Itinerant Air-Cooled Greetings From Los Alamos
Posted: Mon Aug 17, 2015 11:02 pm
I love the approach to Los Alamos. Amazing distances and vistas and colors (mostly in the afternoon and evening).
Here I am where I will point out later. Los Alamos is pretty much not yet visible to the camera pixels over there on the left up the side of the mountain a ways as I head north on 87:
Now it is the whitish dots to the right of center, since I have turned west:
Note the two water towers, they come up later:
The rear view mirror shows where I came from as I draw almost level with the airport. This little road is so steep that Chloe struggled in 2nd gear at one point (some of it was low compression/rich mixture at 7,000 ft elevation):
My first call in Los Alamos was Atomic City Bug with his '75 Beetle convertible and the engine to his son's '63 Beetle affixed to an engine stand. These folks are engineers. It was a pleasure to go over the concepts with them before we headed out to do a tune-up on the convertible:
We also got in it with the '63 engine attempting to reposition the distributor drive gear, adjust its valves and lubricate the rocker assemblies, and go over some note:caution issues:
Next day was pmaggiore's Son of Yellowbird westy, the one where we had the twins working on the engine several years ago, and installed the windshield as a full family affair a couple of years ago. This year, we had to make it run sensibly. After a thorough plod through the Diagnostic Steps with vacuum gauge/fuel pressure gauge/timing light all monitoring the engine's vitals, we narrowed down the bizarre idle and tendency to stall to a loose temperature sensor ii . Then that bus played with our emotions and started to act up just as we were going to do a test drive. We could have second-guessed the TS II repair, and gone on a long journey through "other things" , but I was pretty sure we had just run out gas. And we had. My little cleaning solvent gas can got us to the gas station and it drove FINE.
After our victory lap to the gas station, we attacked the brakes because they did not feel fresh:
While my customer worked, I lolled:
We had an excellent dinner, then I drove up the mountain above Los Alamos and camped under the stars with a Plan For Tomorrow. The Plan was to repair the weep at the oil pump, clean all the tins and engine carrier, maybe paint the exhaust since it would be easy to remove and spray, and install the Type 4 engine seal. Yeah . . . plans.
Morning looked fine. There's Chloe, parked on a serious downhill on the power line trail, Los Alamos way down the hill:
Looking up the hill. I am halfway up above the middle hill to the left of the water tower in that prior "note the water towers" photograph:
Got the apron off, the fresh air hoses, the heat riser covers, the belt, the rear tin, the deflectors, the preheater "stove pipe" off, the crankshaft pulley off, the engine jacked by the bottle jack so I could remove the engine carrier to access the oil pump, and finally, I got the oil pump cover off. Good thing it is not windy today, this dirt trail could whip up some nasty dust, you know . . . :
THEN I looked up:
I worked as quickly as I could, even when the rain began to pelt. Really rushed the oil pump cleaning and was pretty sloppy with the Permatex Aviation as the wind began to pick up. A blast of lightning and a stunning clap of thunder added a bit of urgency. This was the kind of strike where you get the kaboom instantly and hear the rolls of thunder radiating away from ground zero. Then it started to hail. I bailed to the interior:
Folks, I was glum, wet, icy cold, my work environment was a shambles, the dirt kicked up all under the car and all over the engine, the raging rivulets coursing underneath scattered my tins screws and who knows if I made the oil pump weep any better . . . probably a whole lot worse, you know why? Because I am pretty sure I put the wrong gasket on, in my rush. It was beautiful up on that infernal hillside, though:
Here you can see the center of the storm mosey on down through Los Alamos through the tailgate:
As soon as the rain let up, I hopped out and wended my soggy way back to the dripping engine hatch. The generator pulley was all rusted, dirt spatters all over, the jack was coated in sand and oil and standing in a muddy rivulet. I was pretty disgusted. Dried off as much as I could, found the tin screws, mopped the back bumper, got the crankshaft pulley on after carefully dabbing away the silt spatters, got as far as the third screw when crackaboom! blasted me again:
A whole new course of rain and thunder and spatter and rivulets and I bail to the driver's seat and note the right vent wing is leaking, and man, I want to just leave this damn hillside, but the engine is in no condition to run just yet. At 2:30 PM, it lets off and Los Alamos even gets some sun now, good-bye you stupid storm, go harass Santa Fe:
I mop up the deck lid and rear bumper and engine again, and get the belt on and the rear tin and heat riser covers and even felt a little hint of almost sun against my thoroughly chilled shirt. Now I get to see if the Type 4 foam seal is going to work. I cut the lips off the old rubber seal, but reinstall the center part so the groove edges won't grab and tear the foam seal :
Sunshine!
