Webasto Valves

When Adam DeGraff stopped in Reno he showed me the Marathon Owners Manual that came with his coach. Unfortunately, my coach did not come with this manual when I bought it. I did not even know I did not have it. Called Marathon and they sent me a replacement manual, thank you.
Anyway, in the manual is the schematic of the Wabasto plumbing system, valves, etc. After looking at the diagram, I realized that my Wabasto system should preheat the engine. Up to now I was never able to determine why it would not preheat the engine and concluded it was not suppose to. Well I was wrong on that.
Turns out the two 24 volt solenoid operated Parker valves immediately aft of the Wabasto were inop.
After much searching and parts shopping I was able to rebuild the entire manifold that these two valves were part of. Additionally, I added three ball valve shut offs, and Y type strains ahead of the valves. Apparently, it is not uncommon for debris in the coolant system to gum up and clog these valves. These two valves sit at one of the lowest points on the system, probably adding to the collection of junk. See photos.
So I have to retract my original post claiming that my Wabasto did not preheat the engine. It does, however my valves were inop. See photos.

Two more photos.

Jim, looks like you did a really neat and complete job there. Should we guess what all the copper cost?

CC uses those same solenoids to turn the plumbing bay loop on and off and also use them for the auto fresh water drain system and for the fresh water fill.

What did you give for them. I just bought a goyden for 135.

Nice job Jim!;)

About 160 for all the brass and bronze. Valves about 125-150.

Jim, having seen your work in person, I can say that you really added some value to that coach of yours. Forget the gold leafing and your fancy white roof... your webasto is a monster.

I can't believe how gummed up your old valves were. My coach is a year and a half older... I can hardly imagine what mine must look like. No wonder they don't work correctly. Are you sure those aren't black water valves? :D

Any chance you would want to post part names/numbers, quantities and phone numbers to the places you ordered from? Did you say you got the valves on ebay? I'm thinking that I'd like to emulate the King and install the exact same system. I mean... since you did all that leg work.

Awesome!

~Adam

The "gum" is silicone dropout. Maintaining the coolant, changing it on the prescribed schedule and keeping the SCAs where they need to be all contribute to preventing crud from screwing up the cooling system.

If the valves are gunked up, imagine what all the other valves in the system look like. Imagine what the radiator core looks like.

I saw first hand how our cooling systems are quickly compromised on my first coach even though I did the required coolant changes. On my previous coach there was a sediment bowl on the evaporator coil side of coach (OTR) in the AC bay. That bowl was like the canary in the mine. During routine maintenance Prevost recommended removing it and checking for any sediment. There was always some "slime" in that bowl. I'm not sure the series 60 cooling system is as easily affected as the one on the 8V92 engines, but I'm sure they are affected.

Jon, The first thing I did when I bought this coach was to have the coolant replaced etc. At this point the radiator has not caused any problems, however your comments are coming in 5 by 5. Additionally, I did rebuild in place the other Parker solenoid valve which is set just forward of the Wabasto and about 18 inches higher that the other valves. This particular valve was working fine, but after seeing the other two I had to tear into it. Amazingly it was it perfect shape. I still replaced all the inards with new.

What do you guys think of the Enviro-Clean spin on filters? Someone posted about them a while back but I can't remember who posted it. They are supposed to clean your radiator while you drive down the road. Snake oil?:eek: