Discovery Make Up

[discovery39s]

Well, I was doing some minor maintenance I discovered the front of the engine looked pretty gloomy. Lots of surface rust on everything. hose ends, pulleys, engine block and head just looked horrible. Somehow my RV sucked me into a vortex and off I went beginning to pull the rear radiator and cac out to clean her up. I'm not retired yet and have a nice shop with many tools so don't think this is something to be done at a campground. Not so much the work to take apart but the room to lay everything out to clean, disassemble and paint.
Took about four hours to get the radiator and cac out and the mess cleaned up. I then removed the idler pulleys for the water pump and main drive belt and main fan idler. I was LUCKY, all bolts came out with no breakage like I have read about others with a Cat 3126. Pressed all the bearings out and glass bead blasted all the small pulleys and brackets. Had another two hours in that process.
Here's the before:


Water pump belt was Okay along with main fan belt. Bearings had 50K miles on the with little if no issues. All was pretty good. I would bet that if I went another season without completing this many of the bolts would not have come out. some were pretty stiff all the way out with corrosion.

For the cleaning of the rust and painting, That was six hours. Started with several wire brushes of different sizes and shapes to poke into those not so easy places. Blew away all the dust and made ready for priming. Regarding the paint. I've used Majic Brand implement paint for many years. Similar to the old Rustoleum. Takes 36-48 hours to dry but tuff. Really never hardens, just gets real tuff. Masked off decals and other items along with using aluminum foil for the hoses and wire looms.
Here is the after:

And the top.


I painted all the brackets and installed all new bolts for everything. Used anti-seize on all bolts. Reversed the disassembly in about 4 hours with the wife assisting.

Just a note on the radiator and CAC condition when removed. I had very little buildup on either. However, I do clean my radiator EVERY year. I do not have temp issues. If you do any one maintenance item, CLEAN your radiator.

All in all, not a bad job at all.

[CLIFFTALL]

Not a bad job at all . Well done. Thanks for sharing.

[USTrekker]

Hi George,
What an amazing job you did there!


I spend a lot of time in the discovery owners association blog and there are a lot of motor heads there that get down to this kind of level. I bet they'd love to see your work if you were inclined to join there (if not already).


Phil

[discovery39s]

Hi Phil,
Thanks, came out pretty well. Yep, motor head I am. I started with my father when I was 12 helping pulling 283's and 327's then completely rebuilding.
I'll check out the Discovery site. I've met a lot of great people here so really never looked at other sites. One guy that knows the CAT family of engines is "Fireup". He has a wealth of knowledge.
Travel safe.

[Bigd9]

Hi George, great looking job! Do you have any tips/suggestions/oh no comments for removing the CAC/Radiator from your Discovery? I can see this job in my Discovery's future. And I agree with your comment about the many great people on this forum! I have learned so much here.

[discovery39s]

Yes. My ratchet box end wrenches were real knuckle savers. 1/2 and 9/16. Some of the bolts are very tight on left and right side of radiator supports. Obviously they built around the radiator.
My father taught me years ago to tap on the head of bolts with a punch that may be stuck. The shock disturbs the molecules. If corrosion is present. All my bolts on the engine brackets came out. Some tight but all came out with no breakage . I guess Pops was right. I did use anti seize on all fasteners.
Bearings had numbers on them. Called my 25 year supplier and the price was just under 100.00. The fan hub bearing is a large double roller. Timken and NTN. Be sure to NOT buy made in China. Bearings pressed out relatively easy. I used a bench vice and sockets as pressing collars both off and on.
The worst part to clean was the fiberglass fan shroud. It had 45k of hardened oil and dirt. Purple power and a scrub brush did the job. I did clean the entire back end to be grease /oil free and painted with black magic. Soap up, scrub, rinse and repeat until clean. I did such a good job my wife's trying to convince me to do dishes. Thank you but,,,, no.
I installed new belts. Surprisingly the hoses were perfect. I've replaced many radiator hoses in my time and can say these were scary nice.

Be glad to share more if you need more details.
It is a project but truly easier than I expected. Take your time , have patience and yours too can look brand new.
George

[Bigd9]

Thanks for the encouragement. I've looked and looked at it and I keep thinking "I can do this". Maybe I will Right after I finish rebuilding the deck and pouring a concrete patio, and right after I replace the Norcold refrigerator with a residential and right after.......Gee, I thought retirement time was supposed to be easy???

