Assessing the Damage:

Friday, July 26, 2002

Sleep in. Right... Although the ear plugs held tight against the noise of cars on the nearby street, late-arriving campers bumbling about in the Orchard as they set up their tents, and (I'm pretty sure), some impromptu fireworks displays, I was fully awakened just before dawn by some small animal attempting to scratch it's way into the tent. It took me only about 2/10 of a second to realize that I had food in there with me, and that I may have to take some defensive action. I picked up the flashlight to cosh the creature over the head if it gained entry, but after trying a few tentative scratches on the other wall, it gave up and wandered off to better pickin's. I never did figure out what it was, a racoon (grrr, I hate 'em), a cat or something else.

Now completely awake, and a little excited by the event, I was unable to do much more than lay in bed and wish for sleep, and finally gave up about a quarter to five. Dressed, ate some granola, made a cup of tea and formulated the day's plan.

Met up with Jennifer on my way to put the car back on the charger, and inquired about auto parts stores. Got some directions and got to work preparing for the day's mechanical challenges. Moved the car over to "EV Alley", near the main entrance, and plugged the car's charger into the gird-intertied photovoltaic power system, running the utility meter up a bit so that there would be something for the meter reader to count all of the PV watts against.

In the Pavilion building, I met up with Justin and Peter from Grease Works in Corvallis. They were putting in some time as Fair volunteers as trade for their booth space, so I put them to work helping me move a heavy folding table out to the EV and Pusher, explaining on the way the events of the previous day.

Darren arrived after his breakfast with the HP Crew, and delivered his pop-up canopy and several folding camp chairs.

By now, it was getting on 8:30, and I decided it was time enough to find out what kind of machine shop facilities John Day had. I rode my bike down to Main St., then west, looking for the NAPA auto parts store. Once there, I inquired about machine shop services, particularly cylinder head milling. Mark, the machinist, said no problem, bring in the head and he'd check it out and see if it was repairable. The shop had the proper milling machine to service the diesel head, one that uses stones instead of machine steel cutters. Before leaving, I purchased a container of Orange pumice hand cleaner.

One the way back to the fairgrounds, I stopped at King's variety store. Last night I had realized that although I could probably stay fairly clean while doing the work on the engine because the motor was new and the engine compartment had been thoroughly steam cleaned and scrubbed, even the smallest grease spots would ruin the clean white T-shirts that I had packed for the trip. All of these shirts were "special" with logos or other decorations that would make them impossible to replace once dirtied by crankcase oil. At Kings, I bought a pack of three white T-shirts with no decorations. I would be able to stay cool in the white fabric, and not have to worry about oily spots.

Back at the car, I began removing the intake and exhaust manifolds, the timing belt cover and timing belt, and all of the injector lines.

Not too much after I started, Jacques arrived in the Grass Car, a 1982 VW Jetta Diesel, which he had completely covered in Astroturf. Of course, the Grass Car was running on Biodiesel, and Jacques was selling "Greasy Guerrilla" T-shirts with the no-derrick logo on them. Jacques was a very important part of the 2001 SolWest trip, as he served as my chase vehicle on the return trip and provided my ride home after the car broke down for the final time in Mitchell.

The morning progressed, and I continued to tear down the stricken engine. I fully expected to find that the head would have large cracks in the combustion cylinders, but once I got it off and set it upside down on the table, I was unable to see any damage at all. Even the small cracks between the intake and exhaust valves which all VW diesels have were unchanged from when I rebuilt the head only 1,500 miles previous. I could see where combustion pressure had been forcing it's way past the head gasket and into the coolant galleries, but otherwise, it looked repairable.

It was a little before noon, and I wanted to get the head down to the machine shop so Mark could check it out. I considered that I would strap it to the back of my bicycle and ride it down, but was offered a ride instead.

At NAPA, Mark looked at the head, and measured about .008" of warp, not a lot, but enough to require milling. He told me he'd get right on it after lunch, and that I could pick it up anytime after 4PM. Before leaving the store, I checked on the availability of a replacement head gasket and head bolts. Neither were available locally, so another option would be needed.

Just as I was returning to the car at the fairgrounds, Justin came up telling me "Here, you'll need these", and handed me a set of camshaft and injection pump timing tools. Although it would be possible to do this job without these specialized tools, having them would make the job much easier and more accurate. When Justin learned that I had not been able to get a head gasket at the parts store, be made a call back home, and arranged to have Robert and Mark, who were just about to leave Corvallis for John Day, pick up the gasket and bolts before they left the valley.

