The Story Of A Cummins Suburban (Lots Of Pics)

[ERASER5]

I have a couple of questions about the new rear heater. But first I must say, I like the way you solve problems.

When the engine is running and up to temp, can the rear fan be turned on without the heater unit burning fuel?

Can the rear fan be turned on with no heat to circulate air during summer use?

[1985-GMC]

There are still some great people out there indeed, glad you were able to find some while in a little trouble. Thanks for telling "The rest.. of the story." Haha

I like your cruise control, I had an idea to do mine like that but hadn't come across anyone else with a setup that way. Does it just pull or does it screw/unscrew?
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[v-man]

That cruise control is a awesome idea, the V-Rig surely needs something like that. Our Pumpers at the fire station have those on the pump panel. They have a button on the end of the knob that allows you to just push it in or pull it out then you can screw either way to tweak the rpm's. My buddy has a tree service and his woodsman chipper has the same thing. Can't wait to put that right foot up on dash. LOL

[MrBeast]

That is pretty crazy.

That is quite the Achilles heel to have built into that engine. Why not switch over to an external oil cooler?

[mosesburb]

So we got home and had this in the reservoir:



I got to cleaning it and the heater system out and made more of this:



and this:



and about ten more jugs of the crap sitting around here. Some of it is the super nasty "cake batter" substance, some of the other is not too bad. Now that it has been sitting a while, some of it has separated back into its original form. When this happens I can clean the oil off of the coolant and then I will be able to turn them in as what they should be instead of an emulsified mixture.

Is it bad when your coolant filter has an oil leak??



I don't think this is the right substance for the filter:



The first pic shows the plates of the cooler. It is a stout design that does not often fail. The plates sit in the cooling jacket of the engine.



This is the side of the plate that the oil filter mounting casting sits against:



This is what the backside of the filter mounting head looks like. It has the bypass spring in it and it directs the flow of oil away from and back to the holes in the lower end of the casting which take oil from and return oil to the engine.



This is what the cooler looks like when it is mounted in the engine. The lower holes in the plate are where the oil originates from and returns to once it is filtered and cooled. That is the outside of the filter head in the pic also. The owner of this pic, ryanroo, cut the filter mount off the casting and welded on a flange with threads to create his own remote filter mount setup. Now, I swiped this pic, but he took the prior pic upon my request. He has his apart and it is hard to explain all that goes on behind the filter head whereas a picture explains it much easier.



So I guess it is possible to eliminate the factory cooler, but it would be quite the engineering ordeal. That coupled with the fact that they don't fail very often, seems to make it a less desireable project, for me anyways.

[jbclassix]

We used to run into ruptured coolers in off road equipment in mining often enough to keep Cascade in stock. Seems that stuff works pretty good. But most of those failures were the result of the operating environment. I hope the contaminates don't damage your Wabasto. You will want to consider replacing any rubber cooling hoses as they will react to the oil/coolant mixture. Yours is the first B engine I have seen fail. Knock on wood.
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[MrBeast]

You know what is funny is I had no idea there was even one of those on my trucks.

I still have a lot to learn with the Cummins, completely different system than the SB/BB Chevy, the more I learn though the more I like them.

[Dieselwrencher]

Nick, I was glad to hear you made it home safe with your rig operational. The cooling system is really hard to get cleaned out after an oil cooler failure. I've had the joy of doing several 6 uh oh's. You can eliminate the oil cooler from that location, but it is a lot of work and expensive. More than likely the cooler gaskets were the culprit, but with as much damage can be done, I'd replace it just as you did. I've got the same cruise control set up for the Longhorn. it works great. Oh, wait.....

[mosesburb]

Originally Posted by Dieselwrencher

Nick, I was glad to hear you made it home safe with your rig operational. The cooling system is really hard to get cleaned out after an oil cooler failure. I've had the joy of doing several 6 uh oh's.

I've dealt with head gasket failures on gassers back in my repair days, but this substance is nastier than any of that crap that I remember. I think I finally have it cleaned out. I've been driving it daily for a couple weeks now and there is just an ever-so-slight film on the top of the coolant in the reservoir. I think I will run it for a while longer and then do another flush and finally refill it with the Rotella ELC that I was running prior to the mess.

