Canada Day Hell Trip

My Jeep didn't fail me, it got me home. I think I may have done some engine damage though.

Friday 5:30 PM

Finished topping up all the fluids in the Jeep: oil, coolant overflow, rear diff, etc. Get on the road heading for Canim Lake. Uneventful drive, hardly any of the expected long weekend traffic. It was quiet and long, especially since my tape deck decided to quit working on me. Arrived at the 7-11 in 100 Mile House at 11:25 PM and grabbed a fresh can of Coke for the last 40 minutes of my drive to the lake. Got out of the 7-11 and saw some coolant on the ground under my Jeep. Started the Jeep and opened the hood. There was a fine mist of coolant coming from, uhh...somewhere. Oh well, it's running cool, doesn't seem to be losing much while its running, so I continue on my way. Arrived at my grandparents' house on Canim Lake at 11:50 PM. Straight to bed for me The day before a long weekend is always a zoo at work and this one was no better. I was tired after work and now after five and a half hours on the road I'm really freaking tired.

Saturday Morning

Got out of bed at an unknown time, ahh I love it there. There is only one clock in the house and it's too far away from the bedroom to bother looking at it. Wake up; don't know if its late or early since the sun comes up at about four in the morning it seems like, so I go back to sleep till I can't sleep anymore. That's my way of catching up on sleep. Heard Grandpa tinkering out in the shop. I wander out and help him put the chain saw back together, not that I know any more about chain saws than he does, but I managed to get the bar over the right tab to get the chain tight. Of course then it wouldn't run but enough playing around with the screws in the carb and we managed to cut some firewood with it. Decided to unpack the Jeep. It seems I was playing delivery boy this weekend, delivering a case of apples to one of the neighbors up there, and a big bag full of who knows what to Grandma from my mom. Grandpa commented on how greasy everything on, in, and around my Jeep was and he proceeded to pressure wash everything. Cool.

I took the time to completely empty everything from inside the Jeep. I put all my wrenches back in their compartments in the wrench rolls and all my sockets back on the rails. Rolled up the tug straps and packed them in their appropriate bags. All this crap was still loose from Trail Jam. Cleaned up all the oil spills inside the Jeep that were causing oil spots on the street in front of work. It wasn't the drive train leaking, it was all the spare oil inside that had spilled and was leaking out the rust holes in the floor. So now that the engine was clean it was time to fire it up and figure out where the coolant leak was. Aha, there's a mist of coolant coming out of the temperature sending unit. First attempt to repair it was to remove it and put a pipe plug in the hole. Doh! Can't do that on a computer controlled vehicle cause it gets upset when it doesn't have a temperature signal. Put the sender back in and squeeze the last of my tube of Seal-All onto it. Done deal.

Spent the rest of the day doing what I usually do up there. I'm not sure what we do but we manage to keep busy yet not get anything done. Played for a bit with the snowmobile that's been broken for two years. Moved some rocks around. Threw some rocks in the lake. Cowered inside and watched the rain for a long while. Watched squirrels fight over peanuts for a while. Ahhh, the best time is time spent with nothing that has to be done.

Sunday Afternoon

Test fire the Jeep and verify that it's no longer leaking. Top up the coolant, take the Jeep for a run to the store to get some much needed junk food. It all seems good and I feel much better after two chocolate bars. Of course it didn't help that the migraine headache that was kinda sorta sitting in the back of my head was waiting to get out. Rest of the day was kind of slow. It rained a lot. I watched a lot of TV. It's funny, some of those old TV shows are so old they seem new again. I went to take a nap to try to kill the headache.

Woke Up Monday (aka Day of Hell)

Grandpa was out working on the deck, finally. I'd been trying to help with the deck since I got there but he insisted I was there for rest and relaxation. I inspect the work and feel guilty about tearing half the decking off and moving one of the support beams over so it's actually under the plywood joints. Especially since it's getting close to noon and I have to head out for the long drive home.

