Not sure how four of them would feel (probably won't matter with the power you're going to be running), but the two that I am using are great. I agree that they are "deader" than the original Dodge mounts. Good stuff indeed.
CK5
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The Story Of A Cummins Suburban (Lots Of Pics)
- Thread starter mosesburb
- Start date
Not sure how four of them would feel (probably won't matter with the power you're going to be running), but the two that I am using are great. I agree that they are "deader" than the original Dodge mounts. Good stuff indeed.
I know some of you have heard part of the story, so if you are interested in the Paul Harvey version, here it is:
As some of you have already heard, we took a little trip to San Diego to go to Sea World and Balboa Park. We left Sunday morning (03/17) and headed toward SD in the Suburban. We were actually heading about 40 miles north of SD to a town called Carlsbad where we had reservations at South Carlsbad State Beach Campground. Normally we avoid campgrounds with a passion, but there is no free-range camping in So-Cal (that I know of), so we resorted to a beach campground and reserved a spot backing up to a cliff overlooking the ocean.
We got to Carlsbad about three in the afternoon. We approached the campground on the road that leads directly into it. The problem is you can't drive straight into it. You have to come at it from the north. I didn't know this and I turned south. We went down a bit, then turned around and headed north. We then passed the entrance and turned around thus heading south so we could make the right turn into the facility. When I applied the brakes to turn into the facility the truck pulled HARD right. It was like I had no left front brakes at all. I had just stopped a few hundred yards ago and everything was fine?? I wasn't going fast and the truck has braking power to spare so I was able to reel it in no problem. We pull up to the shack where you check in and the same thing happened. The lady in the shack asked if I had just driven through some mud?? I said no and asked why. She said I was leaking something. I got out and looked and a tan substance was pouring out of the fender in front of the left front tire. I opened the hood and found the coolant reservoir was vomiting this tan substance (this oil/coolant mix is what coated the left front brakes rendering them useless, thus my hard right turn when pulling into the facility). She said I had to move immediately, which I did. I parked in the first parking spot I came to. She said I could not enter the facility because of this (honestly, I wouldn't let me in either). I quickly deduced that it must be an engine oil cooler failure. In this particular Cummins diesel engine the oil cooler is located inside the engine in a coolant jacket in the engine block. The oil is circulated through the cooler which is surrounded by coolant which removes heat from the oil. I figured the oil cooler must have failed because I had no coolant in the oil (yet). A park worker brought me a five gallon bucket to catch the remaining flow from the fender and told me they had a park ranger coming to decide whether I will be permitted to enter or not. He arrived and after some smooth talking by yours truly, I was permitted to travel to a substitute spot. I originally picked site 48 and they put me in spot 1. This was a good thing.
Ever feel like a stranger in a strange land?? I sure did. So, where do I start?? It's Sunday afternoon. Do I call a shop?? Regular automotive repair or a diesel shop or a Cummins specific shop?? What if it isn't the oil cooler?? What if it is the head gasket?? How do I get this thing home if it is a major problem??
While I was doing this I noticed the level in the coolant reservoir was dropping, but it wasn't draining onto the ground. That told me it was back-flowing into the crankcase (when oil and water mix it turns into a super-nasty substance that will wipe out crankshaft bearings very quickly). When I finally decided to move it, I grabbed the bucket jumped under the truck and did my best Bruce Lee impersonation on the drain plug removing it long enough for the water sitting in the bottom of the pan to drain out and quickly reinstalled it when oil started flowing. I then went to start it just in time for a camper to block the driveway. It seemed like he sat there forever, but it was probably two minutes, but water is still flowing into the oil pan. He finally moved, I started it and quickly drove it to our spot and shut it off while still rolling.
In amongst all of this I had called several people. Several people wanted to help, but because of their location, or housing or work situation were not able to, but offered any assistance they could. My call to my buddy Lance (in Phoenix) got the avalanche of help flowing. He contacted a guy named Mike. Mike was down in/near San Diego, but he knew a guy named Rick who lives in Oceanside. Mike contacted Rick, whom he knew, but just got his phone number the week before because he was going to do some welding for Rick. Mike gives Rick my info and Rick calls me and offers the side of his driveway to me. I explain to Rick that the job I need to do is horrendously messy and that I will do the best I can to keep it contained, but the possibility exists that I may have to leave some kitty litter on the ground. He is cool with that and his offer stands. Mike calls and offers any assistance he can to me (this is going to be huge).
We finally get settled down and relax (I'm not sure I did) for the evening. We have dinner, went for a nice walk down to the beach and hit the sack. Even with all the uncertainty, we got a good night's sleep. We got up in the morning and started making calls to get the ball rolling.
