Day 28 of my imprisonment in P2P.
As Michelle said, there are a lot of highs and lows in this rally. Last night I went to bed in the mostly comfortable Hotel Pars in Tagriz, Iran while Ladybird was on the back of a truck moving somewhere north of Tehran. It was scheduled to arrive at the hotel around 3am and we would unload it in the morning. I awoke with the sun at 6am and could see the truck from my window. After a quick shower, I walked down to meet the driver to unload Ladybird.
As usual, an english-speaking young man from the local car club immediately materialised (in his 1972 Camaro) to assist with the deliberations. Iranians have a firm belief that westerners cannot function for a moment without local assistance (which is not far from the truth) and somehow appear to be omnipresent.
The car was unloaded without incident around 7am and I was feeling pretty good. Robert and I rejoined the rally with huge smiles on our faces. We started the 200 mile leg to Iran-Turkey border, kept it slow, and arrived 8 minutes ahead of pace. The fact that the engine had lower oil pressure didn't spoil our good mood.
Then the low arrived right on schedule: a huge puddle of oil formed under the engine as we waited in line to exit Iran. The dipstick showed that we had lost a half quart of oil! Checking: Was it just a loose fitting somewhere? Was it the rear main oil seal? Was the oil sump loose? Was the oil cooler gasket bad? The giant skid plate blocked the view. All we could see was that the valve covers and pushrod tubes were dry. The leak came from somewhere in the middle.
At least the border crossing was quite easy. Exiting Iran was just a quick stamp, and entering Turkey just required $20 for a visa. All told, it was our quickest crossing so far at 45 minutes. On the road, immediately north of the border, Mount Ararat (home of Noah's Arc) is on the right. This was the first biblical location that I have ever seen and I was impressed. It is a dramatic site. The road is at 6000ft and the mountain juts up, nearly by itself, another 10,000ft next to the road. It is no wonder that this mountain has such a rich mythological history.
We pushed on, struggled up the meandering hills. At the Passage Control in Agri, we found that we were down another half quart. No bother. Topped it up. The car was running well and we pushed on, discussing our options. The skid plate had to come off tonight to find the source of the leak. The skid plate is a pain in the ass and I was tired. I was making excuses to not bother.
We got to our hotel in Erzurum shortly after sunset and found that we lost a full quart! After dinner I went outside to start working on Ladybird and to my surprise I found that Peter, one of the fantastic rally mechanics, had already pulled off the skid plate. We had talked to him about the problem back in Agri and he mentioned taking off the skid plate; but I never expected that he would actually do it unsolicited! He was under the car looking around and non-chalantly asked me to start the engine. After a few minutes the worst case scenerio was confirmed. The rear main seal (actually in the front, but VW engines are backwards) was badly leaking. It was also obvious that the crankshaft is moving a bit. This would require, at least, the engine to be pulled. It might require the crankcase to be opened.
Oh bother. There is nothing we can do but press on through Turkey and keep adding oil. We will leave a trail of oil on the way to Instanbul. It will be a short day passing through Instanbul and maybe we can find time to replace it.
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