With the cylinder head being serviced, parts on their way from afar, and a strong desire to eat lunch, I went over to the Kawanis booth and ordered a veggie-cheeseburger. Although the burger was tasty, I still can't figure out why they don't offer tomato slices or sprouts to dress up the sandwich. Geez, even lettuce would help a little.

Back at the car with my meal, the helpful fellows at Energy Outfitters came over to let me know that while I was away, the front tire on my bicycle had suffered a spontaneous blowout. Oh great, another project.

With several hours to consume waiting for the cylinder head to be finished, I began cleaning up the parts I had removed from the engine, scraping the remnants of head gasket off of the block, and doing whatever preparations I could for the reassembly.

The fair had opened to the public at 11AM, and as usual, the Pusher got it's share of attention from the attendees. As I was mostly consumed with mechanical chores, I was a bit more reserved than usual, and I kind of think that there were fewer people coming by, at least fewer that I noticed. I had the feeling that the whole EV/Pusher thing seemed a little less convincing as a viable means of transport, since I was obviously having to work on it in the middle of showing it. Several folks that I had met last year came by to say "Hi" and see the changes to the trailer that had occurred since our last meeting.

Around 4PM, I got another ride back to the machine shop to pick up the head. Total cost was $32 (including a hot tank cleaning). Justin and Peter were there, and had found a replacement intake manifold gasket, as I had damaged a corner of the one on the car while removing it. On the way back to SolWest, I stopped again at Kings, and bought an inner tube for my bike tire. I'd be lost without my wheels, walking is too time consuming, and I was making quite a few trips into town to pick up supplies.

Several additional vehicles had joined EV Alley, including a VW Caddy (pickup), a Mercedes and a newer Ford F-250 turbo diesel, both running on straight vegetable oil. Gray, the owner of the truck had struck up a conversation with Jacques, and the two of them talked me into attending dinner with them at "The Snaffle Bit", supposedly the most posh restaurant in the area. It would be several more hours before Robert and Mark arrived with the head gasket, and as the day was wearing down, I began loading loose parts into the trunk of the Pusher, putting away tools and cleaning up for the last time.

Jacques and Gray were in the Grass Car with the engine running, while I washed the oil off of my hands when a fellow came up and asked about the Pusher. I gave him the quick "This is an EV, and that trailer provides ground traction to push it forward, and I'm just about to leave for dinner, come back and visit again tomorrow, excuse me" rap, and left to join the hungry diners in the car. After we got underway, I found out that the guy was Joshua Tickell, the author of From the Fryer to the Fuel Tank, which is considered to be the bible of Biodiesel. Tickell is himself referred to as the "Father of Biodiesel". Great, I just brushed off a patron saint of renewable energy.

The Grass Car attracted lots of attention out on the street, including a wave from the Grant County Sheriff. At the restaurant, we found that they were packed, with names on the reservation list. Gray suggested that we make a reservation for Saturday so we would be assured of getting in for a meal. We drove back into John Day, and instead went into the Outpost Cafe, which was surprisingly uncrowded. Gray was concerned that he would have problems finding "California Cuisine", but he was more than satisfied to order a garden and chicken wrap sandwich. A glass of Black Butte Porter with my fish & chips. As we were finishing up, a group of familiar SolWest faces crowded into the restaurant and filled a couple of tables. My impression is that the local economy gets a pretty big boost from the SolWest fair, lots of tourist dollars out on the street all at once. It's impossible to find an available motel room this weekend.

As was getting to be the norm for this event, showered at Darren's room, then loitered at the HP suite for a little while before returning to the fairgrounds. While passing the Pavilion building, I spotted Justin and friends inside, and so I rode in to visit with them for a bit. They were having a conversation with Josh Tickell, and he was asking them pretty common questions like: " How many gallons are you reacting a week?" and "Where do you get your feedstock?" After each answer, he'd reply with a "Right on!" or "That's Awesome!". I kind of wondered why someone who had been doing Biodiesel for so many years would be so excited to hear about the mundane workings of a small co-op's system. It occurred to me that Josh was acting as the spokesman, pumping these guys up with his enthusiasm. There was nothing disingenuous about his attitude, he really seemed to enjoy putting some inertia into the Grease Works crew by being interested in what they were doing.

Back at the Orchard, "Margaritaville", the camp lounge (although we call it "The Bar", it's BYOB), was in full swing with live music broadcast over Jon's Radio Free SolWest at micropower on 96.1MHz. I stayed for a few minutes and watched the festivities, then headed over to my tent. Since I should be accustomed to the camp, and the Pusher progress had been adequate so as to not concern my slumber, I looked forward to catching up on some ZZZ's. The earplugs went in and the lights went out.