1976 05 Eagle

We have decided to change one component in our conversion project. The Bus itself. Although the bluebird would have been a great shell for a traveling hotel room/office, we have decided to go "Fulltime" living on the bus. We bought it for $3500 on Ebay, which is dirt cheap. it was such a bargain because the engine had been overheated and needed serious work. Also, it is a manual transmission bus. this significantly impacts resale value.

We drove down to inspect the bus on Memorial Day 05 weekend, and were very happy with what we found. We paid the balance owed on the bus and had it towed on June 16th to a Shop 110 miles north in Ringgold, GA. The Bus is currently at Covington's Detroit Diesel Allison .

The previous owner thought we were looking at a top-end rebuild on the existing engine, however Covington's told us the original engine failed because a cam follower cam loose, bounced around the engine and punched through a water jacket. It took them three weeks to get the heads off and make this diagnosis.

Because of our previous experiences working with an authorized Detroit Diesel Allison service facility, we used the service locator on the DDA website.

We are reconsidering the wisdom of that decision

On July 18, I found an engine for the Eagle ($2,083 including shipping) on the 23rd, I Drove 120 miles from Columbus to Canton to Adelman's Truck Parts to check out the new engine. Even though it ran good, it only showed 30lbs of oil pressure. According to the what was written on it, it should have held 60 lbs of pressure. Instead it only showed 30. I called all my diesel friends to ask abut this, but they were all out enjoying their Saturdays. I tucked my tail between my legs and drove the 220 miles home without buying an engine. Here is the link to the engine, where you can even see and hear it run. However on the the 24th, The calls from my diesel friends started coming in. Apparently 30lbs at an IDLE is very good--Actually, like new. I was due for some good news.

I called on Monday, the 25th to Covington's and asked them to confirm on the oil pressure. In fact, the 60psi is WOT (Wide Open Throttle) pressure. Hot oil, at idle is acceptable all the way down to 5psi (I never would have bought any engine with only 5psi pressure). 30psi is in fact like a new engine spec.

I FedExed Adelman's the check, and on July 28th the Engine has arrived at Covington's. I called Chris, the shop foreman and asked them to paint it up for me. He said the bus should be ready in about a week.

Uh....Yeah, right. How long should it take to install a freaking engine anyway....

They never call me, I always have to call them. A week later, I did call to check how things are progressing and they tell me that this engine couldn't possibly have been running, that it had so much crud in it that they thought Adelman's must have sent a different engine than the one I bought. I had them send me some pics, which I matched to the ones I took of the engine when I looked at it. It definitely was the same engine. Here are the pics they sent:
http://www.gearheadgary.com/projects/eagle/newengine/8v71atcovingtons.htm

I have a lot of friends that are old two stroke guys We agreed that if we scrubbed and swabbed out the airboxes and used the blower from the engine that came with the bus, we'd likely be in pretty good shape. Keep in mind we only want to use this engine for a couple of years.

They were supposed to have this done and ready to go by August 19th. Uh Huh.

They said that they had their two stroke guys on some emergency business and couldn't free them up to work on my stuff by then. On the 22nd, I had to travel to the West coast, so I followed up with them a week or two after I got back, like the 16th or so of September. They still haven't quite gotten around to the job.

Fairly disgusted at this point, I just it go, I'm now coming up on a project at work and my time is very short. I called on the 12th of this (October) month. The shop foreman tells me the service manager has ordered a "Stop Work" on my bus (I'm not sure when there was ever a "Start Work" order), due to the condition of the engine I am asking them to install. Basically they hadn't done anything since August fourth.

I call back to speak with the Service manager and he is backpedaling and mumbling something about the shop foreman violating company policy by not getting payment from me, history of getting stiffed by owners of broken down buses. I explain to him that this is an Eagle with less than 300K on the clock (I don't think he got what that meant), and I am fully capable of paying the bill (He did get that). I told him I will send him a check for $2K, he says they will get started and the bus should be ready by the 21st.

I called today. (Today is the 28th) The service manager said they are still working on it and they had a snag. the bellhousing on the new engine does not match the one on the old. So they are in the process of swapping them. So it takes a week and a half to swap bellhousings. Right.

I'm in the position of not wanting to complain to the cook, because I don't want him to spit in my food, but now that I'm typing this out, I'm realizing that these guys are never going to finish, or at least not in my lifetime.

It's been three months. they have changed the bellhousing.

I'm not sure how to proceed. I SAW the engine I sent them run! Hell, there is part of the test run session Here.

I'm very concerned that no matter what condition the engine that I sent them, it won't run after they install it. There is a standard practice to install factory remanufactured engines in cases like this, to the tune of $15K - $20K.

At the very least, I've lost the whole summer that I planned to work on the bus. by now it should have a rough interior and I should be fighting with plumbing.

11/21/05 Update: I called today and I received some Good News/Bad News.

Good News: Engine Runs and sounds good. That's about the best news I could get. Chris said they were all surprised and relieved when they heard it run, he said it sounds great. Let's just hope it still run and sounds great after it has run for a few hours with a full load.

Bad News: Doesn't build air. Damn. Needs a new compressor. $1,400.00 That's about $1,400 more than a budgeted for this month. I guess if you look on the bright side, if there is one thing in your bus you want to have BRAND-NEW, the air compressor is not a bad choice.

I also asked them to put in some new batteries, because I didn't think there was any chance that the batteries were good. They told me that they took a charge and are holding fine. I asked them to make sure it passed a load test, and they said they already checked, and it does. Imagine that.