Installation of Slobber Recovery Tank on DD 8V92

Or a Diaper for Footloose
May 29, 2000

We do a lot of resort camping and the fact that Footloose left a short twin trail of oil after she was parked for a short period really bugged the wife. I attempted to find a used tank at a number of salvage yards but finally bit the bullet and purchased a kit from the local Detroit Diesel dealer for around $135.00.

Granted, this is a lot to pay for this thing but it did come with everything you need to install it including hoses and a set of instructions. It took me about an hour to install it, not counting the brass nipple that I broke off in the block.

The valves on my DD 8V92 were mounted to brass elbows that had brass nipples going into block and they were both angled toward front of the bus. Since my tank mounted on back of oil pan, these had to be pointing the other way. Problem was, there were drain cocks on each side that would not allow me to simply rotate the elbows and I broke one of the nipples off in block trying to get the valve off of it. Finally sawed some grooves (180 degrees apart) in inside of broken brass part in block, very gently drove a large flat blade screwdriver blade into the grooves and screwed it right out.

If anyone is ambitious enough to fabricate your own recovery tank system , I scanned the instructions and posted them below. The tank itself is a tubular affair with a couple of pipes welded in each end which attach to your drain valves via a couple of rubber hose.
The bottom drain is simply a piece of pipe attached to the threaded plug that appears to extend about 4/5 of the way up in tank. The pipe is open at both ends so that the system can breath and to allow it to overflow if you forget to empty it.

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