Twinkie Hotel Improvements

[Fabber McGee]

The Twinkie Hotel never made it's road trip last winter. I was about ready to go, within a week and was going to go no matter the state of readiness of the Hotel. If it would drive, it was going. Actually all I really needed to do was cut down the saddle style fuel tanks and hangers from an International Cab over tractor and install them underneath.. They are right at 100 gallons each and will be around 70 when I get them small enough to fit. That should be enough to get me across Canada without buying any of their 7 dollars a gallon diesel (might be less now).

Anyway, about a week before I was going to leave the lymph glands on the left side of my neck swelled up. Docs looked me over and said I should probably cancel the road trip and get that skin cancer that was growing at the base of my tongue killed. I allowed as how that might be pretty good advice, and stayed home. They gave (sold) me 3 rounds of Chemo and 30 doses of radiation, then let me heal up a few months. In August they took more pictures and said the cancer is gone, so I'm re-scheduling last winter's trip for this winter. I figure I have about a month worth of work to do before it's deemed ready to use, but I'm such a poor estimator that I'll probably end up leaving a lot of things for later.

The fuel tanks are a priority, also I have decided to pull the head and pan off my 367,000 mile Cummins diesel to have a look see. It runs fine, and I've been told that they often live twice that long without needing major work, but I'll feel better knowing what's going on in there. Hopefully the cylinders and the crank will be standard still. If so I will put in new bearings, rings and seals, get the valves ground and be ready for the next 500,000. If it's worn enough to need machine work, I'll probably put it back together and use it for this year, then schedule a rebuild for next year. Like i said it runs fine,so I'm not afraid to set out for America with it.

Some of the things I was going to do without last year in the interest of expediency are building a new door for the back to replace the worn out, leaky, rattly roll up door it came with. That will be a single full width and height door, hinged at the top so I can raise it for an awning, with a man door in the middle. Also want to make the side door a swinger instead of a slider so I can remove the aluminum pocket it slides into and have room for a picture window on that side right behind the door. Lots of air hoses and wiring on the drivers side of the firewall to be dealt with and a tach, boost gauge, and outside air temp gauge along with air pressure gauges for the air bags and air reservoir. A removable passenger seat, propane bottle storage, 2 more batteries for the house and inverter.... let's see, there must be a bunch more. My old rememberer still works pretty darned well, but my forgetter is getting so much better that it sort of overrides it.

Finally got my outdoor chores done and just in time, we now have 3 or 4 inches of snow and more on the way. So, a couple days of work on my pickup and some shop cleaning then I can get the Twinkie Hotel inside and get started. Hopefully the first of next week. I'll be sure to make some more posts as soon as there's something to report.

 

[Optimistic Paranoid]

Congratulations.  The only thing worse than discovering you have cancer is to discover it when it's too late to do anything about it.

I had bladder cancer, but we caught it early through sheer, dumb luck - I never had a clue there might be cancer, I went to the Urologist over some prostate issues.

Anyway, welcome to the Cancer Survivor's Club!

Regards
John

 

[akrvbob]

That's very good news!! You're a fortunate man!
Bob

 

[Fabber McGee]

Okay, finally got every machine around the homestead operational (not perfect, operational) and under a roof. Then a few days of cleaning up the shop and suddenly, the hotel was at the top of my priority list. First thing was to gain some piece of mind. The engine ran alright, but the truck has 375,000 miles and there were no rebuilder tags on the engine anywhere. I figured I'd pull the head and the pan so I could look at the cylinder bores and the bearings. I figured if the bores and the crank were not worn excessively I'd give it rings, bearings and a valve job then figure it would go another 300,000. If it was tired, it would get a gasket set and reassembly with a promise to take it out next fall and go all through it.

Well, I got the head off last night and had good news. The cylinders were standard (original size, no wear). Today I pulled the pan and looked at bearings. More good news. The main bearings are perfect, just barely polished, rod bearings have about .0005 (half of one thousandth of an inch) wear at the top of the bearing bore where the pistons fire. I could safely reuse them, but decided to put in new ones. The crank looks perfect, just slightly polished. The front and rear pistons had a lot of carbon on top that had beaten some big bruises in them and caused some erosion. Again probably usable, but as long as it's apart I'll give it fresh ones. So, an engine kit is on order, pistons, rings, bearings and gaskets. No machine work to the block, just a valve job and I'll expect another long service life from this old engine.


The cylinders are standard and show no wear at all. Just a small color change where the second ring changes direction. Still has the factory machined cross hatch pattern. Hard to believe this engine has that many miles. Perhaps Hostess put in a brand new engine at some time. I can find no evidence that it was ever apart before.


