Went to breakfast at The Palms Cafe - the best breakfast we had through the whole trip. We were extremely lucky with our timing, and walked into their courtyard just as the best outside table became available. Highly recommend eating here if you get the chance.
The cafe was just off El Paseo, which is the luxe shopping street (like Rodeo Blvd in Beverly Hills) of this area, with gorgeous shops dressing either side of the road, and modern art installations in the median. We drove back to the seller's compound on this road, stopping only to take a picture of this fish.
Back at the ranch, I put on my coveralls and joined the seller under the bus - he had raised and blocked the bus while we were at breakfast. I inspected the underside condition and components, and helped the seller repack the leaking gland nut on the hydraulic ram for the steering assist system. Then, we dropped the front of the bus and raised and blocked the rear. After crawling around the rear axle, wheels, brakes, engine, transmission, etc., I had to admit the coach is essentially rust-free, and every component under the bus seemed to be in great shape.
We had done quite a bit of review of the engine Saturday, and more today. Here are a couple of pictures.
The eight cylinder engine is mounted sideways. The valve cover for rearmost bank of four cylinders on lower left. Intake air piping is above the valve cover. Air filters are out of sight above the air intake piping, behind the painting on the rear of the coach. The two white cylinders are the primary and secondary fuel filters. The round "pumpkin" to the right receives engine output, turns it around 135 degrees, and connects to the automatic transmission just forward of the pumpkin, out of view. The U-joints on either end of driveshaft turn the transmission output 45 degrees, finally in-line with the coach axis.
Radiator is to the left. The big pipe in the center guides the intake air from the air filters above the engine, leading into the turbocharger (nautilus-shell-looking component.) The smaller upper pipe leading away from the turbocharger crosses above and drops down into the center of the engine to provide air for combustion. The rust-colored powder-coated pipe is the exhaust from the cylinders under the valve cover to the right. This exhaust - and one just like it on the other side of the engine - drive the turbocharger.
This engine dates from the late 1980s, and was totally rebuilt about six years ago - about 35,000 miles ago. So, it is considered to still be in the break-in period for a large diesel (~100K miles.) The family of engines from which it is descended was first designed in 1938. Not too much changed through the years - they just added more choices of the numbers of cylinders, size of the cylinders, and both in-line and vee configurations. The military bought many hundreds of thousands of them - many are still in use. In the 1980s, the company started a program to re-engineer some weak points problem and to reduce the oil leakage this engine family was known for. These re-engineered engines were designated as Silver engines. Though much of the silver paint you're looking at was sprayed on by the seller for cosmetic reasons, if you look at the hard to reach areas, you can tell it really is a silver engine. There a couple of small exterior differences, also, that indicate it is a silver engine.
This engine dates from the late 1980s, and was totally rebuilt about six years ago - about 35,000 miles ago. So, it is considered to still be in the break-in period for a large diesel (~100K miles.) The family of engines from which it is descended was first designed in 1938. Not too much changed through the years - they just added more choices of the numbers of cylinders, size of the cylinders, and both in-line and vee configurations. The military bought many hundreds of thousands of them - many are still in use. In the 1980s, the company started a program to re-engineer some weak points problem and to reduce the oil leakage this engine family was known for. These re-engineered engines were designated as Silver engines. Though much of the silver paint you're looking at was sprayed on by the seller for cosmetic reasons, if you look at the hard to reach areas, you can tell it really is a silver engine. There a couple of small exterior differences, also, that indicate it is a silver engine.
With the exam complete, Lone and I agreed to a price with the seller. With all the bus inspection and try-out complete, we needed a break from the bus for a while, to clean up and relax. We grabbed our stuff and headed to a hotel. Later, the seller and Kathy treated us to dinner and drinks at the Jackalope Ranch - an amazing must-see restaurant in Indio. Indio is the last town in the valley before Coachella, home of the famous music festival.
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