Recommended Upgrades

[nerdfest]

Originally Posted by Daveputt

Thanks Bob86zz4. I have thought about the more modern engine and it's advantages. I'm probably sticking with the 80's purely for aesthetics and cheap prices. I'm going to assume 7-8 mpg for the majority of my driving! Banks sounds awesome but boy are they expensive. Not sure if I can get the payoff on mpg alone. Exh man overheating seems to be common. Any aftermarket temp gage I can use to monitor this or just engine temp? I also looked into the bellcranks upgrade. It will be in the list if I find steering sloppy. Looks like a fun upgrade. I expect shocks sometime during my ownership. Never thought about going stiffer. Spritz, your coach looks perfectly vintage. That fabric is crazy awesome! I hope its in as good of condition as it looks! I love the vogue and the blue interior. The guy selling it refuses/doesn't have the capabilities to take more photos. The C-list add doesn't do a good enough job for me to fly down and buy it so I am ruling it out for that. Down to 1 of 4 Holiday Rambler Imperials all late 80's. Just need to pick one and start personalizing!

Daveputt, that Vogue is 45 minutes from me. PM if I can help with photos, etc.

[leadman]

I have a 88' Itasca with the 454 with carb and the best device I found for fuel mileage improvement is a vacuum gauge. This works if you try to keep the vacuum as high as you can, especially while climbing hills.
I also replaced the old convertor box with a solid state progressive Dynamics unit. This was right after I installed an under counter tv and had it on and the generator quit. The old convertor had a coil in it that sent out a surge that fried the tv. Fits right in the original housing.
LED lighting to replace the old bulbs helps if you boon dock often.
I rebushed the old bell cranks for very little money so if you are handy the bushings are available from GM. I fit them to the shaft using a brake hone to enlarge the bushing. An automotive machine shop can do this also.
New air bags in the front helped along with the suggestion in the GM manual to raise the frame of the coach and then inflate them. This gave the front suspension more travel and stopped the bottoming out on bumps.
I replaced the radiator, thermostat, and fan clutch and then found out the fan clutch comes on at 195 degrees, the same temperature as the thermostat opens at so they were fighting each other and fuel mileage dropped. A change to a 180 degree thermostat and mileage is back up and the fan clutch stays off while cruising.

[spritz]

leadman,
I need to replace my radiator also and am going to also replace the fan clutch and hoses, belts all at the same time.
How hard of a job was it to remove the old radiator? Did you have the old one re-cored or replace it with a new one?
Thanks

[TEFFY]

Originally Posted by spritz

leadman,
I need to replace my radiator also and am going to also replace the fan clutch and hoses, belts all at the same time.
How hard of a job was it to remove the old radiator? Did you have the old one re-cored or replace it with a new one?
Thanks

I replaced the rad on our '86 Allegro P30. I took it to a rad shop and had him put in a thicker core, almost 50% thicker then the original and never had anymore heating problems even pulling a mini-van on a tow dolly. We pulled Cajon Pass with it in late June and we just needed more torque. I'm a firm believer in BIG radiators.

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[spritz]

That's a idea never thought of. Did they have to do anything to the mounts so it remounted in the old brackets or did they have to be made? I took her out yesterday for a short around the block and ended up doing a 50-60 mile around the block and there were no leaks so now I am wondering if it even has a leak. Thought we had a small one @ the end of last year, I still say it was a little spill or there was to much added then....
Tim

[leadman]

I bought a new radiator as the tanks were not in good shape either. There are more rows in the new one and it came with a decent warranty.
Not the easiest job to replace it and it helps to have a buddy there to pull it out and put it back in. It sets on the original mounts with no problems. Then one person can hook it up.
The fan clutch I bought was the heavy duty application from Auto Zone and it works fine.
I did have to discharge the air conditioning on mine but it needed work on it anyway.

[TEFFY]

Originally Posted by spritz

That's a idea never thought of. Did they have to do anything to the mounts so it remounted in the old brackets or did they have to be made? I took her out yesterday for a short around the block and ended up doing a 50-60 mile around the block and there were no leaks so now I am wondering if it even has a leak. Thought we had a small one @ the end of last year, I still say it was a little spill or there was to much added then....
Tim

Since they used the old headers it mounted right back into the old brackets. The original core was not as thick as the headers are wide.



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[spritz]

The repair shop I use when there is something I don't want to do (like this lol) says he will do it for $400 bucks. I guess I should have listened to him when he trying to get me to let him put on a set of headers
I like the idea about a wider core, makes sense. Did you have to do anything about the extra coolers that sit in front of the radiator?
Thanks, for the tips
Tim

[TEFFY]

Originally Posted by spritz

The repair shop I use when there is something I don't want to do (like this lol) says he will do it for $400 bucks. I guess I should have listened to him when he trying to get me to let him put on a set of headers
I like the idea about a wider core, makes sense. Did you have to do anything about the extra coolers that sit in front of the radiator?
Thanks, for the tips
Tim

On the Allegro, the AC rad and electric fans are mounted to the frame that goes up the side of the rad and that didn't change. When I found out how much it was going to cost to have the AC fixed, I went back in and removed the AC rad to give me better air flow. I did put a new transmission cooler in but I mounted it in front of everything with it's own "L" support brackets.