Double check that the Jeep is all good and get on the road. Fill up with fuel at 100 Mile House, and uh oh, there's a lot of coolant on the ground. "Oh well," I figured, I'll fill it up once in a while. It'll get me home, it's only five hours from here. With the engine running it didn't seem to lose very much. I filled the radiator with water while it was running and carried on home.

Driving with one eye on the temperature gauge, it never rose above 200. I wasn't worried about it. The temp often gets over 200 on hot days. Besides, it's an XJ thing. I get through Clinton and the temp is still holding 200. I figure it'll drop a little on the highway, but even with the auxiliary fan on it stuck right on 200. Hmmmm. I pulled into the next rest area and popped the radiator cap off. Splooosh! Yep, theres still water, and still pressure. I filled a Coke bottle from the creek that was running by the rest area and topped off the rad. Okay, it all seems good. I happily carry on driving. The sign says "Cache Creek 29" as I pass a motor home on a hill. My Jeep seems to be low on power. On the next hill the engine seemed to ping a little just before it downshifted. That's weird. So I start thinking maybe it's the flex plate bolts again; it's an XJ thing. Still driving with one eye on the temperature gauge, it's reading 200 even, and I have no reason to doubt my Autometer Pro-Comp Liquid Filled Temperature Gauge. On flat ground it seems all good; the downshifts are strong and there is no hint of engine trouble so I carry on. Pass the Cache Creek 11 km sign and things are getting rough now. Whenever I touch the gas the engine sounds as though there's marbles in the oil pan. I've got a hill and I can't get the speed over 80 km/h. Hmmm, I coast down the next hill to a flat spot and pull over.

As soon as I let off the gas the engine stalled. Oh, that's not good. Instinctively I try to restart it. The starter is labouring. Hmmm. Smells hot. Popped the hood open. Holy crap is that hot! The engine is smoking, there's oil all over the engine compartment except on the engine. Anything on the engine has burned off and it's as dry as the pavement. I carefully release the pressure on the radiator cap but there was hardly any, and it didn't seem like there was drop of coolant in it.

I suddenly come to the realization that the water pump must have been leaking bad enough to let all the coolant out, and my temperature gauge was reading air temperature inside the block instead. I pulled the dipstick. It was smoking hot and dry. Now I know I can't be out of oil as my idiot light never came on right? I popped the oil cap off and smoke poured out of the valve cover. Damn, this thing got hot! It seems when there is no coolant the temperature sensor won't sense that the engine is overheating, and for some reason when my engine got super over heated it decided to cough up all it's oil through the dipstick, oil filler, vent tubes, etc.

So here I am, 11 km from Cache Creek, on a Holiday Monday, with no oil, no water, and the engine won't start. What to do?

I know I'm out of spare oil, I had just dumped the last of it in when I left my Grandparents house. What do I have in the back of the Jeep? 80w90 gear oil. Well it's an emergency, it'll do. I dump four liters of gear oil into the engine, figuring that since the block is super hot anyway it'll thin that stuff right out. Still, my temperature gauge hasn't moved much. It's down to about 190 or so, and the engine's still too hot to touch. I tried to start the engine and cranked it over till the battery was near dead. It wasn't even trying to start. Decided I'd better fill the radiator. Now I need some water. Great. I see a river. It looks like it's an awful long way away, over a few hills and valleys. What else can I do? I dump my lunch and my three cans of Coke out of my 8 quart cooler and lock up the Jeep. Not that anyone could steal it, but hey, I have three cans of Coke in there! Just then I see coming down the hill a familiar trailer. I wave furiously at my old high school Mechanics teacher towing the school's race car trailer on their way home from a weekend's racing in Ashcroft. He looks at me like I'm a lunatic and keeps driving, nearly knocking me over with the tailwind as they blow by. Uhh, thanks. I'll go see him tomorrow.