Now, I am going to cheat a little and copy some text from a website that we are all members of instead of trying to re-type what was said as it is a pretty long story (I would post a link to the site, but it is in an area that you have to be a member to access). The bold type is what the other people wrote and the normal text was my response to them in the thread on the forum. The posts are in order, but some details will seem out of order because of when they were written. Keep in mind, I had never met these people before.
Originally Posted by Mike
Well, it was a long day. Nick was able to get the rig towed to Rick's place about 12:30 (tow company screwed up and first truck sent did not have enough room for Nick, his wife and son). I showed up shortly after with a new oil cooler and required gaskets. Little did they know I had taken the rest of the day off and brought old clothes to work on the rig. I think I really surprised them. LOL We all then ran around picking up needed supplies (oil, coolant, buckets, drip pan, etc., etc.). With supplies in hand, we need to figure out if it really was the cooler or issues with the head gasket, as Nick replaced this about a month ago. We started by draining the oil which had a lot of water in it. We left the plug out and water continued to drain well past the point of a head gasket leak. At that point we felt fairly certain that it was the oil cooler (which is mounted into the side of the engine block). We finished draining the radiator. Some of the nastiest crap came out. Then we started getting the filter adapter and cooler out. Though these came off fairly easily, the old style fiber gasket on the block did not. Nick spent about an hour and a half scraping this off. Cummins had updated this gasket as the replacement was a steel core/silicon type one, which would have taken minutes to remove.
By about 6pm we were getting parts going onto the truck. We left the oil drain plug out and used a pressure tester and pumped up the cooling system to see if we go any water coming from the oil pan. All looked good. Then came the hard part of making sure we could get as much of the oil out of the cooling system and water out of the oil system. Luckily we got really lucky with the oil system and we likely got 99.5% out. We put a soapy water mix into the cooling system and got the truck fired up around 7:30pm. We let it warm up for about 30 minutes to get it warmed up (so the t-stat would open and circulate the soapy water). We then drained the oil (with only a little water first coming out) and the filter. That look really good so a new filter and oil was put in. We then drained the soapy water mix and flushed that with some clean water, proceeding with fresh coolant.
Since the coolant overflowed originally, from the overflow tank, it drenched the left front caliper and brake. We set about cleaning that up as well. Once we felt we had the work on the truck need, then came the clean up. With cardboard, buckets and drip pan, we kept Rick's driveway clean. Nick not wanting to leave all of this nasty oil/coolant mix, poured most into empty gallon containers and sealed up the last in on bucket, so he can haul it all back to AZ to dispose of. All said and done, we got out of Rick's house a little after 10pm and I got them down 5/805 split before pealing off for home, with Nick having given the A-Okay that all systems were working fine. I got home about 11pm.
Again a huge thanks to Rick and his wife for opening up their home. It was perfect for Nick's wife and son who were able to comfortable while we fixed the truck versus sitting in the middle of a parking lot or worse, side of the road. It was great working with Nick, as the craftsmanship and attention to detail really made the work fairly easy. It is definitely one of the nicest engine conversions I have seen in any type of vehicle. With them back on the road, they are able to keep their plans for today, to go to Sea World and then driving their rig back to AZ tomorrow. It salvaged the vacation that otherwise would have really sucked.
Hard to add much to that post. One thing I can add, or at least elaborate on, is Mike's kindness in taking time off of work for an emergency. Now I had spoken with Mike briefly the day before and he offered to bring parts to me in Oceanside from the San Diego(ish) area. Now when he offered this, I *thought* he had said he lived up that way or at least near there. I was wrong. He actually lives way south of there. Honestly, I would not have accepted his offer had I known this, but I am glad I made the mistake because his driving skills coupled with his determination to get us back on the road was fantastic. I was planning on renting a car when we got to Rick's house to run around and get parts. Because the tow companies took so long getting the right equipment on scene, we got to Rick's house shortly before Mike arrived and he offered to run us around. We went here, there, and everywhere. He even stopped at an Eat-M-Up joint so we could get something to eat. Class act. Total class act.
Originally Posted by Rick
Nick's 'burb is running! Probably a few things to button up... But the initial problem has been resolved - replacing the defective oil cooler did the trick. ExpoMike has been a godsend - spent the day running down parts and assisting anyway he could.
Looks like their vacation can resume.
Rick,
I wanted to say thanks again to you, Rick, for so graciously offering your home to us for our repairs. I know your home was not part of the deal, but you and your family could not have made us feel more welcome if we had known you for many years. That was a wonderful bonus to the "driveway" you offered :-). I realize your house was not on our itinerary, but I know my wife and boy enjoyed themselves enough that that detail did not matter. Thanks again!!
