After all the TLC I received in Buenos Aires, we headed north on our big adventure. The first day I gave no troubles; everyone was happy and I even showed off my roof tent in Colón. The next day we had a short drive to the lovely termas of Concepción and spent the night in the park. Just as we pulled into the park, I gave a little oil burp through the oil line on top of the valve cover; spaying oil all over my rebuilt motor. There were some confused faces, but all went to bed without worry.
The next day we headed north again; where we we going? No one had told me! I had better slow this train down before things get too out of hand. So I over heated; right to the point of smoking rubber hoses. That got their attention!! After cooling down, and giving me a drink of water, we continued on a little more, and I kept them on their toes with the heat gauge constantly approaching red. Stop, cool down, drink water, go a bit more, stop, repeat. They were getting the message who is the master in this relationship.
Strategy is my strong suit, and I made sure that the only town withing striking distance was the one horse outpost of Monte Caseros. We limped into town and the search was on for a mechanic. Ha! No mechanics were found, though there was a man whom everyone said had some tools and had once used them on a vehicle. So we limped directly in front of his home and promptly shut down for good. Let's see how you handle this one, slaves!
The mechanical man said I needed a new head gasket. So all hands on deck to get my head off. And to our surprise we found where one would expect a head gasket, was instead a custom fabricated copper gasket of much higher thickness than the factory one would have. Curt proclaimed that it was nothing to worry about as he stood forth with 4 factory gaskets he had pulled from the spare parts boxes. The mechanical man would have none of this. As he had never seen as engine like mine, and a passing neighbor said all Defenders have the Brasilian made Maxion motor, then of course only a Maxion gasket will do.
The next day we headed north again; where we we going? No one had told me! I had better slow this train down before things get too out of hand. So I over heated; right to the point of smoking rubber hoses. That got their attention!! After cooling down, and giving me a drink of water, we continued on a little more, and I kept them on their toes with the heat gauge constantly approaching red. Stop, cool down, drink water, go a bit more, stop, repeat. They were getting the message who is the master in this relationship.
Strategy is my strong suit, and I made sure that the only town withing striking distance was the one horse outpost of Monte Caseros. We limped into town and the search was on for a mechanic. Ha! No mechanics were found, though there was a man whom everyone said had some tools and had once used them on a vehicle. So we limped directly in front of his home and promptly shut down for good. Let's see how you handle this one, slaves!
The mechanical man said I needed a new head gasket. So all hands on deck to get my head off. And to our surprise we found where one would expect a head gasket, was instead a custom fabricated copper gasket of much higher thickness than the factory one would have. Curt proclaimed that it was nothing to worry about as he stood forth with 4 factory gaskets he had pulled from the spare parts boxes. The mechanical man would have none of this. As he had never seen as engine like mine, and a passing neighbor said all Defenders have the Brasilian made Maxion motor, then of course only a Maxion gasket will do.
At this point someone reasonable should have been there to assist, but as there was no one, the insanity continued. The mechanical man installed the Maxion gasket, put the head back on, and poured 30 liters of water into my coolant system. He only stopped when water was coming out the oil filter cap. Clearly a Maxion is a different engine so the gasket is not the same. Perhaps better to use the correct gasket since we have 4 of them.
The head was removed, oil and coolant drained, and 2 head gaskets sandwiched together and installed with the head back on! The thinking was that I was just too powerful, too much compression for only a single gasket, I needed two. The slaves were too broken at this point to even resist the madness of the mechanical man. If I can run with wrong pistons as I did in La Paz, I can certainly run with two head gaskets; and I did. The slaves were so excited to see me running, albeit smoking white, blue, and black to beat the band, they paid the mechanical man and we left him to his tinkering. I had achieved my goal, full subservience of my slaves.
The head was removed, oil and coolant drained, and 2 head gaskets sandwiched together and installed with the head back on! The thinking was that I was just too powerful, too much compression for only a single gasket, I needed two. The slaves were too broken at this point to even resist the madness of the mechanical man. If I can run with wrong pistons as I did in La Paz, I can certainly run with two head gaskets; and I did. The slaves were so excited to see me running, albeit smoking white, blue, and black to beat the band, they paid the mechanical man and we left him to his tinkering. I had achieved my goal, full subservience of my slaves.