On the synthetic, some higher mileage engines decide they want to leak; something you don't need right now. You didn't say WHEN (said where you were going); if you had a couple of months still, you could give it a try, I s'pose. I'm just one of those ppl who does my maintenance about a month ahead of a trip, so if something is glitchy, I can get it squared away. 2600 miles down the AlCan to my Dad's in Spokane is about the length of the continent E-W.

Coolant--best thing you can do is to test your system for what temp it's good down to. If mixing spare (AlCan is 2 gallons premixed for me)coolant, mix it per the instructions for whatever temps you anticipate. Being's you're not going that far north, 50/50 should be okay. I run 60/40 to 70/30 for -60*F here, to give you an idea.

Nuther thing I've learned about coolant READ THE BOTTLE. There are some brands out there now that are ALREADY premixed. Neighbor found out the hard way. Got coolant, did a 60/40 mix; froze up his truck. Reason? The coolant was already diluted in the bottle; he didn't catch it.

Block heater is a good deal; if you think the temps will drop past -20*F, then an oil pan heater is good too; helps the engine pick up oil a little faster.

Only other thing you *might* need is chains, esp if going over via Radium Springs. Coming from the east into there, the brakes get a little hot, and the [email]d@mned[/email] sheep are in the road from the tourists feeding them. I know some areas the RCMP won't let you through unless you've got 'em. I've been thru there in the summer; looks like quite the avalanche area.

The www.bc4x4.com has a forum there where the RCMP chimes in to help; you might be able to get some insight as to the road conditions out west, plus some insight as to the 'chain up' issue. You ought to pop in over there and do a little networking anyway, so you've got a few contacts if you need them.

Whistler and Banff, huh? Have fun; I love it down there. Am saving up for a train ride vacation in a couple years. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/kewl.gif" alt="" />

hey thanks man, I'm a member at bc4x4 too! same username over there! Would like to come try your alaskan pow some day!

Hi everyone, if you still remember, here is my 1st update since the start of the trip.

I left Toronto back in Jan 4, 05', tuesday at noon, with 259122km on the truck. Driving toward the northern ontario into one of the coldest regions (kenora, wawa, whiteriver) at temperature of -40C without windchill. It has been that cold all the way to Winnipeg. During those 2 days, I hadn't seen temps above -25c. Saw 2 big black mooses crossing the hwy17 during wenesday. Truck wise, it was performing without problem during that section (thank god!), except that it was so cold at night that I have to leave it idling during reststop (1-2hrs). -60c windchill fluid kept freezing during travel on hwy too (-40c + 100km/hr windchill)unless I actually slow down to 5km/h... <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/drunk.gif" alt="" /> Filling gas at that temp was quite some experience too, especially when it takes double to triple the times.

Unfortunetely, after about 2100Km, my heater blower resistor picked up from a part truck in TO finally blew in Winnipeg. Luckily, good thing is that air still comes out hot when travelling at hwy spd. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/kewl.gif" alt="" /> (The only inconvience is when the humditidy from my breath fogs up the inside of the windows when driving around town at low spd.)

After picking up a car-pooler in Winnipeg Wednesday night, we got no problem getting to Calgary by Thursday. After dropping off the carpooler in cowtown (calgary), I stopped by a junkyard & I had my luck for $15 to fit a resistor originated from a camry into my harness. (Well, that worked for a day until it blew again <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/shiner.gif" alt="" />)

2 days after my departure in Toronto, I got into Banff thursday night driving through a 20-30cm dump. While I was lucky enough to run over a nail trying to park in canmore at 10pm, I slept next to a garage under my topper waiting for the next day. After patching the tire next morning for $17, I went skiing at Sunshine Village on Friday at -20c cold temps again with wind-blown snow. After skiing, I continued my route to Golden, B.C., passing through Lake Louise & Kicking Horse Pass.

The saturday drive from Golden to Cranbrook along the Colombia Valley on hwy95 was absolutely beautiful, especially the Hwy3 Kootenay Pass btwn Creston & Burnt Flat. Truck had shown no problem climbing up&down steep grade in snow cover route along the pass crossing many avalanche paths. I slept over in Nelson the same night so I could go ski at Whitewater on Sunday. Snow was definetely magical there. Light, pluffy, dry, cold, waist deep pow. Beautiful Kootenay peaks & friendly local.

After skiing, the highlight of the trip was that I ran my truck into a trench as I was leaving the ski hill at the side of the parking lot. Truck was stuck in the deep snow & tipping at 40degree sideway with right side wheels down with only left rear wheel up on the lot. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/rolleyes.gif" alt="" /> (Guess I was too tired from skiing) Scared of rolling the truck to its side with further tires spinning, I gave CAA & got a tow out.

After that incident, I got to Rossland where I've been staying for 3wks. Red Mtn here is amazing, steep steep steep terrain.

I have put in about 5000km so far, did my oil change at walmart parking lot too. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/drunk.gif" alt="" /> Gas mileage is close to 12.5L/100km. (good or bad?)

Finally, one new thing that came up today is that I start to hear from squiking sound coming from the pulleys/belts area. Any idea what that could be?

