14 days & 7500 km later we are just back from our central Aust trip , turned left at Three ways & headed to AyersRock, instead of heading north to Katherine due to horrific exhaust valve problems (cyl 1 & 4) on our recently reco motor, totally closed up by Blackall & again next night at Mt Isa, slowed down to 80 kmh SPLITTY SPEED!! & spent the next 12 days adjusting the clearences 002 to 006 thou each night, not much adjustment left on number 4 now, was sometimes adjusting it every 300 km!!! more on this trip later

a friend who had the same prob with his 2 ltr injected kombi his mechanic told him to adjust the valves to 10 thou and he hasnt had the hassle since
marcel

Thanks Marcel, I might try it but it could be too late

Hiya Kim,

Good to hear you are all back safe and well Looking forward to more tales about the trip!

Cheers

Well done Kim. A shame to hear about the motor problems - I hope my reco motor doesn't have similar problems going to Nambucca. :jesus

better leave this story to the campfire!!
cheers
rhys
p.s. all that prep work u done hey

thanks guy's

I will have a comprehensive run down soon

G’day Kim,
Great to hear you made it around safely. Quite an achievement!!
Pity about though.
I hope you and the family still enjoyed the journey!!
Looking forward to the rundown on the sight’s you sore. Hope the valve problems are nothing serious.
Cheers,
Andy

Thanks Andy,
I can tell you now, I would NOT have got home if I did not have all the extra guages to monitor the impending doom, & drive & maintain accordingly, I just worked out that I adjusted the valve clearances about 19 times in 12 days !!!!!!

Ouch,
How to turn grey in 2 weeks!!!
:thumb

hair is still only 25% grey, my hands are a mess ( nightly adjustments in the dark holding torch in mouth) lying in dirt at between 2 & 4 deg & the last 3 days or so, also doing HOT adjustments 1/2 way through the day (burny burny)

Hi Ya Kim
There is always something to make a holiday memorable, I hope it is nothing serious!
On a brighter note I hope the rest of the trip was a great time, did you get to see all you intended to, and how did the Kombi handle the trip apart from the mentioned problem, have you found out exactly what was causing the trouble?
Good to have you back.
Rob......

Well done, I bet you got so fast at doing it too! hot potato hot potato hot hot hot hot :thumb

If not for gauges..... boom

what gauges do you run?

love to hear why

yes, I am very very quick at it now, nothing like frost bitten blistered fffingers:jesus
tacho, oil temp, voltmeter, with switchover between the 2 batteries & vacuum gauge
simply by monitoring these, you notice ANY fine variations & compute the variations in the different guages to diagnose most problems, in this case the vacuum guage told me the problem & the temp guage told me what speed to run at
to minimise the heat

Kim - you have told us what you did but can i ask what the problem was?
How did the vacuum gauge pick it up?

Gunna have to catch you at the Palace for a FULL run down :bounce

Yeah Kim
We are all hanging on the fence wanting to know what the problem was and what you think was the cause!
Rob.....

Barry,
cause vacuum is SUCK ( love that word)
if a valve is not completely sealed the reading will be lower, & with less than 6 cyl it is easy to see fluctuations in the reading as the suss cylinder goes through it's operation, - also as the performance goes down you notice that the guage gives a lower reading to maintain the same speed, far more accurate than how far you have to put your foot on the throttle, also when an engine is getting crook, the readings can vary quite markedly depending on engine (or faulty component) temperature
I can only get to the Palace by 6.15 Friday,
but might see Richard Thurs

Cool - i wont be there before 6.30 pm :thumb

So i guess you are saying dropped seat?

The worry with that sort of problem, is even a CHT wouldn't have helped, it only monitors one cylinder, in my case No. 3.

Barry, OK I be there 6.30 Friday
last night I did Compression test & one of the two crook cylinders was 70 psi & the good one was 140, I did not bother to check the other two , so at least one valve has burnt & 2 seats collapsed or worn away or whatever by about 30 thou:cry murphys law dictates it is one in each head ---- somewhat the same as if I had a CHT sender it would always be fitted to the good cyl