Sunday, March 11, 2018

CAV Fuel Filter Housing Revisited


This is the bane of my existence. This is a 90 degree connector and I needed just one straight adapter. One end is 5/16 (1/2x20 thread) SAE 45-degree flare, the other end is O-ring boss with 1/2 x 20 thread. Not NPT. Not 37-degree flare. Not inverted flare. If I found a website with O-ring boss male adapters they either did not have the correct sized ends or the flare was 37-degree.
Figure B
Was it easy to acquire?
Sure. As easy as putting a half pound of butter in a tigers ear in a dark basement with a hot needle(Sir P.G. Wodehouse).
Yes, it was that easy. In fact I never sourced one.

In October of 1999, I replaced the original CAV fuel filter housing with an AC T-95 spin on filter housing. It was supposed to make changing the filter easier and priming the fuel system easier as well by allowing the filling of the filter with fuel prior to installation.

The filter housing had 2 In and 2 Out ports, one output I used as a bleed port. I have no idea where I got the fittings, but all hoses connected to the filter housing via four 90 degree connectors shown above, see Figure B, B for Bane.

For some reason after changing the Glow Plugs in November, the fuel system developed an air leak and when trying to bleed through the top port of the filter, things only got worse. That port would not stop leaking.
 So out with the new
 and in with the old.

I returned to the original CAV Filter housing. I used a Union Nut (RN (Rovers North) PLQ637) and olive (RN 530966) to connect a 1/4" hard line to the Filter port. The other side of the hard line eventually terminated in a SAE male flare.
I used a funnel to fill the filter via the top port (where the banjo is) prior to purging the fuel lines of air. Saves on many manual pumps of the fuel pump.
 This is the Banjo Bolt (RN part 563195) on the #4 Injector Nozzle Spill Rail. The previous bolt was rounded and I had problems separating the hose adapter from the banjo bolt. I also ordered a spare banjo bolt for the other injectors (RN273521) in case I wanted to omit the hose from the filter to #4 injector. I had read that on later/earlier 2.25 diesels this was not used, but could not find a second verifiable source, so I kept it. I had already made a new hose for this connection. The new banjo bolt washers were (RN 273069)

 After plumbing all the lines, after filling the filter with diesel, after starting to purge the system of air, I noticed the hose to the injector pump was leaking at the injector end. So I decided to replace more hoses. Of course the fittings were different for both hoses on the Injector pump.

Hoses:
   Filter to #4 Injector      = 3/16" hose   banjo to flare  1 foot in length
   Filter to Injector Pump = 1/4" hose     flare to flare    1.5 foot in length
   Injector Pump to Filter = 5/16" hose   flare to flare    2 foot in length

After replacing the hoses and another round of purging, starting the engine was to be next, but was not to be. The battery decided not to cooperate.
Charged the battery while lunch was consumed and about an hour later the engine started right up.  I let it idle for more than the legal limit and then stopped it and restarted it. Hope it starts tomorrow. A new battery will be a project for next weekend.


Saturday, March 3, 2018

Past Trip: Ice Academy Arjeplog, Sweden 2018

We received an Email from Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) about an Ice Driving experience in Sweden and 2 days later we were booked.

Sunday, February 11
Woke early because I do, transferred Dame Maggie to "Camp". Got back to the estate on time and left for the airport at 2PM.  Our flight from Newark to Stockholm was on SAS 904. It was a disappointing flight due to a plane change and wrong seats and no WiFi and no video screens, only iPads with a disappointingly small video selection and a broken reading light. Slight arrival delay on the tarmac due to deicing fluids at plane parking space. Arrived Monday morning, I did not get any sleep.
Day 1:
Monday, February 12
    Spent 4 hours in the SAS Lounge in Terminal 5.
 The spiral staircase was a good landmark, but a bad choice after too much time without sleep.
The next leg of our trip was from Stockholm to Arvidsjaur on NextJet 2N596 out of Terminal 3. This was across the airport and through SkyCity, an easy 10-15 minute walk. The flight was delayed an hour. Concerns about our luggage being loaded onto the plane dissolved once we realized the plane we expected to fly out on was not our plane at all. We arrived Arvidsjaur in the dark and landed on a snow covered runway.
 Arty arrival photo at Arvidsjaur Airport. Not as cold as expected.
 We were met in the airport by a JLR representative and we were driven to the hotel in a LR Discovery sport. The drive to Arjeplog and the hotel was 1.5 hours.
We arrived at night, but this was the entrance to the hotel in the day.
 This was the front entrance, but our group had our own special secret entrance.
There was another driving group at the hotel driving Maseratis.
This was our entrance and the Tipi were we could hang out and relax.

