8.1 Vortec Goes "BANG!" on Canadian Hwy.

[JJ99]

I was taking my coach into a dealer near Toronto Canada for winterizing this week. As I arrived a beautiful '05 Georgie Boy Cruise Master coach was being towed from the lot. Just like mine except mine is an '06 model. The owner saw my unit as I parked and came over and remarked that I would likely be interested to know that the 8.1 Workhorse engine in his coach (the one being towed) had blown while he was driving on a nearby freeway. My mind began flashing to everything I had read about the Workhorse 8.1..nothing except talk of reliability and endurance. I chatted briefly with the owner who was obviously distressed about this event. He didn't say it but he must have been thinking "how could this have happened?"

The dealer was unable to provide much more information but suggested testing would likely be done by the manufacturer to attempt to turn up clues about the cause. Obviously there is more to the story than I know..and that's what these experts I suppose will attempt to determine.

The dealer also mentioned that his information from Workhorse is that this type of event with the 8.1 engine is so rare to the point of almost being unheard of. Quite a mystery which in the end may boil down to one of two causes..mechanical malfunction or human error along the way.

Upon seeing this before my eyes the first thing I did was open the engine on my coach and check my motor oil level and found it was just fine. I also reminded myself the oil is due to be changed in another 4,000 kilometers and booked it in my calendar. My Workhorse 8.1 runs like a dream.


Regardless of what's to blame it was a very sad sight..sad to see a beautiful coach on the hook for that reason and sad to see an owner have to endure such an event and for the moment unable to find answers that will provide comfort in such a catastrophic situation.

[max49]

My new engine seems to run perfect; exactly like my original engine did 1 seconds before it blew. It's a little scary.
I wish we could follow this to see what happened.
Even my repair shop wasn't interested enough to actually determine the first thing that failed in mine. Mine still ran until they tried to drive it in the repair bay instead of towing it like I did. So I assume it didn't have a (completely) broken crankshaft. My guess is that a valve dropped and the piston was slapping it until it finally jammed , bending the rod or rods, and breaking the crank.
The repair shops' story is was a manufacturing defect and they're sticking to it. Altho they did admit that it came out the oil pan when they were driving it in. They say they have to determine what is wrong with it.

[JC2]

Originally Posted by JJ99

I was taking my coach into a dealer near Toronto Canada for winterizing this week. As I arrived a beautiful '05 Georgie Boy Cruise Master coach was being towed from the lot. Just like mine except mine is an '06 model. The owner saw my unit as I parked and came over and remarked that I would likely be interested to know that the 8.1 Workhorse engine in his coach (the one being towed) had blown while he was driving on a nearby freeway. My mind began flashing to everything I had read about the Workhorse 8.1..nothing except talk of reliability and endurance. I chatted briefly with the owner who was obviously distressed about this event. He didn't say it but he must have been thinking "how could this have happened?"

The dealer was unable to provide much more information but suggested testing would likely be done by the manufacturer to attempt to turn up clues about the cause. Obviously there is more to the story than I know..and that's what these experts I suppose will attempt to determine.

The dealer also mentioned that his information from Workhorse is that this type of event with the 8.1 engine is so rare to the point of almost being unheard of. Quite a mystery which in the end may boil down to one of two causes..mechanical malfunction or human error along the way.

Upon seeing this before my eyes the first thing I did was open the engine on my coach and check my motor oil level and found it was just fine. I also reminded myself the oil is due to be changed in another 4,000 kilometers and booked it in my calendar. My Workhorse 8.1 runs like a dream.


Regardless of what's to blame it was a very sad sight..sad to see a beautiful coach on the hook for that reason and sad to see an owner have to endure such an event and for the moment unable to find answers that will provide comfort in such a catastrophic situation.

Here are a couple of links where another forum member also blew his 8.1 engine.
http://www.irv2.com/forums/f22/what-...his-74729.html

and here
http://www.irv2.com/forums/f22/how-p...trs-72907.html

Kind of gives you a warm fuzzy feeling if you own one.

[Full-Timers]

Originally Posted by JJ99

As I arrived a beautiful '05 Georgie Boy Cruise Master coach was being towed from the lot. The owner saw my unit as I parked and came over and remarked that I would likely be interested to know that the 8.1 Workhorse engine in his coach had blown,

The dealer also mentioned that his information from Workhorse is that this type of event with the 8.1 engine is so rare to the point of almost being unheard of.

Please define Blown?
What type of event was Workhorse refering to?

[FDchief]

All mechanical things are not created equally. They all have their own personalities. The good news is that the vast majority of owners will never experience a power train failure