|
Assessing the Damage:
Sleep in.
Right... Although the ear plugs held tight against the noise of cars on
the nearby street, late-arriving campers bumbling about in the Orchard
as they set up their tents, and (I'm pretty sure), some impromptu
fireworks displays, I was fully awakened just before dawn by some small
animal attempting to scratch it's way into the tent. It took me only
about 2/10 of a second to realize that I had food in there with me, and
that I may have to take some defensive action. I picked up the
flashlight to cosh the creature over the head if it gained entry, but
after trying a few tentative scratches on the other wall, it gave up and
wandered off to better pickin's. I never did figure out what it was, a
racoon (grrr, I hate 'em), a cat or something else.
Now completely awake, and a little excited by
the event, I was unable to do much more than lay in bed and wish for
sleep, and finally gave up about a quarter to five. Dressed, ate some
granola, made a cup of tea and formulated the day's plan.
Met up with Jennifer on my way to put the car
back on the charger, and inquired about auto parts stores. Got some
directions and got to work preparing for the day's mechanical challenges.
Moved the car over to "EV Alley", near the main entrance, and
plugged the car's charger into the gird-intertied photovoltaic power
system, running the utility meter up a bit so that there would be
something for the meter reader to count all of the PV watts against.
In the Pavilion building, I met up with Justin
and Peter from Grease
Works in Corvallis. They were putting in some time as Fair
volunteers as trade for their booth space, so I put them to work helping
me move a heavy folding table out to the EV and Pusher, explaining on
the way the events of the previous day.
Darren arrived after his breakfast with the HP
Crew, and delivered his pop-up canopy and several folding camp chairs.
By now, it was getting on 8:30, and I decided
it was time enough to find out what kind of machine shop facilities John
Day had. I rode my bike down to Main St., then west, looking for the
NAPA auto parts store. Once there, I inquired about machine shop
services, particularly cylinder head milling. Mark, the machinist, said
no problem, bring in the head and he'd check it out and see if it was
repairable. The shop had the proper milling machine to service the
diesel head, one that uses stones instead of machine steel cutters.
Before leaving, I purchased a container of Orange pumice hand cleaner.
One the way back to the fairgrounds, I stopped
at King's variety store. Last night I had realized that although I could
probably stay fairly clean while doing the work on the engine because
the motor was new and the engine compartment had been thoroughly steam
cleaned and scrubbed, even the smallest grease spots would ruin the
clean white T-shirts that I had packed for the trip. All of these shirts
were "special" with logos or other decorations that would make
them impossible to replace once dirtied by crankcase oil. At Kings, I
bought a pack of three white T-shirts with no decorations. I would be
able to stay cool in the white fabric, and not have to worry about oily
spots.
Back at the car, I began removing the intake
and exhaust manifolds, the timing belt cover and timing belt, and all of
the injector lines.
Not too much
after I started, Jacques arrived in the Grass
Car, a 1982 VW Jetta Diesel, which he had completely covered in
Astroturf. Of course, the Grass Car was running on Biodiesel, and
Jacques was selling "Greasy Guerrilla" T-shirts with the
no-derrick logo on them. Jacques was a very important part of the 2001
SolWest trip, as he served as my chase vehicle on the return trip and
provided my ride home after the car broke down for the final time in
Mitchell.
The morning progressed, and I continued to tear
down the stricken engine. I fully expected to find that the head would
have large cracks in the combustion cylinders, but once I got it off and
set it upside down on the table, I was unable to see any damage at all.
Even the small cracks between the intake and exhaust valves which all
VW diesels have were unchanged from when I rebuilt the head only 1,500
miles previous. I could see where combustion pressure had been forcing
it's way past the head gasket and into the coolant galleries, but
otherwise, it looked repairable.
It was a little before noon, and I wanted to
get the head down to the machine shop so Mark could check it out. I
considered that I would strap it to the back of my bicycle and ride it
down, but was offered a ride instead.
At NAPA, Mark looked at the head, and measured
about .008" of warp, not a lot, but enough to require milling. He
told me he'd get right on it after lunch, and that I could pick it up
anytime after 4PM. Before leaving the store, I checked on the availability
of a replacement head gasket and head bolts. Neither were available
locally, so another option would be needed.
Just as I was returning to the car at the
fairgrounds, Justin came up telling me "Here, you'll need
these", and handed me a set of camshaft and injection pump timing
tools. Although it would be possible to do this job without these
specialized tools, having them would make the job much easier and more
accurate. When Justin learned that I had not been able to get a head
gasket at the parts store, be made a call back home, and arranged to
have Robert and Mark, who were just about to leave Corvallis for John
Day, pick up the gasket and bolts before they left the valley.
