Last night while talking to Bryan on the SBX radio, Vikki was given a new problem to get some answers for.
Our 2008 Scandic is 5 years old. It has always started up immediately no matter how cold it was. It is a 4 stroke with no pull start. You should never over rev them. They have to be treated a little differently than a 2 stroke. We usually use the 4 stroke only when there is a 2 stroke following with pull start, but this year Bryan is traveling a lot on his own. The 4 stroke are very complicated and if they break down you have no way of fixing them.
Yesterday morning it was only -19 Cel. but it took 4 attempts for it to start. It has Bryan wondering if it is the Battery or if the injectors are dirty. What he does now is only turns the key on three times.... letting the electric fuel pump pressure up, then after 5 seconds he does the full turn on. The electric fuel pump in the tank is not pressuring up instantly.
Last night at 5 a.m. there was Vikki worrying out how to get Bryan back here to the base camp if it wouldn't start this morning.
The 12 km with a 1000 foot climb would be no fun at all. Bryan could do it but why. Her little Tundra 300 would get down there okay and on the flat both could ride but the long hills would kill it. A heli is only a satellite call away but about 1,700 or more. Whow!!! But a lot can happen on a 12 km walk in winter.
This morning on the SBX at 9 p.m. we discussed the problem. We checked in again at 10 p.m.
The Scandic was running outside the line cabin.
Whatever it takes to make sure Bryan is OK must be the right thing to do... or?
ReplyDeleteI'm a firm believer in bad gas as the source of all kinds of problems. I'm assuming that all your gas has Stabil or Seafoam which should make it good for a year (hopefully) but perhaps it was old before treated and you're dealing w/ a low octane problem from the get go. The warmer weather also cause lots of tank condensation issues. I'll assume Bryan fills the tank at the end of each day to eliminate condensation. It's tough because it could be the injectors, too. Unfortunately you'll just have to plan on the beast failing you somewhere and work accordingly. Be safe.
ReplyDeleteVikki hopefully Bryan made it back to base camp safely on Miss Piggy. I had my SWT out on the line and when I got back to my truck I turned it off and put the key or chip or what ever you want to call it in my pocket. When I went to restart the machine it would not start, played with it for hours trying to get it going again. I then just happened to look at the rubber cup with the chip in it, and what did I find but a dime inside of it preventing the machine from starting. When I had it in my pocket there was loose change in it and somehow the dime got lodged in there. Well that really made me cranky at my own stupidity now I excersise a little more caution with my key, and now for an extra $100.00 I have two keys.
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