Buying 85 IDI ATS turbo motorhome!

[Cubey]

I could slap myself silly. It may have been the vacuum modulator this whole time. I replaced the non-adjustable one with an adjustable one 2+ years ago and I could SWEAR I adjusted it but got no results. I adjusted it again the other day and now the upshifts are earlier. Moreso for 2-3 than 1-2. Then I also I dumped in a bottle of Lubeguard Red also for good measure since it can only help and can't hurt. Kickdown still doesn't work for some reason, but I manually downshift to 2nd if I need it so it's not a big deal.

It still not always downshift to first like you'd think it would but manually shifting to 1 works so I do that. Sometimes I think it's in 2nd and I go to 1 and it's not... just the high altitude kicking the IDI's butt.

I drove up US-191 today from Price, UT to Duchesne, UT... wow that's a slow drive in an IDI. It got me down to 22mph in first gear at one point, but was mostly close to 25mph. The speed limit was 40 in the worst of it. It was pegged at about 220*F water and 1,000-1500*F EGT, but it made it. Amazingly no one got stuck behind me. One pickup passed me on the climb back down because they wanted to do 70 in a 60 zone on a narrow 2 lane highway but whatever. They appeared from nowhere since I was watching my side mirror to see if anyone was behind me trying to pass.

Some road work was going on at the sound end of US-191 and they had it closed, so it sent me around a detour (about an extra 10 miles), via US-6 to some crappy back country road that links US-6 to US-191. That back road wasn't bad, but the ~10 mile stretch of US-6 was slow going too in places, for such a busy route. They do have a passing lane, at least. Along that stretch, a much newer pickup (than IDIs, anyway) with a newer small to medium sized travel trailer was pulled off with their hood up. People try to go too fast on mountain grades and probably lack real gauges... and that's what happens.

Oh and the summit was a bit over 9100 according to the sign.

I'm going up US-191 from Vernal, UT to Flaming Gorge tomorrow. I took that route 4 years ago in my NA F250 and it was sloooow on those switchbacks. I expect the RV will be the same. As long as it keeps moving at least 20mph and the temps are safe, it's ok. I definitely don't like going those roads though.

 

[IDIBRONCO]

I could slap myself silly. It may have been the vacuum modulator this whole time. I replaced the non-adjustable one with an adjustable one 2+ years ago and I could SWEAR I adjusted it but got no results.

I sure seem to recall you saying just this. I thought it was odd at the time that it made no difference.

 

[Cubey]

I sure seem to recall you saying just this. I thought it was odd at the time that it made no difference.

Maybe the new vac mod was just turned in way too far.

 

[Big Bart]

Cubey they always say slow and steady wins the race.

You are smart to have all the right gauges for your expedition accross the west! They will tell you when your boot is pushing a little to ******* the diesel pedal. Seems like if you treat your IDI right, it will treat you right!

The end game is to get to the next destination without breaking down in between even if that means going 20mph in 1st gear. Unlike your friends with the travel trailer you passed, you made it!

Drive safe and enjoy the adventure! BTW where are the pic's of these amazing places you see that will make us all jealous, want to quit our jobs, and go join you to see the USA in IDI style? (Slow and steady.)

 

[Cubey]

Drive safe and enjoy the adventure! BTW where are the pic's of these amazing places you see that will make us all jealous, want to quit our jobs, and go join you to see the USA in IDI style? (Slow and steady.)

Sitting in Google photos. I used to blog years ago but I didn't think anyone really cares enough to look at places I've been.

But here you go. This is where I was for a bit over 2 weeks in the first half of May.

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[IDIoit]

oah man, i missed this thread completely!!
in February, i started looking into RV's
i really wanted an IDI powered rig!!!

well long story short, i paid 4500 for a 91 23 foot Tioga.
it has a 460 and a c-6.
at 5 mpg, ive been debating throwing a DT360 in it!!

everything in this rig works, save the bathroom door latch, its gone missing!
ive added a bottled water system to go along with the main water tank,
we drink alot of water, and i dont want well water to drink

also came up on a DRW KPD60.

if/when i do the engine swap, the solid axle and a 4r100 will go in.

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[Cubey]

oah man, i missed this thread completely!!
in February, i started looking into RV's
i really wanted an IDI powered rig!!!

well long story short, i paid 4500 for a 91 23 foot Tioga.
it has a 460 and a c-6.
at 5 mpg, ive been debating throwing a DT360 in it!!

