Day 39 23/5 2007

The motor problem is solved! The motor works excellently!

Today Martin, our motor technician came back to join us. He has participated in military exercises for some weeks. The new cylinder head gaskets have arrived very opportunely today. We started washing away gasket rests from the blocks and the cylinder head. After that we measured with an adjusting plate. No anomalies were found. As we had a double set of bolts for the cylinder head we cut off two bolt heads so we could use the rest of the bolt for fastening the gasket. It worked out very well and in a short time the cylinder head was back in position again.

We fastened the top, screw up the dividing breeching, the gas mixer and other details. We also changed oil and oil pressure meter. Time to start the motor again! The excitement was growing. We had spent so much time installing the new motor. Should we have to change it for another one or would it be ok?

The motor started with a jump. We turned it off after a short while and inspected the oil filling lock. No water! Just nice brown oil to be seen. We started one again and let the motor work for some minutes. No water this time either. The excitement turned into happiness. As we had not been driving on wood gas for several days we decided to make a test trip to find out how strong the motor is.

The motor started nearly immediately on wood gas. What a difference! The new motor is much stronger when accelerating from standstill. After 25 meters the motor stopped and it was impossible to start even if we tried both wood gas and gasoline. A check of the motor showed that the ignition cable had muddled along with the steering axel. That was fixed rapidly and soon we were on our way again.

We went into the city of Stockholm and stopped at fast food restaurant. Another check showed that the oil looked ok. After a 150 g hamburger we passed the jet set area and then made a trip to Täby (a suburb of Stockholm). Normally you have to keep full throttle the whole time when you drive on wood gas to get a fairly high speed. In town you have to slow down now and then to keep the speed limits.

When we were back in Lidingö at the Micab company Martin tightened the cylinder head bolts again in the darkness. We replaced the tools, did some planning for the week end and then it was time to go home with a big smile in the face.

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