Have you ever used this stuff?? Sounds like I could have used it back in the beginning.

Originally Posted by Dieselwrencher

You can eliminate the oil cooler from that location, but it is a lot of work and expensive. More than likely the cooler gaskets were the culprit, but with as much damage can be done, I'd replace it just as you did.

I'm not planning on moving it. I had a couple people mention getting rid of the stock cooler, so I was just trying to show that it is not an easy task. I have not tested the old cooler yet, but I will pass along the results when I do. The gaskets both looked good when I pulled it apart, but I can't say for sure that it wasn't them.

Originally Posted by Dieselwrencher

I've got the same cruise control set up for the Longhorn. it works great. Oh, wait.....

Yeah. Post a vid of it "working great".

[Dieselwrencher]

Originally Posted by mosesburb

Yeah. Post a vid of it "working great".

I will. It idles steadily and is the quietest 24v I've ever heard.

[mosesburb]

Originally Posted by Dieselwrencher

I will. It idles steadily and is the quietest 24v I've ever heard.

Yeah, I bet it's absolutely silent.

[mosesburb]

Well, with all this chat about oil coolers I think I should give an update here. In trying to consolidate my biohazard by separating as much of the oil and coolant as I could, I stumbled across the box with my old oil coler core in it. I had been trying to devise a way to pressure test it to see exactly where it failed. I decided that since I drained the cooling system through the oil pan drain plug I should be able to fill the cooler with water and notice a massive leak pretty quickly.

So I did. I filled it with water and let it sit.

And sit.

And sit.

I guess it has been about a week and a half now and it is still holding water and there is no hint of moisture near where the cooler is sitting, leading me to believe what the first person I called after the catastrophe (Dieselwrencher) had told me. He said that most likely the gasket had failed and not the cooler. Now, I had no reason to doubt him, but in my situation, being far from home and on a very tight time-frame, I opted to change everything in the hole to be as sure as I could that everything was tip-top and ready for the 425 mile trip home through the Great Sonoran Desert.

It's good to know that the cooler didn't fail. I will now recommend oil cooler gasket changes to everybody I know that has a B series motor. They are not difficult to do in a controlled environment and the mess they can prevent makes the effort well-worth the time.

[Dieselwrencher]

I don't blame you one bit for replacing it all. That could have been a really bad deal. AKA rebuild engine and a tow home. Not cool. It's pretty crazy how these early gaskets are way inferior in design compared to the parts they sell now.

[RatRod68]

you sir, can have it. I'm much happier with the 5683905675830 degree heat. As long as the A/C works

[Dieselwrencher]

I'll take the dry heat and no snow!

[RatRod68]

Originally Posted by Dieselwrencher

I'll take the dry heat and no snow!

right there with ya buddy!

This snow stuff is for the birds! That is the one thing that makes the craziness of southern california bearable... The weather is AMAZING

[ryanroo]

We get snow, we get dry heat, we get NO humidity. its about 70 today and sunny
WIN

[6lcummins]

Originally Posted by ryanroo

We get snow, we get dry heat, we get NO humidity. its about 70 today and sunny
WIN

I dislike you on so many levels now...

[ryanroo]

You guys are crazy! snow is nice. and so is cold. i also like warm and sunny, so i guess i picked a good spot.

[Dieselwrencher]

Originally Posted by ryanroo

You guys are crazy! snow is nice. and so is cold. i also like warm and sunny, so i guess i picked a good spot.

Snow in May, not my idea of fun son.

[jbclassix]

Did we hijack enough yet?
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[6lcummins]

Originally Posted by jbclassix

Did we hijack enough yet?
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Officially HiJacked...

[ryanroo]

sitting outside the fabled coffee shop, finger in the air sipping a nice brew. in a t shirt. totally comfortable in the sunshine...
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[6lcummins]

Originally Posted by ryanroo

You guys are crazy! snow is nice. and so is cold. i also like warm and sunny, so i guess i picked a good spot.

March 3, 2013....

10-12" of snow



I was done with snow 2 months ago...

[6lcummins]

Fu