CM2250 Poor fuel mileage

[Rawze]

I was at Mr. hags yesterday. There was a truck there that got 5 mpg no matter what anyone did to it. - I looked it over pretty well (without cranking it up or doing any tests) .. and found that when I cracked open the davco drain valve, letting it pour into my hands.. the first few drops that came out were (red) coolant, followed by fuel.


Last i checked, these ISX engines do not run on steam.. so i told the guys at the shop to test it for leaking injector cups.

After the injectors were all pulled out and the coolant system was pressurized to 6 PSI.. 4 of 6 cylinders were seeping coolant.. one of which was a steady "drip, drip, drip".

That is the main contributor of why his fuel mileage was so bad, however...

This truck was also severely neglected. The air dryer and its filter were completely shot. There was so much water (from moisture)in the air tanks (several gallons of water) that it is a damn miracle that the brakes still operated. ALL of the shocks were completely shot, the truck had a set of brand new tires on it and they were already wearing lop-sided and damaged because not a single tire was mounted properly on its rims. The alignment groove on the tires was so far off at the rim that one side it would be 1/8" visible, and the other side, it was under the edge of the rim. None of the alignment dots for the valve stems were aligned.. it looked like some moron had installed the tires .


Almost 700k on the truck, Overhead cam had bot been touched since truck was new.. crank shaft damper had never been replaced,.. wheel bearings had never been re-torqued, wheel seals seeping, everything on that truck had been severely neglected. It was a complete joke!, and the truck owner kept saying to me.. "BUT THE SHOP I TAKE IT TO CHECKS IT OVER FOR ME" .. "BUT THE SHOP THIS" .. AND "BUT THE SHOP THAT".. AND "BUT THEY ARE GOOD PEOPLE" .. AND "BUT I HAVE A GOOD MECHANIC" ... AND ON AND ON THIS GUY KEPT REPEATING HIMSELF!!>...

I GOT MAD AT HIM AND ... "BUT YOU ARE THE PROBLEM BECAUSE YOU DO NOT TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR YOUR OWN EQUIPMENT AS A TRUCK OWNER AND YOU ARE THE ONE WHO IS TO BLAME BY NOW!!!>.. TRUCKING DOES NOT WORK LIKE THAT ... YOU ARE THE ONLY ONE WHO WILL MAKE THINGS RIGHT.. NOT SOME DAMN REPAIR SHOP!!!.." .. and of course, he got a bit mad at me because I guess people do not want to hear that owning a truck requires more than holding the damn steering wheel and taking it off to everywhere instead of keeping after things properly.


This is a very fine example of what is wrong with trucking these days... too many people think they can own this type of commercial equipment and just "hold the steering wheel".. and expect everyone else to do everything for them, and then wonder why their whole world falls apart around them.