Still at Kangean Island - Troubleshooting Header Tank Leak

Hi again,

Bet you thought we were in Borneo? Well, the "repair" to our Header Tank leak didn't hold. In fact it sprayed coolant all over the engine compartment. So we spent the next day fashioning an aluminum plate that we could attach onto the bottom of the aluminum access plate on the underside of the Header Tank. This involved broken hacksaw blades, drilling holes, measuring 20 times and cutting once, and so on. Then we used much of our high-temperature gasket goop to make the gasket, and attached the whole thing onto the bottom of the damaged access plate.

Wait 24 hours for the gasket to dry, fill up the coolant tank, and start the engine. This time it looks good, but 5 minutes in I see a leak - not from my new plate, but from the old gasket on the old access plate. Shut down the engine, drain coolant, allow to cool. It wasn't a huge leak,but probably would empty the tank in a few hours. No good. Figure out plan C.

Today I cleaned some old gasket material out with a knife blade (very gingerly) and cleaned all surfaces with acetone. Then I drilled one more hole for a bolt to help snug-up the gasket. Forced black gasket goop into the gaps, coated everything six ways from Sunday with goop, and now we wit another 24 hours to test. Ain't life grand ;-)

On the other hand, this a a beautiful bay. Aside by occasional drive-by's from friendly local fisherman, it is silent except when the distant call for prayer drifts out across the water - rising and falling in undulating tones.

Keep your fingers crossed. More later.

Owen

P.S. Carrie will probably ppost something she's been writing about our stay here.

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