[Tim wade]

Hi all, not a good day for coach #530. Just crossed the Mississippi River into Minnesota on i90 going up a bit of a hill and oil pressure started to drop. I pulled over on the side of the road (where I am now) and big puddle of oil under the passenger side of the coach. I opened up the engine door where the batteries are and a bunch of broken metal pieces all over. Looking deeper there’s a big hole in the side of the block under the starter. 


If anyone knows a good tow company and a place to take it to around Lacrosse WI or Winona MN would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Update 9/19/23 

The newly rebuilt engine is being installed today! All the fancy chrome pieces are be put on the new engine! 

Early Analysis: The Rod bolts broke (WRONG! valve broke) which sent the the Rod through the side of the block.  I had the cruse control set to 65. I did notice my speed dropping down to about 57 just before the Rod broke. My main focus at the time was oil pressure. It was at about 49 psi still in 6th gear with Mode selected.  Then the gears started to shift. First 5th gear for about 1 second. Then 4th gear. Im guessing when it dropped into 4th gear is when all the drama happened because right after that my oil pressure dropped down to about 12 psi. 

What I learned from this: 

Take the coach out of cruse control going up any grade. I thought the engine and transmission would have safety precautions so the engine would not over rev the RPMs. I guess it did not?  If you do need to go into a low gear, try to ease into it.  

Safe travels everyone one. Hopefully we will be back on the road by the end of the week. We were lucky to have a condo in Chicago about 4:30 away from Peterbilt where the new engine is being installed in Minnesota.