Seems like we've been waiting forever. We got the document we needed from the coast guard thanks to my son Steven, but the engine is still without a few critical parts. We were waiting for the documentation, so we decided to check out the bad injector the prior mechanic in Barre de Navidad had warned us about. Upon delving into the running of the engine with each injector disconnected, it was obvious that cylinder #2 was not pulling its weight. After swapping the injector between #1 and#2, we knew that it was not the injectors fault. Looking at the pressure and rate of flow to each cylinder revealed that # 2 just was not getting its share. Checking the entire fuel system revealed that the tank uptake was clogged. Clearing the line didn't change things, but the mechanic thought that the head gasket was leaking between cylinder 2 and 3. Jeff on Blue Jacket happened to have a spare gasket which he could replace over the summer and was willing to sell it to me.
We took the head off and the head gasket looked fine, but there was lots of carbon on the valves in 2nd and 3rd cylinders. He headed off to a mchine shop to re-seat the valves on Sat. afternoon hoping to get done same day. Sun. a little after noon, he returned with it all clean and renewed. We installed it and fired it up. Smoother, but still no improvement on # 2. He took photos of the pump and went to the diesel laboratorio to seek guidance.
Next day he returned and attempted to clean and free up the part of the pump serving cyl. #2. Still no change, so after some discussion, I let him take the injection pump to the laboratorio to see if they could fix it.
Three days later, he returned with alist of parts needed to complete the repair. We sat around for a few days while he searched for the parts in Mexico and Guatemala. The laboratorio suggested sending it to the mother lab in Guadalajara, where they could re build it in 12-14 days at about 4 times the cost of the local repair. When I pressed them about how reliable the time frame was and where the parts would come from, it became apparent that the parts would come from the USA distributor. At this point it seemed like ordering the parts from the USA and having them express shipped here would be faster and much less expensive, not to mention having a handle on the progress.
I called a couple of places to find that the only online store which had them could not ship them outside their territoy in Michigan and surrounding states. My pre paid phone ran out of minutes on the next call. Time for a break, I guess.
Next morning I fired off e-mail to a handfull of FL dealers and was told that the distributor was out of the parts. One offerred to have them express shipped from the factory and mail them to the FL address as soon as they come in.
Next day I hopped on a colectivo van to Tapachula to recharge the phone and get some plumbing parts to assemble a water filter to use to keep the sediment out of the tanks when filling them from the dock. I had to have a phone to place the order, so now I have done my part.
Now the plan is to get #1 son to forward them to us, and we will just take some time off from the heat and frustration by going to the highlands of Guatemala for about a week. One of the marina guys will feed Bob while we are gone.
We plan to head for Quetzaltenango tomorrow, then to Coban, and wherever sounds good from there.
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