DT466e Timing Cover Oil Leak

[EastCoastCB]

Hey Everyone,

I was hoping my first post about my bus would be a happy one but I got bad news today after finally finding a good mechanic to dig in and inspect things.

I have a 2003 Intl. FE300 w/ dt466e, A2500, 40ft high roof, lots of storage bays underneath. Basically the perfect platform for me. I'm 6' tall but don't want to raise roofs and was excited to keep fab work to a minimum in general given all the storage and height already I was also excited about the model year since it was right before EGR, blah blah blah.

At first glance the mechanic thought it was the oil pump, but after steaming underneath and letting it run some, he found a leak coming from the air compressor. Then after a little more time, he noticed there was also some leakage from the rear front/timing cover and called me back again with the news.
So, I have some oil seepage from the rear front/timing cover, but there is also some blow-by. This can be felt from the big breather tub that hangs down by the oil pan.

The company I got it from in ID said they were told when they bought it in 2019 that it had already had an in-frame at one point in it's life. Who knows though as that's essentially just hearsay. They also refused to give me the service records. (tbf it was an as-is auction, but still) First the story was they didn't have them. Then someone else told me the auction website wouldn't let them release them to buyers. Then when they cut ties with that website, they told me they needed to keep them for DOT audits. (never heard of a copy machine?)
I'm not too happy with them. At this point I feel like there's a good chance they knew about this problem.

I have not really done much conversion wise. I have been slowly working on doing a quick and dirty kind of conversion just to get it legal as an RV (in Wisconsin) to start with and then I was going to take a test trip or two before really digging in and converting it properly.

So I guess I'm looking for some insights/advice about whether I should even bother trying to do much of anything with this vehicle.
Fixing the front cover issue alone is going to be almost three times what I paid for for the bus to begin with. (~$15,000) It also needs some other things but I can probably do those myself if I buy some heavy duty equipment like jacks: Front leaf springs, rear airbags, shocks all around, maybe new drums up front. It also needs an alignment at least, as it's pulled to the right a bit since I got it.

I'm kinda thinking of just living with the oil leaks and moving forward with a slightly more involved, but still dirt cheap build as opposed to eventually going all in and gutting and rebuilding the interior to be really nice and all that. But idk. The mechanic said he'd worry about taking it on cross country trips, but seems to mostly just be worried about a sudden break down being really inconvenient and expensive. I do have AAA+RV though.

How many of your buses leak oil? I've driven subarus a long time so I'm used to keeping up on oil, but that's mostly burning it. If a vehicle starts to actually drip, I don't tolerate that for long cuz I don't like leaving spots and I don't wanna have to worry about where I park it n stuff like that.

I did already drive it 1500 miles to get it home last year after I bought it. It didn't seem to loose much oil at all. I thought it drove pretty great, but being new to any kind of big rig, it's not like I would know really. I haven't checked the dipstick after it sat through the winter. I will when I get it back from the shop.

I'm pretty bummed. I've been getting all sorts of excited about bus life, skoolie life, rubbing shoulders with the truckers, all that fun stuff. This kinda makes me wanna throw in the towel since it's not reasonable at this point to put much money into it. But idk. Maybe I can just get by for a while anyway? (but then what?) Maybe I should cut my losses now and throw away money on a different hobby/adventure? What would you think? What would you do?

I had a 2003 Dt466E with a failed inner/outer timing cover.
Its a huge job and unless you can get the upgraded parts I'd be hesitant to do that amount of work with used or original. They re-designed the timing covers. Parts alone was goign to cost me half what a reman would cost.
I sold the bus at a loss but I only paid a fraction of 15k.
How bad the leak is, mileage, amount of blowby, all would be factors in deciding how to proceed.
Its not just the timing cover if you've got a lot of miles there are plenty of other parts to replace. The oil pump- may as well while you're there.
I almost put a reman in my bus but then I found another bus cheaper. Those were a bit different days when I nice bus was still $1500-$3500.

 

[Booyah45828]

I just saw a video the other day of a water pump on a 5.9 (on a FE) and he could just reach down through the doghouse and get to the whole front of the engine. lol, I got pretty jealous.
But yeah, like I said, I think I'ma just put a couple thousand into the compressor, springs, and making it semi livable to see how I like the actual experience for now.


And yeah I see remaned DT466e online for like $5-6k
How much more cost on top of that would I have to expect? Does reman imply already being rebuilt? (pistons, sleeves, etc) Would I still have to worry about and check out the front covers or should that be taken care of then too?
And then the actual swap.. lol I read somewhere that since the DTs are so big/heavy, they get the drive train free and roll the bus backwards off the engine/trans. How doable is a full swap by a home mechanic, cuz the quote I got for a swap made me think to just do it all in frame with the one I have.

IF the remanufacturer did it right, it should have been rebuilt and used the latest updated pieces, but in a factory like setting. Everything should have been taken care of, plus it would have a warranty. Swapping one is like you said, remove the engine/trans mounts, the radiator/intercooler/fan, the driveshaft, and then roll the bus backwards off of it.

Swap would take a day or two of work. In-frame with a front cover would take a week or more. You'd have to have a big shop or yard to do a swap. Maybe a forklift or loader tractor too.

 

[sportyrick]

easy way to pull engine

No no no you are making this too hard, look at my pictures, look at the cribbing I built to hold either motor, the old 427 and new DT466, all you need is a flat piece of concrete or solid flat ground with plywood and you can roll that puppy in and out on a pallet jack (not a dog nose, front axle is in the way). I did that like 15 times to get my motor mounts figured out, driveshaft, clearance to front axle and tranny pan, exhaust, air compressor etc. Also you can get a good idea what the front of the motor looks like so if you decide to repair it, it's pretty simple outside but it's once you get inside that it's gets.......challenging. Note other things...kick down potentiometer on rear of tranny and cable up to throttle. Note also oil cooler, rebuid that while in there, the o-rings shrink with age and should be replaced while torn down. I changed the compressor while in there also, it will be loose when you pull the covers, there are places that will exchange you a rebuilt one. PM me when you do this, send me some pics of the cracks and I might be up to welding that aluminum up and do some re-enforcing while at it. Engine is smack up front even with bus, that is reason for extended grill.