Heart Transplant
- dougsmith51
- 3 days ago
- 4 min read
If you read our last blog post, you'll know that we had a serious hiccup as we were returning to Virginia from New Orleans at the completion of our Great River Road group trip down the Mississippi River. Our engine died.
We confess that the Ciaowagen has more than 105,000 miles on the odometer, 73,000 of those added by us since 2018.
Although we've had multiple repairs/upgrades to the Ciaowagen during that time, the underlying truck chassis had been rock solid, until suddenly it wasn't.
Here's a timeline of events:
On our last day driving up the Natchez Trace Parkway and approaching Nashville, TN, we started hearing a "ticking" sound on top of the regular engine noise.
Once we settled in at the Nashville KOA, we called our RV roadside service provider, Coach-Net, to ask about the problem. After talking with one of their technician consultants, we thought that perhaps the valve lifters on pistons were acting up, but they thought we would be safe to drive the remaining 600 miles home.
After a two-day Nashville stay, we got the Ciaowagen packed up for the road. However, when we started the engine, it ran very roughly and shut off after a few seconds. This continued for several tries.
We got back on the phone with Coach-Net, and they arranged for a mobile engine technician to come look at the rig. He arrived, removed the cover between the captains chairs, hooked up his computer to the OBDC port, and determined that several of the spark plugs were misfiring.
He sent Doug to the local Ford heavy-duty truck dealer to pick up supplies, and replaced all the spark plugs and coils. Several of the spark plugs he pulled out had bent electrodes. After putting everything back together, we started the engine, but immediately heard loud banging noises, so turned the engine back off. The mobile technician thought we might have more serious cylinder problems, but those were beyond his ability to repair.
By now it was late Friday afternoon. We called the Ford heavy-duty truck dealer back to see if they could help, but they said their lot was full and they could probably accommodate us two months hence. That wasn't going to work for us. We called Coach-Net back and asked them to help us locate another solution. They said they would, but it would probably be Monday before anyone responded. We talked to the KOA office and booked our camping spot for a few more days.
Monday morning, Coach-Net called us and told us they'd located an independent truck engine shop who agreed to help us, although we would have to wait till Wednesday to take the RV there.
We began preparations to get home, not knowing how long repairs might take. We brought our e-bikes into the RV, and stashed most of our clothes and supplies into the Fittata. Since our campsite did not have a sewer connection, we arranged for a "honey wagon" to empty out our gray and black water tanks on Tuesday afternoon, and booked a room at a nearby motel for the night.
Wednesday morning, we returned to the campground, emptied the refrigerator contents into coolers and stashed them in the Fittata. Around 10 am, a large tow truck came to take us the 10 miles to the engine shop.
We followed along behind in the Fittata and arrived unscathed at West Power Services around 10:30 am. The folks there were very professional and responsive, telling us they would try to look at the engine that afternoon or the next day.
We began the 10 hour drive back to Virginia. Mid-afternoon, we checked in with West Power and they told us that several of the cylinders were damaged. We would either need to scrap the RV, or get a new engine installed. Although it would be an expensive repair, it would be much cheaper than getting a new rig. And we still have a few years of future RVing in us. We gave them the go ahead, and they were able to located a replacement V10 engine that came with a three-year warranty. We continued our drive home, including a harrowing seven hours in a rainstorm on I-81 (where there seem to be two 18-wheelers for every car), and arrived home about midnight.
We'd hoped they might be able to receive the engine and install it in time for Doug and Jeannette to drive back to Nashville and retrieve the RV before surgery she had scheduled on November 20, but there was just not enough time.
West Power was very good about updating us and sending progress photos along the way.
Once the new engine was in, they sent a video of it purring like a kitten.
Jeannette was unable to travel long distances, so the Sunday after Thanksgiving, Doug and our oldest son Tory (who'd been visiting for Thanksgiving) drove the Fittata back to Nashville to pick up the Ciaowagen. The drive down took one long day, and the drive back in the RV took two.
We have lengthy RV adventures planned for 2026 and 2027, and our RV has a new, healthy heart that should keep us safe during that time!