The air conditioning worked great! It was about 90 to 95°F (32-35°C) today and about half of it was heading East into the sun and the dash air worked great. At one point it was getting a little warmer than we wanted due to heat from the back so we turned on the generator and one roof air and it was immediately comfortable again – running both roof units did not help much before. We had decided to only go as far as Deming, NM and spend the night at an RV park that is apparently the figment of the gps’ imagination. The RV park was not where it was supposed to be so we drove an extra 40 or 50 miles and still got here by 3:30. Not bad.

We did have a GMC issue though. I have swapped out the old electric fuel pump (a Carter P4070) for one I bought as a spare 3 years ago. I am not positive the fuel pump was causing the problem but it is highly suspicious. A factor that is clouding the water (air, fuel, …?) is the addition of a fuel bypass line that is causing some symptoms of its own. I usually have some positive pressure in the fuel tanks on very hot days – over 100°F (38°C) but now I am getting it at 5 or 10 degrees less. I think this might be attributable to the recirculating fuel that is being heated in the engine compartment and then being sent back to the tanks. This is the only valid (my opinion) objection that I have heard to the recirculating scheme which is intended to eliminate vapor bubbles before they can enter the carburetor.

The symptoms we had today are exactly like vapor issues – fuel starvation. Trying to connect today’s symptoms to the bypass modification is where the clouding comes in. I think they are two separate issues. I don’t like the fuel being heated up but I am not sure how bad that is – yet. I have more thinking to do because I feel that some pressure is good and helps to reduce boiling. If I am correct and the fuel pump is the culprit then the hotter fuel did not make a difference – problems showed up just after filling tanks with at least 27 gallons of cold fuel.

Other evidence that the fuel pump was the problem includes problems suddenly starting to recur after more than 2 years with lots of heat and no problems. The “vapors” started showing up again on the last trip to Northern California and back.  It happened on the interstate highway as I was getting ready to exit and then the engine actually stalled on the exit ramp. It happened again but not as bad after a road-side pee break on the way home. More evidence is that Jared (at Next Generation Automotive in Tucson) told me that he observed the fuel pump not working until he “goosed” the throttle while he was working on the bypass mod for me.

We’ll see tomorrow and I’ll have to admit it if I am wrong.

By the way, the Celsius stuff is for any friends in other countries – did you know the U.S. was one of only two countries in the world that don’t use the metric system? You never heard of the other one. Besides, I want to be able to understand what my Canadian friends are talking about and using it should help.