have been taken care of. It has a pretty significant driveline whine at 40mph+ that sounds consistent with a worn ring and pinion. The rear differential is definitely full of oil. I'm wondering if I should change it. The back of the bus is also very bouncy at some narrow range of speeds around 35-40 mph--as in a bounce turns into a slow harmonic vibration (maybe 3 bounces per second?) and won't stop until I change speed. I'm thinking new rear shocks will cure this. There is another vibration that seems to have developed recently. This one feels like it's coming from the rear as well, only at speeds above probably 40 mph. I would describe it as a short pattern of several pulses that repeats rapidly a few times a second. Not something I've ever felt in a light duty vehicle. I'm hoping shocks will take care of that issue as well, but the fact that there is a discernable pattern makes me think it's not a harmonic vibration. Still, everything feels perfectly smooth back there are lower speeds, so maybe it is harmonic.
Glad to hear of a nice cold start for your rig. And hope it made for a good camping trip! Mine also starts very well, especially after the head job last year. Cranked it up a couple of weeks ago after it sat for a couple of months. I have the glow plugs unplugged as most of them are no good, and I seem to have misplaced the set of Berus I bought months ago, so no glow plugs. Cranks for maybe 2 seconds, then fires. Granted, I'm in the South, so a cold start is 70+ degrees most of the year. But I don't think the glow plug system has ever been functional since we've owned the bus, and we've definitely fired it up cold in temperatures right around freezing. Those old plugs are bugging me--I wish I had replaced them when I had the heads off, but I didn't know about the swelling issues at the time. It does run rough for the first 30 seconds or so, though. I'm guessing I am losing some prime in the injector lines over time and it has to burp out a couple of small air bubbles. When the bus sat for a year, I had to crack the lines and crank until I saw fuel. Then it started right up.
I should also update that over the last several weeks some more stuff has gotten done. After installing the new radiator, the next time I went to crank up the bus, I had coolant pouring from the water pump weep hole. So, new water pump from Gates. The system is finally filled with 8 gallons of Fleet Charge and leak-free. I think I can say that I have as much faith now in the cooling system as I will ever have. New radiator, new oil cooler o-rings, new water pump, new thermostat, block very heavily flushed with Cascade countless times, and a coolant filter plumbed in to the heater core loop. To celebrate, I will post a pic of what the original radiator looked like inside when I pulled the tanks off:
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It looked like someone grabbed a handful of potting soil and dropped it on top of the core! Ol' Baby Blue has come a long way in terms of staying cool.
Ah, but I do still need a definitive test on the fan clutch. Did you have to replace your fan clutch? Where did you source a replacement? I know it mounts to the water pump differently from the pickup version.
The AT545 also got refilled with new Dex/Merc. I'm working on plumbing in a temperature gauge following your idea on location of the sender. It sounded like you had a hard time flaring the steel tubing, though, so instead of teeing into the hard line, I'm replacing the elbow coming out of the transmission with a 3/8" Male NPT - 1/2" Male JIC - 1/2" Male JIC fitting, which I found at a hydraulic supply store. (I think those are the correct nominal dimensions. And I think it should fit right where the elbow did.) As you observed, there's enough meat in the unused JIC fitting to drill and tap for 1/4" NPT. I think I'm going to have to tap farther than I already have, and maybe cut off the end of the tapped JIC fitting, to get the end of the sender down into the fluid stream. Should work nicely.
The last couple of things that are nagging me slightly about the bus are some noises coming from the rear half of the vehicle, which I've begun to think more about now that things in the engine bay have been taken care of. It has a pretty significant driveline whine at 40mph+ that sounds consistent with a worn ring and pinion. The rear differential is definitely full of oil. I'm wondering if I should change it. The back of the bus is also very bouncy at some narrow range of speeds around 35-40 mph--as in a bounce turns into a slow harmonic vibration (maybe 3 bounces per second?) and won't stop until I change speed. I'm thinking new rear shocks will cure this. There is another vibration that seems to have developed recently. This one feels like it's coming from the rear as well, only at speeds above probably 40 mph. I would describe it as a short pattern of several pulses that repeats rapidly a few times a second. Not something I've ever felt in a light duty vehicle. I'm hoping shocks will take care of that issue as well, but the fact that there is a discernable pattern makes me think it's not a harmonic vibration. Still, everything feels perfectly smooth back there are lower speeds, so maybe it is harmonic.