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Saturday, September 13, 2014

Signs of Winter?



My lovely wife and I took a little ride over to the Stove shop today. It's the place where I bought my wood fired kitchen stove. The guy deals in wood and pellet fired stoves of all shapes and sizes. He also carries Envi Blocks at a reasonable price. They are a good firewood substitute made from pressed hardwood sawdust, much like wood pellets only brick size.

I like to keep a supply of them on hand. They light well, burn long and hot, and produce less ash and pollution than firewood. Regular wood burns fine in the stove too, and I've some from my land. The firewood is dry, but not all cut and split. Other things have demanded my time.

The stove shop owner looked pretty flustered. He said he's been out straight. His business has been open for 17 years and this is the busiest it has ever been. Last winter was brutally cold and I'm guessing people think it might be again. Polar Vortex is on everyone's mind.

My lovely wife and I almost didn't make it to the stove shop. We got to the next town and the van died in front of a Dunkin Donuts. It wouldn't start, so we went in and got coffee. After about a half a cup of coffee I tried it again. It ran for a while and then sputtered out. Not good. This is the very same van that had 4 fuel pumps installed this past summer.

So I finished my coffee and thought some more. After one more failed attempt to start it I stopped trying. No sense in running down the batteries and having another problem. Fortunately an auto parts store was in walking distance. The problem had to be something with the fuel, so I bought some 911 fuel additive and a new diesel filter. I hoped it wasn't going to be a 5th fuel pump.

The additive didn't do the trick so I replaced the fuel filter. Then the van started right up and ran fine. The problem was just a simple plugged filter. Sometimes it's the little things.

-Sixbears

15 comments:

  1. The van picked a good place to stop. Double D coffee is the best! Guess you'll have to keep an extra filter on board from now on just in case you are not near a town.

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    1. I usually do carry a spare. I forgot to replace the last one. My bad.

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  2. I guess you could be some what happy about this. The filter did its job otherwise plugged injectors would have wrecked your day! :-)

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    1. Oh yeah! Plugged injectors would have ruined many days.

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  3. Replies
    1. I'm kicking myself because I usually do. Will have to again.

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  4. How often do you change your fuel filter on the van? If, say for example, you endup changing it on average every 2 months and that being on the side of the road somewhere.... what about changing it every 6 weeks in your driveway at your leisure?

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    1. It varies greatly with the quality of the diesel. One bad load of fuel and it will eat filters. Good fuel and I'm set for 6 months or more. Best thing is to keep an eye on it. I had so many fuel issues lately that I just lost track of something so simple as a filter.

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  5. Glad it wasn't anything too serious. Still, I know it was inconvenient.

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  6. Back in my racing days, not that long ago, I always used the Oberg Oil Filter. The filter element is a stainless steel screen. The filter is easily disassembled so you can clean the filter screen, reassemble and you're on your way again. I think this would be a good way to go for you and your veggie oil and save you a lot of money and aggravation in the long run. Buy it once and simply clean when it gets restrictive. They even have an early warning light to let you know it's becoming restricted.

    Here's the link:
    http://obergfilters.com/img/Oberg%20Filter%20Catalog%20Complete.pdf

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  7. Talking about being cold in east.The California is dying because of geoengineering.Go to geoengineering watch they explained how its set up for east to be cold west to fry.Snowing above 40 degrees.

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    1. "It doesn't take a weather man to know which way the wind blows"

      There's evidence of strange things afoot.

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  8. first sign of winter is how quick they put up the xmas sales signs and decorations; sometimes even before halloween

    maybe a good time to winterize your outhouse now?

    Wildflower

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