Yikes!!

[Jon Wehrenberg]

Judi,

I think you can rest easy. At least don't look at this pessimistically.

Over the years I have learned that a lot of the causes for rebuilds are often due to owner error. Our engines and transmissions are built for many years and miles of service, but they are not bullet proof. They require proper care and maintenance and that maintenance is spelled out clearly to anyone that wants to look for it on the Prevost, Detroit or Allison sites.

I have had a lot of owners admit they have never changed their coolant. They think the chemistry is all that needs to be checked, yet I never have seen anywhere listed that you do not have to change coolant every two years. The fastest way to ruin an engine is overheating, and poor coolant maintenance will plug a radiator, or allow the engine to literally beat its cylinders to death from the back side due to improper chemistry.

Ditto with oil changes. Compared to an engine oil is cheap, and the way most of us use our coaches, infrequently, they are in my opinion subject to severe duty.

I am not saying Detroit Diesel and Allison have no responsibility in premature failures. I know that the early Series 60 engines installed in our coaches had a problem with piston failure, and the result was a catastophic engine failure. In my vintage coach the Allison transmission suffered from a poor choice of clutch materials causing early failure of the transmission clutches.

The best thing we can do for our coaches and ourselves is to use the coach frequently, perform the specified maintenance and do as your husband does and monitor the operating pressures and temperatures and keep them in the normal range.

[Joe Cannarozzi]

Judy I too wondered why so many engines are rebuilt so soon.

Ditto all the previous suggestions. Especially the coolant issue and in addition IMO, for the 8-V, oil coming from the down tubes leads people to the rebuild prematurely and frequently.

On ours, when cold, and warming up, even on high idle, it drips pretty significantly, both sides but the left even more so. I believe this scares many folks.

However once warm and the containers drained nothing more than a trace develops from that point on. Additionally even cold starts after it is run good the prior day show drastically reduced loss.

I could only imagine how much worse if not on high idle and I think that mistake is also pretty frequent.

Also, for both engines, leaks in general and often there are many.

I believe that most folks who own Prevost are of the opinion that they want it to be right, want to have that confidence, usually are not too mechanicly inclined and have the doe so they rebuild them when many could probably be repaired and continue on for a long long time.

Lets not leave out the guy with the big bus with all the money syndrome that occurs frequently when turning into service centers.