So off I go for a walk. After climbing over a barbed wire fence I'm off across some ginseng farmer's field en route to the river. At least I hope it's a river and not a mirage. Walking and walking, tripping over the odd short cactus and getting those stupid sharp needles stuck in my legs. Ouch. Crest a small hill and hurray! I'm a very happy guy all of a sudden when I come across two large water reservoirs with a hose and tap attached to them. I quickly grab 8 quarts of water and start my hike back, hoping a farmer is not chasing me with a shotgun for stealing water. Trip, fall, ouch. I realize it would've been a good idea to bring the lid for the cooler with me. Dumb dumb dumb. So, two trips later and it looks like the radiator is full. Figuring it's been a while now I close the hood and try to start the engine. It turns over easier than it did before, but not even a hint of trying to start. Oh yeah, this is with non-stop holiday traffic blasting by me at over 100 km/h.

So now I'm confused, I have no idea why my Jeep won't run. Thinking maybe it's too hot and the computer shut it down I disconnect the temperature sensor and figure it's going to start right away. Nope, disappointment. Hey look, there's a vacuum line That's disconnected. Whoohoo! Plug it in, crank the engine over. Disappointment. Better check the air cleaner. Doh! it's saturated with oil, no wonder it won't start. All the oil that puked out of the engine is now soaking the air cleaner. I tossed the air cleaner element in the back of the Jeep (the Jeep I just spent half of Saturday cleaning) and crank the engine. Okay, frustration now, why the hell won't my Jeep start???? Decided it's time to start checking the obvious. Fuel, hmm, pulled the cap off the Shraeder valve and stuck a key into it to depress the valve, and proceed to get shot in the face with gas. Yup, tastes like gas. The injector harness, yep, plugged in. Removed the distributor cap and rotor, a bit burned, and a bit of dust-like substance in it. Cleaned the terminals up, reflect for a moment about how they could possibly need replacing already since I had just installed this new cap and rotor right before Island Rock Crawl. Reinstalled them and cranked the engine over some more. Okay I'm a wee little bit frustrated at this point, I rest my head on my gallon jug of solid ice. Ice, go figure, you think you can make it melt when you desperately need water?

Now I've got to check for spark, which will be tricky with minimal tools and the spark plug wires being short and on the opposite side of the ignition key. After numerous futile attempts I finally figure out where the starter is and jump the terminals of the starter with the ignition on while holding a spark plug wire. OUCH! Yep, there's spark. Time to pull spark plugs. Of course I wrecked one plug wire in the process. The plugs are black, look like they've been running rich for a bit, but nothing that should stop the engine from starting. I cranked the engine over with the plugs out. Yep, it sounds like it's compressing and exhausting. Put the spark plugs back in, patch up the broken spark plug wire. Attempt to start the engine. Sounds like it's trying to start! Kind of a relief, but still frustrating that I cant find any reason for it not to start. All of a sudden , BANG! Steam pours out of the radiator. Uhhh, that makes no sense. Oh yeah, sure it does, not only did my water pump go and let all the water out, but the thermostat was stuck closed as well. And now it just opened and is finally gonna let some of that nice cold water into the smoking hot engine that won't start. That's looking for trouble I've heard. Decided to take the thermostat out, just in case, and since I'm out of reasons for the engine not to start what else have I got to do. I crack the bolts on the thermostat housing loose and then POOF! Ouch! Steam burn. As soon as I cracked the thermostat housing loose the steam and hot air in the block immediately attacked my hand. Luckily I have this gallon jug of solid ice to cool my hand immediately and prevent blistering. It still stings a little today actually. So as I stand in front of my Jeep staring at the engine that won't run for no apparent reason with my hand on a gallon jug of ice I start contemplating ways to cut my hair without scissors, since every time a truck goes by me at 100 km/h my hair somehow whips around and stabs me in the eyes.

Okay hand feels better, pour some gasket maker on the thermostat housing and reinstall it. Hmmm, now I know it's time for another trip down to the water supply now that the water has gotten into the engine. Better try to start the engine one more time. Disappointment. Another hike down to the water reservoir for another 8 quarts of water. Got back without spilling a drop this time, topped up the radiator and had a little left over.

