(written on the 29th from notes)
Didn’t sleep a lot last night either, maybe five or six hours, but amazingly, I was rearin’ to go and get stuff done. 🙏
I hung out a little bit with my mom and Thomas this morning, my mom making oatmeal for breakfast for me. I OD’d on oatmeal years ago when I was living with my mom before, but the first several bites were fine, even tasty, but somehow I managed to OD again quite quickly. 😅
Oh well.
From there, I headed over to Liz and Mike’s place, my van coughing and sputtering as I pulled into her parking area at her house, because I forgot to get gas on the way to her place. 😅
I didn’t worry about it and just headed in to say hello, chatting with Liz for a little bit, before heading over to My van to get started on the conversion back to gas.
I chatted with Jim for a little bit when he came over, and then started digging in. It was hot today. 😅 Gratefully, I could do most of what I needed to do in the shade. 🙏
There was a lot to do, and it definitely fought me a fair bit. 😅
I got the CNG parts disconnected from the engine, and then battled it out with the fuel and evap lines. Super challenging to get everything to fit where it needed to go. I’m grateful that I brought all the lines with me, as one of the lines that was still on the van from pre-conversion was completely blocked up, so I just swapped it out for one of the ones that I had brought from South Dakota.
Still, nothing went on easily. 😅 Plastic retaining parts broke, getting the lines oriented around all the obstacles was a challenge, and one of the fuel lines… I’m concerned that it’s internally damaged and could break, and it happens to be right next to the catalytic converter. 😅
I guess we’ll see. 🤞
After getting all the fuel lines figured out and the electrical stuff moved to the right places to put the tank in, the next stop was to put the tank in, which was… not easy. 😅
The tank still had a fair amount of fuel in it, and that made it significantly more difficult to put in. It was also metal, which… really doesn’t make sense to me for a 2010. I was surprised when taking it off that it had a metal tank. 😶
So the sheer weight of the tank, being metal, and then the gas inside, made it super challenging, but eventually, after a lot of fighting and struggling And a significant decrease in vocabulary 😅, I managed to get it in. 🙏
With all the lines on, the tank in, and the electrical connected backup, the next step was to see if it would fire up.
Nope. 😅
Hmmm… I wondered if maybe the fuel injectors were different, so I checked the part numbers on the ones I brought with me from South Dakota compared to the ones that were in the van, and yes, they were different. And when googling, the part number that was in my CNG van mentioned that it was specifically for special circumstances like CNG conversions.
So I got a piece of rubber hose and blew out the debris from around your fuel injectors, and then removed the whole fuel rail, complete with injectors.
It took a little while to do that, because the system had been pressurized with gasoline for the first time in heaven only knows how many years, so as I started disconnecting everything, the fuel sprayed out, so I took some time to blow out the fuel and whatever additional debris might have gotten in.
It took me a little while, but I managed to get the new fuel rail and injectors installed and everything screwed back down, and after pressurizing the system, nothing seemed to be leaking, gratefully. 🙏
With no leaks, I decided to try and fire it up, and she started! 🎉
So I took her on a little test drive, and she did not do well. 😅 The van is still programmed for a CNG setup, so it’s getting way different fuel inputs than what it’s expecting to get, and the system doesn’t know how to handle it.
So despite the warning from AI, I decided to risk swapping the computer, instrument cluster, and lock cylinder that I brought with me from the donor van in South Dakota to my work van to see if it would start without the anti-theft system completely locking the vehicle down.
It took a little while, and was a little bit of a pain in the butt getting the main trim panel off because of all the electrical and AC connections, and because whoever wired in the switch to turn on the work lights attached the switch to the dash in such a way that I couldn’t get it apart without breaking it, so I broke it. 😅
Finally got everything removed, the instrument cluster swapped out, the new lock cylinder put in, and the new computer installed, and she fired right up. 🥳
And she seemed to run well, too! 🥳
So I took her out on an 11 mile test drive, keeping very close track of the number of miles that I drove, because they wouldn’t be reflected on the original instrument cluster, and I wanted to make sure the correct mileage was positively known).
After all was said and done, I think I ended up getting back to my mom’s place around midnight, and was grateful that she let me take a shower, as I was absolutely filthy from rolling around in the dirt all day drenched in sweat.
Spent a little while chatting with my mom, and then headed out to my van for the night.
Lift the world.
Bring it on.
~ stephen
Lift the World 