Maiden Voyage: 1300 miles from OR to CO

[kromboy]

Picked up the bus yesterday and prepared for the 1300 mile journey back from OR to CO.
Bus is a 2005 Blue Bird All American RE, 8.3 ISC and Allison MD3060.

Left around 6pm but had to make a few stops along the way, arrived in Mosier at the Memaloose Rest Area around 11pm and decided to break for the night.
It's beautiful out here, driving along I-84 overlooking Columbia River.

Few items of note on the bus so far.

Max speed is 62mph, both in experience and what bluefire tells me. Tach will only go up to 2100RPM and not any higher. What's the expected scenario if I were to get the 6th gear unlocked on the MD3060? Will the top speed go up too? or will it just achieve that speed at lower RPM? I can hold 60-62 at about 1800 RPM currently and up the mountains I was able to maintain 45-55 depending on the grade.
Tach is missing and turns out some mechanic took it out to repurpose for another bus after it had been decommissioned. Foreman says it should work fine if I replace it, bluefire takes care of that so I might just leave it taped over for now.

Some other things I've noticed so far:

Coolant temp holds steady around 165, over the course of a 3 hour drive, that did not change.
Trasn Temp on the dash shows about the same temp and holds.

According to Bluefire, Odo is at 69k miles and shows 4366hrs on engine, 1300 or so idle time.
Odometer on dash shows 210k, no hours reported.
Is it common to have this discrepancy? It's a 2005 bus that was used for routes so I doubt it's really only been run for 4300 hours and 69k miles. But I'm trying to find out what the cause of that is, maybe the ECM was swapped out?

District had an aftermarket DPF installed and later deleted it due to increased maintenance associated with it, so I just have the EGR but the exhause it currently pointing inward towards the engine, should this be a concern or am I okay to run it without rerouting the exhaust?

Hoping to make it to Boise before end of the day today. Will report back tomorrow.

Thanks for all the helpful tips and tricks, it's taking a bit of getting used to but I'm really enjoying the drive so far.

 

[cadillackid]

you r main exhaust is not exiting the bus? its pointed at something? you def dont want that... exhaust temperatires can get VERY hot esp when running mountains... if the exhaist is pointong at something in the engone compartment that woudve been a do-not drive more than a couple minutes kind of thing to me...



you def want a tailpipe going out pf the bus...


most of the 8.3's ive been around have a redline RPM in the 2200 RPM range.. so likely you are just getting u at the rev limiter.. its possible there was a speed limiter set in the computer.. if not then 6th gear would get you a few more MPH... if a speed limiter was set then you can remove it with cummins insite software.. or have it done at a shop...

 

[kromboy]

This is what it looks like currently.

you r main exhaust is not exiting the bus? its pointed at something? you def dont want that... exhaust temperatires can get VERY hot esp when running mountains... if the exhaist is pointong at something in the engone compartment that woudve been a do-not drive more than a couple minutes kind of thing to me...



you def want a tailpipe going out pf the bus...


most of the 8.3's ive been around have a redline RPM in the 2200 RPM range.. so likely you are just getting u at the rev limiter.. its possible there was a speed limiter set in the computer.. if not then 6th gear would get you a few more MPH... if a speed limiter was set then you can remove it with cummins insite software.. or have it done at a shop...

 

[cadillackid]

def not something id be driving much.. that pipe is point in the general direction of an electrical panel....

 

[desrtdog]

Where in CO are you headed?

 

[kromboy]

Thanks for the tip, I will see if I can reroute or take off a part of it before end of the day today.

def not something id be driving much.. that pipe is point in the general direction of an electrical panel....

 

[kromboy]

Nowhere special, just back home to Aurora then I'll get started on the conversion.

Where in CO are you headed?

 

[Paddy-SKO]

Alright, on the Go.

Nowhere special, just back home to Aurora then I'll get started on the conversion.

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I'm following your journey and I'm right next to you in spirit. Please keep posting all the way home. Take lots of photos, for yourself mostly, but post some here.
Godspeed!

 

[desrtdog]

Nowhere special, just back home to Aurora then I'll get started on the conversion.

Lived in Arvada when I was little...back when there was nothing out there. Have a place in Durango now...

 

[DeMac]

Hot so Hot

def not something id be driving much.. that pipe is point in the general direction of an electrical panel....

----------------

It's worth investing the extra time and expense now, than to incur big time expenses later. I'm having to make some of these same choices on my journey home.

Christopher's advise has been spot on, for me. He generally encourages me to press on. If he's advising to stop, please do.

Keep us posted, maybe we can help.

 

[nikitis]

Shouldn't that exhaust be pointing to the right not the left? Maybe it's just lose and spun around?

You can clearly see it used to run out the back, so someone done goofed in that repair.