Originally Posted by Larry (This is a guy from Colorado that we traveled with last summer--I actually know this guy, LOL))
Great work Mike and Rick! That is outstanding you took the time out of your busy schedule to help Nick and his family. You can’t ask for a nicer family than Nick’s and you’re right….his Cummins conversion is cleaner and better engineered layout than factory installed Cummins engines. I was shocked to hear anything could go wrong with that machine.
Wow, thanks Larry. Those are some compliments not to be taken lightly coming from you. Thanks!! Yeah, it goes to show that no matter how much prep work and aircraft-type maintenance is done to a rig, there is always a possibility of an unscheduled surprise. We got real lucky that it happened as we were pulling into our destination and not five hundred feet earlier. I was able to contain the mess flowing from the fender (yes, fender) enough to eventually convince the park ranger to let me drive into a substitute spot where we had a real nice evening and even got a good night's sleep.
Originally Posted by Mike
Just got word from Nick, they made it back home to Phoenix without any problems. Glad they had no problems and was able to salvage the rest of their vacation.
We did. We made it home!! We were effectively on a 375 mile test drive, so it seemed like everything we passed was a milestone. At least we made it to El Centro. Hey we passed Yuma. There's Gila Bend!! And so on.. We got home and unloaded the truck, I drew off about 2" of residual oil/funk/cake batter from the coolant overflow reservoir (it was a layer sitting on top of the clean coolant installed at Rick's house), then proceeded to drive it to get something to eat. I bypassed the heater hoses during the repair to save time, so I still have to flush the cake batter out of that system, but the crankcase is clean and the cooling system seems to be pretty close to clean now too. We'll see in a couple days here.
A couple other people need to be recognized for their efforts in getting us going again. First, of course, is Lance. He wasn't my first, second or third call, but he is the one who got the ball rolling. Another character in the play behind the scene is one of my parts guys from Phoenix. I called him Monday morning and left him a message telling him what was up and what I needed and if he could point me in a direction to a Cummins supplier in the vicinity. Now a little back story on this cat is he plays in a band that plays Irish bars. This is Monday morning and Sunday night they did a triple header at THREE DIFFERENT bars for St Patrick's Day. Now I didn't realize it was St Patrick's Day Sunday and that he would be taking the day off Monday, so when he didn't call me back in some amount of time, I started hunting around for Cummins suppliers. I found Cummins Cal Pacific. I called one of their locations and got a gal in parts who said their entire system was down in the region and she took my information and said she would call me back. I'm still waiting on that return call.... Enter my parts guy from Phoenix who sounded like a train-wreck-in-motion when he called me from his house. He had gotten my message and looked up the parts I needed on his own computer, got me the part numbers and also some possible suppliers; one of which was San Diego Freightliner (SDFTL). I called SDFTL and Angel said they didn't have the parts, but he could get them from Cummins El Cajon. SDFTL is closer to Mike than El Cajon, so I had him get them from Cummins for Mike to pick up at Miramar and the 805. Which is where Mike started his day working uncompensated for me.
So all of these people put their effort, however seemingly insignificant or massive, and it all added up to one family being able to finish out a little vacation on a great note instead of a sour one. Much thanks to all!!
Originally Posted by Mike
Nice post Nick. Again, you guys are very welcome and I am happy everything worked out in the end.
One thing to note, even with all the stress of what was going on, Nick remained calm and level headed. I have seen way too many people go off the handle and it makes working with them very difficult. He kept working through each problem without a whole lot of fuss. It made it a pleasure to work with him versus a chore.
Again, glad you guys made it home and I am sure your son will have lots of stories to tell his buddies.
I am sure he will!!
So there you go. The story of our California adventure. All in all, I call it a win. We did miss out on the Balboa Park, but that was not prepaid, so it was skipped due to time constraints. I left with several bloody fingers, purple torn fingernails (yes, more than one), battered and bruised forearms, and a sore back, but we left under our own power and had a great time to boot. It was really amazing to get so much help offered to us having never before met most of the participants. There are still some great people out there.
As some of you have already heard, we took a little trip to San Diego to go to Sea World and Balboa Park. We left Sunday morning (03/17) and headed toward SD in the Suburban. We were actually heading about 40 miles north of SD to a town called Carlsbad where we had reservations at South Carlsbad State Beach Campground. Normally we avoid campgrounds with a passion, but there is no free-range camping in So-Cal (that I know of), so we resorted to a beach campground and reserved a spot backing up to a cliff overlooking the ocean.
