| Author | Message | ||
| JW Smythe (Jwsmythe)
Rating: N/A |
G'morning. How hard is it to work on a 6v92 in a GMC RTS? The shop that has my bus has indicated to a friend of mine that it's "too hard" to work on the forward side of the engine to fix an oil leak. If I should venture into doing it myself, is it possible to pull stuff like the heads without removing the entire engine? Is there anything specifically I should watch out for? If I know it's practical for me to do in a driveway, I'll just take it home, and do it myself. Also, how hard is it to change the injectors? I expect to get dirty and nasty, but that's half the fun of working on an engine.  I want to eventually do the injector upgrade. Acceleration was ok getting onto the highway, but I'd really prefer to be able to get up closer to highway speeds before merging. Sure, people get out of the way when you start moving over, but I prefer to be able to pick my gaps, rather than forcing my way in. I know I'll end up needing to do it anyways to handle mountains. | ||
| jimmci9 #2 Rating: N/A |
the difficulty or ease of any repair depends on your skills, available tools, surroundings, and pressure to complete the repair in a timely manner......do you have access to a safe way to lift the heads off of an engine??? clean them properly?? dispose of all the waste materials properly???... do you have the necessary tools and experience to re-install the parts you took off?? and most importantly.. do you have the experience to determine a failed part, instead of just replacing a good part???... im not trying to start a flame war, just giving you an idea of the how some very inexperienced people approach a repair.... | ||
| JW Smythe (Jwsmythe)
Rating: N/A |
No offense taken. I know a lot of people will decide they want to work on something, being completely unqualified to do it. But, that's where we all started, right? Ya, I've been working on engines for ... ummmm ... 18 or so years. I've worked on pretty much everything but big truck engines. Diesel tractors, muscle cars, import cars, trucks (1/2 ton, 3/4 ton gas), and motorcycles. In high school, friends would bring their cars to me, or I'd go to them, to fix. Oh the good ol' days. Now, my cars are newer (not actually "new"). I was all excited a couple months ago when the water pump went in my '00 Firebird. I got to break out the air tools! The clutch went again, so I've been shopping for racing parts for it. The lightened flywheel is already here, and the racing clutch will be here Thursday. Wheee! I've been showing the flywheel to everyone, but no one seems to care. I keep picking it up with two fingers and saying "Look, it's only 17 pounds. Go ahead, feel it!" No one understands. {sigh} I'm concerned about the clearance around the front side of the engine in the bus. I'd hate to get all into it, and find out that there's some stupid problem, like the head bolts can't come out because they'll hit the firewall. I only said the heads, because I figured that would be the worst thing to take off, even though I don't really suspect an oil leak under the head. Really, I hope I can talk the guy who's suppose to be working on it, into doing the whole job. It was dropped off with him over a month ago, and now it's sounding like he isn't going to deal with the oil leak. He did get one of my headaches out of the way already, he got the stock air handler out. I had no clue how I'd get it out. We were trying to decide if the ground where I can work on it, was stable enough to put a rented forklift on. I'd hate to roll a forklift over with the air handler on it. And ya, I've driven forklifts too. I spent more time in the warehouse driving a stockpicker. They're more fun, when you can be way off the ground, driving around the warehouse. Being 20 feet off the ground is a good way to stay out of eye contact with the bosses. | ||
| David Hartley (Drdave)
Rating: N/A |
Here's how to do it,.. I will do this one time for the archives and only once.... A source for shop air to connect to raise the bus is very handy. The center floor access panel between the rear wheelwells comes up and the rear leveling valve is in there. take the bolt out of the arm and with shop air on the system, pull the bar up almost to 90 degrees. this will fill the rear air bags. fillem all the way up... When that is done then let the bar return to center. the back end of the bus will be almost a foot off the ground long enough to get the jacks and safety blocks under it. You want to support the chassis on the jacks and blocks at the bulkhead. NOT on the cradle portion.... You need a large flat concrete work area that can support 12 ton or 20 ton bottle jacks. 