[Fred F.]

Prevost has never worked on Detroit engines or Allison transmissions. They might do some minor maintenance but the minute the work involves opening it up, or even dealing with some codes they drive or tow the coach to the Detroit dealer.

This is completely consistent with the need to have our coach serviced by the experts. If I had a Volvo engine equipped coach I would still try to take it to a Volvo dealer.

I feel bad for Chris, not only because of his engine problems, but because the problem is going to take some detective work. Whatever is the cause it might be difficult to find. Then to add to the issue I am almost convinced the Detroit dealer keeps the coach near the bottom of the “to-do” list. I have learned to get anyone to work dilligently on a repair I have to stand there and watch. Otherwise a lot of other jobs slide ahead.

[Archived]

Engine is out and opened up. I am sick but trying to be philosophic. The issues:

1. blown head gasket at #6
2. Probable sunk liner at #6
3. Eroded block at #6
4. Head eroded and not usable
5. Other cylinder liners look questionable with loss of definition and cross etching(?)

To fix it will need:

1. New head and gasket
2. New liner at #6 and possibly other cylinders
3. The Block will need to be machined back to DD specs
4. New bearings, rod etc possibly.

So now the wait for the estimate. DD tells me fixing it will be much cheaper than a reman engine. We’ll see.

Jeff is going to go by a look at the engine tonight or in the morning and take some pictures.

I am am looking at it like this, I should have an essentially new or overhauled engine in my coach. This should give me longer dependability to the coach. Plus if I sell it in the future I will have documentation the the engine has been taken care of. Guess I need to establish a “go fund me” account looking for donations for a poor Prevost owner who needs help fixing his expensive coach. (LOL)

chris

[Archived]

if you are getting this far into it, are they going to check / clean all the injectors? I would do it as there is no better time than when it is already apart. How does the camshaft look? What did they say caused this? They should be able to tell you what the reasoning is for all they say is wrong.

[Corey]

So sorry to hear the extent of the problem. It is amazing that despite all that damage you still had to fight with the shop to convince them there was something wrong. Wish you the best.

[AL]

Make sure they put a new wiring harness when they do the injectors, sorry to here but could be worse you could have been on the road

[John]

No mater what DD tells you keep in mind “you” have the final call on this repair. Of course DD wants control of the rebuild with there vendors. DD will make more money for the shop. What you don’t want is the phone call that DD did a lot of work to save the engine but now we found another problem and cannot save the block. I’am under the impression that anti freeze was never detected in the oil system.

Do your homework to measure labor hours involved with methods of the repair. Another issue is warranty repairing both ways. How long is warranty, is it transferable to another owner if at some point you sell.

Most rebuilt DD engines are dyno tested prior to sale. This assures buyers of engine preformance prior to install. If you rebuild your block then another additional charge for this service.

Thank goodness you have Jeff looking out for your interests.

[Archived]

This is scary. I am sure the blown head gasket was a huge factor in this, but I have hed feedback from two guys I respect highly and they have indicated the EGR engines are highly susceptible to #6 cylinder damage.

If someone at the Detroit dealer will speak honestly it would be interesting to learn if they agree with that.

[Archived]

here is the liner is sitting on top of the block

[Rudy]

look at the metal portion of the head gasket you can see the distortion

[Corey]

I have a friend who is a good experienced mechanic and has been
building Series 60 engines for many years, it’s his specialty and
generally he doesn’t even rebuild any other engine. He says once the
cylinder head is off especially if it is a higher mileage engine (which yours is
not). He has learned the hard way to have all the counter bores cut, install new liners and
piston kits. If he doesn’t the truck is
usually back in less than a year with another sunken liner and a blown
head gasket. He thinks it’s something about removing he head that
disturbs the liner to block seal on the other cylinders. He has
rebuilds that have over 800,000 miles with no problems. If I were doing this
job for anyone, even with a low mileage engine I wouldn’t do it any other
way unless the customer didn’t want a warranty on my work. You already
have the head and oil pan off. And yes #6 gets a higher percentage of the
soot from the EGR. I know that causes excess wear on #6 although I don’t
see any connection to a sunken liner because of soot entering the
cylinder, but could be, I don’t know.

Ken

[John]

Here is the plan and repairs to be done:

1. Machine the block
2. Counter bore all cylinders
3. New liners and rings all cylinders
4. New piston and rod #6
5. New head and gasket
6. New rod and main bearing
7. All gaskets and hoses to reinstall

Price…………. $17,0000

Jeff recommends adding new injectors since we are there. I will check on new rods and Pistons on 1-5.

[Dale]

I’m sure somewhere earlier in the thread you stated the actual mileage; don’t know where it is but assume it’s low from latest comments. Because of this fact, have you contacted DD (you may have to make some noise going up the chain of command) to ask them to participate in a portion of the repair due to both the premature nature of the failure and the runaround you’ve gotten in determining the problem. It’s not unusual for manufacturers to pay a portion of the repair bill on product out of warranty which fails prematurely.

[Karl]

All this talk of #6 and EGR engines has gotten my attention. My question is: if one has used the “ugly fix” to shut off the EGR, is the assult on #6 halted?

[Karl]

First off, sorry for your luck!

Without being privy to all the details, it is my opinion, going by the facts you have revealed here, that you would be best served by going with the reman with the full warranty.

JIM

[John]

Unfortunately the remans are 20-24,000 for the engine alone. Then I would have to get it in the coach and configured for a Prevost Coach. I have priced it at two different shops and both quote $28,000 to $35,000 for the complete job. That’s really more than I have to spend right now. The reman has a two year warranty and the repair has a 1 year warranty.

As to DD, I’ll see if I can find out who to contact. Always worth a try, but a long shot with an eight year old engine with 100,000 on it. The shop said the damage is what they see with loss of coolant additives over time yielding cavitation etc. The records I have do show the owner changed the coolant at appropriate intervals. I don’t know if he tested his coolant between changes to make sure it was up to snuff.

More to come.