When a Deal isn't a Deal: The saga continues...
Hi OH!
Fellow Steemians in Steemit Nation!
Remember my post 3 months back about the Lemon, er, I mean Suburban, I bought thinking I was getting a good deal?
When a Deal isn't a Deal
Well, @mobile-joat fixed the transmission and gave it a tune up and everything ran great. My family and I drove it up to Wisconsin for our Thanksgiving get together and drove it back to Arkansas with no problems at all.
Well, almost no problems at all.
I noticed I was leaking engine coolant on the way back. Not because I saw it dripping or smelt it burning on the hot engine, but because I try to make it a habit to check my vehicles fluids while gassing up, especially on long trips. I noticed that the coolant reservoir was low after the first fill up on the way back. I topped it off and checked it again on the second fill up of the trip. Low again. But nothing was leaking out onto the ground so I figured there was some kind of internal leak. The gas mileage wasn't adversely affected and the engine wasn't emitting any unusual smoke out of the exhaust, so I figured it wasn't a big deal. I would just have to have @mobile-joat take a looksie at it once we got back.
Well, after a few days back, @allforthegood needed to run into town to get some supplies and she took the Suburban. She called me shortly after she left and said she noticed the temperature of the engine starting to rise so she pulled over to the side of the road. I drove my truck over to her with some extra coolant and checked the reservoir.
Sho' nuff, it was bone dry.
I cautiously opened the radiator cap and couldn't see any coolant in the radiator either. Not Good. This gave me pause for concern, but I figured the vehicle could make it to town and back after I topped everything off again. After all, it did just make it back after a 1500 mile trip, what could another 20 some odd miles do to it? So I sent @allforthegood off on her merry way and went back home to continue getting work done on the homestead.
Not more than 10 minutes later I got another call from her saying that the Burb' started running rough going up a major hill on hwy 7 and then unexpectedly shut down on her. Thankfully, she was able to steer it to the only possible shoulder available on this 1 mile stretch of steep and narrow road and waited for me to come and help. I arrived 15 minutes later and attempted to start it. It didn't want to start, not in the least. Finally, after the 12th attempt, with the battery growing weaker with every cycle of the ignition the engine fired up and I was able to drive it to the top of the hill. The Burb' ran just long enough to make it to a safe side road before it died off on me too.
Now, I don't want to be sensational here, but the sequence of events had to have been Providentially orchestrated. Mildly miraculous, if you ask me. I know God was watching over us, because there wasn't any place on that hill to pull over to get a trailer in front of a broken down vehicle. The only place to pull over was already occupied by the vehicle. Which happened to shut off right before that lone spot to pull over was reached. Stalling anywhere else would have blocked traffic on a narrow 2 lane road. If it didn't start, getting it towed would have been extremely hazardous. But it did. It shut off at just the right spot, and it started and ran just long enough to get out of that spot and onto safer ground. It was totally a "God Moment." IMO.
I jumped back into my truck (since my wife had followed behind me) and we went back home to grab the car-hauler trailer. I came back with the help of a neighbor (@papa-pepper) and got the Burb' onto the trailer, strapped down, and hauled back home.
@mobile-joat was a busy man and couldn't get to my project for a few months. But, when he did, he found the culprit after tearing the whole top of the engine apart! Needless to say, but the engine coolant wasn't burning in the cylinders or leaking onto the ground.
No, it was leaking into the engine oil! Causing a huge, MUCKY, GUNKY, mess!
It leaked because one tiny section of the manifold gasket had ruptured.
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Just take a look at these pictures!
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@mobile-joat cleaned it up and put it all back together, getting the Burb' up and running once again.
Thanks Bro!
This post is already getting pretty long, so I will save the rest of the pictures for another day, possibly.
Hopefully, this Lemon can be squeezed a bit and make some sweet lemonade for our family before anything else goes wrong with it. I'm actually quite shocked at how bad of shape the internal parts of this vehicle were. Just goes to show...
Thanks for Reading!
As Always,
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Wow, that's nuts. How do you 'get it all cleaned up'? You have to get all that gunky old oil out, right? How did you do that? Shop vac? Lots of moist towelettes?
Puddy knife, screw driver, degreaser, more degreaser, more puddy knife.... An grease rags. LOTS OF GREASE RAGS!!! Lol an a shop vac
Q-tips, I do believe. I'm not a mechanic, so I'm pretty sure I'm right.
A kerosine bath with a pump helps a lot if you have one,[give me a yell if you want to know how we made ours]
Yelp.
We used a 44 gal steel drum (50 gal), cut in half lengthwise so the little hole was at the bottom.
Weld some scrap to make the legs, top of the drum about waist height.
Weld a small sized heavy steel mesh over one end, Make Sure the end is smooth or it will bite every time you use it.
