Bertha's blues

Hi folks, Dunc here just giving you all a bit of a technical update on Bertha's issues.

From the get go I will warn you that this will be a bit technical about engine stuff, so, if you smile and nod at a mechanic when he starts talking about engine bits to you, then you might like to skip this post and come back in a couple of days. I really won't be offended if you do, as this post is more for those who want to understand what stopped poor Bertha in her tracks.

When we bought Bertha, we were led to understand that she was only 770,000kms old - and for an engine of this type that is quite young. After we overheated coming into Queenstown, we knew something was wrong as she was losing oil and water.  We had "Speed" a local mechanic come out and check her over but without a full workshop he was not able to shed much light on the health of the engine. He recommended we watch for anything unusual and stop immediately if anything went funny. We were hoping to limp our way to Burnie and I was extremely watchful for anything that could result in further damage to the engine.

Sadly, our journey was very short lived and we made it to just past the Queenstown airport before the temperature rose sharply again and I shut our poor Bertha down.  We then made the decision to have her towed to Hobart. (Apparently the tow truck driver has pulled a few coaches out of Queenstown as it is a very nasty drive in!!!)

Once in Hobart the new mechanic had a fair idea of what the problem would be and had a look at the inspection panels on the side of the block. His thoughts were confirmed as far as a cracked sleeve. This crack in the air intake of the sleeve is quite common for a 2 cycle Diesel engine and a relatively easy fix, so we would be back on the road in 4 or 5 days. This was pretty good news, so we set about preparing for the arrival of Hilly & Pop and enjoying all of what Hobart had to offer while the mechanic got down to pulling the engine apart.

We then got the call that our poorly Bertha had bigger problems. The mechanic had drained the engine and taken the sump off to gain access to the bottom of the conrod to aid in the removal of the piston and sleeve and he found loose copper shavings in there. 

This is very bad sign in an engine, as this indicates serious wear on a bearing and this warranted further investigation. He removed one of the main bearings (this one holds the cranks shaft in) and found that the bearing that should be a very firm fit was rattling around like a marble in a tin cup. The mechanic advised that this was terminal and a new engine was required for Bertha.

He also found that the crankshaft itself has some major wear on it which is also a very bad spot to have any wear.

The kind of wear we are seeing in Bertha is something you'd see from an engine that has done 2 or 3 times the work we were told she had done. People have commented that we were ripped off by the guy who sold her to us, and asked why the 2 mechanics who have looked her over didn't pick up on this. The old owner did one "lap" of Australia which is only about 40 000km. He might not have had any idea either! The mechanics would not have identified the problem unless they took the engine apart. Potentially it might have shown up at our scheduled oil change in Melbourne in February, but right now there is no-one to 'blame'. 

Our mechanic started trying to source a new motor for us from Detroit on the mainland but the price got extremely high and they started looking locally and they eventually spoke to a guy called Colin, the Tassie guru of 2 stroke Detroit engines. When this guy breaks wind it smells like diesel fumes and he has a near perfect match for our Bertha as a "long engine" meaning it is built to a point and then needs to be completed to the spec of the purchaser which would have been Austral spec in our case. These engines can be used in boats and trucks and it needs to be made into a bus engine.

Our old engine will be taken to Launceston and he will put the 2 side by side and unbolt from the old and bolt onto the new. This will recreate the engine as perfectly as possible. He will then start it up in his workshop and tweak it to ensure it's running well and then it will be shipped back to our mechanic in Hobart for fitting. 

It will be a long drawn out process as Colin is apparently quite the perfectionist and will definitely have the engine purring like a kitten when it gets back to us. From start to finish this whole process will take 2 weeks (or thereabouts) and I think most of the diesel mechanics in Tassie will know of Bertha's plight by the time she is back on the road. 

We have been supported by the friendliest bunch of people you could imagine. I must say that Speed in Queenstown needs a special mention here as he came out on his Saturday morning to have a look at the engine just to help a bloke out. He even checked up on us on Saturday afternoon to see how we were going. Top bloke!!

I will now return you to your normal viewing :-)