Itinerant Air-Cooled Went To Salt Lake City
Posted: Thu Jul 25, 2019 11:06 pm
Oh yes I did, with great anticipation did I bail out of the Pacific fog and clouds of Portland OR and beat it to Utah.
viewtopic.php?f=78&t=13878#p233409
Just up from Salt Lake City:
And here we are, at rallybug appointment in Salt Lake City's northern burbs, painting his freshly opened timing scale after an amazing piece of toast. I mean it, it was a great piece of toast that once again reminds me that modern store-bought food is just so very very blah:
As planned, we drew his son into the day's festivities:
As grown-ups, we quickly determined that he is not quite ready for the real wrench-twisting.
"Do you want to play with me, my transformers, please?"
"No. we have to work, sorry."
Rallybug child one and two drifted in and out of our work area as we removed each push rod tube and installed green "Viton" seals, and I got to watch poor rallybug learn how to assemble rocker arms and stands and serpentine spring and washers and nuts with just about one hand
And we did work. We adjusted the hydraulic lifter preload in the 100* heat with nary a complaint. Mrs. Rallybug plied us with water. Hey look, do you see a possible oil leak here? That is exactly how the valve cover came off the engine ... :
Our test drive turned out to be a fascinating exercise in pluck. At a stop light, we noticed that the engine note had a new clatter. Based on the rapidity with which this clatter had arisen and was getting more nasty, I suggested that we pull over immediately. 100* day, 300* heads, valve cover off, discovered that #3 exhaust locknut had escaped and the adjustment screw was well on its way to following. Got it all back together, I praised myself for being insistent, hopped into the driver's seat, pulled out onto the thoroughfare and pulled smartly onto the onramp, where an unholy racket re-ensued and the engine started sounding distressed. We killed it right there on the onramp. No shade. 100* day. Hot oil. Car tilted to the left. WTF'sville. "No tow this time, rallybug," I swore. No more of that nonsense with this 1979 bus.
It was the same #3 exhaust. I leapt to crazy conclusions like, the rocker arm must be stripped out. But, no, in fact, the locknut had again not been tightened sufficiently. I tightened it mydamnself this time. Unfortunately, we did NOT wrestle the startling high CHTs down. I went through the continuum of mixtures on our test drive, no, nothing, nada would help. Rallyubug, you are now under the Itinerant Air-Cooled Guaranteed Results umbrella, that means we fix this or you don't pay. I like Salt Lake City, I'll do it.
We ended the day with a stunning shish-ka-bob and a beer, and I said,
"Well, guess I am going to Sacramento now." Such a pleasure to see this family, such a disappointment that Harvee The Bus isn't quite ready for prime time ... but you just wait til next visit. It will be a dedicated and focused attack (with your new flaps and cable and thermostat and pulley).
Salt Lake has a lot of salt:
Guess what? My inverter is saying that battery voltage is dropping too far to run this piggy illuminated keyboard laptop and spiffy new wifi hotspot, we'll continue this tomorrow night.
(to be cont)
viewtopic.php?f=78&t=13878#p233409
Just up from Salt Lake City:
And here we are, at rallybug appointment in Salt Lake City's northern burbs, painting his freshly opened timing scale after an amazing piece of toast. I mean it, it was a great piece of toast that once again reminds me that modern store-bought food is just so very very blah:
As planned, we drew his son into the day's festivities:
As grown-ups, we quickly determined that he is not quite ready for the real wrench-twisting.
"Do you want to play with me, my transformers, please?"
"No. we have to work, sorry."
Rallybug child one and two drifted in and out of our work area as we removed each push rod tube and installed green "Viton" seals, and I got to watch poor rallybug learn how to assemble rocker arms and stands and serpentine spring and washers and nuts with just about one hand
And we did work. We adjusted the hydraulic lifter preload in the 100* heat with nary a complaint. Mrs. Rallybug plied us with water. Hey look, do you see a possible oil leak here? That is exactly how the valve cover came off the engine ... :
Our test drive turned out to be a fascinating exercise in pluck. At a stop light, we noticed that the engine note had a new clatter. Based on the rapidity with which this clatter had arisen and was getting more nasty, I suggested that we pull over immediately. 100* day, 300* heads, valve cover off, discovered that #3 exhaust locknut had escaped and the adjustment screw was well on its way to following. Got it all back together, I praised myself for being insistent, hopped into the driver's seat, pulled out onto the thoroughfare and pulled smartly onto the onramp, where an unholy racket re-ensued and the engine started sounding distressed. We killed it right there on the onramp. No shade. 100* day. Hot oil. Car tilted to the left. WTF'sville. "No tow this time, rallybug," I swore. No more of that nonsense with this 1979 bus.
It was the same #3 exhaust. I leapt to crazy conclusions like, the rocker arm must be stripped out. But, no, in fact, the locknut had again not been tightened sufficiently. I tightened it mydamnself this time. Unfortunately, we did NOT wrestle the startling high CHTs down. I went through the continuum of mixtures on our test drive, no, nothing, nada would help. Rallyubug, you are now under the Itinerant Air-Cooled Guaranteed Results umbrella, that means we fix this or you don't pay. I like Salt Lake City, I'll do it.
We ended the day with a stunning shish-ka-bob and a beer, and I said,
"Well, guess I am going to Sacramento now." Such a pleasure to see this family, such a disappointment that Harvee The Bus isn't quite ready for prime time ... but you just wait til next visit. It will be a dedicated and focused attack (with your new flaps and cable and thermostat and pulley).
Salt Lake has a lot of salt:
Guess what? My inverter is saying that battery voltage is dropping too far to run this piggy illuminated keyboard laptop and spiffy new wifi hotspot, we'll continue this tomorrow night.
(to be cont)