Before I get into this posting, have you noticed I've added "tabs" or pages beneath the header pic. I know, old feature, yet I invite you to peruse them.
Last month, December 18 to be exact, I noticed a leak in the Sammy.
I'd mentioned it on the post for the day, but only briefly.
Here's a close-up pic of the Sammy with the leak in question. At the time, whatever had leaked has splashed out onto the outer surface of the left rear tire:
At first, given the splash marks, I thought the Sammy had developed a leaking brake cylinder again. I'd replaced it during the summer trip of 2021 you see, so was a bit troubled by this fast failure. I initially attributed it to my "lack of expertise" rather than a failed unit.
After visiting the museum that day in December, I headed on over to the AutoZone where Mike W. works. Mike is the Sammy Guru in TorC (Truth or Consequences), NM. We both took a closer look and determined that no, it wasn't a leaking brake cylinder.
Instead, it was a leaking shock absorber! We could see droplets coming off the shock absorber for the left rear wheel. Sigh.
Mike said there was no rush to replace it, but it was better to do it sooner rather than later.
Fast forward a few days, I was home again and I ordered replacement shock absorbers. The Christmas holidays however, delayed shipment of the shock absorbers till the first of the new year.
The shock absorbers arrived Wednesday, January 5, just before our first snow of the new year. So it wasn't till yesterday, Friday the 7th that it was "warm enough" to do the work.
Some notes for future reference:
Rear Shocks are Doetsch DT3095
Front Shocks are Doestch DT3333
You need a long flat tip screwdriver or similar tool to "lever" the shocks off the mounting bolts and back on. A plastic coated dead-blow hammer won't work due to the Urethane inserts absorbing the shock of the hammer blows.
Once removed, and before attempting to mount the new shock, lightly grease the mounting bolt's smooth portion to facilitate installation.
The first shock absorber took me over an hour, with the practice and experience gained, the second shock took less than 15 minutes!
A short test ride confirmed that the new shock absorbers stayed in place and my suspicion that it wouldn't cause a noticeable improvement on the Sammy's ride.
These vehicles are just too light you see. Mike W. confirmed for me that I'd not feel a difference until I put a heavy load in the Sammy. No idea when or if that'll ever occur based on current usage forecasts!
Still, it's done, and ride performance tells me no rush to replace the front shock absorbers at this time.
Now, as to the replacement of the Head Gasket in the engine. Back during the summer trip of 2021, clouds of smoke on engine startup due to coolant leaking into the combustion chambers had led to me planning on getting help at the Samurai Rally in KY. I'd even bought via Amazon, a kit with all the seals and involved gaskets.
However, prior to reaching the Rally, I'd tried K-Seal's Head Gasket Sealant and Repair. It had, seemingly miraculously, cured the leak and no more clouds of smoke upon engine startup. This meant I didn't have to ask for, and take the time away from the Rally's activities, of generous fellow Samurai drivers who'd informally volunteered to help do the replacement during the rally.
Fast forward to the November-December camping trip: The Sammy had started going through coolant again but no clouds of smoke on startup. Hmmmm.
Tried more K-Seal but still I'd find the coolant reservoir empty after a drive or two.
Overthinking things as I tend to do (yes, I'm working on not doing that), I lost many worry cycles thinking about it. Finally got to the point of asking my regular mechanic for a quote on replacing the head gasket early this week.
The shop came back with an estimate of over $2600! This included a worst case estimate of having to also replace all the valves, a machinist shop's time to evaluate and if needed machine and replace new valves! I questioned them on the machinist portion and the shop had doubts about getting OEM valves.
Even so, and yes I could find new valves online just fine; even discounting the machine shop's work and labor, the cost to replace the gaskets would be around $1600+. Not good.
So, for now, I'll just keep adding coolant and oil when needed. After discussing it with Martha, we just don't see a need for long term commitment to the Sammy. We see, once the VRRV is no longer a viable option, a truck and travel trailer in our camping future.
Put 1/2 bottle of Bar's Head Seal Blown Head Gasket Repair (HG1) into the Sammy's radiator. Test drives since then seem to indicate it worked. For how long is something to find out. Hopefully, a very long time.
Update: January 13
Well, using the funnel kit method, I found that there's still combustion gases leaking into the Sammy's cooling system. Not at idle, but when at higher RPMs, i saw bubbles and coolant surging out of the radiator and into the funnel. Oh well.
Bottom line, will keep restoring overflown coolant into the radiator at day's start of driving and hope things don't get worse too soon. A head gasket replacement is in my future as was always the case.
2 comments:
Have listened to many folks talk about making the switch from an RV to a trailer to a fifth wheel to a trailer to an RV. Interesting discussion on the pros and cons of each. So Martha will be retiring soon and you be RVing together?
It's kind of like an oil thread CCjon, which platform to use for camping. As to when Martha will be retired, Fall of 2025 at the earliest she says.
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