Jetskiier
New Member
Hey everyone, this is our first post after 11 years of owning a Skoolie! I’ve got a lot of great info off the site and decided I should post for the first time.
Background: We bought a 1990 bluebird front engine 5.9 L 12 valve Cummins school bus from the Anchorage school district in Alaska in 2012 with 195,000 miles on it. It probably never saw a hot day in its life. I received all the maintenance records from the school district, and the thing hardly ever needed any work besides normal maintenance. Converted it into a full RV across two summers in Alaska and used it a couple times for camping up there. When we moved back to Oregon in 2015, we put it on the barge from Alaska to Seattle and use it like a shipping container with all of our stuff inside of it. It gets used once or twice each summer for an annual two-week camping trip, but sees less than probably 400 miles a year. We’d like to change that, but in order to make it less stressful to drive , I’ve decided to do some upgrades this year.
Here’s my dilemma… I bought an HX35W to upgrade from the H1C, and I’d like to keep the EGT’s down when climbing hills. Also plan on a tranny cooler for the AT545.
The original set up is non-intercooled, so is it better to plumb in an intercooler while I’m at it, or leave the original setup? The intake horn on the school bus is the one that has the miniature radiator built into it. It is plumbed into what would be the heater core loop on a normal truck. (Pics attached of intake horn)
Is this adding hot air to my intake, or is it actually providing a cooling effect?
Would I gain any efficiencies if I plumbed in a small fan cooled radiator in the front grill in the cooling circuit between the engine and intake horn in order to provide cooler coolant going to this heat exchanger?
Would there be any benefit in plumbing a separate stand alone radiator loop into this intake horn? I read somewhere that these intake radiators were efficient in their heat exchange, but I would think 180° engine coolant is contributing to a hotter intake air.
I guess it really boils down to one question… Work with what I have, and make it more efficient, leave it alone, or replace the whole thing with an intercooler set up and new intake plenum/horn which is going to require a LOT of work to plumb in?
Thanks for any help!
Greg
Background: We bought a 1990 bluebird front engine 5.9 L 12 valve Cummins school bus from the Anchorage school district in Alaska in 2012 with 195,000 miles on it. It probably never saw a hot day in its life. I received all the maintenance records from the school district, and the thing hardly ever needed any work besides normal maintenance. Converted it into a full RV across two summers in Alaska and used it a couple times for camping up there. When we moved back to Oregon in 2015, we put it on the barge from Alaska to Seattle and use it like a shipping container with all of our stuff inside of it. It gets used once or twice each summer for an annual two-week camping trip, but sees less than probably 400 miles a year. We’d like to change that, but in order to make it less stressful to drive , I’ve decided to do some upgrades this year.
Here’s my dilemma… I bought an HX35W to upgrade from the H1C, and I’d like to keep the EGT’s down when climbing hills. Also plan on a tranny cooler for the AT545.
The original set up is non-intercooled, so is it better to plumb in an intercooler while I’m at it, or leave the original setup? The intake horn on the school bus is the one that has the miniature radiator built into it. It is plumbed into what would be the heater core loop on a normal truck. (Pics attached of intake horn)
Is this adding hot air to my intake, or is it actually providing a cooling effect?
Would I gain any efficiencies if I plumbed in a small fan cooled radiator in the front grill in the cooling circuit between the engine and intake horn in order to provide cooler coolant going to this heat exchanger?
Would there be any benefit in plumbing a separate stand alone radiator loop into this intake horn? I read somewhere that these intake radiators were efficient in their heat exchange, but I would think 180° engine coolant is contributing to a hotter intake air.
I guess it really boils down to one question… Work with what I have, and make it more efficient, leave it alone, or replace the whole thing with an intercooler set up and new intake plenum/horn which is going to require a LOT of work to plumb in?
Thanks for any help!
Greg