We got to Carlsbad about three in the afternoon. We approached the campground on the road that leads directly into it. The problem is you can't drive straight into it. You have to come at it from the north. I didn't know this and I turned south. We went down a bit, then turned around and headed north. We then passed the entrance and turned around thus heading south so we could make the right turn into the facility. When I applied the brakes to turn into the facility the truck pulled HARD right. It was like I had no left front brakes at all. I had just stopped a few hundred yards ago and everything was fine?? I wasn't going fast and the truck has braking power to spare so I was able to reel it in no problem. We pull up to the shack where you check in and the same thing happened. The lady in the shack asked if I had just driven through some mud?? I said no and asked why. She said I was leaking something. I got out and looked and a tan substance was pouring out of the fender in front of the left front tire. I opened the hood and found the coolant reservoir was vomiting this tan substance (this oil/coolant mix is what coated the left front brakes rendering them useless, thus my hard right turn when pulling into the facility). She said I had to move immediately, which I did. I parked in the first parking spot I came to. She said I could not enter the facility because of this (honestly, I wouldn't let me in either). I quickly deduced that it must be an engine oil cooler failure. In this particular Cummins diesel engine the oil cooler is located inside the engine in a coolant jacket in the engine block. The oil is circulated through the cooler which is surrounded by coolant which removes heat from the oil. I figured the oil cooler must have failed because I had no coolant in the oil (yet). A park worker brought me a five gallon bucket to catch the remaining flow from the fender and told me they had a park ranger coming to decide whether I will be permitted to enter or not. He arrived and after some smooth talking by yours truly, I was permitted to travel to a substitute spot. I originally picked site 48 and they put me in spot 1. This was a good thing.
Ever feel like a stranger in a strange land?? I sure did. So, where do I start?? It's Sunday afternoon. Do I call a shop?? Regular automotive repair or a diesel shop or a Cummins specific shop?? What if it isn't the oil cooler?? What if it is the head gasket?? How do I get this thing home if it is a major problem??
While I was doing this I noticed the level in the coolant reservoir was dropping, but it wasn't draining onto the ground. That told me it was back-flowing into the crankcase (when oil and water mix it turns into a super-nasty substance that will wipe out crankshaft bearings very quickly). When I finally decided to move it, I grabbed the bucket jumped under the truck and did my best Bruce Lee impersonation on the drain plug removing it long enough for the water sitting in the bottom of the pan to drain out and quickly reinstalled it when oil started flowing. I then went to start it just in time for a camper to block the driveway. It seemed like he sat there forever, but it was probably two minutes, but water is still flowing into the oil pan. He finally moved, I started it and quickly drove it to our spot and shut it off while still rolling.
In amongst all of this I had called several people. Several people wanted to help, but because of their location, or housing or work situation were not able to, but offered any assistance they could. My call to my buddy Lance (in Phoenix) got the avalanche of help flowing. He contacted a guy named Mike. Mike was down in/near San Diego, but he knew a guy named Rick who lives in Oceanside. Mike contacted Rick, whom he knew, but just got his phone number the week before because he was going to do some welding for Rick. Mike gives Rick my info and Rick calls me and offers the side of his driveway to me. I explain to Rick that the job I need to do is horrendously messy and that I will do the best I can to keep it contained, but the possibility exists that I may have to leave some kitty litter on the ground. He is cool with that and his offer stands. Mike calls and offers any assistance he can to me (this is going to be huge).
We finally get settled down and relax (I'm not sure I did) for the evening. We have dinner, went for a nice walk down to the beach and hit the sack. Even with all the uncertainty, we got a good night's sleep. We got up in the morning and started making calls to get the ball rolling.
Now, I am going to cheat a little and copy some text from a website that we are all members of instead of trying to re-type what was said as it is a pretty long story (I would post a link to the site, but it is in an area that you have to be a member to access). The bold type is what the other people wrote and the normal text was my response to them in the thread on the forum. The posts are in order, but some details will seem out of order because of when they were written. Keep in mind, I had never met these people before.
Originally Posted by Mike
Well, it was a long day. Nick was able to get the rig towed to Rick's place about 12:30 (tow company screwed up and first truck sent did not have enough room for Nick, his wife and son). I showed up shortly after with a new oil cooler and required gaskets. Little did they know I had taken the rest of the day off and brought old clothes to work on the rig. I think I really surprised them. LOL We all then ran around picking up needed supplies (oil, coolant, buckets, drip pan, etc., etc.). With supplies in hand, we need to figure out if it really was the cooler or issues with the head gasket, as Nick replaced this about a month ago. We started by draining the oil which had a lot of water in it. We left the plug out and water continued to drain well past the point of a head gasket leak. At that point we felt fairly certain that it was the oil cooler (which is mounted into the side of the engine block). We finished draining the radiator. Some of the nastiest crap came out. Then we started getting the filter adapter and cooler out. Though these came off fairly easily, the old style fiber gasket on the block did not. Nick spent about an hour and a half scraping this off. Cummins had updated this gasket as the replacement was a steel core/silicon type one, which would have taken minutes to remove.
