Its busy time of year, and I'll respect your time and try to stay brief today. The mountain got a ton of snow last weekend, but I didn't make it up there. I spent some time with the bus, but no snow :( Sorry for the lack of pictures.
Turbo Turbo'ing
The bus hasn't been producing the power I expected, especially on hills. I kept battling a very short section of pipe in the charged-air circuit falling out at one end. The pipe didn't have any kind of a barb on it. So, it was held on basically through the friction of the pipe clamp through the rubber on the pipe. When you figure that some oil makes it into the intake system, you can see why it kept separating. I found a 4" long pipe (including the barbing) at ACE Hardware that fit perfectly. The rubber sections had sufficient straight sections that I could adjust the depth of the new section of pipe within it. A simple application of the pipe clamps and the system is well contained now. Test driving, however, was stymied by the battery needing a charge. So, when I moved out of the rental townhouse, I left garage-life behind. This means that finding something as simple as a battery charger is not so simple... so getting back on the road took more than just a couple days.
Leak Leak Leak
I dare not look back through this blog to see how long I've struggled with the coolant leak, nor how many hours I've been frustrated by it. I didn't check my coolant level before driving off to work this morning. I should have. The temperature rose no more quickly than any other day. The heat through the defroster cleared the morning mist from the windscreen, and I was genuinely enjoying the drive. That is, until the temperature hit and passed 190*. The fans were on, but the temperature continued to climb. Once it hit 200*, I pulled into a parking lot and topped off the coolant. The drive home had another adventure I'll get to in a minute, but when I parked in the old covered spot, I could see a trail of coolant drops, telling me that the challenges I've had trying to get the coolant temperature sensor in right will continue. I'm ready to call Justin. I just can't lose any more hours to getting that c-clip, o-ring and sensor to play well together.
Not Limp Mode, Just Limping
A funny thing happens when the drive-by-wire signal from the accelerator doesn't make it to the computer. The engine drops into a funky state and limits at 1200 RPM. If 1 wire doesn't carry a signal, its okay, but if more than 1 fails, we drop into 1200. I had this happen a few times before I messed around with the wiring up front. I thought I blogged about that, but I can't find the posting. I did it when I was swapping out the transaxle at MS' house. It seems the other end (near the computer) needs to be fixed as I had "drop into 1200" issues. One more thing to address in the parking lot.
That's it for today. I'll probably be reaching out to Justin to help with that leak. I just can't deal with it any more.... and seeing the coolant drips on the ground is starting to get to me. Thanks for following along, and I'll post something more positive next time. Honest! :)
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