| Author |
Message |
marty
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, May 19, 2005 - 5:18 pm: | |
MC 8 The shutters are open. I have never seen them closed. Would yopu repair them? Marty |
Buswarrior (Buswarrior)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, May 19, 2005 - 5:46 pm: | |
Hello Marty.
It all depends where and how you are planning to run the bus.
First, the shutters are part of the system to keep your engine operating at the correct temperatures, along with the thermostats "inside the engine".
The shutters, and the fan damper doors, obstruct the flow of air through the radiators when the engine is below operating temperature (typically, the shutters open above 180 degrees)
The shutters and damper doors are held shut with air pressure, and open with springs. There is a sensor in one of the main coolant pipes from the engine, and in turn, a shutterstat controls the air pressure. The air supply to the shutter stat has a shut off valve on it, so yours may just be turned off. In your MC8, the shutterstat is mounted on the right hand side of the engine room, on the same, but opposite surface that the rear engine controls are mounted. Valve on bottom, and valve on the air line.
Most popularly they are shut off becasue the opening springs on the damper doors get lazy, not the shutters. (For that reason, I removed the pins on my damper doors, leaving them fully open and leave the shutters operational.)
In colder climates, without the shutters, you will be unable to build up engine temperature when idling or in lightly loaded driving conditions. In arctic conditions, you won't reach operating temperature at all unless you are out driving hard at highway speeds.
Many busnuts in warmer climates completely remove the shutters and damper doors.
Busnuts generally do not idle their buses the way they were in commercial service, and also have other ways to stay warm inside besides engine heat. (furnaces, webastos, etc)
We get in the bus a drive somewhere, and shut it off to save fuel.
happy coaching!
buswarrior |
Jon W.
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, May 19, 2005 - 7:05 pm: | |
Shutters appear to be dual purpose. The obvious is to assist in warming the engine (or maintaining warmth).
A less obvious benefit, and I assume the designers used this as a major consideration is that I'll bet they save fuel. In case anybody wants to reduce the load on the engine, all you have to do is remove the radiator cooling fan. That is silly of course, but to minimize the load on a fan, choke off its supply of air, thus reducing its workload.
In case anybody wants to test this, break out the old vacuum cleaner and with it running stick your hand over the hose. Instead of bogging down as might be expected, the motor actually runs faster due to reduced load.
If the shutters are always open, have the valves been set to shut off air flow to the shutter air cylinder? |
John Jewett (Jayjay)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, May 19, 2005 - 11:26 pm: | |
Yes Jon, most fans love a vacuum, and about the only caveat involved is to not let it overheat if the airflow is over the motor. ...JJ |
Chuck Lott (Chuckmc8)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, May 20, 2005 - 6:38 am: | |
On my MC8, I've thought of installing two small air cylinders on the Fan access door (above the engine) so that I can flip a switch (or thermostat controll) to make that door open about "4 at the bottom, kind of like a louvre.
I believe that the fans would draw their air from the open door,rather than through the radiators, allowing the engine to build heat easier-I dont have the shutters-
Thoughts? |
Henry R. Bergman, Jr. (Henryofcj)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, May 20, 2005 - 7:01 pm: | |
marty...your MCI radiator shutters just may be stuck. This happened with the shutters on my Crown. They also were stuck open.
Then upon examination I found that the air line hook up was just disconnected. Had an air chuck type arrangement.
I reconnected the air chuck and the shutters still would not work and the air chuck leaked badly.
Sossss I overhauled the chuck and played with the shutters, blasting them with 150 psi air pressure from the shop compressor.
Then I took a can of WD 40 with an extension spray tube and gave all the pivot points a little bit of oil.
Seems they just had dirt in the works. Now they work fine and are closed during a cold start and remain closed until the mill...
....gets up to around 170 degrees. Your temperature may vary. And yeah...the engine seems a little bit more peppy not having...
....to draw all the air thru the radiator. I can even "feel" the shutters snap open as the Cummins seems to pull just a ...
...little bit harder working that huge fan. Anyway, my fix was very easy. Perhaps yours will be also. Good luck. |
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