By about 6pm we were getting parts going onto the truck. We left the oil drain plug out and used a pressure tester and pumped up the cooling system to see if we go any water coming from the oil pan. All looked good. Then came the hard part of making sure we could get as much of the oil out of the cooling system and water out of the oil system. Luckily we got really lucky with the oil system and we likely got 99.5% out. We put a soapy water mix into the cooling system and got the truck fired up around 7:30pm. We let it warm up for about 30 minutes to get it warmed up (so the t-stat would open and circulate the soapy water). We then drained the oil (with only a little water first coming out) and the filter. That look really good so a new filter and oil was put in. We then drained the soapy water mix and flushed that with some clean water, proceeding with fresh coolant.
Since the coolant overflowed originally, from the overflow tank, it drenched the left front caliper and brake. We set about cleaning that up as well. Once we felt we had the work on the truck need, then came the clean up. With cardboard, buckets and drip pan, we kept Rick's driveway clean. Nick not wanting to leave all of this nasty oil/coolant mix, poured most into empty gallon containers and sealed up the last in on bucket, so he can haul it all back to AZ to dispose of. All said and done, we got out of Rick's house a little after 10pm and I got them down 5/805 split before pealing off for home, with Nick having given the A-Okay that all systems were working fine. I got home about 11pm.
Again a huge thanks to Rick and his wife for opening up their home. It was perfect for Nick's wife and son who were able to comfortable while we fixed the truck versus sitting in the middle of a parking lot or worse, side of the road. It was great working with Nick, as the craftsmanship and attention to detail really made the work fairly easy. It is definitely one of the nicest engine conversions I have seen in any type of vehicle. With them back on the road, they are able to keep their plans for today, to go to Sea World and then driving their rig back to AZ tomorrow. It salvaged the vacation that otherwise would have really sucked.
Hard to add much to that post. One thing I can add, or at least elaborate on, is Mike's kindness in taking time off of work for an emergency. Now I had spoken with Mike briefly the day before and he offered to bring parts to me in Oceanside from the San Diego(ish) area. Now when he offered this, I *thought* he had said he lived up that way or at least near there. I was wrong. He actually lives way south of there. Honestly, I would not have accepted his offer had I known this, but I am glad I made the mistake because his driving skills coupled with his determination to get us back on the road was fantastic. I was planning on renting a car when we got to Rick's house to run around and get parts. Because the tow companies took so long getting the right equipment on scene, we got to Rick's house shortly before Mike arrived and he offered to run us around. We went here, there, and everywhere. He even stopped at an Eat-M-Up joint so we could get something to eat. Class act. Total class act.
Originally Posted by Rick
Nick's 'burb is running! Probably a few things to button up... But the initial problem has been resolved - replacing the defective oil cooler did the trick. ExpoMike has been a godsend - spent the day running down parts and assisting anyway he could.
Looks like their vacation can resume.
Rick,
I wanted to say thanks again to you, Rick, for so graciously offering your home to us for our repairs. I know your home was not part of the deal, but you and your family could not have made us feel more welcome if we had known you for many years. That was a wonderful bonus to the "driveway" you offered :-). I realize your house was not on our itinerary, but I know my wife and boy enjoyed themselves enough that that detail did not matter. Thanks again!!
Originally Posted by Larry (This is a guy from Colorado that we traveled with last summer--I actually know this guy, LOL))
Great work Mike and Rick! That is outstanding you took the time out of your busy schedule to help Nick and his family. You can’t ask for a nicer family than Nick’s and you’re right….his Cummins conversion is cleaner and better engineered layout than factory installed Cummins engines. I was shocked to hear anything could go wrong with that machine.
Wow, thanks Larry. Those are some compliments not to be taken lightly coming from you. Thanks!! Yeah, it goes to show that no matter how much prep work and aircraft-type maintenance is done to a rig, there is always a possibility of an unscheduled surprise. We got real lucky that it happened as we were pulling into our destination and not five hundred feet earlier. I was able to contain the mess flowing from the fender (yes, fender) enough to eventually convince the park ranger to let me drive into a substitute spot where we had a real nice evening and even got a good night's sleep.
Originally Posted by Mike
Just got word from Nick, they made it back home to Phoenix without any problems. Glad they had no problems and was able to salvage the rest of their vacation.
We did. We made it home!! We were effectively on a 375 mile test drive, so it seemed like everything we passed was a milestone. At least we made it to El Centro. Hey we passed Yuma. There's Gila Bend!! And so on.. We got home and unloaded the truck, I drew off about 2" of residual oil/funk/cake batter from the coolant overflow reservoir (it was a layer sitting on top of the clean coolant installed at Rick's house), then proceeded to drive it to get something to eat. I bypassed the heater hoses during the repair to save time, so I still have to flush the cake batter out of that system, but the crankcase is clean and the cooling system seems to be pretty close to clean now too. We'll see in a couple days here.
