Well, we arrived home yesterday, all up our trip to the NT and to WA was over a distance of 10, 875 kms for an average of 14.3l/100k towing our off-road Camper-trailer, all up not too shabby fuel economy at all, at one stage, coming back east on the Eyre Highway with a 85kph tail wind we were enjoying 9.2l/100k fuel consumption !!
We did have one very "slight issue", we/I/it blew a head gasket at Hermannsberg west of Alice Springs.
The Alice Springs Ford dealership said that they didnt have the mechanics to replace it and that we would have to take it to Darwin to their main workshop to have it replaced, - a 1285 km trip - and we could expect a 3-4 week period while the required parts arrived and the work was carried out at a quoted cost of around $3-4,000 !!
I added a can of Nulon head gasket sealer to the coolant system and so far the engine has done around 6000 kms with no further coolant loss and I've taken delivery of all the gaskets needed to do the work, the only issue I have is I fell off a concrete picnic table ( stone cold sober ) and I now need some serious physio on my right elbow that got smashed on the concrete deck so I made some calls and have organised a well reputed local automotive workshop to do the job for me - at an acceptable cost - and they will also carry out the installation of an exchange "Wholesale Automotives" billet Torque Converter and upgraded "Nomad' 6R80 gearbox that I have ordered at the same time.
Ahhh the joys of touring !!
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