With the
cylinder head being serviced, parts on their way from afar, and a strong
desire to eat lunch, I went over to the Kawanis booth and ordered a
veggie-cheeseburger. Although the burger was tasty, I still can't figure
out why they don't offer tomato slices or sprouts to dress up the
sandwich. Geez, even lettuce would help a little.
Back at the car with my meal, the helpful
fellows at Energy Outfitters came over to let me know that while I was
away, the front tire on my bicycle had suffered a spontaneous blowout.
Oh great, another project.
With several hours to consume waiting for the
cylinder head to be finished, I began cleaning up the parts I had
removed from the engine, scraping the remnants of head gasket off of the
block, and doing whatever preparations I could for the reassembly.
The fair had opened to the public at 11AM, and
as usual, the Pusher got it's share of attention from the attendees. As
I was mostly consumed with mechanical chores, I was a bit more reserved
than usual, and I kind of think that there were fewer people coming by,
at least fewer that I noticed. I had the feeling that the whole EV/Pusher
thing seemed a little less convincing as a viable means of transport,
since I was obviously having to work on it in the middle of showing it.
Several folks that I had met last year came by to say "Hi" and
see the changes to the trailer that had occurred since our last meeting.
Around 4PM, I got another ride back to the
machine shop to pick up the head. Total cost was $32 (including a hot
tank cleaning). Justin and Peter were there, and had found a replacement
intake manifold gasket, as I had damaged a corner of the one on the car
while removing it. On the way back to SolWest, I stopped again at Kings,
and bought an inner tube for my bike tire. I'd be lost without my
wheels, walking is too time consuming, and I was making quite a few
trips into town to pick up supplies.
Several
additional vehicles had joined EV Alley, including a VW Caddy (pickup),
a Mercedes and a newer Ford F-250 turbo diesel, both running on straight
vegetable oil. Gray, the owner of the truck had struck up a conversation
with Jacques, and the two of them talked me into attending dinner with
them at "The Snaffle Bit", supposedly the most posh restaurant
in the area. It would be several more hours before Robert and Mark
arrived with the head gasket, and as the day was wearing down, I began
loading loose parts into the trunk of the Pusher, putting away tools and
cleaning up for the last time.
Jacques and Gray were in the Grass Car with the
engine running, while I washed the oil off of my hands when a fellow
came up and asked about the Pusher. I gave him the quick "This is
an EV, and that trailer provides ground traction to push it forward, and
I'm just about to leave for dinner, come back and visit again tomorrow,
excuse me" rap, and left to join the hungry diners in the car.
After we got underway, I found out that the guy was Joshua Tickell, the
author of From the Fryer to the Fuel Tank, which is considered to
be the bible of Biodiesel. Tickell is himself referred to as the
"Father of Biodiesel". Great, I just brushed off a patron
saint of renewable energy.
The Grass
Car attracted lots of attention out on the street, including a wave from
the Grant County Sheriff. At the restaurant, we found that they were
packed, with names on the reservation list. Gray suggested that we make
a reservation for Saturday so we would be assured of getting in
for a meal. We drove back into John Day, and instead went into the
Outpost Cafe, which was surprisingly uncrowded. Gray was concerned that
he would have problems finding "California Cuisine", but he
was more than satisfied to order a garden and chicken wrap sandwich. A
glass of Black Butte Porter with my fish & chips. As we were
finishing up, a group of familiar SolWest faces crowded into the restaurant
and filled a couple of tables. My impression is that the local economy
gets a pretty big boost from the SolWest fair, lots of tourist dollars
out on the street all at once. It's impossible to find an available
motel room this weekend.
As was
getting to be the norm for this event, showered at Darren's room, then
loitered at the HP suite for a little while before returning to the
fairgrounds. While passing the Pavilion building, I spotted Justin and
friends inside, and so I rode in to visit with them for a bit. They were
having a conversation with Josh Tickell, and he was asking them pretty
common questions like: " How many gallons are you reacting a
week?" and "Where do you get your feedstock?" After each
answer, he'd reply with a "Right on!" or "That's
Awesome!". I kind of wondered why someone who had been doing
Biodiesel for so many years would be so excited to hear about the
mundane workings of a small co-op's system. It occurred to me that Josh
was acting as the spokesman, pumping these guys up with his enthusiasm.
There was nothing disingenuous about his attitude, he really
seemed to enjoy putting some inertia into the Grease Works crew by being
interested in what they were doing.
Back at the
Orchard, "Margaritaville", the camp lounge (although we call
it "The Bar", it's BYOB), was in full swing with live music
broadcast over Jon's Radio Free SolWest at micropower on 96.1MHz. I
stayed for a few minutes and watched the festivities, then headed over
to my tent. Since I should be accustomed to the camp, and the Pusher
progress had been adequate so as to not concern my slumber, I looked
forward to catching up on some ZZZ's. The earplugs went in and the
lights went out.
|
