1994 Bluebird BMC 37'. It's on a Spartan chassis, has Allison 3060 6 speed auto with 5&6 overdrive. Cummins C8.3 turbo mechanical 300 HP with pacbrake. Fully loaded, weighs just under 34,000 lbs.

Doing a few mods - muffler, fuel plate, and adding boost and egt gauges. Added Roadmaster sway bars, and Safe-T-Plus steering stabilizer, just put in a new air dryer. 52,000 miles on the coach. Power Tech 10KW generator on board.

I posted dyno runs in the pictures area for 4 mufflers, stock fuel plate, then Aero 4040XL with #10 fuel plate.

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These results tested on a dyno.
Notes on Brazel’s Water Brake style dyno:

Vehicle in direct drive (4th gear), Run up against rev limiter (2500 pm), hold pedal to floor as dyno consistently and evenly builds pressure using water as the resistant force against tires, Computer uses load cell to calculate torque and then horsepower as it "pulls" the engine down to the point where it has to downshift out of 1:1 ratio, full throttle during the entire test, let off when the vehicle kicks down out of 1:1 and at that stop the test.

Note: I watched an attached boost gauge. At 2400/2500 rpm there is minimal boost, test starts, dyno load is induced, boost slowly climbs to max boost. No max boost on higher rpm range on test results below. Climbing a hill under load at high rpm in the real world equals more hp and torque than indicated on paper. In other words no load when test starts at high rpm so minimal boost. As load placed on dyno/engine, boost builds and torque/hp climb.


With stock fuel plate, and basically begging for more fuel:
Best to worst torque and hp numbers:
Aero 4040XL 4"
Aero 5050XL 5"
Stock Nelsen 4"
Donaldson M085171 4" inlet/outlet *40"

Next added the #10 fuel plate from diesel performance BD Power - The Leaders in Diesel Performance . Plate was installed, a capped t was installed so I can add boost gauge later, and a capped tap was installed in exhaust so I can add EGT gauge later.
Max boost with the fuel plate in is 29lbs. Stock it was 25lbs. Timing was not altered.

Large gain in torque and HP. See photo album area for numbers and dyno chart on all the above. Diesel Bombers
At a future date I may play with timing for results. For now I want to wait until I make real world mountain grade climbs under load, checking boost and egt.

Next mod will be installing boost and EGT gauge.

 

good thinking on the gauges sounds like you got and i would be be interested in knowing myself the results on the real world mountain grade

 

Working on the gauges order - want to have them on order by end of the week.

1st report - only 70 road miles with very small grades isn't much of a test, and no gauges yet. Steering feels tighter/better. Safe-T-Plus was a good choice. Sway bars - dont know yet. Overall coach feels tighter and more connected to the road.

Noise - 4040XL has more sound level than stock, but not bad. Tone on 4040xl at idle when I'm outside is fine, from drivers seat fine. On the dyno it seemed ok to me. From someone driving right next to the exhaust - unknown.

Power - again minor grades on the 70 miles. Impressions: accelerates quicker from a stop, or when rolling. Holds speed, rpm, trans gear better on minor upgrades.

When I start doing serious travel again I'll monitor MPG. I'll try a tankfull with trans in economy mode versus normal mode. Before, econ and normal produced same results for me. With more torque and hp econ mode may work better now. (in econ mode, the allison 3060 upshifts at lower rpm/earlier - thus lower cummins rpm in econ).

No change in trans temp or engine temp.

Thats about it for now.
Dan

 

Realize its' been since Feb for your posts, but curious about your results.

Have an '01 American Eagle 40ems with Cummins ISC (350HP)

Thanks

 

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My beard is also gray.

I am very happy with the gauges, happy with the fuel plate, muffler, timing advance (may be in another thread) , and steering stabilizer. I think I could have not done the sway bars and saved some $$. Yours should already have sway bars anyway. If you have electronic engine control, the fuel plate is also not applicable.

When I was climbing high altitude passes, with big grades, in high heat, I had some engine heat issues. Since then I replaced the rad cap, backed off the fuel plate a "tad", cleaned out (multi flushed) the rad, new coolant and distilled water, and new SCAs.

We are now in Key West for the winter, and will head up the east coast in spring. We may not see the grades, altitudes, and heat we saw last year on the west coast to see if I solved the heating issues of the power upgrades.

Dan

 

That Sir, is a plan!

Two years to go,,,

 

One other note: I gained a great deal of power, but MPG over he long haul is unchanged. I did not see a gain,or a loss of MPG since the mods, and drove from WA state to the FL Keys. Avg mpg is the same over that 2,000 or so miles.

 

What are you getting MPG wise?

 

I have a Bluebird - lots of galvinized steel versus fiberglass, and we are fulltimers so carrying a heavy load. We are near 34,000 lbs, and always towing a Subaru wagon. I have been averaging 8 mpg towing, and that includes gen run whenever we need the roof airs running down the road.

The allsion MD 3060 is overdrive in 5th and 6th, and that helps with the mpg. Speedo and odometer dead on as per GPS. I have tracked mpg since we bought the coach in 2004.

Lowest tank full was 6 mpg, highest 10. Sometimes the pump cuts off early or we are on a angle, but it averages out. 150 gallon tank, I try and stay over 1/2 tank all the time.

Dan
travel blog is Too Many Cats

 

Hmmm interesting information