Buying 85 IDI ATS turbo motorhome!

[Cubey]

Ugh, the air filters are rare. They were used on 70s-early 80s Porsche 911s, so you can still get a few but yeah. WIX has long stopped making them.

Oreilly only shows the KN filter for an 83 Porsche 911, $90. The Fram one is around $20 online. I found some other off brand ones but they are about $40.

The cross reference listing:
https://www.knfilters.com/mobile/kn_cross_ref.aspx?part=33-2004

 

[Cubey]

I'm exhausted but have insomnia so sorry for "spam" replying.

It still has the original Ford cassette player. I haven't tried it yet but I did find a small stash of cassettes in here too... unfortunately they're all weird old religious tapes.

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[The_Josh_Bear]

You know, actually it's not supposed to have a CDR. There no doubt its an 085 kit, and the diagram has no OEM CDR.

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That's really interesting. Never heard of that before, and there is plenty of mention of 085 kits around. But obviously ATS deleted it and made a short crankcase tube instead. Thanks for sharing.

Someone more knowledgeable than I would have to chime in about 085 can kit vs pickup about the air cleaner lid. The lid is in your schematic there so no way they designed it to not have one.
Maybe @genscripter knows?

And I agree with the above that it doesn't look like you were tricked or conned on this buy. Just and old guy that sat on his motorhome and didn't fix it up. All the problems you've listed so far are really just maintenance items.
That happens when you buy cold like this. I bought my IDI for $900 in eastern WA and took a one-way plane ride to get there. I definitely spent quite a few years on the maintenance items! But in the end I've had her 13+years now and have a reliable beast. A handy and well-informed man could fix 90% of those maintenance items in a couple months in freetime on the weekends though. I was working so much and didnt know enough to get it done early so I ended up fixing things as they failed...not a good routine.

 

[Cubey]

Well, he never said "the brakes need work" so yeah. I'd have still bought it but at least it wouldn't have been a shocker.

The 085 diagram might be truck specific, not van. The air box base on mine has the clips to hold the air filter on. If you notice, the lid in that diagram has the clips, not the base! I have a feeling the van kit just didn't bother with a lid. There's just no room to cram a big domed cover in there.

Here's one of the fender decals for the turbo for those interested:

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[larson]

Just clean and oil the k&n filter and keep using it.
I have about 85k on my k&n. I clean and oil it every oil change. Soak it in a 5 gallon bucket of strong dawn soap and water for a few hours moving it around every 20 min or so to flush the water through the filter then rinse it off very thoroughly and let it dry. Autozone has the oil to spray on it. Never had any issues with it not filtering when i pull it out its obvious that it catches dust and bugs and stuff.

Good luck with the rv i think its cool.

 

[Cubey]

Holy crap, this shop wants $850 just in labor, 10 hours.

3.5hrs to do wheel cylinders seems excessive! The guy acts like pulling axle shafts is time consuming. 2 hours for brake hoses plus 2 for calipers? Hoses and calipers are a single job basically, plus the rear hose.

I need to check around other shops. They are pricing single jobs multiple times.

 

[Cubey]

I went ahead with the first shop. It was close by and it's possible the labor could be less. The times are based on thst single task as if nothing else is being done. I can't avoid having this done so it's gotta be done. If I was 30 miles away from my tools, I would have just carefully driven it back, but not the ~300 miles that it is. Even if I had flushed the brake system with a makeshift brake bleeder and some hose, there was no gurantee that it would have been any better.

From what I've read, it doesn't take long for the seals to swell from transmission fluid.

It's possible that the vacuum pump is also failing, so I asked that they do a quick vacuum pressure test from the hose at the distribution block above the driver side battery, a 2 minute job max.

They started working on it around 3pm but won't have all the parts until tomorrow.

I got a really good deal on a hotel room.1.5mi away for under $52 with tax. Free hot breakfast too. A guy at the shop dropped me off and theyll presumably pick me up tomorrow.

So anyway, here are a couple more pictures I took yesterday but didn't post. I'm guessing that's the "factory" ATS gauges?

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[stealth13777]

Good luck with the shop! Always a challenge getting a vehicle like that and driving it home

 

[Cubey]

Good luck with the shop! Always a challenge getting a vehicle like that and driving it home

An older lady working at the Walmart self checkout said she has used them and feels they do good work. They are very busy and have an ambulance sitting on their lot so I'm guessing they're pretty trusted. The rig just fit in their larger bay door, so that's a factor too, having a shop that has extra tall enough doors.

Another shop about 10 miles away (half is stop and go city driving) quoted $100 less parts wise but exactly the same labor. I guess they both use the same estimate system. It would have been a huge risk to drive there, so yeah, not worth risking a wreck as my fault over "maybe" saving $100.

