Finished Wax Valve Install

[Crop Duster]

I had a productive day today. We are almost finished refurbishing an airplane that we started on a little over a year ago. Hope to hang the prop tomorrow if it’s not too cold. Then if all goes well we’ll test fly it by the end of the week. So ready to get done with it.

Last week we finally received all of the stuff to do the wax valve install on the CC. Today, I had a couple of short hoses made up to go from the old hoses to the new valve. We already had the thermostat housing reinstalled, with a new thermostat and the valve attached, on Friday. Tested it for leaks and the fan roared wide open. This afternoon we installed the short hose extensions, refilled the hydraulic reservoir, and fired it up. As expected, the fan did not turn. I ordered an orfice from Source and Jim said it should turn about 1000 rpm with it installed. I may eventually install a bleed valve to better fine tune the fan rpm. I’d like to see it around 500 rpm when cold which should be enough to pull air across the ac condenser.

I was already filthy so I pulled the old starter off, which was dragging a little. While it was off we installed a new oil pressure sending unit because the terminal was loose on the old one. Put the new starter on and it worked.

Tomorrow I plan to find the rear school bus pump and bypass it. I’ve been under there many times but haven’t noticed it. Maybe it’s already been bypassed.

Each day I grow to appreciate the quality and precision that went into the building of our Country Coach. My wife wants me to find a stopping place so we can go camping. I’m about there.

A big thanks to all who assisted in pulling this off. I really appreciate your help.


[ATTACH][/ATTACH]

[CoCoDave]

Congratulations - good job!. I follow these wax valve retrofits with the expectation that our coach may need one in the future. Our Sauer-Danfoss air temperature sensor croaked causing the fan to run full speed 100% of the time. We were lucky to find that Kevin Waite had one and we were able to solve the problem quickly. I was told at the time that wait times for Sauer-Danfoss parts was on the order of weeks.

Best,

[Flyin4Fun]

Originally Posted by CoCoDave

Congratulations - good job!. I follow these wax valve retrofits with the expectation that our coach may need one in the future. Our Sauer-Danfoss air temperature sensor croaked causing the fan to run full speed 100% of the time. We were lucky to find that Kevin Waite had one and we were able to solve the problem quickly. I was told at the time that wait times for Sauer-Danfoss parts was on the order of weeks.

Best,

Fair warning... my ignorance on this topic should be obvious based on my question!

What is a wax valve?

[Crop Duster]

I don’t know how to put a link on here but check out the thread called “Fan Stuck Wide Open” on the Monaco Owners site.

[CoCoDave]

Here you go.

Wax Valve Discussion

FWIW

[2 Stroker]

Originally Posted by Flyin4Fun

Fair warning... my ignorance on this topic should be obvious based on my question!

What is a wax valve?

This is from Source Engineering, they installed mine.
Source Engineering Inc | Custom RV Chassis | Eugene, OR
2 stroker

[2dogsbarkin]

Installed mine in Oct. and put 3500 miles on since working great.
Only issue I have so far is in traffic sitting at red lights the engine temp goes high unless I go to neutral.

[Crop Duster]

Originally Posted by 2dogsbarkin

Installed mine in Oct. and put 3500 miles on since working great.
Only issue I have so far is in traffic sitting at red lights the engine temp goes high unless I go to neutral.

Maybe a half turn in on your wax valve setting would help with that.

[vito.a]

The cooling fans on many of our side radiator coaches run on hydraulic power. It is controlled by an electronic controller that tends to go bad and then the fan defaults to wide open again. This robs from 20-70hp from the engine.

Replacing the original Sauer Danfoss electronic fan controller is $1058 and it will last from 2 weeks to 4 years before it malfunctions and your fan runs wide open. Repair estimates ran from $600-1200.

So, I also installed a mechanical cooling fan thermal control (wax) valve last week. They are $190 on eBay.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Sauer-Sunds...cd02%7Ciid%3A1

You can also order one from White House Products LTD in England ($264).
http://www.whitehouseproductsltd.com...%2f09857%2f210

Source Engineering also sells a kit:
http://sourcerv.com/conversion

I used the video below as a guide.
Post # 130 has a link to a video Jeremy made installing his thermal control (wax) valve.
http://www.irv2.com/forums/f115/fan-...376611-10.html

[Crop Duster]

The needle valve and fittings finally came in to install on the wax valve. I hooked everything up and went up front to start the engine. As quickly as possible I ran back to check for leaks and the fan was running WAO. With the needle valve it was very easy to adjust the fan speed to a much slower rpm. From 0 fan speed to WAO is only a little over half a turn on the needle valve. I played with it a little and finally settled on what I think will work. There is a little set screw on the side of the valve to hold it at the desired setting. Hopefully next week I can get a chance to take it out on the road for a test drive. Only then can I tell if either the wax valve or needle valve need tweaking.

I ordered an orfice from Source Engineering and thought about offering it for sale to someone else; but, I think I’ll carry it with us for a while in case the needle valve doesn’t work out as well as I think it will.

[vito.a]

Barry, I'm trying to understand how the needle valve works in series with the wax valve.
If you use the needle valve to restrict the fan to a lower RPM, then how can the fan speed increase when the wax valve opens up?
Won't the idle still be restricted by the needle valve?
Are you just setting one fan speed and keeping it there, or are you planning on readjusting the needle valve after the engine warms up?
Thanks

[Crop Duster]

Originally Posted by vito.a

Barry, I'm trying to understand how the needle valve works in series with the wax valve.
If you use the needle valve to restrict the fan to a lower RPM, then how can the fan speed increase when the wax valve opens up?
Won't the idle still be restricted by the needle valve?
Are you just setting one fan speed and keeping it there, or are you planning on readjusting the needle valve after the engine warms up?
Thanks

The needle valve does exact same thing as the orfice does on the Sorce Engineering kit. It just allows you to fine tune the low end. Source told me the orfice would give 1000 rpm on low end. With the bleed valve I’ve got it down to probably 3-400 rpm.

[dhetrick2]

Originally Posted by Flyin4Fun

Fair warning... my ignorance on this topic should be obvious based on my question!

What is a wax valve?

I'm in the same boat here about this topic but after reading the posts here and other forums I'm wondering if my fan may be stuck wide open.. How would I know? I know that it's very irritating when I pull into an RV park with a dirt or gravel driveway I put up a cloud of dust so bad you can't hardly see the back of the coach, could this be an indication?

[Crop Duster]

Originally Posted by dhetrick2

I'm in the same boat here about this topic but after reading the posts here and other forums I'm wondering if my fan may be stuck wide open.. How would I know? I know that it's very irritating when I pull into an RV park with a dirt or gravel driveway I put up a cloud of dust so bad you can't hardly see the back of the coach, could this be an indication?

Dave, with your cover open and cool engine running, just look into your engine compartment towards the side radiator. With the dash air conditioner turned off the fan should be turning a moderately slow rpm. Try having someone turn the dash ac on and if working properly the fan should speed up. Mine was turning so fast it had a roar to it. Now, I can’t hear it and can barely feel any air off of it.