Well, Pod has a new engine again. The previous engine was replaced after about 500 miles due to oil leaks. There story goes like this...
After I picked up Pod after the new JCS rebuilt engine (back in October 2003), I had a slight oil smoking problem. At first, this seemed to just be residue burning off the heat exchangers (from the old engine). However, it kept getting worse. By the time I took it in for the 300mi oil change and check-up, it was smoking pretty badly.
The guys at Buslab set off to find the problem. Lo and behold, looks like the oil cooler (that came off the old engine and brought over to the new) was leaking. Ok, no big deal, I shell out $200 for a new oil cooler, and they cover the labor.
So, just to be sure, Marco ran it up on the lift to look for more leaks. Unfortunately, there were a few more... a couple of minor pushrod tube seal leaks, a leak at the oil filler tube, and a couple more at some of the case nuts. Yuck.
So, they called JCS and told them about the problem. JCS was really cool about it, and immediately offered to build a new engine and send it up (without even inspecting the old one first!).
So, I took the Bus back home with me to enjoy it for a couple of weeks while waiting for the new engine. I took this time to rebuild my seats.
Then, last Monday I took it in to get the engines swapped, and was able to pick it back up on Thursday. Today I double-checked the timing, and recorded the mileage: 49171. Now comes the 300mi break-in period. Whee!
On Jan 10, I started restoring my front seats. The original pads were completely disintegrated, and I wanted to fix that before the original upholstery was completely destroyed. Well, I was a little too late for that, but the restored seats sure are a lot more comfortable.
You can find my procedure here.
Richard Atwell's seat restoration page was an extremely valuable resource during this project. Thanks, Richard, for archiving your work!