380 Head Gasket Issue

[davidbrady]

Thanks Al,

I don't know if you recall, but in 2012 when Chuck Millsap owned an M380 he started a database to track info on other owners in an attempt to quantify M380 Cummins ISL head gasket failures. I attached a copy of the excel spreadsheet. There were 74 M380's built and there are 52 buses represented on the spreadsheet with 5 of them experiencing head gasket failure. The new failure which Al speaks of brings the total to 6 known failures, so roughly 8%. There are likely additional failures that haven't been recorded to the list. I think there was one bus that had two head gasket failures. A failure rate this high implies a manufacturing or engineering defect. Whether it's a Cummins or a Blue Bird issue is still unknown. What's known in the latest case is that the engine experienced prolonged overheating as reported by the engine computer readout and that's being reported by Cummins as the likely cause of the failure. Turns out the M380 dash coolant temperature gauge isn't reliably showing over-temp conditions.