A friend had a new Vantare and he had a catastrophic engine failure, as did our fellow pogger Jeff Bayley. There was a run of Series 60 engines that had pistons fail. Apparently the pistons separated at the wrist pin leaving the connecting rod, the piston skirt and the piston crown loose and free to create havoc inside the block. I saw one such engine at my local DD dealer and the rod had punched a hole in the side of the block.

Detroit had apparently switched vendors on pistons and that was where the problem was isolated. At the time DD stood behind all repairs. I doubt if a low mile 10 or 15 year old coach would get a free engine now, but I also doubt if any coaches in that category will experience that problem because it appeared to show up at an early age. I was told by my friend that when it happened it was sudden, without warning, and kind of noisy.