8.1 Cooling Kit

[Steve Fisher]

Has anyone made their own cooling kit to help the burnt plug wire problem? Don't want to pay $400.00 to Workhorse for $50.00 worth of material.I plan on installing the Ultrapower upgrade but would like to add the cooling kit as insurance. What materials did you use and did you have any special problems installing it. Thanks. Wireman

[Steve Fisher]

Has anyone made their own cooling kit to help the burnt plug wire problem? Don't want to pay $400.00 to Workhorse for $50.00 worth of material.I plan on installing the Ultrapower upgrade but would like to add the cooling kit as insurance. What materials did you use and did you have any special problems installing it. Thanks. Wireman

[rotts4u]

I could not find the flange so I bought the kit from Brazils and installed it myself. The kit is nice and includes a lot of little things that may be a problem to find on your own. Race car brake cooling kits were the closest I could find outside workhorse.

Don

["007"]

Steve Fisher welcome to irv2.
Workhorse has been installing the kit for people with wire problems gratis.
OEMTECH has installed a air kit input that you could adapt for cooling the wires when he put in to quite the CAI INSTALL.
Oemy's V2 CAI

You could use the same materials he use but direct the pipes to the plug wiring.

[RV Wizard]

Steve, welcome to iRV2.com. We are glad to have you join us here and look forward to reading of your adventures and experiences. You will find we are a group of fun loving RVers that like to help each other where we can. I am sorry I can't help you with the spark plug wire issue but it looks like you already have some good answers coming. Good luck and enjoy the forum.

[Bob (WA0MQE)]

Steve... I installed my own on my previous motorhome, which was a P32 with the 8.1 motor. I used 3" hose I purchased at Home Depot. It was similar to that heavy duty home dryer vent hose, which bends to what you need. I then purchased two vent ends, similar to what was pointed out by OEMTECH on his kit but they were smaller. Mounted them to the fiberglass front cap (grill area) where they would pick up plenty of fresh air. Routed the two vent hoses around the left and right sides of the radiator mount frame and positioned the open ends alongside each side of the engine where they were directed at the plugs. Used heavy duty tie-wraps to hold in place. Also painted everything flat black. You could get 3-inch air duct vent hose from Pep Boys or AutoZone that might work better.

This was done not because of burnt plug wires, didn't have that problem at that time, but because the left and right sides of the engine hump in the cab would get really hot in the summer. The temperature difference was dramatic after the home-aid kit install.

[rotts4u]

Here is a link to a company that sells the flange and hose for racing cars.

http://www.severnmotorsports.com/orderonline.htm

I think it looks pretty similar except the workhorse hose is black

[RobbieR]

I also purchased two clothes dryer vent hoses that expand to 8' in length and two jointer vacuum ports from Grizzly Industrial for the air scoops. Plan on installing as soon as the scoops arrive. The scoops, part # G1839, are about 8"x8" with a 4" hole for the vacuum hose.

["007"]

Welcome RobbieR to irv2
Glad to have you aboard enjoy the forums and do post often.

[DriVer]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Steve Fisher:
I plan on installing the Ultrapower upgrade but would like to add the cooling kit as insurance. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>Wireman, First of all welcome to iRV2 and the Workhorse Chassis Forum. First question would be what's you year, make and model?

Second how many miles do you have?

Third have you had any plug wire failures since you've owned your motorhome?

I have been running my motorhome for over 55,000 miles and I have had "zero" plug wire failures. Having a cold air kit installed as insurance is your prerogative however I'm going to ask, "respectfully", why fix it if it ain't broke?

The cold air kit is not intended to be a preventative measure and for the majority of owners here in the forums we and they do not have a CAK installed in their motorhomes.

The CAK is intended to resolve a problem that can be attributed to the air flow or lack there of which occurs near certain spark plug wire positions. It's not a panacea. More critical would be to assure that you have an effective air dam on the top of your radiator to assist in channeling air to the cool pack. Secondarily do you have any bug screens, undersized openings, or any other impediment to air flow coming through your front grill?

Find the root cause of a problem and fix that if it exists.

[scoutmstr]

Steve Fisher

I must disagree with Driver. If there is a problem and there is (just not on all motorhomes) you don't want it to fail on the road. Mine did in Tok, try getting that figured out there. Drove it home on 7 cylinders because I didn't want some yahoo making it worse and I didn't know the failure cause then.

Workhorse will NOT fix all sparkpug wire failures. I tried and was told no unless it was recurring but they'd sell me a kit. Made my own using the exact same parts as the Workhorse kit. I had a dealer open a kit he had and remembered part numbers and manufactors.

Hose is 3" racing car brake duct hose rated to 250 deg. Made by Allstar P/N 42151 for 10' length (Cut in half 5'per side.

Flanges are made by Butler P/N 7009 2 ea

Some hose clamps and wire ties and you're done

Total cost to me 9/06 was $85.00 Hope this helps

[DriVer]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by scoutmstr:
Steve Fisher

I must disagree with Driver. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>OK You're confusing me. I said if you have a problem which you clearly did then installing the CAK "is" the remedy, and it's a very good proactive measure to keep the failure from reoccurring.

Might I ask you what is your year, make and model?

I'm looking at my odometer turning 55789 at this very moment going North on the I-95 and I can tell you unequivocally that I have never burnt out a spark plug wire "nor" would I need or want to install a CAK.

Again a CAK resolves a known problem "if it exists" other wise it's just redundant hardware.

[scoutmstr]

I didn't mean to confuse you. Workhorse said once my problem was fixed with a new wire it shouldn't happen again. I try to take a proactive approach in the maintenence of my motorhomes. That is why the last one I owned for 14 years with two trips to Alaska never broke on me and it was a '82 with a 115K when sold.

New coach: The chassis year is '03, coach built in 8/04 is registered as '05. W-22 with 208WB on a 30' Rexhall. I picked it up at factory with 8 miles on it, Currently it has 16K. Problem occurred at 12K. Coach weights 17.5K full tanks and equipment. Coach is on W-22 chassis because I had Rexhall build it that way.

I also have build air dams to force air through the cooling pack because Workhorse has done a poor job of that too. There are other design problems with Workhorse that I'm still working on to fix.

[edgray]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">I also have build air dams to force air through the cooling pack because Workhorse has done a poor job of that too </div></BLOCKQUOTE>
Sorry to disagree there, SCOUTMSTR, but REXHALL is the one who installs the air dam to fit their front end. ED