So, I find out that summer leave is
coming up and that I will have 2 weeks of free time away from Ft.
Lewis. For leave I decide to head back home to Palmdale, and that I
should drive the truck (1960 Chevy pickup) home and drop it off, and
bring Daisy (197five cj five) back up to WA.
The day for we sign out for leave
arrives. After final formation, we all sign out. I then change out
of uniform as quickly as possible and enlist the help of some friends
(it takes several people to push a kayak out the window of a room on
the 3rd floor and lower it somewhat safely to the ground)
to start loading the kayak and several tough boxes into the back of
the truck. Once everything is loaded I do a few last minute checks
and then hit the road on my way. Normally the first leg of the
journey goes pretty smoothly and is the easiest since its daylight
and im still wide awake (not that I ever really get tired while
driving). I should have realized this trip would be different when I
found myself in traffic before I even got off post, but I just
chalked it up to typical Friday traffic. Six hours later and I had
only made it about 130 miles!!! I should have already been almost
half way home by now, but instead I had not even made it out of
Washington yet. At this time I decide it is less effective to try
and fight the stop and go traffic, and that it would be better to
pull off and get something to eat in the hopes that once I was done
eating the traffic would have dissipated. As I pull into the Wendy’s
parking lot, I notice that several other cars seem to have the same
plan. In talking to the other folks getting food, I am informed that
there were five car accidents all within about a 30 mile stretch of
the highway, and that is why traffic has been backed up for so long.
After taking plenty of time enjoying
my frosty and fries, I decide things should be cleared up by now and
that I should get back on the road. I’m on the road for about a
half hour before I start to notice a fair amount of blue smoke
pouring out from the back of the truck as I drive down the road. My
first thought is that this is not good, since blue smoke is a good
indication of burning oil. I glanced down at my trusty oil pressure
gauge (the only gauge in the truck that works) and see that I still
have plenty of pressure, so I figure things cant be that bad. I
start to go over in my head all the reasons that I could be burning
oil (bad piston rings, blown gaskets, cracked block, and so on).
During this process I decide to call my dad and have him use the
magic of the internet to double check my suspicions. After a little
research, I figure it is most likely that the piston rings are
ruined, and the oil is burning because its leaking through into the
combustion chamber. So, one of my favorite shows is called
roadkill. It is about 2 guys who drive junk cars long distances for
different reasons and have to stop and fix horrible problems on the
vehicles every episode. Since I watched an episode where they
successfully drove an el camino from LA to Reno with bad piston
rings, I figure I should be able to make it the rest of the way as
well.
After driving for a couple more hours,
it is now dark and the oil pressure gauge is starting to drop a lot
quicker than I would like. I decide to pull off on the next exit and
see if I cant figure out exactly what is going on. The next exit
turns out to be one of those ranch exits, that has no services, no
lights. Its sole purpose is to provide some rancher access to his
land. As I pull off the road into a dirt lot, I grab my headlamp and
hop out to see if I can see why im losing oil pressure. By the time
I get out and walk around to the other side of the truck where the
engine will be most visible from underneath, the truck has had enough
time to drop a small lake of oil on the ground and continue emptying
what is left from the oil pan into the dirt which the light from my
headlamp gladly reflects off of. I decide that time is short, so I
hurry up and dump a gallon of oil in the engine (doesn’t everyone
carry an extra gallon of oil everywhere they go?) and head off in
search of a truck stop before I run out of oil and get stranded.
About 10 miles down the road I come across a “Loves” truck stop
and decide to pull in. I find a parking spot, and immediately start
making a new lake of oil under the truck. I do my best to try and
see where the oil is coming from, but am unsuccessful. I then head
into the store in search of more oil, and a mirror on a stick. Once
inside I find the oil rather quickly, but spend the next twenty
minutes looking for the mirror. I figure since this is a truck stop
they are bound to have one, and I am just not seeing it. After
repeated failure I finally resort to asking the cashier where it is,
and she just gives me a confused look since she has no idea what I’m
talking about. I quickly describe to her what it looks like, to
which she replies “we don’t carry anything like that here”. I
buy about 2 gallons of oil, and head back out to my new man made
lake. I do a little more peering and straining in an attempt to find
where the oil is leaking from, and come to the conclusion that the
rear main seal is probably broken and that it would be best to try
and find an auto parts store. I top off the oil and quickly get back
on the highway and head on down the road. After about a little over
an hour (about 3 am) of driving, I notice the oil pressure start to
drop again. Luckily I am coming up on a rest stop. I pull off, and
decide that instead of topping off the oil, that it would be better
to stop until daylight and then continue on when it would be easier
to find. Once I pull into a parking spot, I get out and put my oil
drain pan under the leak so that I can capture as much of the oil
leaking out as I can. I figure since I have a limited amount with
me, I will need to reuse any that I can manage to prevent from
becoming a dark lake under the truck. I then get back in the truck
and attempt to get some sleep. I spent the rest of the night waking
up about every half hour convinced I had heard someone trying to take
stuff out of the bed of the truck. Some time a little before sun up
I decided attempting to sleep was a lost cause. I got out and
grabbed the extra bottles of oil I had and pulled the drain plan out
from under the truck. I quickly dumped the contents of the pan along
with 3 quarts of oil into the engine, and then was on my way.
At about the same time that the sun
was starting to rise, I found a small town ( I don’t remember the
name of it) that looked promising. Upon exiting the freeway, I
immediately happen across a small chevron station. Once I am inside
I locate the oil and start grabbing every bottle they have. The
cashier gives me a funny look and informs me that the oil is
expensive. I then fill her in on my situation, and that I need the
oil no matter what the cost is to make it farther. She then informs
me that there is a Walmart, and an O'Reilly's auto parts store in
town, and gives me directions on how to get there so that I can get
cheaper oil. Gotta love small towns! After driving around for about
fifteen minutes, I was able to find both of them right next to each
other. Since it was still rather early, I had to sit around for
about an hour for the auto parts store to open. I got out and put my
drain pan under the truck, and then used this time to call my brother
Jake and see what he was up to for the day. Once the store opened, I
went in and made my way straight to the section with the mirror on a
sticks and bought one. Since it was now light outside, I decided
this would be a good opportunity to further diagnose the issue. I
took a good look underneath using my newly acquired tool. Because
the starter was blocking my view, I was still not able to see what
was causing the problem for certain. It still looked like it was
leaking from the rear main seal. So I went back in the store and
bought several five quart jugs of cheap oil. Once I had filled the
motor back up I was quickly on my way again. Since I was not
completely sure what the problem was, I opted to keep driving and
just stop every fifty miles or so and add more oil. This plan worked
alright, all the way till I got to the foot of the grapevine.
I had decided it would be a good idea
to stop one last time to get more oil before heading up the pass. I
tried paying Credit, and when that didn’t work, tried ATM. That
failed also! (turns out when you drive a thousand miles stopping
every fifty miles to get stuff, the bank thinks its suspicions
activity and puts a hold on your card) Luckily I had enough cash for
2 quarts of oil. After topping it off, I preceded up the pass and
was able to make it the rest of the way without incident. Once I
arrived home and had access to the necessary tools, upon removing the
starter I discovered that the cause of all my troubles was an 8 inch
crack along the side of my oil pan. I went to the parts store in an
attempt to buy another one, which turned into its own mini adventure.
In the end I wound up just taking the pan off and welding up the
crack on my own. A trip that normally takes between 16 and 20 hours
ended up taking 2 days.
