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Dollfundeb's avatar
Dollfundeb
Explorer
Dec 16, 2016

2005 Holiday Connecting Rod Failure

Wednesday afternoon we were leaving out of Socorro, New Mexico while accelerating from 45 to 55mph we experienced a loud explosion and looked in the rear mirror to see a huge amount of smoke and as my husband always travels with the Aladdin system displayed in the main engine page he looked down and saw there was only 3psi of oil pressure after noticing that and pulling over it was then that the alarms went off. Please note the alarms did not go off prior to the loud explosion. It was after he said wow we only have 3psi of oil pressure and made his move to pull off to the side of the road immediately. Went to the back of the coach and found a huge oil puddle. Looked under the engine to find a large hole in the side of the oil pan. We were towed to Statkus Engine Service in Albuquerque New Mexico. They downloaded the computer and the code was Oil Pressure low and it was recorded for 14 seconds. No alerts or alarms prior to event. This is a 2005 Holiday Rambler Scepter it only has 23057 miles on it and it was running exceptional until that moment. We checked the Cummins recall and this s/n on this engine falls just outside the range of s/n that Cummins calls out. According to the owner of the shop that checked all of his resources no one will touch this engine - why I do not know??? The owner also seems perplexed that no one will touch it. The owner also told us that in his 41 years of business he has only seen this happen 3 or 4 times. He also wants to cut the rear fiberglass fascia apart and cut the rear cross member and hitch out of the coach to get the engine out - is this how you remove the engine out of this coach??? We would really appreciate anyone and everyone help and advice on this. Thank you so much in advance
Class A
  • Dollfundeb's avatar
    Dollfundeb
    Explorer
    Dec 16, 2016
    After all of the excellent advice from everyone, we have taken every bit of it and put it to good use. We called the RV rep from Holiday Rambler and he said to get that coach out of there immediately, and he gave us a reps name at Cummins who told us the same thing and move it over to a Cummins dealer in Albuquerque as he believes this catastrophic event may indeed be part of the recall with the bad wrist pins and they will take the motor apart and verify and they will be able to help us out. We cannot thank everyone enough for all of the advice. This group is beyond awesome
  • Dollfundeb's avatar
    Dollfundeb
    Explorer
    Dec 16, 2016
    Well after all of the great advice from everyone on these forums we have done our due diligence to find out that this company that Good Sams towed our coach to is wrong and we should not allow them to touch the coach and they sent us to a Cummins rep and he has told us to move the coach to a Cummins dealer as there is every possibility that the recall may have indeed been involved with this catastrophic event after we described what happened to the engine. He said there is every possibility that a bad wrist pin could have made it into our motor and since the motor has only 23057 miles on it, he may be able to help us with the situation. Again many thanks for all of the advice from everyone.
  • slickest1's avatar
    slickest1
    Explorer
    Dec 16, 2016
    What a horrible situation to find yourself in. Sometimes failures just happen with no warning and the damage is all done before the warning bells come on. I would doubt that the crank was not damaged or the block for that matter.
    I would think the engine would be dropped out of the bottom with the coach on a hoist. If the block is undamaged they could probably rebuild the engine in the coach. That is not ideal either because alot of coaches don't have very good access from the inside to the top of the engine.
  • Ivylog's avatar
    Ivylog
    Explorer III
    Dec 16, 2016
    He has a ISL 400 and SOL on Cummins doing anything money wise. You do not take the engine out the back... you raise the MH up and drop the engine down BUT if the hole is only in the pan there is a chance it can be rebuilt in place. If the block and crank are still good he's looking at $15 000 to fix in place.
  • usersmanual's avatar
    usersmanual
    Explorer
    Dec 16, 2016
    Tyler0215 wrote:
    What does he mean"no one will touch this engine"?
    I would be calling another shop. Call Cummins yourself and explain he situation. Ask them who they recommend.
    Don't let this shop start cutting your MH apart.
    I hope you have your service records.


    why do u need service records? its 12 years old there is zero warrenty
  • Tyler0215's avatar
    Tyler0215
    Explorer
    Dec 16, 2016
    What does he mean"no one will touch this engine"?
    I would be calling another shop. Call Cummins yourself and explain he situation. Ask them who they recommend.
    Don't let this shop start cutting your MH apart.
    I hope you have your service records.
  • DSDP_Don's avatar
    DSDP_Don
    Explorer
    Dec 16, 2016
    You don't say what engine you have, I'm guessing it's an ISL. I owned a 2005 Monaco Diplomat with the ISL. I know that Monaco, with their Roadmaster chassis, made the hitch an integral part of the motor mount. I also know that the rear bumper assembly has a center section that is bolted on. Once it's removed and the doors open, the engine should be removable from the rear. I may be mistaken, but I think many of these engines are rebuilt in place.

    I would seriously question the information the shop is giving you. I would also check your serial number yourself, against the recall campaign Cummins had for wrist pin issues. The numbers were 46543077 thru 46603939.

    If your engine does fall within those numbers, I would make a call to Cummins. I always thought this recall, where the engine could blow, was never handled correctly by Cummins. They put a stupid sensor on to tell you when it would blow, but wouldn't warranty the engine past the standard warranty.
  • sailor_lou's avatar
    sailor_lou
    Explorer
    Dec 16, 2016
    Sorry to hear of your troubles. I would think low oil pressure would alarm pretty quickly, is it possible the 13 seconds was between the time of the failure until you turned the engine off? I understand the engine is not currently on a Cummins recall list, but IIRC that was around the time frame when they were having the wrist pin issues. It would be interesting to know if this is the case. Also, I'm not familiar with your rig, but I would be hesitant to cut up the rear cap just to remove the engine. If it is too large for the opening perhaps they can remove some of the components first (ie: head, exhaust manifold and oil pan) to make it fit. I know on mine the opening is more that large enough to remove the engine. Good luck.

    Lou
    05 Travel Supreme Envoy

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