Re: The Commute From Hell!

[Curt Cleavinger <curt_cleavinger@domain.elided>]

John A. Landry wrote:
> 
> Well, it was my turn this morning for the commute from hell!
 This must be the day for it!

> 
> Why is it that an engine will never fail right as you pull into your
> driveway?  Any one have any ideas?
Do the two idle circuits share an air bleed? Did your air/fuel guage
tell you anything while it was acting up?

Here's mine:

 Today at lunch I had to do a few things (dropped off the Travelall
headers at UPS to send them to HPC to have ceramic/metallic coating
applied). I was driving the Travelall, which has maybe 50-70 miles
on it since the rebuild. On the way back, I went through the 
McDonalds drivethrough for some lunch. After I got my food, I was
idling in the left turn lane to turn back toward work when smoke 
started gushing from under the hood - I thought my new engine had
just exploded. First things first - shut it off so I won't do any more 
damage than is already done. A second look confirmed that it was 
steam not smoke. But I replaced all of the radiator hoses when I 
did the rebuild. Get out - there's a river of anifreeze flowing into 
the gutter. Pop the hood, and see that the engine side of the upper 
radiator hose has pulled off of it's fitting. I didn't even have
a screwdriver with me to loosen and retighten the hose clamp - 
STUPID!! During this time quite a line of people has backed up
behind me, and they aren't looking very happy. I looked around
for a place to get it out of the way - there's a spot across
the street, but I'll have to go over a curb. No way I'll be able
to push it. Oh well, it's not going to heat up enough to do damage
instantly. Get in and crank it... and crank it... Get out, (an 
even longer line of cars) pull off the top of the air cleaner, move 
the throttle - there's fuel coming out of the accellerator pump
squirters. Get back in, pump the gas pedal for a while. Crank it 
again. It starts! Back up across the oncoming lane over the curb 
into a dirt lot. OK, I can relax a bit, since the line of cars 
isn't waiting on me any more. Sit and eat my food and try to relax.
 Luckily, there was a grocery store not too far away. So I walked 
over, bought two gallons of antifreeze, two gallons of distilled 
water, and a way overpriced screwdriver. Walk back to the Travelall.
Reattach the radiator hose, and dump all 4 gallons of liquid into 
the radiator (damn, how much does the cooling system hold anyway?).
Check the level - still a bit low, but not low enough for another 
walk back to the store. Get in, and start it up - seems OK, temp 
not too bad. Drive back to work.
I survived. 
Time to assemble an emergency tools/spares/fluids kit for the 
Travelall.
 
later,         curt_cleavinger@domain.elided  Louisville, CO
  Curt         Binder Bunch: http://www.off-road.com/~jweed/binder.htm
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