M1078A1 "Pandora" Build | 2024-??? | ***Picture Heavy***

[Ronmar]

Over cooling is why I am guessing they incorporated the thermostatic bypass. When cold, it just doesn’t send any heat to the air/oil cooler.

the oil to coolant heat exchanger works both ways. On the A0, they sent all the bypass coolant to the heat exchanger. On a cool day, the engine will never get to full op temp until the transmission becomes a heat source/loaded. Below ~65F, The trans, via that cooler will absorb and dissipate all the heat an idling and moderately exhaust loaded engine will produce. Slightly elevated Idling in gear(cold wx warmup procedure), it still takes >10 minutes for the trans to turn from a heat sync to a heat source…

They fixed this “feature“ on the A1 trucks and kept the engine cooling system the way cat designed it(Bypass coolant sent back to engine block till properly warm). Probably a necessity for proper operation with ECU control…

 

[Aviator4x4]

Never heard of or seen a single report of that type of failure. Every one of these trucks I have dealt with has had amazingly clean coolant with little to no corrosion despite probably never being changed - My guess on this is that the cooling system being double the normal size (they basically sized it for a C15 - 15 liter engine) the coolant just naturally has more volume and thus the dissolved zinc anode and corrosion inhibitors don't get "used up" nearly as quickly as they would in other OEM applications with cast iron blocks. Thus the transmission heat exchangers (which are themselves very heavy duty all-metal fabricated units, not the plastic shite found in consumer and commercial applications) don't fail internally due to corrosion. I haven't seen any develop cracks or other issues and have not seen one report of such a failure either. It's not on my radar at all.

Makes sense. Thanks for the reassurance, I'll scratch it from my worry list which is already full enough. I only added it to my list to look into since have some lingering distrust of fluid to fluid coolers based on my 2.8L duramax "trans cooler" which was in the bottom 2" of the radiator and looked like this:





It sprung a serious leak from a unicorn part, a hard line press fit -> aluminum block that bolted to the trans the day before I was supposed to get married, and others have had issues with it leaking around the radiator fittings.



I much prefer to deal with AN or JIC fittings and hoses that can be repaired, remade, and are readily available at tons of places.

 

[Aviator4x4]

I am now the owner of the worlds most expensive thrust washer ! Once I'm done with the hydraulic system, I'll crack open my transmission to fix the valve body leak I probably caused, and see what the state of my C6 is... while making the swap to ATF, and hopefully not damaging any of the wiring in the brain of the transmission.

 

[Aviator4x4]

After 4 different re-designs



and 7 printed prototypes



I finally got the brackets ordered from Oshcut. I ordered them in .135" (10ga/just over 1/8") CorTen steel like shipping containers are made out of. Quite a bit of the truck is also made from CorTen steel and it's pretty ideal for being left outside all the time. I'm going to give the handpump and brackets a couple coats of Rust-Oleum 280107 Farm & Implement Enamel Paint, Low Gloss Black. I don't think I'm going to paint the box it mounts to since it's relatively rust free and I'd only be able to paint a small part of it right now. Plan is to paint that with the frame/cab/rest of truck.



Also made a little snorkel for the vent port, but going to cover the hydraulic pump anyway so it was really just an exercise in getting a circle to loft to a square in solidworks and make something printable. As soon as I confirm the dimensions after printing it in ASA (which shrinks more than PLA), I'll put it up on thingiverse or makerworld or somewhere others can download it if they'd like.

I'm so ready to get the physical brackets and actually install something instead of being stuck in a design->3d print OODA loop !

 

[aw113sgte]

I've ordered quite a few things from oshcut, a number from corten as well. My generator is held on the truck with some of them.
Have a bambu x1c I've used to make various truck things. Working with solidworks as well.

 

[Aviator4x4]

I've ordered quite a few things from oshcut, a number from corten as well. My generator is held on the truck with some of them.
Have a bambu x1c I've used to make various truck things. Working with solidworks as well.

They make printing so easy. Literally out of the box. It's crazy how much they closed the gap between a Stratasys (who is now sueing them) and a 3d printer from even 3yrs ago, even a markforge or similar.

 

[aw113sgte]

Just a hint, oshcut takes .sldprt files directly, no need to convert them to dxf

 

[Aviator4x4]

Just a hint, oshcut takes .sldprt files directly, no need to convert them to dxf

Thanks for the tip ! I was trying to compare quotes between oshcut and sendcutsend (which only accepts dxf, step, stp, to my knowled) but... sendcutsend wouldn't recognize my bend lines so figured screw em haha.

 

[aw113sgte]

Thanks for the tip ! I was trying to compare quotes between oshcut and sendcutsend (which only accepts dxf, step, stp, to my knowled) but... sendcutsend wouldn't recognize my bend lines so figured screw em haha.

