#37 Going up continental divide the engine temperature is 230 degrees.

We headed out of Dubois around 3 and as we begin to climb the Continental Divide which was straight up the mountain we started overheating. Well that's not good, more repairs and more problems. The trip is great the mechanical expenses are not so great. I pulled over and the engine was boiling over. I added water with the engine running using my coffee pot which meant many trips back and forth to the RV. I will insert here a gear head tidbit. When you are overheating don’t give in to the temptation to remove the radiator cap too soon but I always do anyway. I f you crack it will cool down in 5 minutes or so but I always need to see if she’s ready in only 3 minutes. The result is always the same and it’s not pretty but I always do the same thing over and over expecting different results. I have at least learned to undo it with a big rag to avoid a hospital visit. Now you can add water to cool her down but the engine must be running as you add the water. The opposite scenario would be to fill the empty radiator with ice cold water and then crank the engine and when the cold water suddenly hits the 230 degree cast iron engine block, physics happens. If you are not really lucky you will begin to get some learning under your belt which will be reinforced by a drained bank account for your engine removal and replacement.

I got her cooled down to normal and it all seemed ok at idle. I started rolling again and I made it about 2 miles and it was time to pull over and repeat. I probably did this 3-4 times assuming I would get a new result but nothing new happened. The RV fresh water tank almost empty and then I saw sign. It said National Park Service recreation center area up ahead on the right. I knew that was my only hope so I pulled in there although there was a sign saying we are closed. The firefighters had control of it because they needed a place to stay and also to stage all the equipment. As I pulled in a supervisor type came towards me and I told him I was overheating and I just needed to park for a little while. He was kind of neutral in the friendly department but he just said to get back there in the back as far away as possible because at 5 or 6 o’clock about 200 trucks are going to rolI in with exhausted grumpy men and we can’t have any problems. He pointed out this was basically just a parking lot for snowmobiles and there is no water except the bottled water for the troops. There was no phone reception for me or him and said when he could he would get on the radio and see if anybody was going into town later. I was thirty miles from Dubois and 50 miles from my next stop at the Tetons campground. I figured the best case scenario would be to get a ride back to Dubois and make a phone call to Good Sam and get some more roadside assistance. I also had the fear that pretty soon Good Sam is going to start hating me. Good Sam doesn’t actually fix things so I assumed it would just be a tow truck back to town for repairs? The super told me that if I needed to I could stay all night if I needed to but to avoid talking to the firefighter because they are just eating and sleeping and leaving again. I thanked him and using my gear head I remembered something from my teens and twenties that had to do with boiling over situations. If there are no visible reasons for the overheating like a ruptured hose or broken water pump belt and the water comes out like a geyser when you try to add some it might be a bad thermostat. It was kind of acting geyser (ey) so I removed the thermostat entirely. And it stayed cool and I was going test it a little by holding down the accelerator pedal and making the engine work at around 2000 RPMs to simulate going up a hill. I did this for about 3 to 5 minutes and it stayed cool. About this time the local sheriff pulled up and said he heard there was some trouble. It kind of bothered me because the neutrally friendly supervisor had kindly called the law on me. They talked for a while before coming my way and he said the the message he got made it sound like a domestic problem when now he could see it was just an engine problem. I told the sheriff I thought I was going to be able to leave because with not thermostat she was holding 190 degrees consistently. He said you can stay the night or you can go but you have to make that decision in 15 minutes before the troops start rolling in for dinner. I did the 2000 RPMs for a little longer then I decided I was good to go.