Tim, the headers that I was talking about in post 21 are the rad headers not exhaust headers. It took me two days to get the rad out because of all the pondering (there was also a lot of tea to drink and a lot of peeing to do). While it's out, this is the time to replace the water pump - I know "it doesn't leak" but that is now and Murphy (of Murphy's Law) was a MH owner. I also put on new belts and replaced the fan clutch. You don't have to, but I also decided to put in a more efficient fan.


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[spritz]

TEFFY,
Thanks, IC on the headers. I planned on replacing the water pump, hoses, belts at the same time. I have been pondering the idea about adding electric fans on the Radiator? YES / NO ???
Sorry to hear that it took so long. The shop said 2 hours I guess they have the tools and lifts to do it. I really think we are going to give it a shot. I have a weekend mechanic next door that said he would help LOL
Going Full time with her next fall so I would like to get these things done while I'm still around home.
Thanks Tim

[TEFFY]

Originally Posted by spritz

TEFFY,
Thanks, IC on the headers. I planned on replacing the water pump, hoses, belts at the same time. I have been pondering the idea about adding electric fans on the Radiator? YES / NO ???
Sorry to hear that it took so long. The shop said 2 hours...
Thanks Tim

Tim:
If I had gotten with the program it wouldn't have taken so long, but I'm retired and I do nothing in a hurry any more. I think the fans were two 6" or 7" dia. Now think about how the fans work and when they would come on. Going down the road at any speed over about 30 MPH the ram air would be greater then what the fans would do, so they shouldn't ever come on. They are designed to come on in stop and go traffic when the ram air isn't sufficient to cool the water. With a larger rad the fans aren't near as critical. I never heard our fans come on but then the DW says I don't hear very good anyway. I bought a mechanical (270 degree sweep) water temp gage because I wanted to KNOW the temp and not just have a "green" and "red" reading. I attached it to the side of the head so I could see what the temp of the head was. If I was going down the highway at 60 MPH and took the exit and was immediately in stop and go traffic the temp would go up but not really bad. It just doesn't happen that often. To go full time I would recommend the added water temp gage just as a precaution for pulling the hills and the engine having to labor with the toad.

I never weighed the gasser with the full tanks, tow dolly, and toad but the current DP weighs in at better then 11 tons. It's usually between 23,000 and 23,500 lbs with a full tank of fuel (75 gal).

If your dash AC doesn't work think about pulling that rad because it will give you better air flow. The Allegro AC rad is in the storage building in the back yard along with the compressor. I run the gennie and use the front roof AC. We grew up when a window seat and 50 MPH was heaven, we still run with the windows open and when it gets warm we either stop for the day or turn on the AC. Our idea of a good "running" day is less then 200 miles, then it's NAP time.

If you really want to cool the engine down you can put in a bigger transmission cooler and an engine oil cooler but then you run the risk of the darn thing never getting hot enough to run efficiently.


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[JiminJersey]

All good advice so far, IMO. My Bounder is kinda the same vintage as what you're working with. It was a Florida F/T home for 20+ years before it came back up north here. Since we bought it from my BIL, we've done some fixes and improvements, and have a few in the pipeline.

1) Tore out old carpet front to back, put down the Home Depot Allure. 2-day job, well worth it.
2) Replaced the rotted air bags in front suspension with new Firestone's.
3) Replaced all interior bulbs with LEDs
4) Before our X-country jaunt in 2012, we replaced the alternator, all engine belts, and a big chunk of fuel line that was rotted away. In the Bounder, the fuel line is completely exposed along the bottom of the chassis all the way from the tank up to the engine. Check yours. My drip was right over the R/H exhaust pipe....
5) New Awning fabric for patio and both side windows.

My BIL rebuilt the genny when he came up here, and it runs pretty good, AFAICT.

I just got a 2500w inverter, have not yet installed it. Waiting for the rain to stop. It's probably way-overkill. The old CRT TV above the dash is coming out any day now, and I'll probably toss in a couple Vizio LCDs front and rear when I get around to it. We do a lot of short weekend trips with the 9-year old granddaughter, so a tv and a supply of Disney movies is de rigeuer. The two TVs, along with DVD players. are cheap and low-power upgrades that are a snap to do.

Our rig has the original woodwork, upholstery and window treatments, and the blinds are also on my to-do list - they're just so full of dust and crud from 25 years worth of sand, dirt, previous-owner smoke, and such. The dinette and couch cushion covers are washable.

The older rigs are nice, and it's not that expensive to bring them up to 21st century standards as far as entertainment and livability. Have fun and keep us posted.

[spritz]

Still haven't had the radiator leak. Started it almost every-other day and no leak.
The next door mechanic was over yesterday and tighten up the steering, Might take out later today to see if there is a improvement but its pretty windy out.
With my bad back I haven't been able to crawl under the Beast to check the date on the tires so I asked him what they were since he was already under there, I went with the PO and he told me they were only a couple years old.... The front two are from 06, okay hold on the 4 rears are from 96 soooooo now need tires before I can start on other problems... The season is almost on us.
DANG

Tim

[88Ramblur]

Don't mean to hijack your thread, but thought we could both learn from my question...
What about changing the trans with an overdrive trans? Can you do that to get better mpg on the older models, and if so, is it worth the cost to do so??

~ Rhonda