From the small bung at the bottom of the drum plum ( by steel fittings or hose) to a coarse filter.
Mount a small wobble pump( used to pump fuel/ oil out of drums, has about 45 degrees of movement left and right, will pump with each movement) sideways so the handle goes up and down,
Spring load the handle so it is up.
Posision the pump so one foot can pump the handle down, the spring will bring the handle up again
Lead the outlet to a handy length of hose.
Half/ threequater fill the bath/ drum with kero. Put the dirty bits in the open end to soak.
One at a time, put the part on the mesh where you can scrub/ poke at it, at the same time pump the foot giving a flow of kero to wash the stuff away.
The faster you pump the greater flow/ pressure at the end of the hose.
I have seen some with a small tube fitted in the outlet for cleaning oilways.
The kero will discolour quickly, but it will still wash, even when it is blacker than your boots.
A suitable electric pump has been used, but there is no variation in the outlet and you have a good chance of washing yourself.
If I havent explained anything properly, give me a yell and we will try again
I'd say the main miracle is that this didn't happen on your way back from Wisconsin with the family along and so far away. With major repairs, it's good to keep it local. Glad all's well!
Hello neighbor, I east of you over in TN. Enjoyed the post. About 4 years ago I bought a good deal on CL. After rebuilding the front end it runs and drives great.
Tennessee was an option for us when we were looking to relocate from Wisconsin. Where abouts is your homestead?
About 1 hour south of Nashville
Nice engine job.
Arrrrrrghhhhhh, that engine part is really murky.
Thank God you solved the problem
SO sorry for this... vehicle issues and their mechanical can really create a HUGE problem in any household. We've had our fair share of roadside breakdowns and I feel for you all.
Shoot: you really dodged a bullet.
you are a person who is disciplined in driving. that's important. because the discipline in driving part of salvation
We have been looking for a new farm truck for a couple months now. Hoping to avoid this. Wishing for all the best for you!
As did I. Unfortunately, all the things wrong with it we're internal, and couldn't have been known ahead of time. I checked all the fluids before I bought it and everything checked out. Maybe a garage could have run it through more precise tests, but for the price I paid for it, a garage would have been cost prohibitive. Then again, they could have saved me $ in the long run.
I can promise you @bluerthangreen you would have either tried getting the guy down more or walking away if I looked at it. Or you definitely would have been aware of the lottery ticket you bought! Lol
@puddles don't mean to bud in , but what kinda truck you looking for? I can give you a few pointers...
Any advice you can give is welcome...We have looked at all kinds of things from 80’s Fords to 90’s tiny Toyo...Jeep, or Suburban...I guess that is part of the problem, too—we can’t decide or settle on what we really want and need from it. We will definitely take it to one of our mechanics to look at, first—no matter how good of a deal it seems.
Any an I mean ANY Toyota from the late '80s-early '90s that has the 3.0 liter v6 engine DO NOT BUY!!! I cannot stress this enough! It is nothing but a sinkhole for money. The 4 cylinder engines we're good in those years
GM is a good choice but there's a few issues I'd look for to hopefully avoid the issues @bluerthangreen had.
Early '80s Fords seem more reliable than later ... maybe jus my luck with a wrench but I've not had nearly as much problems out of '80-85 models
Jeeps are mostly good vehicles, but maintenance is the key to keep it away from the shop. An if you do end up in the shop be prepared for high dollar parts!
Thank you! This all sounds in line with what we were thinking...and why we are being so picky, even though we really need a truck to take the trash out...and the sheep to market.
seen that happen on a big truck
replacing a $10 gasket cost a few thousand in labor..
Yup, such a tiny inexpensive part, but to get to it, you have to rip the top of the engine apart. Thankfully, @mobile-joat is a friend and doesn't charge anywhere near typical shop rates. He only charged me $485 to do all that work. That's dirt cheap.
cheaper than dirt actually.
it's a fantastic deal.
How motoring has changed, it used to be the head gasket that blew/leaked with similar results,
This was a reasonably common happening in my early days of motoring.
At least @allforthegood had enough sense to give you a ring when things went wrong.
We had one of my friend's wives ring up and ask if the little red light that said "OIL" was important? It came on when she started the car to go into town and had stayed on as she drove about 20 to 25 miles before the car suddenly stopped and wouldn't start again.
Oh, no! I bet her husband wasn't too happy.
It took us a couple of weeks, after hours, to clean all the metal out of the oilways and re- build it
The crankshaft needed a re-grind as well..
When we finished it and drove it back to his place, checked the oil, it was full of metal, again.
Towed his car back to the workshop, stripped it, when they had done the re- grind the was a faint feather edge to the oil holes, this was enough to tear the linings on the mains and big ends,
A bit of smoothing, another set of bearings, and a week cleaning the oilways and he was right for the next 4 years before he traded the car for a newer one.