[Bigd9]

What did your pipe from the Turbo to the CAC look like? Did you just paint yours or is that a new pipe? Several owners have reported rust holes in theirs under the heat shielding that was adversely affecting the engine performance.


Sent you a PM

[discovery39s]

Originally Posted by Bigd9

What did your pipe from the Turbo to the CAC look like? Did you just paint yours or is that a new pipe? Several owners have reported rust holes in theirs under the heat shielding that was adversely affecting the engine performance.


Sent you a PM

CAC pipe was in very nice condition. Only a little surface rust. I used a high temp ceramic paint for it. Hoses to and from looked great also.

A couple side notes on this project I neglected to include for the "Stay at home mechanic's":
When buying the bearings be sure to buy bearings with VITON seals. I do not recommend 5.00 bearings with Buna N. Viton is orange in color whereas Buna is black. Vition is 3-4 times the heat resistance of Buna. With the sustained elevated temperature Buna will die a fast death and you'll be right back at replacing them.

Rent or buy a vacuum filling tool for your coolant replacement. Forget "Open this valve, close this valve, wait 1 minute........". A vacuum recovery system draws 25" Hg and will suck out all air in the system. Then when you present coolant it will self manage the fill to a perfect level. I didn't even have to climb under the coach to open and close valves to try to avoid air locks. What a great tool!

[Bigd9]

Well there are two things I didn't know anything about! Thanks

How did your plastic surge tank look? I get the feeling mine had been replaced by the PO, although his paperwork did not show it having ever been done.

How about the oil pan? Last month I spent some time upside down sanding and painting mine. It was very rusted.

On the glass bead blaster, do you own one, rent or what? Does glass beads leave a rough enough surface for paint to stick? That looks like something I need to look into.

[discovery39s]

Originally Posted by Bigd9

Well there are two things I didn't know anything about! Thanks

How did your plastic surge tank look? I get the feeling mine had been replaced by the PO, although his paperwork did not show it having ever been done.

How about the oil pan? Last month I spent some time upside down sanding and painting mine. It was very rusted.

On the glass bead blaster, do you own one, rent or what? Does glass beads leave a rough enough surface for paint to stick? That looks like something I need to look into.

Hi Pete,
Surge tank was in perfect shape. No signs of cracks whatsoever. I do own a small glass bead blaster cabinet (harbor freight 99.00 special) Yes glass beads leave a excellent surface profile. smooth enough not to disturb belts on pulley surfaces but enough to clean metals with an excellent paint retention.

Me Too Pete on the oil pan. I just laid on my back (took a nape too, wife thought I was working hard) and just got to it with a wire wheel on my cordless grinder. HD sells cupped and OD wire adapters that worked excellent. I cannot stress the type of paint. I use Majic brand because it is oil based. Tractor supply sells it. 4.99 a can in my area. takes 48 hours to cure 90%, then another 5 days until firm.

Someone contacted me regarding the vacuum filler tool. Said he couldn't justify 50-100 bucks for a tool only used every 3-4 years. I get that. I'm a tool and fishing lure freak. If they make it, I like to have it! Okay, here is a "poor mans" method to draw trapped air pockets out of your system: Here goes.
1- close all petcocks and or drain valves.(not that I've forgot to do this a time or two)
2- remove rad cap and begin to fill coolant. (elevating a dedicated plastic fuel container with a hose on a ladder allows you to mix 4 gallons; 2 concentrate/ 2 distilled water)
3- When the level equals the "Cold" mark on the surge tank, stop filling.
4- allow the coolant to peculate into the system. (1/2 hour or so)
5- re-top off with coolant
6- locate the over flow tube that runs from the rad cap over-spill
7- place the end of this tube/hose into the hose of a shop vac and seal with masking tape to seal
8- turn vacuum on and place you hand over the rad cap opening
9- allow the vacuum to pull the system down (15-20 seconds)
10- release your hand and re-check level
11- repeat until each pull down no longer drops the level in the surge tank

** Know this: My SCA level was right on so I did not flush the system entirely. my coach required 9.5 gallons total to refill.

Anyway, that is a simple way if you do not want to have the formal tool to complete the filling.

Have a great 4th.