I think this foam seal is going to work out fine:
Poor wheels, were so pretty at the beginning of this day:
Beautiful evening, as the storm moved off:
I'll let you know if the oil pump is still leaking, but right now, I need to get ready for tomorrow's NEXT Los Alamos appointment. Note where the water towers are now:
Here I am where I will point out later. Los Alamos is pretty much not yet visible to the camera pixels over there on the left up the side of the mountain a ways as I head north on 87:
Now it is the whitish dots to the right of center, since I have turned west:
Note the two water towers, they come up later:
The rear view mirror shows where I came from as I draw almost level with the airport. This little road is so steep that Chloe struggled in 2nd gear at one point (some of it was low compression/rich mixture at 7,000 ft elevation):
My first call in Los Alamos was Atomic City Bug with his '75 Beetle convertible and the engine to his son's '63 Beetle affixed to an engine stand. These folks are engineers. It was a pleasure to go over the concepts with them before we headed out to do a tune-up on the convertible:
We also got in it with the '63 engine attempting to reposition the distributor drive gear, adjust its valves and lubricate the rocker assemblies, and go over some note:caution issues:
Next day was pmaggiore's Son of Yellowbird westy, the one where we had the twins working on the engine several years ago, and installed the windshield as a full family affair a couple of years ago. This year, we had to make it run sensibly. After a thorough plod through the Diagnostic Steps with vacuum gauge/fuel pressure gauge/timing light all monitoring the engine's vitals, we narrowed down the bizarre idle and tendency to stall to a loose temperature sensor ii . Then that bus played with our emotions and started to act up just as we were going to do a test drive. We could have second-guessed the TS II repair, and gone on a long journey through "other things" , but I was pretty sure we had just run out gas. And we had. My little cleaning solvent gas can got us to the gas station and it drove FINE.
After our victory lap to the gas station, we attacked the brakes because they did not feel fresh:
While my customer worked, I lolled:
We had an excellent dinner, then I drove up the mountain above Los Alamos and camped under the stars with a Plan For Tomorrow. The Plan was to repair the weep at the oil pump, clean all the tins and engine carrier, maybe paint the exhaust since it would be easy to remove and spray, and install the Type 4 engine seal. Yeah . . . plans.
Morning looked fine. There's Chloe, parked on a serious downhill on the power line trail, Los Alamos way down the hill:
Looking up the hill. I am halfway up above the middle hill to the left of the water tower in that prior "note the water towers" photograph:
Got the apron off, the fresh air hoses, the heat riser covers, the belt, the rear tin, the deflectors, the preheater "stove pipe" off, the crankshaft pulley off, the engine jacked by the bottle jack so I could remove the engine carrier to access the oil pump, and finally, I got the oil pump cover off. Good thing it is not windy today, this dirt trail could whip up some nasty dust, you know . . . :
THEN I looked up:
I worked as quickly as I could, even when the rain began to pelt. Really rushed the oil pump cleaning and was pretty sloppy with the Permatex Aviation as the wind began to pick up. A blast of lightning and a stunning clap of thunder added a bit of urgency. This was the kind of strike where you get the kaboom instantly and hear the rolls of thunder radiating away from ground zero. Then it started to hail. I bailed to the interior:
Folks, I was glum, wet, icy cold, my work environment was a shambles, the dirt kicked up all under the car and all over the engine, the raging rivulets coursing underneath scattered my tins screws and who knows if I made the oil pump weep any better . . . probably a whole lot worse, you know why? Because I am pretty sure I put the wrong gasket on, in my rush. It was beautiful up on that infernal hillside, though:
Here you can see the center of the storm mosey on down through Los Alamos through the tailgate:
As soon as the rain let up, I hopped out and wended my soggy way back to the dripping engine hatch. The generator pulley was all rusted, dirt spatters all over, the jack was coated in sand and oil and standing in a muddy rivulet. I was pretty disgusted. Dried off as much as I could, found the tin screws, mopped the back bumper, got the crankshaft pulley on after carefully dabbing away the silt spatters, got as far as the third screw when crackaboom! blasted me again:
A whole new course of rain and thunder and spatter and rivulets and I bail to the driver's seat and note the right vent wing is leaking, and man, I want to just leave this damn hillside, but the engine is in no condition to run just yet. At 2:30 PM, it lets off and Los Alamos even gets some sun now, good-bye you stupid storm, go harass Santa Fe:
I mop up the deck lid and rear bumper and engine again, and get the belt on and the rear tin and heat riser covers and even felt a little hint of almost sun against my thoroughly chilled shirt. Now I get to see if the Type 4 foam seal is going to work. I cut the lips off the old rubber seal, but reinstall the center part so the groove edges won't grab and tear the foam seal :
Sunshine!
I think this foam seal is going to work out fine:
Poor wheels, were so pretty at the beginning of this day:
Beautiful evening, as the storm moved off:
I'll let you know if the oil pump is still leaking, but right now, I need to get ready for tomorrow's NEXT Los Alamos appointment. Note where the water towers are now: