Well, yesterday Marty the Diesel Mechanic finished the turbo unit and Michelle and I headed North on I-25 out of Fort Collins. You wouldn't believe the Smoke Screen behind us as as the oil burned off out of the Intake side of the fixed turbo and the residual oil left in the Exhaust dissipated. It was like Q from James Bond hooked up our bus with some gadgetry. I was sure we'd get pulled over if a cop saw us, but 20 miles later it burned off and as we flew under the radar and up the freeway.
Now that we polished, cleaned, and de-watered the 1/4 tank of veggie oil we had left I thought it do the trick. I thought all I needed was a good run to heat up the oil system and it would work again but but apparently that wasn't the case, because when I tried to switch from Diesel to SVO (straight veggie oil) nothing happened save for that annoying loss of power that I'm all too familiar with. I pulled over to change the Veggie filter and try to purge the line of "bad oil" to fix the problem but nothing would come through. After about 30-45min on the side of an exit I came to the conclusion the line was clogged. Not something I choose to fix on the side of the road.
The other thing that bothered me was that it seems that when Marty the Diesel Mechanic adjusted the bus's governor he must have moved it the wrong way because top speed downhill is now 53mph and up hill we're down in the 30's. we're averaging 45mph on a level surface and that's not right at all. We had a top speed of 60 prior to the repair. I watched a few youtube videos and attempted to fix it myself, but I think the governor is topped out and the problem is the turbo not winding up enough. I'm getting 3000rpm out of the engine, but not a good top speed, so I need another Diesel Mechanic to fix the problem.
The Good News is we found an RV park that can handle all 70ft of this train, the bad news is it's Labor Day Weekend and nothing will be open till Tuesday. It's nice to have power, water, sewer, showers, and laundry again, and I can fix the veggie problem here. So it's 3 days of rest, cleaning, fixing and laundry until we hit the road again on Tuesday to find a diesel mechanic and a full tank of veggie oil.
It's only 8hrs (10hrs for us) to Twin Falls, Idaho and another 8 to Kennewick to hang out with Raven. I haven't seen her since last summer so I can't wait! 2 more long legs of this journey and we'll be in Kennewick WA with only a 4hr drive to Seattle. The end is near and we're past the point of no return so It's all down hill from here... Well we are at over 6000 ft above sea level so it truly is downhill.
Bummer!! So sorry to hear you keep getting pooped on with problems. But at least this gives you a few days to chill! I sincerely hope the problems get solved quickly. If you're going to be passing through Vancouver WA on your way through, I would absolutely love to see you guys! Let me know!
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