So I was using my 1999 Monaco Windsor 8.3 up skiing on White Pass 2 weekends ago when I was getting ready to leave I noticed a hydraulic oil leak dripping from around the rear radiator area. After some investigation I made the decision to limp it down the mountain pass to civilization. I got to the bottom and checked it again saw no leak so I continued on to home keeping a close eye on it. When I arrived home I then saw it leaking again. Long story short, I diagnosed it to be the hydraulic oil cooler that is welded to the Charge Air Cooler (CAC) that is bolted to the radiator, I was hoping for a hole in a hose
. I searched the forums and internet for answers on fixing it. I hate taking vehicles to the shop so I decided to tackle the removal myself. I thought that I could get the CAC and hydraulic oil cooler out without removing the radiator but there was just not enough room to slide the CAC away from the radiator so I pulled out the whole assembly. Let me tell you this was a pain in the booty! But it's out.
I got on line and called places around the states who specialize in rebuilding these things but ultimately I opted for a place out of Kelso, WA who Cummins NW referred me to, Hart Radiator. I feel more comfortable being able to talk to somebody face to face and they were less than an hour away. So I took the CAC assembly to them and I also took the radiator as when I looked at it, it didn't look so great to me, it had a pinkish corrosion on about half of it. Since I had it all out I wanted a clean bill of health before I put it back in, you don't want to have to do this job twice. Doug at Hart Radiator looked at the radiator sitting in the back of my truck and said "not good" there's a lot of corrosion on that thing but we'll wash and test it, he then looked at the CAC assembly and said we can rebuild the oil cooler and we'll test the CAC to see if it's in specs, we'll give you a call in the am. I left with a bad feeling ca-ching ca-ching ca-ching!
Sure enough the next morning as I was fishing for steelhead on the Chehalis, ring ring the call went like this....Jerry i'm not going to be your friend today...the radiator, there's not much to salvage it's going to need to be rebuilt....$1840.00....the CAC, I can't believe you didn't notice a huge loss in power in your motorhome it barely holds air and as you know the oil cooler is leaking so it's going to be $1710.00 to rebuild the CAC oil cooler assembly. Grand total of $3550.00 yeeeouch
! We'll I gave him the go ahead what do you do? So while I'm waiting for them to be fixed i'm cleaning up from the leaking oil and getting it ready for re-install. At this point I don't feel that Hart Radiator is taking advantage of me as I knew by looking at the radiator it was bad and only a matter of time to failure as it was the original with a manufacture date of 1998. I have only owned my motorhome for 1.5 years and always kind of thought it may have been low on power and getting about 7.2mpg. So in the end the whole cooling system should be like new hopefully a bit more power and maybe mpg. I'll update you on the work of Hart Radiator and if your thinking of buying a new MH check these systems out as they are spendy to repair. If I didn't do the removal myself I think you could have added a couple more grand to the bill.
Thanks for letting me ramble.
Jerry
1999 38' Monaco Windsor 8.3 ISC Cummins 64,000 miles and climbing.
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