A couple other people need to be recognized for their efforts in getting us going again. First, of course, is Lance. He wasn't my first, second or third call, but he is the one who got the ball rolling. Another character in the play behind the scene is one of my parts guys from Phoenix. I called him Monday morning and left him a message telling him what was up and what I needed and if he could point me in a direction to a Cummins supplier in the vicinity. Now a little back story on this cat is he plays in a band that plays Irish bars. This is Monday morning and Sunday night they did a triple header at THREE DIFFERENT bars for St Patrick's Day. Now I didn't realize it was St Patrick's Day Sunday and that he would be taking the day off Monday, so when he didn't call me back in some amount of time, I started hunting around for Cummins suppliers. I found Cummins Cal Pacific. I called one of their locations and got a gal in parts who said their entire system was down in the region and she took my information and said she would call me back. I'm still waiting on that return call.... Enter my parts guy from Phoenix who sounded like a train-wreck-in-motion when he called me from his house. He had gotten my message and looked up the parts I needed on his own computer, got me the part numbers and also some possible suppliers; one of which was San Diego Freightliner (SDFTL). I called SDFTL and Angel said they didn't have the parts, but he could get them from Cummins El Cajon. SDFTL is closer to Mike than El Cajon, so I had him get them from Cummins for Mike to pick up at Miramar and the 805. Which is where Mike started his day working uncompensated for me.
So all of these people put their effort, however seemingly insignificant or massive, and it all added up to one family being able to finish out a little vacation on a great note instead of a sour one. Much thanks to all!!
Originally Posted by Mike
Nice post Nick. Again, you guys are very welcome and I am happy everything worked out in the end.
One thing to note, even with all the stress of what was going on, Nick remained calm and level headed. I have seen way too many people go off the handle and it makes working with them very difficult. He kept working through each problem without a whole lot of fuss. It made it a pleasure to work with him versus a chore.
Again, glad you guys made it home and I am sure your son will have lots of stories to tell his buddies.
I am sure he will!!
So there you go. The story of our California adventure. All in all, I call it a win. We did miss out on the Balboa Park, but that was not prepaid, so it was skipped due to time constraints. I left with several bloody fingers, purple torn fingernails (yes, more than one), battered and bruised forearms, and a sore back, but we left under our own power and had a great time to boot. It was really amazing to get so much help offered to us having never before met most of the participants. There are still some great people out there.
DEMON44
Low-Tech Redneck
Quad isolators will handle the torque better. Don't want to worry about tearing mounts out all the time.
good to know that there are still plenty of good people out there willing to help their fellow man.
Faith in humanity restored.
Faith in humanity restored.
I normally wouldn't post a trip of this nature, but because of the circumstances surrounding it, and the fact that some members of the site contacted me to help, I figured it was worthy of posting for that reason alone.
So here are some pics to go along with the previous story.
The drive out is fairly long and there are some stretches where cruise control would be nice. I don't have cruise control, but I do have hilbilly cruise control!!
With the amount of torque this thing makes, speed doesn't vary much more than a couple/few +/- where I set it.
Remnant of a bygone era:
Dunes!!
Made it to San Diego. Just have to go the 40ish miles up to Carlsbad now:
For some reason there is a lack of pictures for the next few hours......
The next morning this was the view from in front of the truck:
Shortly after those pics, we were on our way:
No pics were taken during the repairs due to time constraints.
Sea World!!
It is amazing the amount of water these things can move with no effort whatsoever:
Preparing to leave town:
If you have a problem, if no one else can help, and if you can find them, maybe you can hire the
I could have used them a couple days ago.....
This area is pretty neat. Its like it is made of piles of weathered granite boulders:
Well, we have been to 13,114' in elevation, now we find ourselves here:
The Space Age Lodge in downtown Gila Bend:
What was found when we got home:
I'd say we did a pretty good job cleaning the cooling system out in the time frame we did it in. I guess we could have spent a few more hours on it, but we really didn't have that time to spend. I figured this is what would happen in the end and a little oil in the water is better than a little water in the oil... So we ran it. It worked. We made it home. I would have been just fine without the oil cooler failure. A nice relaxing few days would have been nice, but even with the mayhem, we still had a great time and even better, got to meet some great people.
So here are some pics to go along with the previous story.
The drive out is fairly long and there are some stretches where cruise control would be nice. I don't have cruise control, but I do have hilbilly cruise control!!
With the amount of torque this thing makes, speed doesn't vary much more than a couple/few +/- where I set it.
Remnant of a bygone era:
Dunes!!