Okay, the temperature gauge is reading 130. If the only thing stopping the engine from running is that it's too hot, it's gotta be cool enough now. I can put my hand on the engine now. So I crank it over, and crank it over, and crank it over. When I hold it at full throttle it sounds like it's gonna start, but eventually the starter slows down. Okay, stop now, take a break, it's almost there. I go back under the hood. Oh look, I know I have water in the engine now, because it's already pouring out of the water pump, great. Grab the gallon jug of ice and sit it on the intake manifold with hopes that it will somehow help my engine start. Grabbed a piece of cardboard that was lying on the side of the road and used it to fan my engine management computer, with hopes that maybe I can make it happy. After all, the engine won't start, what else have I got to do?

I've been at the side of the road 11 km from Cache Creek with the hood of my Jeep up for an awful long time now. I didn't look at the time, but I know it's been an awful long time and nobody has stopped to see if I'm okay, offered to call a tow truck, or even stopped to yell at me to get off the road. Okay, this is it, I slam down the hood, toss my cooler of water in the back, along with my jug of ice. Time to be optimistic. I put my seatbelt on, turn the headlights on, and crank over the engine. It cranks a little faster than it did before and if I hold it at full throttle it seems to try to start, but it just won't run by itself. Disappointment. This is not turning out to be a good day. So I figure as the engine has cooled off it gets closer and closer to starting. I'll give it fifteen minutes before trying it again. That'll allow the engine to cool some more and also let the battery recover. I pull the light bulb out of my interior light to save the battery as I sit there with the door open. "Fifteen minutes," I said. Now how do I figure out how long fifteen minutes is? I have two clocks, one is in my phone, but it only works when I have a digital signal, which I don't (I have an analog signal, and marginal cellular reception anyway). The other clock is in the Jeep stereo, and I don't want to turn the ignition on to watch the clock because I want to save the battery or I'll really be in trouble. Well I'll turn it on and check it once in a while. I turn on the ignition and try to turn the stereo on. Hmmm, it won't go on. Great. Oh yeah, in my attempt to figure out why the engine will not run I even tried the old trick of disconnecting the battery to reset the computer. That didn't work either, and somehow during that procedure I managed to blow the fuse for the stereo. And it's a Sony, which has the fuse at the back, and since I installed my stereo so that it's theft proof, I can't change that fuse any time soon. So, back to figuring out fifteen minutes. Let's count vehicles that pass me. I start counting seconds, which we can all figure out pretty close I think. Vehicles seem to go buy me at an average of four at a time, twenty seconds apart. So I figure three groups of four is a minute and I've probably taken five minutes already to figure out the average so I want ten minutes' worth of vehicles, which would be thirty groups of four, which I have to get a pencil and paper out to figure out is 120 vehicles have to pass me and that will be close to ten minutes. You know, you can only count individual vehicles for so long before you get confused and miss a few numbers. Oh, did I mention that it's getting hot out? Especially when fifty or so vehicles have passed you and thrown dust at you? I decide on ten more groups of cars and I then was going to try it again. Ten groups of cars go by, including a small group of 4x4's with some club name on them that I've seen before but don't recall who they were and they obviously didn't care who I was.

Anyway, cranking the engine, for a long period of time. With no throttle absolutely nothing was happening. At full throttle it seemed to try, then all of a sudden the rpm came up! I let go of the key, and it died. Doh! Try again, full throttle, engine trying, trying, trying, trying, trying, vroom. I slammed it into gear and didn't give it a chance to change it's mind. I ran full throttle to Cache Creek to get to semi-civilization before letting it quit again.

