[folivier]

Adrian on your VMSpc screen at the top click the Diagnostics tab and you should get a list of recent errors. This might help you narrow down the problem/s.

[pairodice]

Thanks for the sympathy guys (really).  We have been stuck before (as you probably know) but this time I would NOT be talked into a ‘normal’ tow truck.  We finally found a ‘Bus Trailer’ as they call it but it was not going to be available until Monday afternoon or so.  Karen was able to get the new Turbo after having to wake some guys up at the Freighliner place and get them to find it for her (it was hidden WAY back in the bushes by the building waiting on her).  She spent the night in a nice hotel, which was good because I had a horrible night on the side of the road waiting for a DPS officer to come banging on my door, which never happened and trucks passing by and HONKING just as I fell asleep!.  So Karen arrived from the hotel at about 7am and the guys from Bernd’s shop arrived about 9am along with Bernd just after that.  Thank GOD, the turbo was an exact replacement for the old one!  The guys unbolted the old one, rebooted up the new one and did some rewriting on the alternator that decided it didn’t want to play anymore.  They did some testing on the turbo and all was good.  We drove for a couple hours (since 1.5 hours seemed to be our litmus test for all things mechanical) then collapsed at a rest area.  We got up at about 6am this morning and headed out on the road and into the deserts of West Texas on a wing and a prayer (literally).  All is going great, we have a small leak of antifreeze around the air compressor on the engine but are monitoring it as we go along - it used about 1/2 gallon of antifreeze yesterday and last night (nice size puddle this morning).  I have my VMSPC monitoring ALL kinds of info and added some more diagnostics to it this morning so it hopefully will tell us if the coolant hits under 90% full.  We are almost to El Paso and have to be in Phoenix at work tomorrow morning so we’ll see how far we make it today.  The wind is definitely slowing us down but the coach is doing fine.

[409Mint]

I'm west of Phoenix about 35 miles and it's been blowing dead east from the west at 20+ MPH ALL darn day...

The compressor on the Detroit 60 Series is water cooled as well, it could be the top gasket of just one of the lines that go to the head on it.
If worst comes to worst, let me know, I might be able to point you in the right direction here in town, I have a local Freightliner I use quite a bit since I've been going through our bus.

[Richard]

How long had you been running when you took the screen shot? If more than 30 minutes, your temps look cold to me. You might want to check to see if your fan is running on high all the time.

[pairodice]

Richard: The engine is new and the radiator is really clean so I would *hope* it runs cold! :-)
The fan sounds like it’s on high and I’ll check it tomorrow once we get to Tom’s in Phoenix.
It stayed at 175 all day long until about 4pm when it got warmer in New Mexico - it then went up to about 180 and stuck their for a while, then it went back down to 175. I’ll be interested to see how it does in HOT weather... the fan IS really noisy but the hydraulic gear box (or whatever it is) was rebuilt also...
409Mint (not sure your name): They rebuilt the compressor and I think it is a hose that is leaking but the leak is definitely somewhere on the top part of the compressor. I bought some hose clamps and will test them in the morning to see if they will stem the tide but right now it’s losing about 1/2 gallon every 4 hours so not too bad.
BTW, the VMSPc does NOT accurately reflect the coolant level - it always shows 100% even though the level is low; I have to STOP the engine and then restart it to see the LOW Coolant light come on the dash. Maybe it has to get really low but I’m paranoid and check it every time we stop (3-4 Hours). Maybe it’s my sensors are over 21 years old ...
We will be staying at Tom’s awesome home in Phoenix for a few weeks or until we can find a place to park near Phoenix...

[encantotom]

your hydraulic cooling fan should not be on high until you hit around 203 or so. then it will spin up high until it cools it way down and then it goes to low or off.

make sure the packard plug is connected on the hydraulic solenoid that controls the fan speed. when it is disconnected, it defaults to high speed.

tom (in the bejing airport)

[Richard]

Adrian,

Sounds like your fan is on high. Your perspective of new radiator should run cool is a little off kilter. The thermostats should control the temp to 194. The fan running on high, kills fuel mileage, sucks more dirt into the compartment, and is loud.

Do a search for fan on high to see how to check and what to do about it.

[folivier]

Agree with Richard, possibly your coolant is running cooler than it was before the radiator replacement?

[pairodice]

The shop was supposed to have changed out that sensor on the fan... I’ll check out the fan tomorrow and see it if is on high. It does make a ton of noise that I don’t remember it making before.
So now I have a leak in the air compressor (antifreeze) and the hydraulic fan ‘motor’ not sure what it’s called (I guess it’s a PTO of some sort)... I’m very frustrated with the whole thing currently. I’m so exhausted after the trip this weekend with all that went on and then driving 20 hours to Phoenix that I can’t see straight so tomorrow will be a better day.
The bright spot is that we are at Tom’s marvelous place and are enjoying the nice weather and terrific sunsets.

[Richard]

Let's make sure you understand what you are looking for on the fan situation. As you look into the engine bay, focus on the compartment to the left of the engine where the fan motor is located. The fan speed control box will be mounted on an upright support just to the left of the engine, and at the bottom of the support. There will be a couple of hydraulic hoses connected to the box. One goes to the fan motor obviously. That box controls the fan speed. There are only two speeds high and low. The default speed is high. So, if the electrical connection to the box is unplugged or wasn't plugged back together the fan will run on high. If the solenoid valve in the control box fails, the fan will run on high all the time. There is no sensor, per se. I believe the signal to that box comes from the DDEC computer.

Look carefully at Tom's post above, on the top side of the fan motor is a fitting that is very hard to tighten correctly. I would check there first before tearing into the motor and OHLA. Take a white paper towel and zip tie it around that fitting. Red ATF will show if it is leaking.