Made it to San Diego. Just have to go the 40ish miles up to Carlsbad now:
For some reason there is a lack of pictures for the next few hours......
The next morning this was the view from in front of the truck:
Shortly after those pics, we were on our way:
No pics were taken during the repairs due to time constraints.
Sea World!!
It is amazing the amount of water these things can move with no effort whatsoever:
Preparing to leave town:
If you have a problem, if no one else can help, and if you can find them, maybe you can hire the
I could have used them a couple days ago.....
This area is pretty neat. Its like it is made of piles of weathered granite boulders:
Well, we have been to 13,114' in elevation, now we find ourselves here:
The Space Age Lodge in downtown Gila Bend:
What was found when we got home:
I'd say we did a pretty good job cleaning the cooling system out in the time frame we did it in. I guess we could have spent a few more hours on it, but we really didn't have that time to spend. I figured this is what would happen in the end and a little oil in the water is better than a little water in the oil... So we ran it. It worked. We made it home. I would have been just fine without the oil cooler failure. A nice relaxing few days would have been nice, but even with the mayhem, we still had a great time and even better, got to meet some great people.
y5mgisi
1 ton status
Great story! LUCKY too! Could have been on one of the BFE trips. Which would have been very un cool.
That detail is not lost on me and has crossed my mind several times. The matching of the spring breaks in my house with Larry's friend Bill (who ironically didn't go) is the ONLY thing that kept us from traveling with Larry on his Mohave Road/Death Valley trip. If we had been out there, yes, it would have been a much bigger ordeal.
Also, I was thinking of going into southern Utah instead of California, but I wasn't sure how much would be obscured and/or closed for the winter so I reluctantly agreed to the PRC, which in the end was probably a good thing.
Lots of luck though. It happened just as we were turning into the campground. If it had happened five hundred feet earlier, we would have been on the side of the road instead of at our destination. If it had happened on I-8 somewhere, the only thing that would have saved us is if I happened to notice the oil pressure light or low gauge reading at or near the instant it happened. Lots of luck that day.
CUCV2
5/4 ton fun
If you have a problem, if no one else can help, and if you can find them, maybe you can hire the
I could have used them a couple days ago.....
So we ran it. It worked. We made it home. I would have been just fine without the oil cooler failure. A nice relaxing few days would have been nice, but even with the mayhem, we still had a great time and even better, got to meet some great people.
BA Baracus may not have been there but, I would say that you had the A+ Team there! You certainly found some top notch guys a long way from home. Unplanned adventure for sure but way cool all the same. Unsung heroes all the way around
. One thing that has not been mentioned is what your son saw. A Dad who can get it done in a pinch and community that can pull together in a time of need. That part of your trip is priceless.
You are also opening other Cummins owners eyes to the oil cooler issue and how to deal with it.
And thanks for the comments on the Auto World mounts. Glad to hear that they are a success.
I have a question, after all this what mods are you going to do to the cooler?
DEMON44
Low-Tech Redneck
I've never heard of modifying the oil cooler. Other than making sure you have the correct one installed, its not a common failure. They're pretty robust plate coolers.
Guessing you can just get rid of it and do a aftermarket one 
BA Baracus may not have been there but, I would say that you had the A+ Team there! You certainly found some top notch guys a long way from home. Unplanned adventure for sure but way cool all the same. Unsung heroes all the way around
That's for sure. Really crazy when you think about everything that happened.
Yeah, I try to point out things like that. Like the help that was offered to us (even the help that we could not use) and how it is appreciated. The next Saturday I was not able to work on this because I had a guy from Utah in my driveway with his S10 getting axle bearings, axle seals, pinion seal, brake shoes, wheel cylinders and new drums so he could get back home to Utah. It was a long day, but rewarding just the same as I was returning the favor of help just to a different guy than I received it from, but helping someone far from home get back.
Yeah, I know my eyes got opened really wide to the issue. Oof.
I really like them--even better than the o.e. mounts I removed (before they got destroyed).
Guessing you can just get rid of it and do a aftermarket one
This.
There really isn't much that can be done. Its configuration really prohibits much of any tinkering with it, but as Luke stated, it is a fairly stout design and they really don't fail very often. It could be removed, but that would take some pretty serious re-engineering because the whole design of the oil filter mount casting is based on this part being there, so if it isn't there would need to be some parts manufactured to keep oil flowing through these areas. I will post a pic that shows the cooler and its mounting configuration and why it would be so difficult to do anything with it.
Prior to this happening, I had not known anybody who had an oil cooler fail. It seemed like it was always someone's second cousin's boyfriend's aunt's husband's uncle's wife's youngest sister's brother that had one fail and the details were sketchy at best, so I never really gave it much thought.
Quite the story. Good thing you built your truck and know what is going on with it. That story could has been so much worse if it went unnoticed for any longer than it did.
