Wal-Mart Parking Lot, St. Albert, Alberta

Tuesday, August 18, 2009, 0756, St. Albert, Alberta

 Here we sit at the side of Wal-Mart, next to a four-lane highway.  We’re waiting here around Edmonton, because MFTA gave the authorization for Nortrux to install six new fuel injectors.  The new injectors have to be airfreighted in and should show up by noon on Wednesday, so we have time to kill.

We’re not completely sure what’s going on, but have been told that they’ve seen some isolated problems with O-rings rolling and not sealing when the injectors are installed.  That could cause the increasing oil level, as fuel leaks by and winds up in the pan.  However, that’s on the return side of the fuel injection, so should in no way compromise engine performance. 

Something like a cracked injector nozzle COULD be causing the fuel consumption problem we’re experiencing, but you’d think there would be exhaust smoke with that, and a steady miss.  Not so.  The engine is kinda stumbly and extra rattley between around 1500 and 2200.  Maybe it’s a combination of a leaky o-ring, and a bad injector nozzle.  If an injector was faulty with a strange spray pattern, it might be able to deliver a combustible atomization at idle, cause the poor performance as the RPMs increase, and then not be noticeable at higher speeds, even though it’s not delivering enough fuel to allow proper combustion in the cylinder below it.  As you can see, I’ve been pondering this for a week now, and dreaming of it at night.  No kidding.  Last night, I dreamt I was watching the tech drive our camper away, and noticed lots of smoke from the stack.  (There’s no stack, but hey, dreams are screwy…)

 No matter the cause, the symptoms are real – 60% to 70% of normal efficiency, and an engine oil level going up.  The oil level certainly isn’t going up at the rate we’re using excess fuel!  We’re up maybe a couple litres.  We’ve driven 1250 miles or so, using about 186 gallons.  We should have used about 130 gallons for that distance, and the engine sure ain’t 56 gallons over full.  We’re not leaking anything either.

Enough truck stuff.  It’s no so bad here at Wally World, Canada.  There are a couple of trees next to the camper.  We’re pretty level, no one bothered us last night, there are other campers a hundred yards away in the parking lot, and we’re crossing our fingers that we can squeeze another night out of this place.  It IS pretty handy living in a Wal-Mart parking lot.  They do pick up business.

For what it’s worth, prices are high in Canada – especially considering the exchange rate.  The same Chinese toilet brushes we buy in Wyoming for US$2.87 are freakin’ CA$7.87 here.  And the little Black & Decker hand vacuum we bought for US$27.88 in Casper on the way out of town is CA$39.83 here. 

Anna swears the fruits and vegetables are substantially less, but I wouldn’t know about that stuff.  Big Macs are not too much more.    I did get some really nice looking chipotle sausages back on Devon, Alberta, but they were a big let down.  Rubber.  Still have 8 to eat.  Might be dog treats, though I can’t image we can bear being in the camper with the Charles after he eats one.

Today, we’re damned well going to find an internet café, and maybe a laundromat.  Actually, there’s supposed to be a Safeway just down the road a ways that has a Starbucks with WiFi.  That’ll work perfectly.  There’s also a dog park near here that we must have missed yesterday.  We’ll look it up online, and maybe spend a few hours there before coming home to the Walton’s front yard.

To close, here are a couple shots of what I’ll always remember about Alberta.  Driving up from Calgary to Edmonton on Saturday, we routed ourselves off of the main highway and took the Range and Township rural roads.  It was 50% dirt, and most of it was well- maintained dirt.  The sky was gorgeous, and the driving easy.  It was a bit of lemonade from our sack of lemons…

Alberta is a beautiful place - especially the agricultural stuff, which is most of it.  The canola was in bloom for so much of our trip, and the fields were a fire with bright yellow…

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