W24 losing power

Mattpro · 11-25-2009, 11:10 AM

Hello,

Headed out for Thanksgiving and stopped for gas, we jump back on the freeway and about five miles down the road we start losing power. The engine sounds like its missing, At first I thought bad gas but we had a quarter tank when we filled up.

It seemed to lose the power under load, our max speed was 25 mph. We made it to the next offramp and got towed to a tow yard. I called workhorse and they will tow it to a service center today but the center can't get to it until Monday.

Any idea's what could have caused this, there was no visable leaks etc and some small backfiring from the exhaust and no check engine light or dash board warning.

Thanks

mattpro

Outbumn · 11-25-2009, 11:37 AM

Sounds like you have the dreaded burnt spark plug wire. The W24 with the 8.1 chevy engine has this documented problem. Workhorse should replace the wire for free. If this happens again, I think on the third time they will put a cool air kit on it. My recommendation is to put a set of Taylor wires on it.....

emiddleb · 11-25-2009, 11:38 AM

On my former W24 chassis I had the same problem, which turned out to be a chronic issue with some of the W24 chassis/motorhomes.

Check your spark plug wires. Poor engine ventilation on some models allows the engine heat to char the wires, creating "missing and surging." If that's the case, the fixes include high-temp sparkplug cables and/or some air daming to create better cooling.

Paul T · 11-26-2009, 06:57 AM

We anxiously await the answer to your problem MATTPRO because it’s the kind of situation none of us want to have heading out on a trip.
I’ve had the spark plug wire problem twice but it has always been more of a nuisance missing under load, not a disabling event. In my case it never was severe enough to keep me from getting up to highway speed. Was your fuel stop at a large facility serving a lot of vehicles? The coincidence of a fuel stop with the severity of your problem seems strange if this is the first time you have had such a problem. And why five miles after the stop? That’s about far enough to clean out whatever existing gas was in the feed lines maybe. How many miles on your rig and when was the last fuel filter change done?

Petro · 11-26-2009, 07:48 AM

Mattpro;

Sorry to hear about your problem. My guess would be fuel starvation. A bad wire would not wait to start causing problems 5 miles down the road. I feel like Paul that it sounds like a fuel filter or fuel pump. Please post back and let us know what the problem was.

Don

Mattpro · 11-26-2009, 08:13 AM

Thanks for the respnses,

We did get fuel at a large stop, not a truck stop, not that that would make a difference. The tow co. towed it to a Workhorse service in Fresno Ca. and I spoke with the owner there and gave him a brief summary of my problem, he told me his first impression was a fuel pump, exactly what Petro said.

PaulT I have the Adventurer 38T model with just under 11,000 miles on it, I have never had the fuel filter changed. It is still under warranty which is good news. Workhorse was very helpful, being stuck at night on the I5 in the middle of nowhere was not fun but that's the way it goes. We un-hooked the car and went home (we were half way between home and destination). I'll post my results when they complete the work.

Thanks

Mattpro

dengraham · 11-27-2009, 07:14 PM

My guess is the inline fuel filter they don't tell you about hidden in the chassis. If I recall it is a spin off filter on the inside of the chassis in the middle of the motor home. I had one on my Suncruiser. If I recall they are supposed to be changed every 10,000 miles so it would make sense that your's is "plugged." I would check that before replacing the fuel pump.
Good luck.

Mattpro · 12-01-2009, 06:56 PM

Well, I got a call from the shop today. He said they found two bad plugs and two bad wires. But most interesting was a clogged up Cat Converter, this is the second Cat Converter I've had replaced the first one was a few months ago with about 8,000 miles on it but t was just making a knocking sound.

According to the shop, the power loss was the converter failure. I asked him about the hot wires and he told me Workhorse has a kit where they install a tube in the grill area and run it to the back plug area. He will ask Workhorse to replace all the wires and plugs and find out weather I need the vent tube. I guess I'll upgrade after the warr. runs out if I need to.

Anyway the owner of the shop has been great and is very detailed so that helps. The bad news is I have to drive three hours to get it when he is done. They will also check to see if I need the brake recall work done as well.