So we arrived at the hotel around 6:45PM Monday night and were greeted by more JLR staff.
Our room (533) was clean and we had presents awaiting us. Mugs and a heavy picture book of what the experience should be. We had a short time to get ready for the 7:15PM meeting followed by dinner. Dinner was a 3 course affair and all the food was very good.
Day 2:
February 13, 2018
 The vehicles waiting for us at the hotel for the first trip to the Lake House. The drive was probably 10 to 15 minutes. The guests drove to the lake following a lead driver and were trailed by another JLR driver.
We were met each morning by Bond Villain henchmen at the Lake House.
Normally there are 30 students in the Ice Academy, but we only had 12, so there were 3 groups of 4 people with 2 people to a car. Each Group had 2 instructors and a recovery driver. Every day we drove 3 different cars. Day 2 we drove Range Rover Sport, Range Rover Velar and Jaguar F-PACE, day 3 we drove Range Rover Velar, Jaguar F-PACE and the Jaguar V6 RWD F-Type and on day 4 we drove the Jaguar F-PACE, V6 RWD F-Type and the V8 550 HP AWD F-type. Both F-types had non street legal studded tires.
 Except for the F-Types, I believe all the vehicles were diesel.  Oh, and we always left the cars running.

At the lake we did three driving stints in the morning and then 3 more driving stints after lunch. There were also coffee breaks and a very good, very large lunch. The days felt long and we did learn a lot.
The Lake House had a map of the courses out on the Ice.
On Day 2 we drove on Dynamic Platform 1 and 2 around orange traffic cones to learn the maneuvers. In the cold the cones tended to shatter. There were plenty of pieces that some poor worker needed to pick up at the end of the day. In the afternoon we graduated to the Slalom course.
 Here we are at the Drift Circle with the Lake House in the background for an idea how large the lake is.

Day 3:
February 14, 2018
More driving today, but no more cone courses, real driving circuits and the V6 F-Types were added today. Handling Circuit 3 was added in the afternoon and it was so long that it never seemed to end. It had a straightaway which was the only relaxing section of the whole course.
It was a large lake.
We had a trip to the Testing facility this day, no cameras allowed. There were various cars in camoflage and hills designed to test traction control. The quick tour was quite interesting. There was to be an off-road excursion, but a leader had gotten stuck so that was cancelled.

Day 4:
February 15, 2018
We drove the V8s today. They had a lot of power, but I preferred the rear wheel drive F-Type. We covered the same curcuits, but started taking them the opposite direction. Over the course of trip we both only needed to be extracted from the snow twice.
V6 F-types in the foreground, V8s in the background.

At the end of the last day everyone was driven in the V8 F-Type by one of the professional drivers on Handling circuit 3. It was called a Customer Hot Lap and it was quite something. When we were driving you wondered how much faster could someone go and much faster was the answer.

 The sight you were met with at the end of the day upon return to the Hotel, our Tipi, reserved only for the Ice Academy guests. You could relay and get a drink or review you day and have a laugh.
Dinners were at 7 and were 3 courses and not a course was bad.
 On the last night, dinner was at another Tipi, we were driven by bus and had traditional foods including moose and reindeer sausages and moose hearts and a very good pea and spinach soup. The main instructors were there and it was nice to socialize with them.

The only bad luck we had was cloud cover at night, so no Northern Lights were seen. Other than that it was a great trip.

Day 5: Trip to the Arctic Circle. 
February 16, 2018
There were 5 of us on the self driving trip to the Arctic circle, 3 Range Rover Sports and our 2 chaperones each driving a Discovery. Passed this sign many times during our stay.
  Most signs were partially or fully snow covered.
  Normal sight on the way to the Arctic Circle. Lots of lakes and more houses than I expected. If a house was painted, the color would have been barn red, light blue or light yellow. No other colors were seen out in the country.
Houses at the end of the road.
 The outhouse at the end of the world.
Way easier to get to than the Antarctic Circle.
We were provided a bagged lunch and arrived back at the Hotel around noon.
We hung out in the Tipi till our ride back to Arvidsjaur Airport.

Arvidsjaur to Stockholm on NextJet 2N593
The flight had a quick stopover, but no problems getting to Stockholm. Once at the Stockholm airport we had to find the bus to the Airport hotel which was quite difficult in the dark. Luck was on our side and we just made the bus and got to our hotel in less than 10 minutes. The room was small, but it was just for one night. Dinner was a smorgasbord and cost almost as much as the room.

Saturday, February 17
No problems today, bus back to airport, spent some time in the SAS Lounge and caught the flight from Stockholm to Newark on SAS 903. A much better flight, got the seats we wanted and watched a few movies.

Once home we picked up the dog from "Camp" and drove home in a snowstorm utilizing the skills learned while at Ice Academy Sweden.