Date: Mon, 24 Jun 2002 23:46:22 EDT
Reply-To: RAlanen@AOL.COM
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Frank Condelli <RAlanen@AOL.COM>
Subject: Buses By Ther Falls report
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="ISO-8859-1"
Buses By The Falls was good for everyone but me ! Some 40 buses
showed up from NJ, NY, MA, MI, IL, NV, ON and QC. I left home early Friday
morning planning a leisurely ride down with an ETA of noon ! Ha ! About an
hour away from Niagara on the brand new Hwy 407, the short coolant hose from
the plastic distributor to the main coolant line burst. By the time I saw
the pegged needle and began hauling the van down from the 140 clicks I was
doing and got over to the berm the buzzer was buzzing, and oil and temp lites
flashing wildly and well you get the picture. It's now 11:45 and hot as hell
out. Unpacking all the luggage and parts took a while and happy for the Bus
Depot HD struts that were able to hold the hatch open with the two bikes on
there. I finally get inside to have a look at the smoke and steam. Does not
look good. First thoughts were "Well, there goes my 350,000 km original
engine" had to come eventually, eh ? Crawl underneath with a rainsuit on
to protect my nice new BusFusion 2002 T-shirt and peer up at that dam burst
short piece of hose. Now what to do........McGuyver where are you ? Tried
to tape up the hole but no luck in getting the tabe around the hose, to much
crap in the way. Then I remember the hose clamps in the tool box. Just need
some sort of patch that can be held by the hose clamps. Almost cut up my
floor mats when I see the old plastic oil can I use for a funnel. Cut a
strip of plastic from the oil can, clamp it around the trashed hose and viola
! Add water and away we go ! Well, yes away we go after a half hour filling
the system with water from the Westy water tank. When I start adding the
water it steams pretty badly and I hear creaks and crack. OH NO, too hot for
cold water maybe. There's no coolant at all left in the system.
Finally get it filled, restarted and off the next exit to a service
station to have a proper hose fitted. Upon restarting there's an oil leak
that is not evident of source. Since it's only about and hour from the camp
ground I decide to run for it and deal with it there. Made it to Buses by
the Falls at 3 pm. Three hours out of schedule. Not too bad. Saturday I
decide to drop the crazy pan that covers the push rod tubes and see if I can
find the oil leak. Turns out it's the plastic line to my oil pressure gauge.
Got toasted and spewing oil all over the place. The hole being six inches
from the end was good so I cut it short and luckily I had left enough slack
when installing the line to make the new connection after spending an hour
reaming out the old ferrule.
Get it started after reconnecting the oil line and find clouds of
white smoke coming from the exhaust and coolant coming from the rear lower
exhaust flange bolt I removed to get the stupid push rod cover pan off.
CRACKED HEAD TIME ! Oh yea, that's good ! Now what. Call the tow truck !
No, not yet, I'm not giving up on my 350,00 km engine. Go to Canadian Tire
and get some coolant system sealer that claims to plug up small cracks in
heads ! Oh yea, right. Well, surprise, surprise as a gang of us stood
around and watched as the stop leak was poured in the smoke miraculously
stopped. Ha ! Couldn't believe it ! Bled the system and filled it with
fresh coolant and was ready to go.
Not so fast, the Saturday nite door prize draw was yet to come. I
missed all the rest of the days activities. So off to the door prize draw.
Gave a short spiel about the IWCCCs Madeleine Island Rendezvous coming up in
August 2003 and then was given the Buses By The Falls Hardluck Award. A nice
bottle of Canadian Club with two glasses ! Went to sleep with sweet dreams
that night. Thanks Jamie.
So got to meet Listee Joel Court after years of List communication.
Pretty far out meeting someone after communicating for years. Good to meet
you Joel. Hope you made it home safely.
Sunday was the June Jitter Bug Show and off we went on a test drive.
Just far enough away from the campsite to give a test of possibility of
making it back to Almonte. Luckily my bud Don Hector with his Eurovan from
up my way showed up Saturday and he offered to be my rescue and tag along.
We left the Jitter Bug Show and some 400 VWs around 4pm and made it back home
by 9 without anymore problems. Whew ! Now what ? Don't know ? Motor is
still running, seems to have the same power it had before but the temp gauge
is higher than it was before. Maybe a toasted sensor as has been suggested
by many. I'm seriously thinking it's new engine time soon. There was a
Tiico engined Vanagon at the Jitter Bug Show, first one I ever saw and it
sure looks good. Maybe that's what's next !
Cheers
Frank Condelli
Almonte, Ontario, Canada
<A HREF="http://members.aol.com/BusFusion/bfhome.htm">BusFusion</A> a VW Camper camping event, Almonte, ON, May 30, 31, June 1, 2, 2002
'87 Westy & Lionel Trains
Member: <A HREF="http://www.vanagon.com/">Vanagon List</A>, <A HREF="http://www.bcn.net/~limbo/">LiMBO</A>, <A HREF="http://www.westfalia.qc.ca/CIW_English.asp">IWCCC</A> & Capital City VW Club
Vanagon/Vanagon Westfalia Service in the Ottawa Valley
<A HREF="http://members.aol.com/Fkc43/stebro.htm">STEBRO/Vanagon Stainless Steel Mufflers</A>
<A HREF="http://members.aol.com/Fkc43/busindex.html">Frank Condelli & Associates</A> or http://frankcondelli.com
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