2 to 4 are required. You have to lift the back of the bus up enought to get under safely to take out 2-cradle bolts and drive them back up through the holes so they clear the rubber mount bushings. * I always do them first.... The RTS engine/transmission, muffler, cooling system, electrical system, air system and all that stuff is mounted on the engine cradle. You will need the use of either a forklift or build up an RTS cradle jack system. Electrical unplugs from the chassis above the coolant reservoir. air/oil/power steering and control hoses unscrew from a header above the transmission. The battery feed line to the cradle is down through the center access panel at the back seat area. There is a large stud there. take the main cable loose. then disconnect the cradle ground strap. The coolant and heater feed lines are forward of and above the fan area, those hoses come off. The FUEL line run across the top of the compartment and down to the primary filter. you must disconnect it before you try to move anything. The rear control panel can be unbolted and moved out of the way. disconnect the oil feed tube from the sender manifold behind that. Remove the air cleaner cannister completely! its mounted on two half-moon brackets. just take the clamps off and bolts out of the brackets. With all of the little stuff unhooked and marked as to where you took them loose from you can progress to the next step... 2-choices here... You can leave the transmission stub flange-plate attached to the transmission or take it loose. warning though.. there are lots of bolts and nuts !!! or you can (when ready) slide the slip-joint apart as you remove the cradle. The final big job is to remove the 4-bolts that hold the back end on your bus. Two above on stanchions one left and one right. These are the LAST ones you take out...( Note: LAST ) The other two are cradle pin-bolts, the heads are captive with a small plate welded to them. The nuts are under the bus ( where you should be..) (see above*). Once everything else is disconnected and you have triple checked. You forgot something probably.. Stuff will break or tear apart if you forgot. Enter the cradle lift or forklift whichever is applicable. I use forklifts as a preference. lift the engine cradle straight up carefully and after verifying that the weight of the rear of the engine cradle is being supported by the lift. Then work on the last two stanchion bolts. they have nuts, lockwashers and larger washers. A wrench will barely fit up inside, Then a large socket or breaker bar to loosen the bolts. If you can turn the bolts fairly easily then you may have the weight off the cradle correctly. if not then lift a little more to be safe. Once you have removed the bolts the whole thing is ready to be removed. to do that you will need to raise the front end of the cradle. ( tilt back with forklift ) a little so the weight is taken off the front bushings. then up ever so slightly with the front a little. down in the back so that the stanchions separate from the rubber mounts (doughnuts).. Things will be very close so no sudden ups, downs or movements until you have cleared the mounts and various things that get in the way. If everything is good you should be able to back the cradle out of the engine compartment without killing yourself and others. If you chose to have the driveshaft disconnect itself by pulling the slip-joint apart you will need to be careful. I had never done one before, It took me 6 hours the take out and 3 hours to put one back in. Mind that I had no help of any kind. I made mistakes and had to make some repairs before I could put the cradle back in... I wont's go into the safety requirements for this type of job. they are many. Tools are required although most toolboxes have most of what you need. the BIG wrenches and BIG sockets can be Harbor Freight and not too expensive. Your mileage may vary.. I have heard of one guy removing his in 3 hours and installing a whole replacement in another 3 hours. Your mileage may vary... | ||
| JW Smythe (Jwsmythe)
Rating: N/A |
Damn. That's one hell of a step by step! Thank you! I really apprecate it! That is a great one for the archives. I'll definitely print it and have it handy for while I'm working. Honestly, yours reads better than most shop manuals that I've seen. Somehow, I've never heard of Harbor Freight. There's one reasonably close by in Tampa. Otherwise, I would have just hit Sears. I love Craftsman tools, but I wish they weren't so damned expensive. I won't be in any race to take it apart or put it together. If it takes me more than 6 hours to get it apart, I won't be heart broken. The only problem is, I don't have a hard surface to work on, but I think this is a problem that I need to get resolved. The owner of the property has no problem with me having one put in, and since it's a friend, I don't mind paying for one to be put in there. It's something that I really should have done, since it'll make other things easier. It's more than likely that this will be one of my regular spots. |