8.1L Chevy engine

[harleyjt]

I've read several horror stories here about 8.1L engines failing. I realize that its just a few, but I'm really wondering how many high mileage 8.1s are out there that haven't experienced any problems. I currently have only about 19k on mine, and it performs well except in heavy rain when it appears some water is getting to the MAF sensor. So far all I've done other than normal maintenance is I replaced the plug wires just because of the age of the wires.
So, lets hear from some of you with some miles on your rigs.
jt

[UFO Pilot]

75,000 on mine. Change oil and filter every 3,000 miles.

[harleyjt]

Originally Posted by UFO Pilot

75,000 on mine. Change oil and filter every 3,000 miles.

That's great! I've been changing mine annually, which is about at 5000 intervals. I'm using 8 qts of Mobil 1. Thanks for the reply.
jt

[vettenuts]

I have 71,409.3 miles. I know because I just logged my differential lube change into my maintenance records.

I have been a bit concerned as well, but I see guys with high mileage striking out for Alaska on both Workhorse and Ford chassis coaches. One has over 125K and he just drove the Dempster Highway to Tuktoyaktuk in his coach. I think a lot of the failures can be isolated to an ongoing issue that wasn't caught in time from what I have read. Keeping the MAF clean and the air filter are key because these motors are working too hard to have a fueling issue.

I had the same water ingestion issue but did some correction and (knock on wood) haven't had it come back.

[AKIQPilot]

45,000 on our 2002 Suncruiser. Banks exhaust, Banks CAI, Jet Performance Throttle Body, Iridium Plugs, Magnum Wires, Ultra Tune, etc. Runs better than ever.

32,000 on our 2006 Adventurer. Runs good but not as much power as the Suncruiser because it's stock with the exception of plugs and wires.

[harleyjt]

Originally Posted by AKIQPilot

45,000 on our 2002 Suncruiser. Banks exhaust, Banks CAI, Jet Performance Throttle Body, Iridium Plugs, Magnum Wires, Ultra Tune, etc. Runs better than ever.

32,000 on our 2006 Adventurer. Runs good but not as much power as the Suncruiser because it's stock with the exception of plugs and wires.

Mine is purely stock. I bought the replacement plugs, but haven't changed them out yet. Maybe a little later this fall or next spring. I bought the AC iridium plugs and will gap to .045.
jt

[mfire1339]

We have 36,000 on engine #2. 18,000 on engine#1. Runs fine and we do some heavy mountain driving.



Mike

[BFlinn181]

The 8.1 V8 is a very robust truck engine that has no major flaws that I've heard of. The water ingestion is a problem of the airbox trumpet and RV front design. Reports of melted ignition wires is also an issue of not allowing proper air flow in the front and around the engine. Check Oemy's website for ideas. Many threads and online mods to the airbox to prevent water ingestion.

[harleyjt]

Originally Posted by mfire1339

We have 36,000 on engine #2. 18,000 on engine#1. Runs fine and we do some heavy mountain driving.



Mike

Wow. Yours is one of the scary ones. What happened to engine 1? Glad to hear #2 is doing well.
jt

[mfire1339]

Number 1 shattered a piston for what ever reason. A view from spark plug hole showed only a con rod with a wrist pin but no piston in hole. I could have been sleeved but we found a complete engine off assembly line. So complete that a starter and some gas and it would have run. Need a a complete 2001 fuel injection system? I've got one.




Mike

[Forkyfork]

Here are a few things I noticed reading a lot of peoples accounts. Mine has 51,000.

Keep the oil topped off. According to the manual they can consume oil and may require a qt every other tank. There was a mech that posted a while back explaining why. Its not a failure or wear issue.

95% of the accounts I read were going uphill or downhill and blamed on oil starvation. So....lets say you burn through a few tanks of gas on your trip and never check the oil and are now a couple QTS low and you hit that big hill going up or down. So the laws of physics come into play and this causes the oil to stay more to one side or the other of the engine so the being low turns into really low and bearings starve from lack of oil.

I have a couple sport bikes that if you wheelie them for too long you will grenade the engine because the oil path is designed for the engine to be operated within a certain angle. So the workhorse is designed to handle these angles up or downhill when the oil is full. I don't feel like 6.5 Qts is really that much for a large engine in the first place. burn through one of those quarts and its a problem.

