Emergency Rad Repair

The wife had just bought herself some new furniture for the living room in Edmonton. It was my duty to get it home. So we all jumped in the truck and away we went. The poor old truck wanted to stall once in a while, mostly crowded intersections. It may have had something to due with the fuel that was more than 2 years old. No one remembers for sure the last time that secondary tank was emptied and filled. Switched back to regular tank, problem solved, our typical traveling glitch is easily averted.

The new furniture loaded and off to home we go.

Shortly out of Edmonton I hear a bang followed by a lot of grindy noises. Uh oh, this can't be good.

Stop and open the hood. It would appear that the rad support has broken and has fallen into the engine fan. Coolent is now raining rapidly all over the road.

As always I did an inventory. I am in the truck about 100 KM from home and I don't have a whole lot--tool box is there, but no spare rad... knew I'd forget something. I did have a tarp strap that I used to secure the rad back in place and a water bottle that was used to get water out of the slough to fill up the truck. Keep in mind that the truck was still leaking and it was many, many fast trips to the slough! The wife and I are now an experienced relay team.

Filled-- but spraying slough water like a summer time sprinkler, off we go... watching the temp gauge closely--heat on full blast ( did I mention it was a lovely spring day) and the town of Looma 10KM away. 5KM down the road the engine temperature goes way way up, the heater stops blowing hot air. Shut off the engine and coast up to the next available slough. Fill the engine again and off we go. This time we nicely coast into the gas station by Looma.

There we were able to buy a dozen eggs. Eggs?! You say?! What are we here till breakfast? Nope, I have a plan. An old Swedish trick taught to me by an old Swede.

Just fill the truck up with water again and break open a couple of eggs and put the egg white in the rad. I got a lot of the yoke in too but that's because I am a lousy cook.

Idle the engine and add water as necessary and watch the leaking disappear!

Off we go again. This time all was good and still full of water we got home. Now I have to go out back and take a rad out of something to put in the truck.

Click for bigger picture. You can see the egg boiled in the holes.

Whatever it takes to get you home.