Has nothing to do with Mopar ( though it's in my class A motorhome that I use to tow my 72 Dart drag car & trailer to weekend racing events) but I'm having an issue that has me scratching my head.
This is the 3rd motorhome that I've owned with the Ford Triton 6.8 V10. Never had any issues with the previous 2. This past October we sold our 2005 Four Winds Hurricane class A and bought a 2011 Itasca Sunova class A. I was a little hesitant to buy the Itasca as it has 93K miles on it but it has the most awesome floor plan of any class A I've seen and it ran very well when we checked it out.
So we went ahead and bought it. I took it over to my brother in law's place to store it for the winter in December ( he has a large flat yard with a nice gravel pad to park it on. Driving it over to his place the motorhome ran like a top, plenty of power and smooth. Got there, parked it, put the hydraulic jacks down to relieve weight on the suspension, took all the batteries out, put fuel stabilizer in the tank, covered it and called it good. Same winter routine I've used before.
Went over a couple of weeks ago to bring it home to get it ready for the season. Uncovered it, put the fully charged chassis and house batteries back in, and started it up. Immediately knew something was wrong. There was a noise like something was rubbing on the cooling fan, and it felt like it wasn't firing on all cylinders. So I shut it off and crawled under to see if there was a mouse nest or something in the radiator shroud. Nope, nothing there. And I couldn't see any other issues from underneath. So I started it again and the noise sounded like it was at the top of the engine on the passenger side. I didn't have the tools needed to take off the interior engine cover, so I shut if off again, crawled back under still everything looked fine. Checked the engine oil level and it as good. Had normal oil pressure on the gauge and no warning lights on the dash. Told my brother in law that I was taking it directly to the RV dealership we bought it from (about 2 minutes from my house) and would he mind following me. He did. On the way to the dealership ( 20 minute drive from his house) he called me to tell me there was occasional black smoke coming from the exhaust pipe. Not unusual given it didn't seem to be firing on all cylinders. Then when we were about 5 minutes from the dealership he called me to say there was some white smoke occasionally but not from the exhaust pipe. That troubled me. We got to the dealership and I noticed it was now leaking a little oil and it appeared to be coming from the top side of the engine. It's been at the dealership since and they haven't looked at it as they are like most places and can't get anyone to come in to work. They have one mechanic and to say he's stretched mighty thin is an understatement.
So, I did some of my own research. I knew that the early production run Triton V10s were notorious for spitting out spark plugs, but Ford allegedly fixed that issue around 2006. I also came across a YouTube video where the owner of a class C motorhome with the V10 was experiencing a noise from the passenger side similar to mine. He discovered that the plastic valve cover has a baffle that is just glued to the inside of the valve cover that broke loose and was being rattled around by the valve train. This might explain the noise but doesn't explain not firing on all cylinders. My money for that issue is placed on rodents getting up on the top of the engine and chewing some injector or coil pack wiring.
Anyway, was curious if anyone has experienced a similar issue. I'm baffled why it was purring like a kitten on the way to the brother in law's house and immediately had a issue a few months later, again with no warning lights or check engine light on the dash ( they do all work). Anyone have any thoughts?
This is the 3rd motorhome that I've owned with the Ford Triton 6.8 V10. Never had any issues with the previous 2. This past October we sold our 2005 Four Winds Hurricane class A and bought a 2011 Itasca Sunova class A. I was a little hesitant to buy the Itasca as it has 93K miles on it but it has the most awesome floor plan of any class A I've seen and it ran very well when we checked it out.
So we went ahead and bought it. I took it over to my brother in law's place to store it for the winter in December ( he has a large flat yard with a nice gravel pad to park it on. Driving it over to his place the motorhome ran like a top, plenty of power and smooth. Got there, parked it, put the hydraulic jacks down to relieve weight on the suspension, took all the batteries out, put fuel stabilizer in the tank, covered it and called it good. Same winter routine I've used before.
Went over a couple of weeks ago to bring it home to get it ready for the season. Uncovered it, put the fully charged chassis and house batteries back in, and started it up. Immediately knew something was wrong. There was a noise like something was rubbing on the cooling fan, and it felt like it wasn't firing on all cylinders. So I shut it off and crawled under to see if there was a mouse nest or something in the radiator shroud. Nope, nothing there. And I couldn't see any other issues from underneath. So I started it again and the noise sounded like it was at the top of the engine on the passenger side. I didn't have the tools needed to take off the interior engine cover, so I shut if off again, crawled back under still everything looked fine. Checked the engine oil level and it as good. Had normal oil pressure on the gauge and no warning lights on the dash. Told my brother in law that I was taking it directly to the RV dealership we bought it from (about 2 minutes from my house) and would he mind following me. He did. On the way to the dealership ( 20 minute drive from his house) he called me to tell me there was occasional black smoke coming from the exhaust pipe. Not unusual given it didn't seem to be firing on all cylinders. Then when we were about 5 minutes from the dealership he called me to say there was some white smoke occasionally but not from the exhaust pipe. That troubled me. We got to the dealership and I noticed it was now leaking a little oil and it appeared to be coming from the top side of the engine. It's been at the dealership since and they haven't looked at it as they are like most places and can't get anyone to come in to work. They have one mechanic and to say he's stretched mighty thin is an understatement.
So, I did some of my own research. I knew that the early production run Triton V10s were notorious for spitting out spark plugs, but Ford allegedly fixed that issue around 2006. I also came across a YouTube video where the owner of a class C motorhome with the V10 was experiencing a noise from the passenger side similar to mine. He discovered that the plastic valve cover has a baffle that is just glued to the inside of the valve cover that broke loose and was being rattled around by the valve train. This might explain the noise but doesn't explain not firing on all cylinders. My money for that issue is placed on rodents getting up on the top of the engine and chewing some injector or coil pack wiring.
Anyway, was curious if anyone has experienced a similar issue. I'm baffled why it was purring like a kitten on the way to the brother in law's house and immediately had a issue a few months later, again with no warning lights or check engine light on the dash ( they do all work). Anyone have any thoughts?
