Sorry mate, I told you I would come back soon on this one & then I did not.......I've been out of sorts, my apologies.
I discussed this at length with my friend, the guru mechanic. We came up with a couple of theories on Myrtle, but like anything, its really hard to make a diagnosis via the forum. We were thinking you might like to conduct a little test on Myrtle, which simply involves you driving down a hill & having a friend follow in another vehicle. If you could find a series of hills & do the test in succession, that would be good. If you can drive down the hill in a gear (whatever gear) but basically go down the hill (COAST DOWN THE HILL) without accelerating (longer hill would be best) & then when you get to the bottom of the hill step on the gas & accelerate firmly as you start to go up the other side (at this moment, we are looking for a puff of smoke from Myrtle's exhaust). I understand it has already been discussed that Myrtle isnt blowing smoke continuously.
What we are wondering is if oil is going back up the valve stems & this little test might help confirm that or not. Theres no point doing it without someone following because there may not be alot of smoke emitted at the time. DON'T FORGET TO DRIVE SAFELY, No one wheeled stunts, its basically just driving that you might do every day with someone following behind looking for smoke at that one critical moment. Without the hill, this process of burning oil could continue to happen just when slowing for intersections and accelerating away (even on the flat) but perhaps the tell tail traces of smoke are very slight.
Also, he had a friend with a similar problem in an old vehicle & before they spent any real money, they did an oil change and used Penrite HPR 30 oil (its a thicker oil & good quality one) & low and behold it fixed the friends problem, or for a better word, reduced oil consumption considerably. It may be worth the while to experiment with a few different oils, even if you end up with a more expensive oil where your tops ups are a less in quantity, if you know what I mean
I am a bit of a fan of Penrite oils myself, there is HPR oils for both petrol and diesel vehicles, naturally you would be shopping for the petrol type.
Sorry I cant float past the forum too much at the moment, I'm homeless & without internet facilities STILL !!!!! Missing all the good people here.
Happywanderer said
09:26 PM Jun 13, 2011
Thanks Jack, a lot of sense in your post. I do understand what you are saying totally. At the moment Myrtle is booked in for a check over on Wednesday 22nd, so will see what they say then. Was talking to the guy in Autobarn the other day, said he is also a mechanic. Said a thicker oil will work the same as putting in an oil additive as they really do the same thing, the thicker the more it will stop up any leak. And thats what an additive does, thickens up the oil. So I will ask this new mechanic I'm going to on 22nd after he has given her the once over, and see what he says. My eldest son, who I very rarely see, came for a visit yesterday, up and back from geelong in the one day. Wasn't interested in having a look at Myrtle, said he had a look on the way in from the car. When I told him about the oil problem, he said,"Well I hope you've got plenty of money" and left. This is a 42 year old with a very very mechanical mind, can fix anything, but not interested in helping. What can you say. Nothing, just get on with it.
Happywanderer said
09:28 PM Jun 13, 2011
Thanks Beth, much appreciated. Are you heading off tomorrow. I think you and Jules were heading off somewhere tomorrow but in different directions. Enjoy!!!
jules47 said
09:30 PM Jun 13, 2011
Geez - what is it with kids -(adult kids) - never got enough time for anything for mum - I reckon we have just given too much - you know the old - "I want my kids to have what I didn't have" - then the don't appreciate it.
Happywanderer said
09:36 PM Jun 13, 2011
Jules, they wouldn't know what hit them if they had to live how we did back in the old days. They were hard times but we appreciated all our parents did for us. They've got no idea these "kids" of today, even at 42.
Travel Bug said
09:52 PM Jun 13, 2011
Marj,
I hope that he at least gave you a birthday present....
Or is that too much to expect?
Happywanderer said
09:56 PM Jun 13, 2011
No Pam. Didn't even wish me happy birthday, but I'm presuming thats why he came up as I hadn't seen him for over a year. I did ask him to stay the night but he didn't want to park his good car out in my carpark, was worried it might get broken into.
jules47 said
10:11 PM Jun 13, 2011
Yeh - pre television days - don't know how they would cope - might not get on much over next week - at friends house in Mackay. See you later.
Happywanderer said
10:16 PM Jun 13, 2011
Have a great time away Jules, enjoy!!
Travel Bug said
10:33 PM Jun 13, 2011
Travel safely Jules....and enjoy yourself
-- Edited by Travel Bug on Tuesday 14th of June 2011 10:01:46 AM
jimricho said
06:14 AM Jun 14, 2011
The challenge is to find a hill in Echuca!
Happywanderer said
09:04 AM Jun 14, 2011
That was my thoughts Jim. Had a laugh wondering how far I would have to go to find a hill. I estimated well over 100 ks.
jack biggles said
04:52 PM Jun 14, 2011
Happywanderer wrote:
Thanks Jack, a lot of sense in your post. I do understand what you are saying totally. At the moment Myrtle is booked in for a check over on Wednesday 22nd, so will see what they say then. Was talking to the guy in Autobarn the other day, said he is also a mechanic. Said a thicker oil will work the same as putting in an oil additive as they really do the same thing, the thicker the more it will stop up any leak. And thats what an additive does, thickens up the oil. So I will ask this new mechanic I'm going to on 22nd after he has given her the once over, and see what he says. My eldest son, who I very rarely see, came for a visit yesterday, up and back from geelong in the one day. Wasn't interested in having a look at Myrtle, said he had a look on the way in from the car. When I told him about the oil problem, he said,"Well I hope you've got plenty of money" and left. This is a 42 year old with a very very mechanical mind, can fix anything, but not interested in helping. What can you say. Nothing, just get on with it.
If your not going to say anything HW, then I certainly won't & I am sure you know better than to lose sleep over him & what he does or doesnt do.
