So here is the story.
We went to Moab on Thursday night, across the I70 pass the temps were at a happy 86 (all temps are in Celsius) then on long climbs they would peak up to 89. On the downhill side the temps would come back down nicely.
So in moab we wheeled and I wheeled hard, I did manage to gain some trail damage from the Escalator at Hells Revenge, pictures to come. Had a blast in Lockhart Canyon, then made it back into town mid Monday. I did the obligatory "nuts and juices" check and noticed that the coolant in the overflow bottle was a bit murkier than it usually was but didn't think much about it.
So we hopped on the road, I drove 200 miles at the speed limit (80mph in Utah) which meant that it was living in 3rd gear maybe 70% of that time. But I was also keeping an eagle's eye on my koso temp gauge, if it got to 89 degrees I backed off. And even then 89 only showed up on long uphill grades so nothing out of the norm.
We made it into Glenwood Springs and stopped for fuel. I did another "nuts and juices" check and noticed that my overflow bottle had filled up and was above the max mark. Again the fluid looked a bit murkier, but since I had been running her hard I didn't think much of it.
We hopped back on the road and drove for another 47 miles then about two miles before Edwards I noticed my koso gauge hit 89, "I thought huh thats warm, I'm not even on a big climb". So I flipped on both front and rear heaters full blast. At this point I was keeping a close watch on the gauge about a mile before the Edwards exit I watched it go. 89, 90, 91,92,94,96,99,102,104... When I saw it hit 90 I knew something was wrong my eyes swept the gauge cluster, still had oil pressure... good, then I looked out the passenger side mirror and saw the tactical smoke screen that the old girl let loose to conceal her failure..... When I noticed this the temp gauge was passing 96 degrees C. Shifted into Neutral and shut her down.
Last I saw was 104 on the gauge. Luckily I was able to coast it off the interstate and into a parking lot. My crew which was following me rolled up with coolant all over their windshields. I checked for broken hoses but saw none so I knew right away what it was. We all started moving my belongings from the old girl to other rigs which took probably 30 mins. At this time one of my friends friend had concluded that it had just overheated, knowing nothing of these rigs he went and bumped the starter.
I heard the unmistakable sound of an engine trying to compress the uncompressable. Luckily he just bumped it, hopefully he didn't do any damage. I, like the old girl was a little hot at this time.
Oh well such is life. I'm going to get her tonight and like you guys have mentioned, this will open up a lot of access to take care of the other issues. And I still had a killer time in Moab.
