April/May 2012 – Casa de Fruta and Family – Page 2

Crossing the desert on the hottest day of the year

When we left this morning at 10am it was already 92 in front of our house. By about 11 in the Casa Grande area it was 96. It quickly got to 100 and by afternoon it was about 106. It peaked in downtown Brawley, CA at 110. This is the third week of April, Saguaro cacti are blooming – not all of them yet but many of them. When we first moved here that didn’t happen until late May. This is a very early summer.

Well, despite my best efforts (the latest was blocking the intake manifold cross-overs), vapor problems continue to persist. Everything was going well until we got to the cutoff to Gila Bend where we stopped for gas. I had to spend a few minutes bleeding the pressure out from the fuel tanks before I could remove the cap but thought nothing of it.

By now it was over 100 degrees out. We pulled back onto I-8 and I mentioned to Carol how well “she” was running and “she” immediately stumbled with the same old symptoms. I pumped the accelerator and kept it going but was disappointed that the problem was still with us.

When we got to Yuma we stopped for gas again before we crossed into Calif. When I shut the engine off I could hear a pretty loud humming sound which turned out to be the gas cap relieving pressure – that is a lot of pressure. It again took several minutes of slowly bleeding the pressure by slightly opening and closing the gas cap.

This time I decided to just leave the gas cap loose and we left. We didn’t get very far – the problem became more serious – we even stalled going down the road on the highway. I stopped and tightened the cap and we were back to “stumbles” once in a while but nothing serious.

I am thinking that the pressure that builds up in the tank helps to keep the gas from boiling. When it is boiling the pump can pick up bubbles and starve the engine. I had a link here when I first wrote this post but it no longer works.

Oh well, we got to Indio and the Spotlight 29 Casino at about 5:30 – pooped. We had to run the generator and both air conditioners for quite a while to get it cool and now, at 9pm it is still 96 out. We can’t have the generator on all night so I hope there is a good breeze tonight. Tomorrow we will get close to the coast so no more heat problems – we hope.

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Getting ready for the Spring 2012 GMCWS Rally Trip

At least once per year we go back to California for family visits, business and GMC rallies. This year we plan to leave on Saturday, April 21st. We used the coach several times this winter going to GMC Saguaro Jetset rallies and one trip to get some help working on the coach – more on that below.

Every time we use the coach we add or at least update our “to do” list – things that would make life on the road so much better if they were done. This year was no exception except that it seems like the list is getting shorter. After our return from last summer’s trip I had a list of “to-dos” a mile long.

One of the most irritating things about the trip last summer was that the hot water tank was leaking. It leaked enough that it caused the pump to run every few minutes but not enough to get anything inside the coach wet. We had to turn the water pump off when we were not using it and it could only be turned on with a switch next to the coach entrance door. I needed to do two things to make life bearable for our upcoming winter trips – replace the water heater and put a two-way switch for the water pump in the bathroom. Got both done along with a modification to the hot water system that makes it safer and easier to use (you can read about that here). We couldn’t be happier with the results of these changes.

The next thing we had to do was to try and solve the fuel starvation problems that will not go away. The next “recommended” thing to do was to remove the intake manifold, check it for heat cracks, clean it up, and reinstall it with the “exhaust cross-over passage” blocked. This is, relatively speaking, a big job – complicated, difficult, and time-consuming. Luckily, a good friend from the GMC community – Steve Ferguson – who had done jobs like this many times, offered to guide me through it if I did it at his house. With quite a bit of work and lots of direction from Steve we got it done and I learned a lot.

As soon as we got the engine started again after the intake manifold job it became apparent that the change had an effect on the exhaust system. The first thing we heard was a leak in an exhaust manifold which we fixed that pretty quickly since I had a new Remflex gasket ready to install. The other thing we heard was a leaky muffler that suddenly became much louder than when I arrived.

A problem that had existed since we owned the coach was the power steering pump was leaking. Having the experience from working with Steve on the intake manifold I figured that I could now take on a little bigger job than before so I decided to replace the power steering pump and the high pressure hoses. I did it and it no longer leaks – it was pretty easy too.

Now it was time to fix that exhaust system – the next thing on my list. Besides noise, the exhaust system could have been causing some of the excessive cross-over heat and some of the really bad mileage that we get (less than 7mpg). I was going to install an Applied GMC exhaust kit but decided that the job was too big for me so, instead, I hired an exhaust system shop – Exhaust Works 3 in Tucson – to do it for me. They installed two new Magnaflow stainless steel mufflers and fabricated some new 2 1/2 inch piping to connect them to the existing 2 1/2 inch exhaust pipe. The difference in power and performance seems very noticeable – we’ll be watching mileage closely on this trip.

We will begin packing on Thursday or Friday and leave Saturday morning. See you then.

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