Afraid to stop I searched through all the gas stations to find one with a water hose that I could use to fill my engine and radiator without having to shut it off. Filled the system, the temperature went down to 130 and stayed there. I went into the store and grabbed a cold drink, filled my 8 quart cooler with water and got back on the road. The temperature came up to 160 but held steady for quite a while, till I came to the first hill. Boom, it spiked to 200. Doh! Pulled over and popped the hood to put more water in. Of course it stalled out. I filled the radiator as quickly as I could (damned XJs with small filler necks), and then tried to start the engine. It took a bit but it seemed as soon as the water pump sucked in some of the cool water it started right up again. Poured more water in until I was sure the engine was full, and instead of putting the radiator cap on properly, I left it loose so the system wouldn't pressurize and hopefully wouldn't blow out the water pump bearings as fast. It worked great, although I heard the water pump bearings growl at me once in a while. The temperature stayed a cool 160 degrees, as long as I kept my speed up over 80 km/h. 30 km or so later I was forced to step on the gas so the transmission would downshift a couple gears and get me up the hill. Suddenly my windshield is covered with water. Uh oh. Got to the top of the hill and coasted down the other side and pulled over. Poured the last of the water out of my 8 quart cooler into the rad. So far, the engine was still running, and luckily at this point my gallon of ice is now half water and it makes enough coolant to keep going.

Continuing on, the Jeep seems to be running strong enough. I can smell all the oil burning off the engine compartment though, but the temperature's in check. Then I see a hill approaching, and a 27 foot Winnebago Brave towing a fullsize truck, and the passing lane doesn't start until halfway up the hill. I step on the gas gradually hoping the people in front of me will get out of the way and let me coast up the hill. Nope. We all lose speed; I'm forced to let the transmission downshift. As soon as the RPM comes up the water blows out of the radiator. Since the cap is only sitting there, it's not going to hold the pressure. I hold my breath as I crest the hill with the engine losing power. Now I'm past the Winnegabo and coasting...and slowing down. It seems the Winnebago driver is now upset with me for slowing him down. Go figure. I see a waterfall to my left. I quickly pull over on the right and the Winnebago Brave blasts past me with driver and passenger waving a friendly single-fingered gesture at me. Just wait till they show up at my shop needing Winnebago service, geesh.

Engine stalls, of course. Great, here we go again. Okay I need water. I gather up my containers and jog across the road to get some water from this waterfall. Yikes! That looks dangerous. It's a fairly powerful waterfall, which doesn't bother me too much. What bothers me is what it is falling into. It's going through a pipe under the road that's six, maybe eight or ten, feet in diameter. There's a great big grate over the opening but the grate is made out of railroad track and the openings are just the right size for a person to slip through. Thoughts of the world's worst waterslide go through my mind as I contemplate climbing down the huge boulders lining the edge. I decide to climb a little higher up the mountainside to get to a safer pool of water. Of course climbing over some exceptionally large boulders (as I dream of driving up them) I can only take one water container at a time. Takes two trips to fill my radiator and have one container leftover. Now there's been enough time between my coming and going for water that the engine's cooled enough to start again. As I was topping up the radiator with the engine running, a grey/silver XJ with leaf springs up front pulls in to see if I'm okay. I've seen this Jeep driving around the lower mainland before. I'm thrilled that someone has finally noticed me. Of course unless he happens to have a spare 4.0 water pump there's not much that can be done for me. I thanked him for stopping anyway. Suddenly my day was better knowing that there are a few good people left on the highways.

On the road again, I was getting good at this filling the rad every thirty km or so. The next time the water flew out and onto my windshield I had just passed a sign for a gas station so I vowed to nurse it to the gas station. Oh yeah, the motor was not happy when I got there. And as I desperately left black skid marks in the gas station parking lot (due to my welded rear diff) while circling and looking for the water hose, it stalled out again, naturally. I pushed it out of the way and asked where the water hose was. The gas station owners were far less than helpful, and made me fell less than welcome in a big way. Again with the filling of the radiator and waiting for the engine to cool off enough to start. I checked the oil while I was waiting and found I had lost some more. I bought two liters of overpriced, questionable brand oil and dumped it into my smokin' hot engine. I then went back and bought a cold sport-type drink since my three cans of Coke were a little on the warm side by this point. Again I was treated as though I was inconveniencing the gas station people by spending money there. Once the engine started I was happy to be out of there. Why run a public service type business if you don't like the public?

