Our Travel Blog
Since all of the rigs at Overlanders Oasis had their hoods up with odd jobs being done, we thought we would take the time to adjust the valves on the diesel.
With wrenches and feeler gauges in hand we dove into our first valve adjustment on the Wee Rover’s new diesel motor, although we probably can’t call the motor new anymore!
An hour, or so, later all of the valves had been adjusted, and rechecked. And most important, the motor started right up and purrs like a kitten.
Prior to heading into Mexico we stocked up on a few spare parts for the Wee Rover’s diesel motor; oil filters, fuel filters, etc.. One of the items was a set of seals for the used turbo on the motor.
After travelling from Oregon, down the length of Baja, and traversing the mountains of mainland Mexico, the seals on the old turbo began to leak a bit of oil. Every so often we would leave a small white cloud, or a small puddle of oil (even by Land Rover standards!)
So, we arrived outside of Oaxaca to “Overlanders Oasis”, our latest camp spot, and we find a true overlander’s oasis. Calvin, the owner, noticed the few drops of oil, and he asked about it. After a quick talk, Calvin, states, ‘my turbo guy can install those seals if you want’.
So, we pulled the turbo, and a neighbor, Antonio, was gracious enough to offer us a ride to drop off and pick up the turbo. The next morning the new seals had been installed, and the turbo was ready to go back in!
Who knew that diesels don’t produce their own vacuum to help power the brakes. We didn’t!
Our new motor has an added vacuum pump that creates some vacuum…we needed more.
As we drive into La Paz, Baja, we see the big orange Home Depot sign and stop in to get the components to fabricate a DIY vacuum tank!
We broke out the Swiss army knife and drilled a hole for the brass fitting and cemented everything together. We spliced the new DIY storage tank into the brake booster line. And voila lots of extra vacuum to power our brakes!
The Wee Rover is much happier now because after updating the throttle cable in the last blog she just wanted to go, go, go! We wanted to be able to slow her down and brake, brake, brake!!
Now we should be all set for our next adventure!
Just added an “oil catch can” to the valve cover vent circuit. Normally the Benz venting goes into the air filter, since we didn’t use the Benz system we added the $18 amazon system and it works great, no more puff of oil smoke on start up!
Yesterday, we spent a chilly day at ReInvent the Wheel working out a few bugs, changing out the break-in oil and hooking up my new diesel heater (no more chilly toes no matter what the season! Thanks to Richard from the Alaskan Ferry who suggested the heater!)
So, today we were back to putting down some more break-in miles for the next oil change. Since the sun was shining, a rare occurance in Oregon this time of year, we decided to head down Rt. 199 to Crescent City, CA, a round trip of 160 miles. We chose this route because it had a nice elevation change and a variety of speed changes. We started in Grants pass at 960ft, went up to the Collier Tunnel through, you guessed it, Collier Mountain at 2,000ft, down the other side to the ocean at 15ft and back to Grants Pass. The Wee Rover and her new motor hummed right along. We only belched out a bit of smoke on the way up to the pass doing 55 in overdrive.
Tidbit: Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park also know as Forest Moon of Endor (home of the Ewoks) is where Return of the Jedi was filmed, well the Ewok portion anyway.
Wow! Just Wow!
I didn’t realize just how conditioned I had become to dreading, scoping, planning, and grabbing momentum for every uphill.
The Wee Rover now just wants to pull and pull. Granted we still haven’t put her back together into traveling form so she was very svelte, but Wow! I found myself jabbing the throttle on the hills just to feel her jump forward.
More to follow as we settle in with the new motor.
Next up, 200 miles of breaking in, and her first oil change.
Tidbit: Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!