 

[DrCharles]

I got a really good deal on a hotel room.1.5mi away for under $52 with tax. Free hot breakfast too. A guy at the shop dropped me off and theyll presumably pick me up tomorrow.

Why not just sleep in the motorhome?

 

[Cubey]

Why not just sleep in the motorhome?

Because it's going to sit inside their garage overnight until they get the rest of the parts. They started today, removing the ruined parts and probably doing the brake line flushing/cleaning.

I slept in it last night at the Walmart 1/2 mile from the shop. I brought my sleeping bag and pillow with me but little else except my phone mount, dash cam, band aids and several phone chargers in both 120v and 12v in case any died. I had expected to be back at my truck by 4-5 this afternoon.

 

[The_Josh_Bear]

I guess they both use the same estimate system. It would have been a huge risk to drive there, so yeah, not worth risking a wreck as my fault over "maybe" saving $100.

Most shops do not use actual hours and charge accordingly. They all have a book(now a computer program I'm sure) that lists the repairs and gives a shop-friendly hour rating per repair. But with experienced help and tricks of the trade they are usually much faster and still charge whatever the book says.
(As an example, my buddy is an assistant parts manager at a big Toyota dealership locally. There was a certain V6 in a minivan that when it needed head gaskets, took like 8 book hours. But the mechanics figured out they could leave the intake completely bolted to both heads and pull the whole damn thing out at once and got the same job done in 2.5 hours. Guess what Toyota charged the customers? Yep 8 hours.)

Now BTW I'm not mad about it, I know we have lots of wrenches around here that worked or still work in shops. It's just how it's done generally. And if you find a good shop its totally worth it!

Good call not risking it. Brakes are the most important safety feature on any vehicle!

 

[Cubey]

Just clean and oil the k&n filter and keep using it.
I have about 85k on my k&n. I clean and oil it every oil change. Soak it in a 5 gallon bucket of strong dawn soap and water for a few hours moving it around every 20 min or so to flush the water through the filter then rinse it off very thoroughly and let it dry. Autozone has the oil to spray on it. Never had any issues with it not filtering when i pull it out its obvious that it catches dust and bugs and stuff.

I think I will order a $20 Fram filter to stick in during K&N filter cleanings. That way I'm not stuck, unable to drive while it's soaking and drying since it's my only vehicle when out on the road. My IDI truck will be sitting at a relative's house hundreds, if not thousands of miles away

I see little reason to sell the truck right now, with access to.free storage there. I have too much in it money wise, and there's little wrong with it other than leaky valve cover gaskets, needing a cooling system flush badly, window tracks are badly rotten/missing, driver's door hinges need to be done right (by a body shop) and a pretty high oil burning rate engine. It runs awesome and has a 2.5 year old rebuilt C6.

I should have probably just put a turbo kit on the truck (the RV is the same 6.9 with head bolts, I'm sure) and put a big slide in, but oh well. There is no turning back now, with the $1300 brake system work being done right now, due to some idiot putting transmission fluid in it.

 

[stealth13777]

Most shops do not use actual hours and charge accordingly. They all have a book(now a computer program I'm sure) that lists the repairs and gives a shop-friendly hour rating per repair. But with experienced help and tricks of the trade they are usually much faster and still charge whatever the book says.
(As an example, my buddy is an assistant parts manager at a big Toyota dealership locally. There was a certain V6 in a minivan that when it needed head gaskets, took like 8 book hours. But the mechanics figured out they could leave the intake completely bolted to both heads and pull the whole damn thing out at once and got the same job done in 2.5 hours. Guess what Toyota charged the customers? Yep 8 hours.)

Now BTW I'm not mad about it, I know we have lots of wrenches around here that worked or still work in shops. It's just how it's done generally. And if you find a good shop its totally worth it!

Good call not risking it. Brakes are the most important safety feature on any vehicle!

The flip side of this is that a reputable shop will still only charge book hours, even if it took them longer to do the repair. Slower mechanics or newer ones will often take longer than the book, whereas experienced guys will do what you said and thus generate more hours and pay for themselves.

Can’t wait to hear the brakes are all good later today!

 

[Cubey]

The flip side of this is that a reputable shop will still only charge book hours, even if it took them longer to do the repair. Slower mechanics or newer ones will often take longer than the book, whereas experienced guys will do what you said and thus generate more hours and pay for themselves.

Can’t wait to hear the brakes are all good later today!

Around 10 years ago, I took a beater 88 Buick Regal to a very long standing shop owned and operated by an old Asian man and presumably his son. It's a gritty, no frills shop but they have been around for 30 years at least by this point today.

I've seen police cars there for repairs because its close to the PD and they do good work.

The son quoted me under $100 to do brake shoes I carried in, figuring 45 minutes max. (I don't remember the exact amount.) It took at least 2 hours because they gave him such a hard time. He still only charged me the quoted price though. He said he never had brake shoes that hard to change before.