[ccjohnson]

What a week! Will definitely have some great stories for entertainment at next rally! As we were heading to UT on Wednesday morning heading out of NM on US 180 (very steep grades) the temp started to rise as it normally does, I started dropping gears as I normally do. Temp continued to rise. At +/-225 I pulled as far to the right as possible, turned off key as I glanced down at temp pegging past 250. A glance in rear view mirror saw greyish to dark grey smoke billowing at rear of coach. Set brakes & ran to get fire extinguishers & check engine compartment. Good news no fire! It appeared pluse or minus 2 qts coolant had escaped the over flow & ran down highway. After allowing things to cool down, a touch of the starter indicated the engine was locked. I opened radiator cap & added 2 gal of coolant. Oil level in crankcase rose significantly. No cell service. Had to unhook tow car & drive to top of hill, bars of service, but no call out. Looked at gas gauge on tow car, very low on fuel. Had to drive back down to Reserve for gas & was able to call out heavy haul wrecker from Silver City. Notified the Catron County Sheriff's Dept of my plight & advised a wrecker was on the way. For most of the day they had 2-5 officers directing traffic around our coach until wrecker arrived. ( Not one asked for DL, registration or proof of insurance) Follwed tow truck back to Silver City (VERY slow due due grades & curves) then went home to Deming. Yesterday we finished towing to Stewart Stevenson Detroit Diesel in El Paso, TX. (+/-3K on tow bill I think). Perhaps luck is changing, a bay had opened just before we arrived & they got the coach inside right away to start on it. Hopefully I got it shut down before really major damage was done. Will know more on Monday as they get into the diagnostics & repairs. Hoping for just blown head gasket. Cracked head may be 3-4 weeks for parts. Re-man engine 4-6 weeks for parts. Will post more as info becomes available.

[qcj]

Clint, what a nightmare. Please keep us posted and hope thing turn out with just a head gasket.

[Retro]

Thats bad news Clint, sorry to hear it. I wonder what your liner o-rings are like, they usually dont like too much heat either. I wonder what would cause it to heat up like that?

[ccjohnson]

Kieth,
It normally runs a little hotter under heavy load going up grades. I may have been a little slow on my downshifting curve but I don't think so. I think that super fast heat up was a result of failure of either head gasket or cracked head. I have only seen amber warning light 1 other time about 4 years ago after we first bought the coach. it was going up long grade to Yuma on I-8. After that I got new radiator & thermostats. Pretty much cured heating problem except for very long hard pulls then just had to drop a gear orso to bring temp back in line. I've always tried to not get over 215. Just gear back & cool down to +/-200 then back to D. Good signs so far, heads are dry ( no oil or water seep at block/head interface), no other fluid hemoraging or leaking anywhere, radiator & hoses all appear normal & in good shape, oil in crankcase is not milky so water was not emulsified in it as would be the case had it run for any length of time with water getting into oil side. They are going to drain & pressure test on Monday as well as pull air box covers to check for any cylinder scoring. I do want to try and get an audible over heat alarm installed though. Something on the order of an extremely heavy Scottish brogue screaming " For God's sake Clint, she can't take anymore!! Her dilithium hybrid crystals are going to fracture!!"

[Retro]

Best of luck with it Clint, hopefully the costs are minimal as possible. Keep us posted

[Mxfarm]

Love the audible warning Clint

Do you know if the engine is still locked up? IOW @ ambient will she turn over?

[Richard]

Clint,

Sorry to hear of the engine sickness. Thanks for the update. I have my greasy fingers crossed for you.

[ccjohnson]

Marc,
After cool down she cranked over about 10 degrees of rotation. I didn't do more than that as after that is when I added coolant & found it going to crankcase. I realized that no amount of hope & prayer would get it running without some major mechanical tear down. So I just gave up & waited on tow truck. Due to the small amount of engine rotation I don't believe it was heat seized, but rather coolant got into a cylinder on top of a piston. If it had tried to fire in that condition is when MAJOR damage such as bent/broken connecting rods occur. Thanx to all for your kind thoughts & crossed fingers.

[Mxfarm]

Good news that it's not sezied.

[folivier]

Good luck!