Traveling in the hilly country of West Virginia’s I-77, as I pressed on the gas to start up the next hill, the transmission downshifted and all the sudden, a loud;
BBBBBrrrrrrrrr.
It definitely sounded like a exhaust problem, maybe a broken manifold or a donut seal pooped out. These V-10’s also have a rare history of spitting plugs, but it didn’t sound like that. This is not good, URGH
The next exit we pulled into a truck stop. I pulled the doghouse and started looking around. We started the engine and tried to pinpoint where the noise was coming from, after about ten minutes, it was glaring obvious.
The O2 sensor had popped out on the right side, about 6 inches below where the pipe attaches to the right manifold. As best I could see, the threads on the pipe fitting looked OK, but I could see the threads on the O2 sensor that looked like it got kicked sideways.
I disconnected the TOAD and drove to a Auto Parts store, purchased a new O2 Sensor, and a thread chasing tool to clean up the threads.
NOTE – If worst comes to worst and you don’t have a O2 sensor, just screw a spark plug in the hole and be on your way. It will probably throw a O2 sensor or Cat converter code on the ECM, but that shouldn’t effect the driving.
Back at the motor-home, I ran the thread chaser in to the hole, and the threads felt OK, I then screwed the O2 sensor into the hole, snugged it up, connected the connector, and cranked up the engine. We were greeted with a nice quite exhaust.
(400 miles later – all is well)
