[T2] Engine stall... + trip report part I

[Kevin Guarnotta]

Well  I am now back to Boston. 

It was quite an adventure, but not at all what we planned. I had hoped to do
a 7-10 day camping trip with my wife and 22 month old son.

 

My wife went ahead of us, and got to CA on Sunday night. She had to work out
there for the week. My son and I were to arrive Wednesday evening. Our
flight was delayed. 4 hours. Really fun playing with my son in the airport
for 5 hours before the flight even began, and about 4 hours into his “sleep
time”. Then a flight with him tossing and turning so much, he rolled off my
seat onto the floor. Regardless we made it to SFO.

 

We arrive in SFO around 2AM or so. My wife picked us up, and back to our
hotel-with a pit stop for me to get the bus out of storage at my friends.
The bus started right up, no problems. 

 

Next day my son and I went on a little drive, stopped to wash the bus. He
was very impressed with the car wash – luckily it was not the kind you drive
through, but rather they drive it through for you. I think driving through
would have freaked him out. Then dropped him off at day care so I could do a
few last minute items with the bus. I hooked up the refrigerator light, so I
could tell when the fridge was on. I also went out and got a 2nd battery. 

 

I also did a bit of food shopping for the trip etc.

 

The next day, Friday we were to leave on the trip, hoping to go early in the
morning, but didn’t leave till practically 2 PM. Heading to Truckee from
Mountain View on Friday afternoon, before a 4th of July holiday week is NOT
a good idea. Especially if the temps are going to be over 100 (say 104
degrees) and you have a little kid. I was nervous. I had my Garmin GPS ( as
suggested by the list). It helped reroute me around some bad traffic, but I
still hit some traffic. It had me going pretty far out of the way to avoid
the traffic. I was religiously watching the CHT, Oil Press, & Oil Temp
gauge. Pressure was nice and high, Oil Temp maxed at 250, and CHT maxed at
350, whenever it went over, I dialed back a bit on my driving. To reiterate
it was basically 104 degrees, and sunny. And the roads were full of cars.

 

As you probably saw on my posts earlier – the bus stalled. While hitting an
off-ramp. I coasted until I hit a shady spot. Luckily there was a fruit
stand – Double “R” Ranch Fruit Stand in Winters, CA. They have a large
walnut grove, as well as sell a lot of different local fruit. My wife and
son went there to check it out, while I sent a message to the list, and
thought “What could have happened?”

 

Nothing looked weird on the engine. No leaking oil, no slipping fan belt, no
loose electrical connections
.just DAMN hot. I figured I would let it sit
and cool off, and think what could have happened. I was starting to think
vapor lock, which is just something I’ve heard of, but never experienced.

 

I went over to the fruit stand, and the guy running it had a little boy,
only a little older than my son. The guy felt bad for us, and invited us
into his house as it was air conditioned. (I’m sorry I don’t recall his
name, my head was a bit foggy from the heat). My wife and I were a bit
worried about my son overheating. We hung in his house for a bit, he called
a friend of his who was a mechanic, but he was not around.  He also offered
us cold drinks, and then he said, “you know I’ve got a pool in the backyard
if you want to go for a swim.” We love to swim- so my wife went to get our
suits. Then a couple minutes later came running back in saying “There is a
VW guy out there
go talk to him.” So I went out and met Sean. He worked at a
local VW dealer, and was into aircooled(he had 5). He had not had any
pancake motors. We talked a bit, and he thought it must be vapor lock too.
Although we both were not sure that could happen with a FI engine. At this
point the bus had probably been sitting about an hour? Anyway I gave it a
shot, and it started up-after a few times turning over. Like it was trying
to rebuild fuel pressure. The engine was still damn hot. I found it could
run again. I turned it off. Then Sean and I talked about letting it cool
off. He suggested getting into town, about 2 miles away, and eating dinner,
to let it cool some more, before driving off again. I thanked Sean, and went
back to the fruit stand. I went for a dip with my wife, and cooled off
myself. We decided to drive into town, and have dinner, then see how the bus
was. After going to town for some Mexican food, we walked around a bit. The
town was Winters. It seemed to be in the middle of nowhere, but was very
nice, and had a pretty cool little downtown (albeit around 3 blocks long).
We walked around a bit, found a façade with snails on it, and a giant paper
wasp nest on the outside of one of the buildings. 

 

Anyway after a couple more hours of it sitting we thought we’d give it a go
to continue on to Truckee-as the weather was about the coolest it would get,
and if we waited until morning traffic would be tough again and temperatures
rising.

 

Oddly (due to the crazy heat) the engine was still so hot, I could melt a
block of ice on it almost instantly-even after sitting for probably at least
4 hours. I could melt ice on the coil, or any engine part. I assume that
meant it was HOT. It was just too hot out for the thing to cool off. I think
the temp had only dropped to the high 90’s.

 

Anyway we made the trip that night to Truckee, rolled into my friends place
pretty late, and slept in the bus, in the driveway. It actually cooled off a
bit that night. Which felt great, I thought I would never feel cool again. I
watched the temps while driving, and had no further problems. 

 

I must say I was pretty paranoid the rest of the trip(week). I have not had
the bus long, nor driven it enough to have a memory of its power curve. And
whenever we hit some hills, we were slowing down more than I thought or
remembered. I hope I didn’t do any permanent damage to it. 

 

More on the trip to follow in part II, along with questions on how to tell
if I over did it
.

 

-Kevin Guarnotta

Jamaica Plain, MA

 

’78 Westy

'69 Singlecab

'65 Ez-camper