Oops, sorry I mean back in Russia. We drove the 170km to the border without too much trouble although backfires continued to be a problem, looks like we need to change that burner pan. Speed was good, we opened up the shutters to let more air into the burner which helped with the howling, Got pulled over by the cops as usual, document check as well as photos this time. No problems, but it does slow us down.
Border crossing was made very quick and easy by Sophia , Olga and the local support team. They have been a godsend passing through Russia and Kazachstan. So its farewell to Kazachstan, I am sure we are the first steam car to visit, nevermind drive across the country. The people were great and the roads really good. We felt very safe the whole time. The capital city was stunning.
We started the drive to our night stop at a lakeside resort, with increasing back fire issues, when ominously the engine started to make some new and unwelcome noises. We stopped and dropped the sump plate to find problems with a big end bearing, these are ball bearings running direct on the crank. We think we can fix it, but it’s an engine out job. That being the case we decided to push on direct to Ufa which is a big city and where we have a rest day, giving us time to fix the problem.
We arrived in Ufa at about 10pm having passed through the stunning scenary of the Urals, it’s a very hilly if not to say mountainous area, heavily wooded with silver birch and pine. There are lots of roadside stands selling samovars etc, all in stainless steel. We got pulled over by the cops again, mainly to get us to our on our lights, usual photos and document check.we followed a small lorry for a while with a huge horse in the back, everytime the horse shifted its weight the lorry nearly fell over! Horse seems to feature on the menus here at the hotel, so the poor thing may have been destined for burgers.
So its engine out today and lots of spanering to get it fixed. We are fortunate to have Dave and Steve as back up, they are truly the best mechanics and back up guys ever. I will keep you posted with our progress.
Horse in truck!
View from Ufa hotel
P2PonSteam 
Mitch have you tried fixing bent tin cover plates over the broken or missing burner jet areas? Not so easy to drill and tap into the burner plate but completely blocking off the broken jets should stop the howling.
LikeLike
Hello Mitch,
Nick is quite correct. Repairing the burner plate with fire cement will always fail. Cure is done with a small tin plate perhaps cut out of a tin of beans which overlaps the good slotted burner plate by a couple of bars. Drill about 2BA holes and tap into burner plate on the solid part at the end of the slots. I put a little fire cement underneath. This should ast for your journey with only about 1% loss of burner area. I started White motoring with a lousy plate that was much repaired!
LikeLike
I wonder how much of the howling is the poor fuel. I use my own SG meter to test fuel made from a small bottle on the end of a light weight rod (hollow glass is ideal). The bottle is filled with small nails until it floats in good fuel which does not howl at a marked level. Now when you get new fuel you can test it to see if it floats at the same level as the good fuel. Too much heavy oil such as diesel will make it float too high and it will smoke and howl with that. Too thin and it will sink and you will have little power (eg with too much ethanol in it) then add 10%to 20% diesel. Too much diesel in the ethanol fuel and it is dissolved out and dumped in the burner to catch fire as my brother and I have both found! We now both have an SG meter for fuel made in Russia which works well! Our fuel here in Cornwall is very variable!
LikeLike
Your adventure sounds fascinating – we are rooting for your progress!
LikeLike