Now as for Myrtle. If it is the case that the Valve seals are leaking & the puff of smoke at the bottom of a rise is indicitive of that then fixing them might actually result in Myrtle burning the oil in another way if the rings are well worn, although your compression tests arnt too bad at all, considering everything.
If it were me, I would consider opening a little bank account where I would try to throw a few dollars in every week & in due course you may find it more benificial to throw a reconditioned motor in Myrtle, which may be a couple of years down the track.
Give the oil additives a go & see what happens. Keep a diary so you can keep track of it all & if the oil aditives dont improve it much try the Penrite. Give the little hill test when you can.
Ultimately, its a very difficult job to check it all out via the forum & perhaps Im way off the mark, but I guess at this stage any suggestions might be worth checking out.
Good luck & sorry for my tardy resposes.
regards
Jack
Beth54 said
07:21 PM Jun 14, 2011
As I've mentioned in threads before, I'm so lucky with my son Dan, almost 38. He's been my rock since their Dad and I seperated 20 years ago.
He spent 2 full weekends, plus the 3rd Saturday, on my Gypsy. When I was leaving I said, 'I bet you didn't realize what you were getting into'. He said,' yeh, I did', with a
But I shouldn't play favourites, the other 2 are good to me too.
Marj, I have a lot of rellies in Vic, but alas, I don't know of any mechanics among them.
Gerty Dancer said
08:32 PM Jun 14, 2011
Geez Marg, hope you still had a nice birthday in spite of your unhelpful visitor!!!
Sorry mate, I told you I would come back soon on this one & then I did not.......I've been out of sorts, my apologies.
I discussed this at length with my friend, the guru mechanic. We came up with a couple of theories on Myrtle, but like anything, its really hard to make a diagnosis via the forum. We were thinking you might like to conduct a little test on Myrtle, which simply involves you driving down a hill & having a friend follow in another vehicle. If you could find a series of hills & do the test in succession, that would be good. If you can drive down the hill in a gear (whatever gear) but basically go down the hill (COAST DOWN THE HILL) without accelerating (longer hill would be best) & then when you get to the bottom of the hill step on the gas & accelerate firmly as you start to go up the other side (at this moment, we are looking for a puff of smoke from Myrtle's exhaust). I understand it has already been discussed that Myrtle isnt blowing smoke continuously.
What we are wondering is if oil is going back up the valve stems & this little test might help confirm that or not. Theres no point doing it without someone following because there may not be alot of smoke emitted at the time. DON'T FORGET TO DRIVE SAFELY, No one wheeled stunts, its basically just driving that you might do every day with someone following behind looking for smoke at that one critical moment. Without the hill, this process of burning oil could continue to happen just when slowing for intersections and accelerating away (even on the flat) but perhaps the tell tail traces of smoke are very slight.
Also, he had a friend with a similar problem in an old vehicle & before they spent any real money, they did an oil change and used Penrite HPR 30 oil (its a thicker oil & good quality one) & low and behold it fixed the friends problem, or for a better word, reduced oil consumption considerably. It may be worth the while to experiment with a few different oils, even if you end up with a more expensive oil where your tops ups are a less in quantity, if you know what I mean
I am a bit of a fan of Penrite oils myself, there is HPR oils for both petrol and diesel vehicles, naturally you would be shopping for the petrol type.
Sorry I cant float past the forum too much at the moment, I'm homeless & without internet facilities STILL !!!!! Missing all the good people here.
At the moment Myrtle is booked in for a check over on Wednesday 22nd, so will see what they say then.
Was talking to the guy in Autobarn the other day, said he is also a mechanic. Said a thicker oil will work the same as putting in an oil additive as they really do the same thing, the thicker the more it will stop up any leak. And thats what an additive does, thickens up the oil. So I will ask this new mechanic I'm going to on 22nd after he has given her the once over, and see what he says.
My eldest son, who I very rarely see, came for a visit yesterday, up and back from geelong in the one day. Wasn't interested in having a look at Myrtle, said he had a look on the way in from the car. When I told him about the oil problem, he said,"Well I hope you've got plenty of money" and left.
This is a 42 year old with a very very mechanical mind, can fix anything, but not interested in helping. What can you say. Nothing, just get on with it.
Marj,
I hope that he at least gave you a birthday present....
Or is that too much to expect?
Travel safely Jules....and enjoy yourself
-- Edited by Travel Bug on Tuesday 14th of June 2011 10:01:46 AM
If your not going to say anything HW, then I certainly won't & I am sure you know better than to lose sleep over him & what he does or doesnt do.
Now as for Myrtle. If it is the case that the Valve seals are leaking & the puff of smoke at the bottom of a rise is indicitive of that then fixing them might actually result in Myrtle burning the oil in another way if the rings are well worn, although your compression tests arnt too bad at all, considering everything.
If it were me, I would consider opening a little bank account where I would try to throw a few dollars in every week & in due course you may find it more benificial to throw a reconditioned motor in Myrtle, which may be a couple of years down the track.
Give the oil additives a go & see what happens. Keep a diary so you can keep track of it all & if the oil aditives dont improve it much try the Penrite. Give the little hill test when you can.
Ultimately, its a very difficult job to check it all out via the forum & perhaps Im way off the mark, but I guess at this stage any suggestions might be worth checking out.
Good luck & sorry for my tardy resposes.
regards
Jack
As I've mentioned in threads before, I'm so lucky with my son Dan, almost 38. He's been my rock since their Dad and I seperated 20 years ago.
He spent 2 full weekends, plus the 3rd Saturday, on my Gypsy. When I was leaving I said, 'I bet you didn't realize what you were getting into'. He said,' yeh, I did', with a
But I shouldn't play favourites, the other 2 are good to me too.
Marj, I have a lot of rellies in Vic, but alas, I don't know of any mechanics among them.