Very cool with all the help you got. Makes for a feel good story knowing that there is people out in the world that are willing to help and not just leave you stranded with your family miles away from home.
Glad it turned out as good as it did. Great pics awesome story!
Very cool with all the help you got. Makes for a feel good story knowing that there is people out in the world that are willing to help and not just leave you stranded with your family miles away from home.
Glad it turned out as good as it did. Great pics awesome story!
Quite the story. Good thing you built your truck and know what is going on with it. That story could has been so much worse if it went unnoticed for any longer than it did.
Very cool with all the help you got. Makes for a feel good story knowing that there is people out in the world that are willing to help and not just leave you stranded with your family miles away from home.
Glad it turned out as good as it did. Great pics awesome story!
Thanks!! Yeah, there would have been a split second to recognize the problem and get it shut down before catastrophic damage would have occurred at highway speed. Those guys definitely saved our bacon on this run. All put together and with the good ending it does make for a rather entertaining story.
So we got home and had this in the reservoir:
I got to cleaning it and the heater system out and made more of this:
and this:
and about ten more jugs of the crap sitting around here. Some of it is the super nasty "cake batter" substance, some of the other is not too bad. Now that it has been sitting a while, some of it has separated back into its original form. When this happens I can clean the oil off of the coolant and then I will be able to turn them in as what they should be instead of an emulsified mixture.
Is it bad when your coolant filter has an oil leak??
I don't think this is the right substance for the filter:
The first pic shows the plates of the cooler. It is a stout design that does not often fail. The plates sit in the cooling jacket of the engine.
This is the side of the plate that the oil filter mounting casting sits against:
This is what the backside of the filter mounting head looks like. It has the bypass spring in it and it directs the flow of oil away from and back to the holes in the lower end of the casting which take oil from and return oil to the engine.
This is what the cooler looks like when it is mounted in the engine. The lower holes in the plate are where the oil originates from and returns to once it is filtered and cooled. That is the outside of the filter head in the pic also. The owner of this pic, ryanroo, cut the filter mount off the casting and welded on a flange with threads to create his own remote filter mount setup. Now, I swiped this pic, but he took the prior pic upon my request. He has his apart and it is hard to explain all that goes on behind the filter head whereas a picture explains it much easier.
So I guess it is possible to eliminate the factory cooler, but it would be quite the engineering ordeal. That coupled with the fact that they don't fail very often, seems to make it a less desireable project, for me anyways.
I got to cleaning it and the heater system out and made more of this:
and this:
and about ten more jugs of the crap sitting around here. Some of it is the super nasty "cake batter" substance, some of the other is not too bad. Now that it has been sitting a while, some of it has separated back into its original form. When this happens I can clean the oil off of the coolant and then I will be able to turn them in as what they should be instead of an emulsified mixture.
Is it bad when your coolant filter has an oil leak??
I don't think this is the right substance for the filter:
The first pic shows the plates of the cooler. It is a stout design that does not often fail. The plates sit in the cooling jacket of the engine.
This is the side of the plate that the oil filter mounting casting sits against:
This is what the backside of the filter mounting head looks like. It has the bypass spring in it and it directs the flow of oil away from and back to the holes in the lower end of the casting which take oil from and return oil to the engine.
This is what the cooler looks like when it is mounted in the engine. The lower holes in the plate are where the oil originates from and returns to once it is filtered and cooled. That is the outside of the filter head in the pic also. The owner of this pic, ryanroo, cut the filter mount off the casting and welded on a flange with threads to create his own remote filter mount setup. Now, I swiped this pic, but he took the prior pic upon my request. He has his apart and it is hard to explain all that goes on behind the filter head whereas a picture explains it much easier.
So I guess it is possible to eliminate the factory cooler, but it would be quite the engineering ordeal. That coupled with the fact that they don't fail very often, seems to make it a less desireable project, for me anyways.
DEMON44
Low-Tech Redneck
This.
Absolutely would be a tragically misguided waste of time and money developing an engine oil cooler relocation for a B series cummins.
Remember this engine was developed jointly by Case and cummins to go into their tractors and equipment years before someone got the bright idea to put it in a pickup. Heavy Duty was already the name of the game.
Absolutely would be a tragically misguided waste of time and money developing an engine oil cooler relocation for a B series cummins.
Remember this engine was developed jointly by Case and cummins to go into their tractors and equipment years before someone got the bright idea to put it in a pickup. Heavy Duty was already the name of the game.
I agree it would be a waste, but Case IH never used the Cummins till the Magnums, did they? Which came out in 1987. What year did they start putting them in Dodge pickups?
Martin
DEMON44
Low-Tech Redneck
I've worked on an '84 with one in it before.
