This is the continuation of my story The Little Red Engine that huffed and puffed. As most of us know it takes time for a doctor to make his diagnosis after he receives all the test results. I believe this is also true when collecting or looking for reasons why anything stops running. My thoughts are  The Little Red Engine is Beauty’s heart so we must carefully look for reasons why she has been spitting out quite a bit of blow-by.  Here at Turners Marina they have a vehicle we can use to get things we may need. We took a trip to Harbor Freight to collect a few tools that we did not bring with us.

 

After we arrived back, the testing of the Little Red Engine started right away. I feel like a cheerleader. LOL I stood by watching Bryce hard at work while he (unbolted) I would say unbutton her covering. I handed him tools as needed or just plainly stepped out of his way.  

 

The burgundy Trail Blazer is the Turner loaner car. We are back from Harbor Freight  

Now I must tell you, Beauty is a bit shy… She doesn’t want to be seen naked; but has agreed to let me show you her heart. Bryce is undoing her Buttons and bolts and looks pretty happy at the moment…LOL

Glow pugs show a bit of difference between cylinders, but nothing bad.

Compression test is a key test that must be performed.  Normally, this test must be run on a warm engine.  However, Bryce is only looking for differences between cylinders.  Dry compression is 120,120,280,60.  Wet compression is 200,200,500,120.  Bryce is expecting all cylinders to be close and over 400 when warm.  Looks like only #3 is good.  Other three are low.

Okay looks Like he has collected antifreeze out of the engine. It looks a bit brown.

OM…Look It’s her main artery (her cylinder head) and the test results came back fabulous; NO Blown head gasket … that’s good and bad. Now we must look deeper into her. I am afraid she might need exploratory surgery! Are you sure doc? I asked. Without a thought…So lets see…..

Now look closely… you might have to zoom in with me…Now during the compression check the top piston was not firing well at all.  Her compression was only 60 you can see the brown that looks like rust right?  It is not rust, it is extreme glazing.  It is the source of the low compression.  The next one down had great compression, it is only glazed near the top.  The two bottom cylinders are low in the 100’s and show glazing at different parts of the cylinder and places not shown in this picture.

Well, I found out that the brown and black is called glazing.  But this glazing isn’t so good for pistons and rings so I am told.  These Dirty artery’s (cylinders) have to be cleaned.  Bryce says they only need to be honed and any stuck rings need to be unstuck.  He says otherwise the cylinders are like new.  There are no ridges at the top and some original hone marks can still be seen.  This engine has nearly 3000 hours on it.

Now, we really must make a decision… There are so many reason that we should say just clean her, put her back together and see if all is well.

Okay This is me Jane… I am not normal… see I understand saving money and I don’t gamble. Matter of fact every time I gamble I loss my twenty dollars!  No joke. The stakes are too high to gamble here for me.  I need to be able to depend on Beauty’s heart. I have lost faith in this engine. We were very lucky coming down the Mississippi that this didn’t happen. With that said my vote is to replace her engine with a new heart. I am not sure the out come yet. But I will keep you posted.

Do we look tired? The young man below Mark took this picture of us after we settled in at Turner’s Marina. 

I am sure Bryce wants to clean her cylinders/rings and verify by compression all is ok. Darn why can’t I feel that way   I am so mad at myself…We had oil leak issues caused by the blow-by and that concerns me.. What happens if we are in the Gulf or the Atlantic and the darn thing won’t start again.  I told you I am not normal.. so we will not stop… We will figure this out together and keep going. I think I would suffocate if we went home. LOL

Ok back to the bright side.. .

We have meet some great people here already. Mark and Lynda Arman.. We have to laugh.. a young girl by the name of Tamara reached out to me asking me if I had meet her parents on the river. She told me what boat they were in and their names I believe. but they were behind us. I told her if I saw them I would tell them I had spoken to her.

Mark and Lynda helped Tow boatUS and the deck hand help us come in. Our conversation started when they asked about me posting on FB..I said yes that’s me. We all started laughing.. Mark said they had followed our trip down the Mississippi. It’s a small world. Get this…Are you ready… They are from Michigan too. I believe there are 5 boats here right now all from Michigan doing the loop. 

What a great couple looking forward to a few more glasses of wine with them. The boat name is Alice

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