From now, I estimate that I still have about 6500km to put in until I get back home in spring/summer. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/baby.gif" alt="" />



Here is a pic of a modified resistor using household electrical wire with the use of a soldering iron. Approximate resistance @ 0.8ohms. This only works for high. Went you are on the road, u gotta try whatever possible!!! <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

I've been to many of those places, esp. Alb & BC. On a motorcycle. In the summer. When it was warm and the days long. I can only imagine... <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/scared.gif" alt="" />

I would suspect your idler pulley bearing, you might try to pick up a spare and put some fresh grease in yours, because you do NOT want that to fail. If its not that, though, it could be your water pump, so inspect it CLOSELY, look at the weep hole for ANY coolant. You most DEFINITELY don't want a failure on that one.

Might even be your water pump's seal wanting to go bad..

Quote:
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Im getting some noise which I believe is coming from the water pump ('90 22RE). It sounds like the bearings are going but theres no coolant leaking and the pump pulley doesnt wobble at all. I recently tightened the belt which leads me to believe that I may have over tightened it and is killing the pump bearings. It has also been around zero degrees here but I doubt that has anything to do with it. My past experiences with failed water pumps involved coolant leaking and extreme wobble in the pulley. Could this be the early stage of pump failure? Any recommendations on replacement pumps? Is OEM that much better than aftermarket? I dont want to be replacing this again in a year!


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>>>*The number one cause of coolant pump failure is wrong coolant percentage, number two is belt tension.
Remember that cold weather causes the belt to run stiffly, yep, loading increases.
I remember when I ran service shops, around August/September I always increased our stock of coolant pumps, back then 25 numbers covered 90%..
*I think it's 225 numbers now...
The fail rate is about 200% higher in the winter, and worse in the coldest days...(Same with batteries, too)....*EB

My mystery noise stopped after buying a new Aisin pump so I have not yet installed it. Im in the watch and see mode but as stated above the cold will kill your pump <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" />

Well, upon closer inspection, i could not find any leaks coming out from water pump seals to the block. Nothing is wobbling. One thing for sure is that noise is there now when it's running. Not horrible, but still. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/angry.gif" alt="" />

Since I'm still quite a newbie about engine. Let's say when the bearing from waterpump goes out, (assume that's where noise are coming from), what could that do? Does it mean the belt will not be able to turn the water pump, therefore having no coolant pressure/flow to the engine?


What's the deal about the seal & coolant leak? Why would that be related to the noise?

Thanks, & I realize today i forgot 1 thing at home... it's my useful haynes manual when things go booger... <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/rolleyes.gif" alt="" />

Guess I have to stop by a shop & see what their opinion is...can't take chances here on the road in the mtns...(because of limited cell phone reception for CAA)


Btw, I have not taken apart any bearings, what are they like? Seal bearings similar to rear wheel bearings? How would I repack them with grease as mentioned earlier?

Chris

might not be the water pump...might be the power steering idler bearing (as someone mentioned above)...mine went bad and made a horrible screeching noise.

it could also just be the belts themselves chirpin' because of being so cold.

take off the power steering belt and run the engine...see if the noise is still there...if not, there is a good chance it is the idler bearing (or just the ps belt).

the bad news is that you can't repack that bearing with grease as it is sealed...the good news is that a new bearing is less than $10 (US).

i think the OEM bearing is an NSK bearing with part number 6204V. i got the SKF equivalent at a place called "applied technologies". (any place that sells bearings should be able to cross reference for the part number.)

to get at the bearing, you have to take the idler pulley off...which is easy...there is a bolt through the middle of the pulley...you just take that out and there is a little cover that pops off to expose the bearing. (you need to loose the adjuster first...it's pretty obvious upon looking at the thing.)

use a flathead screw driver to pry it out...carefully tap the new one in with a rubber mallot or something.

changing that bearing takes all of 20 minutes max...very easy to do.

good luck...what a great trip you are on...enjoy it and keep posting so the rest of us can live vicariously through you <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/lol.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/cheers.gif" alt="" />

Well, thanks.

I've just gone to a garage in town here in Rossland, BC & show the mechanic there what's up.

Turns out Stan_Marshall is right, it's just the old belts themselves chirpin'. He told me that if it's bearing related, it will sound worst when trying to race the engine. Luckily for me, it didn't. So it's all good, cause I have spare belt with me! <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

One more question: Do anyone know where the clunk noise comes from from the front end when turning wheels all the way to one side while trying to park? Forward&Reverse? (I got ball joint spacers) <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/cheers.gif" alt="" />

Some pics:
Norquay Access Road 1 in Banff National Park, AB
Norquay Access Road 2 in Banff National Park, AB
Town of Banff 1
Town of Banff 2
Hwy 1 Westbound btwn Banff & Lake Louise
Ainsworth HotSpring by Kootenay Lake, BC 1
Buddies from Rossland at Ainsworth HotSpring Parking Lot by Kootenay Lake, BC

if it only happens when you turn the wheel all the way, it is prolly just your steering stops...there is a picture of them on this site somewheres...

they come from the factory with plastic caps on them to stop the clunking, but the caps wear out and then the stop is metal to metal contact...very loud and annoying noise, but won't hurt anything.

you can put some grease on them to temporarily stop the noise, but it will come back as soon as the grease wears off.

i've learned to stop just short of turning my wheel all the way to avoid the noise...unless i want to scare the crap outta some over-priced-street-only-18" wheel sportin-SUV owner as i am pulling into or out of the parking spot next to them <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

EDIT: below is a pic of the steering stops...circled in yellar...