Still Keeping Positive in Montana

Despite the reality that we have now:

• Witnessed two full moons over Billings
• Are considered regulars with our sewer tank pump out service
• Done laundry 3 times
• Know the menus at every restaraunt nearby by heart

..  we are still keeping positive as our engine rebuild progresses.

It’s gone a bit slower than anticipated, that is for sure. The delays have been a combination of personal time taken off by our techs, other priority jobs coming in, the heat causing a slower pace in general for everyone and dealing with such a ‘special’ engine (as the guys here have grown fond of saying). A backwards spinning, V-drive, old, 2-stroke is a bit of an anomaly to a shop that deals with more mainstream set-ups.

But the techs here approach it with a combination of intrigue and novelty, and our estimate included time for dealing with such challenges. They research their manuals and pick our brains for vintage bus specific knowledge. They continue to teach us as we go, and our noggins are overfilling with diesel mush.

They improvise and trudge forward. Sure, a shop setup to deal with these sorts of engines on a routine basis could get us out on the road much quicker.

If it wasn’t for this blasted heat (Montana?!? Heat???), we’d probably be perfectly happy campers.

But here are some of the definite perks of being ‘stuck’ at this particular location:

• No sales tax! If we’re going to break down, a state without sales tax is like an instant 5-8% savings off not only the repair costs, but also everything else we’re doing here – general living stuff, home improvement projects, eating out and entertainment. On a 5 figure repair bill, that adds up – nicely!
• Living at a shop where the people are friendly is fantastic. We have made friends in the shop, and it will be sad to say our ‘until next times’ (which is hopefully never on a professional level) when we are sprung from here.

• 

  The shop, and individuals, have loaned us tools and expertise for tackling a lot of our own projects on the bus. The time & opportunity here is definitely not going to waste – Zephyr will have more than a rebuilt engine rolling out of here. Although we are exhausting ourselves trying to keep ahead of the shop. All while we continue to try to get in regular work, social & blogging hours.

• We’re saving on campground and fuel expenses!
• As we’re now regulars, our pump-out service pro-actively dropped our rate from $44 to $25. (Although, had we known that upfront, we may have indulged in more frequent pump outs.. thus longer showers!)
• Our social life is not lacking in the least. We have connected with so many amazing people – locals and fellow RVers passing through.
• When Zephyr is done, her engine bay is going to be so shiny and clean – we’ll be able to eat off it!

On a whole, our attitude is positive – while anxious – to get on the road again.

So what is the status?

After several weeks of hanging around on a cart in the rebuild section of the shop – the engine moved yesterday, via forklift, to the dynamometer (aka ‘dyno’) room.

The dyno is a massive machine that runs and tests the engine before it’s fully installed. Some of the delay has been in fabricating plates and connector hoses to mate our old-school engine to the new-school fittings. The plan is to run it for several hours, hopefully this afternoon barring no further complications.

The dyno run will verify everything is well put together, allows us to tweak and tune the engine to exacting specs and starts to break-in the engine for us. Once it passes, the engine will be re-attached to the transmission, repainted and then put back in the bus.

We’ve been chanting the ‘Walk the Dyno’ song for the past day in anxious anticipation of this major milestone. Our lyrics go something like:

Vroom vroom acka lacka lacka vroom

Vroom vroom acka lacko vroom vroom

Vroom vroom acka lacka vroom vroom

Vroom vroom acka lacko vroom vroom

Open the door, Get on the dyno floor, everyone run the dynometer!

Ok, maybe we have been here a wee bit too long?

I might not be able to sweet talk enough of the techs here into creating a spoof version of this music video (but wouldn’t dancing mechanics doing the dyno dance be an instant viral video hit?):

.. but please do join us in chanting the dyno song today.

Hopefully the positive energy from around the world will help get us on the road again real soon!

Vroom vroom acka lacka lacka vroom…