The carbon problem in #'s 1 and 4 cylinders needed to be addressed. I have an old home grown injector tester that I cobbled together for Ford injectors 15 years ago. I made an adapter to fit the Cummins injectors and tested the #1 and 4 injectors. They had a good looking spray pattern, but started flowing fuel at around 1200 pounds of fuel pressure. The injectors for #2 and 3 wouldn't flow. I went to the book and looked up the pop pressure. Diesel injectors are supposed to make a pop noise (these didn't) and spray the fuel all at once  and at the perfect time. If they don't pop, the fuel flow starts slowly, dumps it's predetermined amount of fuel and stops flowing slowly. The pop pressure for the Cummins is 4350 psi, or nearly 3 times what the Ford calls for. No wonder my tester wouldn't make them pop. Anyway, that means the the injectors on #1 and 4 were firing early, probably not atomizing well and ending late. No wonder there was a carbon issue. A set of rebuilt injectors and the carbon problem should be solved.

 

[Fabber McGee]

Parts guy looked the engine up by the serial number today. Said it was built in June of 1999, so considering that it is in a 2000 Freightliner step van chassis, I would say this is definitely the original engine. So, all 375,000 miles on the odometer went on this very clean and very slightly worn engine. Amazing. I don't know of any gasoline engine that could do that.

 

[karl]

Especially the way those 4bt's often are driven!

Enjoying your project, keep it coming!

 

[Sabatical]

I just finished reading through your thread. Wow, what a great project! I have often thought about a stepvan project although i don't have nearly the tools or knowhow that you do. Thanks so much for sharing and i'll hope to see the "twinkie hotel" somewhere out on the road.

 

[Baloo]

Great update! Those old diesels last for ever even with less than stellar maintenance routines!

 

[highdesertranger]

great news. that engine has 1 million miles written all over it. highdesertranger

 

[GrantRobertson]

I've skimmed through this thread and it seems as if you have done quite a lot of work on this vehicle, considering it is a 2000. I would guess that the value of the work you have done is twice the original cost, or even more. I am curious as to why you put so much work into this vehicle. Is it because it really needed it to be functional and reliable? Or is it really just because you love doing all this kind of stuff?

I guess this thread just makes me a little concerned that, should I decide to go with a step-van, it would be exhorbitantly expensive to get it road-worthy and liveable. And, by extension, any large-ish vehicle might be similarly expensive.

 

[Fabber McGee]

I've skimmed through this thread and it seems as if you have done quite a lot of work on this vehicle, considering it is a 2000. I would guess that the value of the work you have done is twice the original cost, or even more. I am curious as to why you put so much work into this vehicle. Is it because it really needed it to be functional and reliable? Or is it really just because you love doing all this kind of stuff?

I guess this thread just makes me a little concerned that, should I decide to go with a step-van, it would be exhorbitantly expensive to get it road-worthy and liveable. And, by extension, any large-ish vehicle might be similarly expensive.

Grant, don't be concerned about getting a commercial vehicle that has been professionally maintained on a regular schedule. All this truck really needed was 1 rear wheel seal, 2 correct differential gears, 2 injectors and balancing the right front wheel to be fully operational and dependable. Machines have been my life and will continue to be. So all this other work has been for the fun of doing it and to make a better machine. The air bags, auxiliary transmission, freshening the engine, extra fuel tanks, automatic tire chains, etc. were completely optional and not essential to operating the truck.

One huge reason for the step van as a platform is the Grumman body. It is all heavy gauge aluminum, in the area of 3/32" with aluminum framing and extruded aluminum interlocking beams for the floor. No plywood, no spruce 2 x 2's, no thin foil skin. The bare truck when sold to Hostess in 2000 cost them a little over 62,000 dollars. It wasn't built to be as light and cheap as possible, it was built for 20 plus years of daily commercial service with the lowest maintenance costs possible and still it gets nearly 20 mpg across the prairies.

 

[GrantRobertson]

still it gets nearly 20 mpg across the prairies.

Wow! Thanks!

 

[Fabber McGee]

Got my saddle tanks inside on Sunday. 104 gallons each with 3 hanger brackets per side. Removed from a big 70's International cab over semi tractor.


Too big to fit between the frame and body panel and too tall for good ground clearance. Solution.... cut 'em down. Left side has exhaust pipe issues, so it remained a little under 5 feet long. Width is now 24 inches from 27 and height 12 inches from 16. Figures out at 69 gallons, but I didn't bother to figure the radius' of the corners, so probably losing a gallon or two there.