 

[Kentucky Dreaming]

Lots of smart folks here. Sounds like you are in over your noggin.

Christopher and DeMac are the best here.

Listen to them.

 

[kromboy]

According to the shop foreman, they installed an after market dpf and chose to delete it after because it was causing too many problems.

I guess they didn't reroute the exhaust when they did the delete.

Shouldn't that exhaust be pointing to the right not the left? Maybe it's just lose and spun around?

You can clearly see it used to run out the back, so someone done goofed in that repair.

 

[kromboy]

Most definitely, I am counting my lucky stars I'm almost through Idaho and about to enter Utah without any issues so far.

But the exhaust has been bugging me and I think I finally have the tools and help needed to do it.

So far it looks like this, there's this weird line going to it with a device that doesn't appear to go anywhere, I'm guessing it's the only remnant of the old DPF?

Can I just take it off without worrying about blocking it off or anything? There are nuts on either side of it I can loosen. And as far as exhaust itself goes I see connections at the way bottom, can I just undo those and call it a day?

Thanks for all the help!

def not something id be driving much.. that pipe is point in the general direction of an electrical panel....

 

[nikitis]

Maybe you can losen it, and point it downwards. Turn it 90 degrees to point down towards the side then tighen it again, but if you cannot at may be best at very least to just remove it. Better than hitting your electrical panel.

You don't want exhaust gas coming back up into the cab so best to try to get it to point outwards at least.

If there's no room to turn, then remove it, turn it, then try to rebolt it so it's pointing outside some way.

 

[kromboy]

Thanks!

That'll be the first thing I do in the morning.

Maybe you can losen it, and point it downwards. Turn it 90 degrees to point down towards the side then tighen it again, but if you cannot at may be best at very least to just remove it. Better than hitting your electrical panel.

You don't want exhaust gas coming back up into the cab so best to try to get it to point outwards at least.

If there's no room to turn, then remove it, turn it, then try to rebolt it so it's pointing outside some way.

 

[kromboy]

Day 2 & 3

Day 2 was driving through rest of the Cascade mountains and crossing into Idaho. Took some nice picture atop the vantage point, bus slowed down to a crawl going up there, was going 25-30 mph at one point.

Thank god for the bluefire, it tells me the coolant temp and trans temp so I can keep an eye on it without pushing it too hard. On the mountains, I can get it to maintain 200 degrees coolant temp. Trans temp rarely goes over 190. Hoping I can install a secondary radiator in the back, then I should be able to go a little harder.

Third day was just hanging around Boise/Twin Falls area as my gf's family lives here. Went to a nice small water fall near the area and headed to Shoshone falls later today before depart for Wyoming.

Hoping to land in western part of Wyoming tonight, then drive all day back home to Denver.

Exhaust pipe came out and I rerouted it, the little valve appeared to be the dpf injector(?) and I was able to confirm it doesn't go anywhere so I just disconnected it. Ran the bus for a while and saw no issues.

Took out 3 seats by the emergency side door so we'll have more room. It was more work than I anticipated but had 3 out in about an hour and a half. I imagine once I bring it home I'll be able to remove a seat every 10 minutes or so. Luckily the window side of the seats only bolt to the bus body and not the floor and I can easily loosen though. None of the other bolts are rusted either so I can turn them, just figured it'd be easier to grind it out instead of going under the bus.

So far so good, about halfway home and we'll hit the road again this evening!

 

[nikitis]

Glad to see the solution worked out for you.

I miss Idaho sometimes used to live in Rexburg.

 

[kromboy]

Just finished the trip back home.
Can't believe I made it 1300 miles back home without a single hitch.

Thank you everyone for your support and travel tips!

Images are from Shoshone Falls yesterday, we made it just into Wyoming last night and spent the rest of the day today to drive ~410 miles home. Didn't really bother doing a whole lot in Wyoming since we're kinda familiar with the area anyway. We did see a nice double rainbow around Cheyenne just as we were entering Colorado which was nice.

I've been logging my fuel efficiency right as we were leaving Oregon, and from there to middle of Wyoming I was getting about 8.5mpg, didn't check after that since I was able to get home without fueling up. Considering I was pushing 2000-2100rpm constantly and going max speed most of that time, I am quite happy with the number. Hopefully I can get it above 10 when I'm not in such a rush to get to places.

I think the first thing I will do is finish demo, then I'll work on getting 6th gear unlocked. Then I'll decide what to do with the bus, I really like it. More than I expected to like it, but a skoolie conversion is definitely a bigger project than I envisioned and considering I lucked into this bus with my very first bid on an auction, I'm not sure I'm 100% prepared for the work ahead.

I also kinda want like a 32' RE pusher but doubtful I can get those for any reasonable price. I'll see if one pops up before I start making significant progress on the conversion and go from there.