Mattpro

Fakrwee · 12-01-2009, 11:49 PM

Mattpro you are a lucky man believe it or not. I had 2 engines go out on me before they figured out it was the cat converter. Both engines were covered under warranty. The funny thing was the second engine went out on me 61 mi. from the dealer. I live in Carlsbad, San Diego and the MH was in Clovis NM. That was a drive, especially turning around and going home without the MH

Petro · 12-02-2009, 07:24 AM

Mattpro;

Did the shop give you a reason for the clogged cat? I have not read many posts about cat failures. Is it something the rest of us should be looking for?

Don

Mattpro · 12-02-2009, 07:42 AM

Fakrwee,

Funny you mention a blown motor, the shop owner told me he had a guy in there that went through the same thing you did but not that quickly.

Petro, I'll ask today when he calls back what would cause the convertor to go out like that, I've never had a bad cat converter on any vechile I've owned, it can't be common. I can understand electric problems on a coach but mechanical things like this on an engine when you pay this kind of money is unacceptable.

Mattpro

sip · 12-02-2009, 08:15 AM

On my 1995 Vectra several years ago, intermitent power lost was caused by spark plug wire problems.

Fakrwee · 12-02-2009, 11:46 AM

Mattpro, the problem with the cat is Ford took out the sensor and installed a dummy plug so there is no warning the cat is going bad until it takes a dump. It's incredible they can do this and get away with it.

mygrayhound · 12-02-2009, 11:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fakrwee

Mattpro, the problem with the cat is Ford took out the sensor and installed a dummy plug so there is no warning the cat is going bad until it takes a dump. It's incredible they can do this and get away with it.

Fakrwee
I don't believe the W24 ever came with a Ford engine...

EngineerMike · 12-02-2009, 12:06 PM

Matt- There is something else causing the catalytic converters to plug. One bat cat maybe. W/multiples, I'd suspect the wrong ECM flash giving bad fuel-air tables so the excess emissions plug the cat? Too coincidental to just replace the cat & call it good till next plug up.

If it is the wrong ECM flash, I suspect it will take more than a casual check of the WH database to isolate this (assumes their database works like Cummins does and stores the "correct" ECM flash w/the engine serial number; if the wrong "correct" flash version is stored in the database the repair facility needs to check the engine version against available flash versions instead of simply accessing info on your engine). Seems like WH would have a service bulletin on this, especially w/multiple cats & multiple blown engines.

Might try posting this on the Workhorse Forum for more detailed responses.

Fakrwee · 12-02-2009, 05:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mygrayhound

Fakrwee
I don't believe the W24 ever came with a Ford engine...

No they don't, the W is for workhorse, but I would think the cat is the same. If not someone correct me please.

millsrv · 12-11-2009, 08:51 PM

Cats go bad because of excessive fuel and a bad plug wire will cause a misfire and when an engine misfires raw fuel enters the exhaust system. Bad plug wire(s) will cause a cat to overheat and fail.

Mattpro · 12-15-2009, 06:52 PM

Well it seems that millsrv is right, they replaced all the plug wires and plugs after finding plugs on #4,#6 and #8 failed thus causing to much fuel into the exhaust and damaging the cat converter.

Total $1315.00 I'm happy that it's still under warr. My question is, how many miles of misfires would it take of cause the cat damage ? there was a considerable amount of power that I was missing and I didn't even realize it. I'm going to call Worhhorse and see if they will pay for the vent system to cool the back plugs

Thanks for all your input

Mattpro
2006 Adventurer 38T

millsrv · 12-15-2009, 08:05 PM

Usually the engine computer will determine that there is a catalytic damaging misfire and the check engine light will flash, verses being on solid for another trouble code. The flashing light is there to alert the driver of a serious condition. As I recall you did not mention if your check engine light was on or flashing. I have been an auto / truck mechanic for many years so I speak from my experience. Some vehicles will actually shut off the fuel injector on the missing cylinder to protect the cat. I will not go off on that subject, it gets more complicated.
Good luck on your repair and happy holidays!