Both the ford and workhorse engines need to be kept within the correct RPMs I have mine on the dash and cant remember where the ideal spot is.

Then there is this magic number of 23-25,000 miles where a lot of people report engine failure blamed on oil starvation. I felt like if I could get an engine that was past this point may avoid whatever it is related to the mileage. Someone mentioned that there was a run of bad engines. I have no idea and nothing to back it up.

Would I buy a workhorse again? Yes absolutely. I prefer it over Ford. The transmission in the years I was shopping in the workhorse had the better Allison 5spd transmission. Also the W22 uses a standard park brake not the fussy e-brakes on the ford and the other workhorse chassis models cant remember what workhorse calls it. They went away from it and brought it back on the W24 so you cant go by year to weed those out if you want to.

Ford has had its share of engines grenading also on hills. I gathered the impression that this was more RPM related than oil related.

Everyone always says I change the oil every 3K faithfully. No one ever says I top the oil off at every tank.

So there you have it...my personal opinion based on other information I gathered either through my own experience or from others.

YMMV- do your own research. I spend a year researching the failures of both chassis. FWIW there are more diesel failures than gas. I didn't consider age, I was interested in mileage and how it was driven at time of failure. Duration between changes really isn't critical they don't require to be changed at 3K if I remember correctly. Its more important to keep an eye on the oil level and RPMs on hills.

[Civdiv99]

55,000 mi. Always smooth.

I do not baby it - pulling hills in the west in hot weather with foot planted firmly on floor, RPM becomes whatever the engine/trans ended up at. That's right, I said it.

It doesn't use any oil between changes, and if I go a 3,000 mi trip there's no discernible change in oil level. I went to the 1 qt filter after reading some commentary on the forum. I realize some use the 2. AC Delco air filters, WIX oil filters, Mobile 1 5w20 or 30 (I'd have to check notes and I'm not at the house right now). I stayed with Dex-Cool. I have read various pros and cons. I have no inclination to change the type.

Replaced plugs an wires at 44K mi. Old ones looked fine, but did it anyway since looks, well, not necessarily the way to judge. I forget what I used - I think Taylor Extreme wires and the plugs generally discussed and recommended.

I have a 2005 W22 and a 2005 Toyota Tundra, and they are within a couple thousand miles of each other on mileage, but I give the win to the 8.1 and workhorse because the Tundra kind of seeps a little oil out of a valve cover, the 8.1 is bone dry and looks new.

Replaced the AC compressor due to a noisy ac clutch. (I'm delinquent on a write-up of that). The old compressor itself didn't fail, so in the big scheme of things this doesn't even count IMHO. I changed the belt just because, and while smooth and quiet I could detect a touch of play in the tensioner pulley. $20 and 10 min and that was swapped on the road this last trip.

Other than the normal fluids main you do with anything, I have put NOTHING into this engine/trans combo.

I am planning on 200K out of this, and I will be dead before then, so...

[cmccallum]

Originally Posted by Forkyfork

Here are a few things I noticed reading a lot of peoples accounts. Mine has 51,000.

Keep the oil topped off. According to the manual they can consume oil and may require a qt every other tank. There was a mech that posted a while back explaining why. Its not a failure or wear issue.

95% of the accounts I read were going uphill or downhill and blamed on oil starvation. So....lets say you burn through a few tanks of gas on your trip and never check the oil and are now a couple QTS low and you hit that big hill going up or down. So the laws of physics come into play and this causes the oil to stay more to one side or the other of the engine so the being low turns into really low and bearings starve from lack of oil.

...

We have nearly 61,000 on ours and I would concur with this. I check the oil every other weekend trip or so, and once daily when we do our cross-country trips. Always have a couple quarts of oil handy, and keep it topped off.

Cheers
Mike

[PJStough]

We have 80,000 on our 8.1 in our 2005 Winnebago Voyage 38 J on the W-24 chassis. I change oil at about 3,000 miles and usually have to add a quart between changes.


The only major issues we have had is that a few years ago the harmonic balancer failed and began to separate. Then a couple of years ago the engine developed an exhaust leak because of broken manifold bolts. When I had that repaired, I had them change spark plugs as well. Other than those two issues, no problems, and if we buy gas motorhome, it will have the 8.1 in it.