Jude and I recently returned from our first big trip. Our outfit is a gas/petrol Maverick and Jayco Eagle Outback. Our route was from
Melbourne to Ayres Rock, Kings canyon,
Alice Springs and back home via the
Oodnadatta Track and
Wilpena Pound. Prior to the trip I did everything to the car. New clutch, brakes, tyres, repacked the bearings, new shocks, points, condensor etc. Had it dynoed 2 day before we left to make sure that everything was in tune. My neighbour who is a mechanic did the dyno and said that it spat a little
water out through the overflow when on the dyno. Not good, but not uncommon. I was a little uneasy about it but it was only 2 days before we were due to leave so I took the gamble and took off. The weather was crappy with very strong head winds and the poor old bus was struggling. Overnight at Keith and when I checked the
water the next morning, it was very low needing about 3 or 4 litres. The overflow bottle was again full and I knew things were not right. It hadn't overheated so we kept going. Battled through the
Adelaide hills and as we were heading towards Salisbury it started to overheat at some roadworks. Pulled into a garage and filled the radiator again. By this time I was starting to feel sick. I knew that we were in trouble. We pushed on to our next stop where in desperation I put in a can of chemiweld. This I did at the caravan
park which is not the most ideal place. It was getting dark and only having a torch you can imagine the fun I had draining the
water etc. Because of where I was I had to cut corners a little as sitting there running it for 20 minutes would have had the neighbours up in arms so I went for a drive. Packed up in the windy wet the next morning and pushed on with everything crossed. Stopped for morning tea and checked the
water. Things seemed OK so I was a little happier although deep down, I was still not convinced. Got to Pt Agusta and things were back to normal. Radiator down and overflow full. This time I knew that something would have to be done. Went to see the local 4WD specialist in town and as I started to explain what was happening, he just smiled and nodded. He knew what was wrong, (I did too just didn't want to admit it). He said that it was a head gasket, corroded head, or both. This was on Tuesday and he couldn't look at it until next week. Now I felt really good. This was 3 days into our 4 weeks. He put me onto another mechanic and he told me basically the same thing. Lucily we had taken out RACV Extra Care so we rang them and within 15 minutes the RAA service van was there. We followed him back to the workshop and he confirmed that it had oxygen in the
water. Luckily (I guess) he had a complete machine
shop so the job could be done in house. The RACV/RAA were fantastic and within a very short time we had our hire car and were back at the van having several beers thinking what a great start to our long awaited adventure. The dreaded phone call came the next afternoon with the damage. It needed a complete overhaul of the head which included new valves, guides and seats, a new radiator and every hose replaced. $2620, 3 days lost, and we were back on the road. We had to re hash our itinerary but other than the hip pocket not to much damage done. The bus performed flawlessy from then on (so it bloody should have) until
Cadney park on the way home. As there was no gas available along the
Oodnadatta Track, I filled up both tanks at
Marla. As I was leaving
Marla I switched to petrol. I ran it a few days earlier and everything was running OK. It ran like a dog. I had just pulled out onto the highway and the thing wouldn't go. I couldn't even get over 30KPH. I new it was a fuel blockage as it wasn't the first time it had happened. I wanted to run it on petrol from
Marla to
Cadney Park as I wasn't sure if there was gas available there. The only way she would run was to open the second barrell as the blockage was in the primary circuit. It ran ok when the second throat opened so I managed to maintain a reasonable speed for about 30 k. I finally had enough of watching the fuel gauge drop at an alarming rate and switched back to gas. Got to
Cadney Park and as it turned out they had gas. Pulled the carby off and cleaned it out as good as I could under the circumstances. Re fitted it and it seemed to be OK. Took the gamble and headed off through
the painted desert the next morning. It was fine except it still had a blockage in the idle circuit but I could live with that. It just idled like a bucket of crap. We did 740k on petrol and except for the idle it ran
well.
The trip was fantastic putting our dramas aside. The country that we live in is quite remarkable with the most unexpected things in the middle of nowhere. The Oodndatta track was fascinating with the old Ghan
ruins and history along the way.
Coward Springs camp ground is amazing with the best and cleanest drop dunnies I have ever seen. I could go on forever but I just thought you might like to read about the dramas that can happen from time to time. Although ours was only minimal compared to a couple we spoke to at Kings Canyon. They were stuck in
Renmark for 3 weeks and left $8000 poorer. (Nissan 2.8 T/D) We were lucky. The van performed faultlessy (something had to) except for when the hatch opened itself (i'm sure I closed it) along the dirt road into
the Painted Desert and filled it with red dust. Jude was not happy. Regards, Glenn n Jude