Every time I've compared, oshcut was cheaper by a bit

 

[Aviator4x4]

Basically just waiting on those OshCut brackets to be delivered (FedEx says Monday !) and doing little things around the truck. This fitting was broken when I bought the truck but came right out with a medium size extractor from the ProjectFarm recommended IRWIN Screw Extractor, Spiral Flute, 6-Piece (53545).



Took a bit of experimenting to discover it was a 3/8NPT x 3/8NPT *flared* end. This is my first experience with that and I only had AN/JIC and regular NPT in my organizer.

 

[Aviator4x4]

Brackets are in and look good. Successful test fit, got the hole drilled, and working on hydraulic hoses now !

 

[Ronmar]

Cool!

 

[Aviator4x4]

I got the pump and brackets prepped and painted yesterday/today. Small parts so I used some rattle can Rust-Oleum Farm & Implement, Gray Primer followed by Rust-Oleum Farm & Implement, Low Gloss Black. I'll let it sit for 24hrs and then assemble it.

 

[Aviator4x4]

I also posted the files for the reservoir snorkel I designed if anyone wants to print one themselves. Open to any design suggestions but seemed fairly straightfoward.

Prince Wolverine Hydraulic Reservoir Vent Snorkel by Aviator4x4 - MakerWorld

or

Prince Wolverine Hydraulic Reservoir Snorkel by Aviator4x4 - Thingiverse

 

[Ronmar]

Oh very cool! Just brought home my first 3d printer last night, so this might be the first thing I print with it

thanks.

 

[Ronmar]

First 3d print

 

[Aviator4x4]

Waiting on another hydraulic hose to ship but got the pump put back together, printed a 1/8" spacer for the bottom of the selector (the plastic knob is co-planer with the mounting surface), and started assembly of the fittings that had dedicated places/orientations with some Loctite 545 Pneumatic/Hydraulic Pipe Thread Sealant and Loctite 7649 Klean N’ Prime: Activator

 

[Aviator4x4]

For the first time in 38 days, the cab is up !



Hydraulic hoses took a bit to figure out since it was such a compact form factor but they're on there and don't have much strain on the fittings, if any.






I replaced the hoses going to the frame passthru but made sure to bleed all the old fluid from what remained of the original lines, including disconnecting the "retract" side of the cylinder and letting that empty itself into the bottle.



For anyone doing this in the future with the 60cuin reservoir, cut the piece of clear hosing going to the pump pickup real short and put the filter on vertically. Fits exactly and your hose wont curl up and put the filter ~1" from the top of the reservoir, sucking in air.



I pulled the cylinder for the spare tire carrier since I couldn't access the hose fittings with it in place, but not sure I'm going to work on that until I've got the bed pulled for paint, since I'd have to remove the spare tire carrier at that point anyway. The cylinder hoses are 72" long with JIC4F ends for my/others future reference.

 

[Aviator4x4]

Kind of discouraging news for an update.

I have had a leak on the valve body since we swapped the transmission in Texas, and then double swapped the valve body. I tricked a buddy to come over and help me drop the valve body, since it weighs 65# and has some delicate parts in it. 4hrs, removing 8ft of exhaust, dropping the front drive shaft, a ton of tools, swearing, and 32+ bolts later, it was out.





Aaaaaaand there was water mixed in the oil. Not a little bit, either... it's pretty bad and seemingly fully emulsified despite 0miles in 8mo, and only idling for ~5mins since parked. Fluid was fresh Dec of 2023, before driving it TX -> NC.













I'm hoping (praying, really) that since I haven't driven it after parking it 8mo ago (but I did idle it for 5mins or so..), and there was no signs of water intrusion when we swapped it originally before filling it with fresh fluid and driving it 1,400mi home, that the clutches aren't completely toast and a full teardown/cleaning of the valve body/control valves will salvage the situation.

My plan is to completely disassemble and clean all of the control valves, valve bodies, and then conduct several fill and drain cycles of the transmission with some liquified money AMSOIL engine+trans flush and see how it is looking/feeling. Aside from the cost of fluids (10gal of oil, 10gal of ATF) I don't have much to lose for trying this vs a very expensive rebuild or buy another trans in unknown condition, both options $5k-10k.

I do think I found the source of water ingress: the gasket around the trans dipstick was extremely dry rotted and water could easily run down the side of the trans and enter there. I'll be replacing that, and the trans fill hose gasket on the other side, before re-assembly.

 

[Aviator4x4]

Forgot to mention I printed these little parts based on the diagrams in the TM for valve body spring compression tools. They worked well, and I'd recommend this 30min print over grinding a notch in some 1/2" ID & 1/2" OD steel pipe haha.