You wouldn't want one without turbo. Mine is and it makes it about comparable to my mostly empty NA F250. I towed an old 27ft aluminum frame travel trailer with the pickup in the Midwest and south and it was unbearable. I probably wouldn't be able to even make it across the mountain I did today without a turbo.

The problem is generally van turbos are slightly different. My ATS 085 uses a ring to hold down the air filter because the air intake box is on the opposite side from pickups, and you couldn't turn the lid around due to the transmission dipstick tube and the engine compartment tunnel wall being in the way. So they just have a ring to hold down the filter. It runs cool enough that way so long as you replace a weak fan clutch, like mine had. It dropped the temperature by 10-15 degrees at all speeds. Now runs as cool as my F250 that probably has a weak fan clutch.

 

[IDIoit]

You wouldn't want one without turbo. Mine is and it makes it about comparable to my mostly empty NA F250. I towed an old 27ft aluminum frame travel trailer with the pickup in the Midwest and south and it was unbearable. I probably wouldn't be able to even make it across the mountain I did today without a turbo.

The problem is generally van turbos are slightly different. My ATS 085 uses a ring to hold down the air filter because the air intake box is on the opposite side from pickups, and you couldn't turn the lid around due to the transmission dipstick tube and the engine compartment tunnel wall being in the way. So they just have a ring to hold down the filter. It runs cool enough that way so long as you replace a weak fan clutch, like mine had. It dropped the temperature by 10-15 degrees at all speeds. Now runs as cool as my F250 that probably has a weak fan clutch.

i usually build my own turbo kits, so it was of no nevermind to me.

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[Big Bart]

Sitting in Google photos. I used to blog years ago but I didn't think anyone really cares enough to look at places I've been.

But here you go. This is where I was for a bit over 2 weeks in the first half of May.

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Looks amazing! Good for you.

 

[Cubey]

Yikes!! I basically hit the red line on a (very!) steep dirt road by Green River, WY. I forgot I had the A/C on and I didn't realize it was a 900ft climb in 2.8 miles. (6% grade). After 2 miles of it, I was almost at 240.

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I pulled over where I could right before it got there, shut off A/C once I saw it was on, turned on heater full blast with the windows down, and opened the hood for good measure. Pic was taken within 15 seconds of stopping. It might have JUST hit 240 on the gauge before it began dropping.

I sat there until it got a bit under 220, maybe 5-7 minutes, then took off again for the last less of a mile. Once moving it cooled a bit more, maybe 210? It got up to maybe 230 max again by the time I got to my destination since it was still a bit more of a climb. It was already puffing a lot of black smoke taking off from a stop before I started that climb, so the elevation is really kicking it's butt. ABout 82-84 degrees right now, very gusty windy but it seems like I should have had a tail wind on that climb.

I didn't even realize I had left it in 1st gear until I went to take off again. Yeah I got out and opened the hood with it that way!! That tells you how steep it was even in that somewhat flat spot I stopped. You can see the gear indicator in the pic.

The views from here:

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I probably won't be here too long, maybe into early/mid next week since I might have to go to a post office to mail something important. I don't think I want to make that drive a second time, unless I stop every 1 mile when it hits 220-230 to avoid it getting that hot. Not many places to stay up here either. I was lucky to get a spot.

 

[The_Josh_Bear]

That's a beautiful viewpoint! The pictures we can take with phones these days still boggles my mind. Incredible.
I like your clear mounting plate for the temp gauge that let's you see through it to the factory stuff behind it. Pretty smart!

 

[Cubey]

That's a beautiful viewpoint! The pictures we can take with phones these days still boggles my mind. Incredible.
I like your clear mounting plate for the temp gauge that let's you see through it to the factory stuff behind it. Pretty smart!

It's a Pixel 4a so they kind of tout the cameras on those, even though the 4a was kind of a low-mid range priced phone. It's the non-5G one. 12.2MP is what it has.

I put the probe in the factory temp gauge port because it's a bit easier to reach on a van chassis. The gauge is covering my view of the factory water temp gauge but it's fine since it's not operational right now. I never wired in the light for night driving but almost never night drive. I only did one time that I can recall in the past 2 years and it was on pretty flat roads and only about 10-15 miles, so water temp wasn't it a big concern. I rigged it up with what I had on hand at the time and just haven't seen a reason to change it.