Close examination of the first photo in this set will show where I repaired 2 pin holes from corrosive calcium chloride used on gravel roads to control dust and on paved roads to melt ice. Both pin holes were under the tank straps, but there were several others that were getting pretty deep so I dobbed a little weld on them too. The black spots on the surface of the welds is aluminum oxide (corrosion) that floated to the surface when I melted the aluminum tank to fill the pits.

 

[Fabber McGee]

Left the shop tonight with the tank holding 3 psi, we'll see where it is in the morning, but it held for 1/2 hour before I left and that's good enough. Forgot to mention that all the pitting is on the top of the tanks where the calcium was allowed to lay there for long periods of time. The rest of the surface of the tanks is in good shape, so no worries about a leak and losing fuel.

 

[Baloo]

Looking good! I wish I had aluminum fuel tanks. My steel ones need a good cleaning and paint.

 

[Fabber McGee]

I wish I had aluminum fuel tanks. My steel ones need a good cleaning and paint.

Instead of paint, maybe you should consider having them sprayed with bed liner urethane. It will be there forever and not get rock chips. Also, doesn't have to be rough textured. They do the texture by standing back and fogging the surface after the coating is already done and the proper thickness. If they left it smooth, you'd be on your butt any time it was wet at all.

I intend to have a buddy that is in the bed liner business spray the tops of mine so they won't corrode further. Once they're installed, there will be no way to clean the tops off.

 

[highdesertranger]

nice Fabber, excellent work. highdesertranger

 

[Fabber McGee]

Well, that turned into a much bigger job than I thought it would.... but, I sorta thought it would. I finally got the saddle tanks altered and hung underneath. Man, I must have more than a hundred hours in that job, so far.The pocket that the sliding side door stores in was scheduled to be removed because it interfered with the picture window scheduled to be installed in that side of the truck. That means the sliding door needs to be changed to hinged operation. I figured I could let that go for this year, but it turns out the pocket was interfering with my saddle tanks too. Took me an hour or so to figure out how to get the door out of it's sliding track, then another couple hours to get it removed. It's intended to be a 2 man (person) job, but I managed to hold the nuts inside the cabin and turn the bolts from the outside all by my own darned self. Just takes longer. Then I removed most of the pocket that is below floor level, leaving about an inch to support the bottom of the side wall and keep it from flapping in the breeze. Probably wouldn't actually flap, but this is a good stiffener.


After the tanks were resized, I had to reduce the size of the hanger brackets and straps to match. Then some careful measuring and drill one hole in the frame for each. Bolt them up with a clamp on one side and a bolt on the other, then transfer punch the holes to the frame and drill with an electric hand drill. I hoped to use one of my magnetic base drill presses for this, but there were too many bolts and such in the way to get the mag base stuck to the frame.  I was going to have the tops of the tanks sprayed with urethane bed liner material to keep the road salt off the aluminum and deter further corrosion, but I remembered I had bought a pallet of tar from a lumber yard that was closing a few years ago so I used some of that. While I was there I used a needle scaler to remove the rust scale from the frame and painted tar on it too.

 

[Sabatical]

Wow fabber that was a big job. Nice work.

 

[Fabber McGee]

I figured now that I was all practiced up on the right side, the left would be a breeze. That's one of the problems with figurin'. The right tank had shrunk to a bit less than 69 gallons, so I wanted to lengthen the left tank since there was room. I added 22 inches to it, making it 96 gallons less whatever amount I lost to the radiused corners. When I got to measuring under the truck, I had to make a gallon and a half notch in the inside rear corner to clear the front spring hanger on the frame. Then same deal, cut down the hanger brackets and straps, drill the frame and paint it with tar. This side also gets the filler neck. Right side fills through a crossover line from the left side. The filler is located in the rear wheel well, so I don't need to cut a filler door in the side of the truck. Luckily the bread truck body is very wide, about 4 inches wider than the tires on each side. 


When I left the shop tonight I had both tanks solidly attached to the frame of the truck. I have a lot of errands to run tomorrow, but hopefully before I quit for the day (around midnight usually) I'll have the cross over bracing done and the fuel lines plumbed. I'll be running an electric pump after a filter to fill the original Freightliner tank in the rear. It will simplify the plumbing considerably. When the main tank gets a bit low, I can just switch on the electric pump and refill it from the saddle tanks. No worries about switching gauges, return and supply lines. I think most of the time they will be empty. I mainly want them for crossing Canada without buying their high priced diesel if I can help it. Also will be nice to take on some fuel before entering California and paying all their high taxes. 2 years ago, gasoline was right at a buck cheaper in AZ than CA.