From there on the roads flattened out a lot, so I held the water in a lot longer and actually only had to stop once to refill before arriving in Boston Bar. I pulled into yet another unfriendly gas station to fill up my containers and top up the radiator. As I'm scanning the area for a water outlet the familiar looking character of Paul Gagnon wanders up. Whats really spooky is he's wearing the same shirt as I am, the Island Rock Crawl t-shirt. We chatted for a bit and found out what each other was up to. Paul was just heading back home after camping for the weekend (in his Mustang, hee hee) and he offered to follow me to make sure I was okay. Perfect. That's two friendly people I've come across on the highway today. Things are looking up.

It took two refills of my radiator between Boston Bar and Hope. We joked about how I was getting 30 km to the gallon...of water. Never got the engine hot enough to stall it out though. We got into Hope and then Paul pulled off into the Shell station. I continued on to the Chevron and topped up my water. I noticed Paul hadn't caught up to me yet so I went back and found him with the hood of his Mustang up. "Got a screwdriver?" he asked me. Now this was amusing, he was following me to make sure I was okay, and now I'm digging for tools to help him fix a nasty fuel leak from his Holley carb. Funny how things work out some times. So with his fuel leak fixed and my water topped up, we get onto the freeway. 30 km later I fill the water on the side of the freeway. Once the road was flat again Paul followed me into the truck stop in Chilliwack for a final fill of the radiator. Thanks Paul, and sister Suzie, too. She was stuck in his car and therefore going where he was going.

So, my Jeep got me home, it now sits with a blown water pump and a questionable engine block. It runs as good as it always has, aside from the water pump noise, but what bothers me is the extra few seconds it takes for the oil light to go out after starting it. It's always built oil pressure almost immediately but now it's looking a lot like I've done some bearing damage. I think that first overheating 11 km from Cache Creek may have done some irreparable damage to the bottom end of the engine. When an engine is smoking on the inside you know bad things are happening. I'm not going to bother putting a water pump on it just yet. I need to get the oil pan off first and inspect the critical engine parts and pull some bearing caps off and do the Plastiguage test before I run it anymore. If this engine is destroyed, that pretty much puts the future of my Cherokee on hold. That's the only engine I have and I was counting on it for another 300,000 km before tearing it apart.

Incidentally, the odometer hit 299,784 when I got into my driveway, didn't quite make 300,000. Darn.

Today's lesson, boys and girls: if you've got a leak, you'd better fix it because if there's no coolant, that temperature gauge will lie to you.

Dan

Dan has sent an epilogue to this story:

Let the Jeep sit for two weeks, not wanting to look at it, afraid of what I might find. Finally give up and decide it's time to see what makes it tick tick tick.

Changed the oil. Inspected the oil that came out of the engine, and I just can't figure out if there's metal filings in it or not. I fired up the Jeep and she started well enough. Ran the RPM up and everything seemed normal. Let it idle. Tick-tick-tick-tick. Uh oh. I let the engine warm up and it still ticked. Hmmmm, not a good thing. I took it for a drive and it seemed as powerful as it ever was, but idled a little rough, and there's still that tick-tick-tick...not going away.

I parked the Jeep back in the driveway and shut 'er down. Then I tried to fire it back up. It cranked for a really, really long time. Hmm. It didn't want to fire up after it was warmed up. Finally it fired. I watched the oil light for what seemed like an eternity. Man, that light stayed on a long time. Okay, oil pressure was questionable at idle now. Hmmm. Hot engine doesn't want to start and when it does start it takes a long time to build oil pressure. Okay, I think this engine is done. Compression test cold averaged just over 125 psi. I'm sure this goes down after the engine warms up. I drove it up to my humble workspace and swapped the insurance onto my (t)rusty Datsun 510. It was a sad, sad day.

With the Datsun back on the road sharing duty with the Ford as daily drivers, I ripped the engine out of the Jeep. Stupid reverse torx bolts, what the hell were they thinking????? Anyway, engine torn out, I tore the engine down.

Results:

• Connecting rod bearings: copper color top and bottom.
• Camshaft bearings: copper color top and bottom.
• Main bearings: look like new.
• Camshaft: lobes not uniform shapes anymore.
• Pistons: skirts damaged, probably unrelated though. Looks like piston slop at BDC and the skirts grab the bottom of the cylinder.