 

[Big Bart]

Something to try next time you are in town. Hit a Home Depot or hardware store. Buy a 2 gallon bug sprayer and fill with water. When you run hot leave it running and spray through the grill at the evaporator and radiator. Set it for spray not stream and watch your radiator temp start dropping. (If not cooling well set to stream and try again. I found mist was fine.) It will cool the radiator and now that little bit of steam/humidity blowing through the engine compartment will help draw off heat and cool everything in it too.

If you like how it works unscrew the stick part from the hand valve. Plum a hose from your valve (Sitting next to your seat.) to in front of the radiator and hook the stick and tip so it’s sprays a few inches from the radiator. Now your driving, you squeeze the valve and watch your temp drop. Like that hook up, then add a second window washer fluid system and install a push button. Then you have cooling on demand!

I have done this trick a couple times in the past with friends who’s trucks ran warm going up grades. Worked like a champ. It was amazing how it seemed to cool the evaporator, tranny cooler, radiator, and continued to a obsorb heat as it whipped through the engine compartment. Your not making it rain more like those misters at the restaurant. Just trying to cool things down.

Stay cool my friend.

 

[Selahdoor]

Something to try next time you are in town. Hit a Home Depot or hardware store. Buy a 2 gallon bug sprayer and fill with water. When you run hot leave it running and spray through the grill at the evaporator and radiator. Set it for spray not stream and watch your radiator temp start dropping. (If not cooling well set to stream and try again. I found mist was fine.) It will cool the radiator and now that little bit of steam/humidity blowing through the engine compartment will help draw off heat and cool everything in it too.

If you like how it works unscrew the stick part from the hand valve. Plum a hose from your valve (Sitting next to your seat.) to in front of the radiator and hook the stick and tip so it’s sprays a few inches from the radiator. Now your driving, you squeeze the valve and watch your temp drop. Like that hook up, then add a second window washer fluid system and install a push button. Then you have cooling on demand!

I have done this trick a couple times in the past with friends who’s trucks ran warm going up grades. Worked like a champ. It was amazing how it seemed to cool the evaporator, tranny cooler, radiator, and continued to a obsorb heat as it whipped through the engine compartment. Your not making it rain more like those misters at the restaurant. Just trying to cool things down.

Stay cool my friend.

I'm going to unlike this about 23 times, so I can like it again!

 

[Cubey]

Something to try next time you are in town. Hit a Home Depot or hardware store. Buy a 2 gallon bug sprayer and fill with water. When you run hot leave it running and spray through the grill at the evaporator and radiator. Set it for spray not stream and watch your radiator temp start dropping. (If not cooling well set to stream and try again. I found mist was fine.) It will cool the radiator and now that little bit of steam/humidity blowing through the engine compartment will help draw off heat and cool everything in it too.

If you like how it works unscrew the stick part from the hand valve. Plum a hose from your valve (Sitting next to your seat.) to in front of the radiator and hook the stick and tip so it’s sprays a few inches from the radiator. Now your driving, you squeeze the valve and watch your temp drop. Like that hook up, then add a second window washer fluid system and install a push button. Then you have cooling on demand!

I have done this trick a couple times in the past with friends who’s trucks ran warm going up grades. Worked like a champ. It was amazing how it seemed to cool the evaporator, tranny cooler, radiator, and continued to a obsorb heat as it whipped through the engine compartment. Your not making it rain more like those misters at the restaurant. Just trying to cool things down.

Stay cool my friend.

Interesting.

Well see, I drove through a lot of rough grades over the past several days, including earlier today. This one is the one that did it, probably because of the A/C being on. The heat from the condenser was being shoved into the radiator which is probably what pushed it over the edge. That and the A/C compressor's load on the motor too. I've had no water temp problems at all today until this. It cooled down reasonably quick idling there with heat on and hood open, so my cooling system wasn't to blame. It's working quite well. I could see the needle slowly dropping.

Maybe the gravel/dirt road was partly to blame too, poor traction vs a paved road so it was having to work much harder to keep up speed.

EGT is what I was having to watch more than water temp over the past few days except a few days ago on US-191. But it never got so bad that I had to pull over until this pesky 3 mile long dirt road. I watched both but EGT is what would climb faster, at least on the paved roads.

The dirt roads I usually take aren't a ~3 mile long 6% or more constant grade, so temps are generally never a problem on them. It's just one of those things things that caught me off guard but I was able to avoid thanks to watching those two gauges like a hawk. I checked the radiator and it's not milky, so presumably the oil is ok too. I doubt I blew a head gasket or did any damage since I stopped just in time, as it was reaching 240. Those last 10 degrees went by fast. One second it was 230, next it was almost at 240.