It’s getting a bit frustrating for me. It seems like Elvis is showing up for less and less time each day. One day, for instance, he showed up at 11 AM, worked until 12:30 and then took off for lunch. He didn’t come back until after 3 and worked another hour and a half. It was particularly annoying because he was starting to complain about how long the job is taking him. Whenever he complained, I dryly suggested that maybe he should show up earlier and get more work done in the course of the day rather than the short days he’s been working. Perhaps he’d get done sooner. I don’t think he caught on to the sarcasm.
Finally, after a couple more weeks of this craziness, I told him outright in no uncertain terms that we had to get this wrapped up. By that time, the engine block was back on its mount, but many parts were still not back on. The transmission was still at his shop for some strange reason. He found himself not remembering too well how everything went back together. I’m just glad I took the time to really get to know my engine, because it saved us a few times. Elvis started feeling the pressure, which I thought was a good thing. The next week, the engine started looking like an engine again. The bell housing was back on, as were the starter and the heat exchanger. We were making good progress.
A week later, Andiamo was ready to test start. After some tweaks and looks around, I pushed the start button. It started up in a relatively quick amount of time. After a rough minute or so, it started to purr. It was a sound that was music to my ears. After some more poking around and adjusting, we determined that the exhaust manifold was leaking somewhat and needed to be reinstalled. He brought over an electical guy to check out the electrical connections and the connections to the console. I could have done without him, considering that he did nothing I really asked for. At the end of his 3 hour visit, he decided I owed him 150,000 pesos (about $85), to which I laughed incredulously, particularly since he didn’t really do anything I asked him to regarding organizing the wiring. I looked at Elvis who tried to justify his price. Karen got involved in the conversation saying that she never made that much for three hours working as a chemist in Colombia, EVER.
I told the guy the most he was getting out of me was 50,000 pesos and if he made any more of an argument, he’d get nothing. He took it.
Elvis came back the next day to work on the manifold leak. When we opened up the engine, we were shocked, HORRIFIED to see that water had gotten into the engine AGAIN!!! Elvis swore up and down that he had resolved the problem in the engine’s vented loop that caused the siphon effect in the first place. Apparently not. Luckily, it had only been a day so as long as we got the water out fast, there would be no real damage. Elvis pulled off the injectors and went to work on getting the water out. Seeing all this happen on my newly rebuilt engine was rather disheartening. I really didn’t need this right now.
After a couple of attempts to circumvent this siphoning water problem, I came to terms with the fact that I would have to just open and close the raw water intake when running the engine. It’s an extra step and I have to remember to do both. I think I know how I can resolve the problem once and for all, but in the meantime, I have to do it the hard way.
But the project’s done, and Andiamo has an engine again! Now, it’s time to get out of Colombia and head back to Panama. Time to find some passengers.