Buses By The Falls was good for everyone but me !  Some 40 buses 
showed up from NJ, NY, MA, MI, IL, NV, ON and QC.  I left home early Friday 
morning planning a leisurely ride down with an ETA of noon !  Ha !  About an 
hour away from Niagara on the brand new Hwy 407, the short coolant hose from 
the plastic distributor to the main coolant line burst.  By the time I saw 
the pegged needle and began hauling the van down from the 140 clicks I was 
doing and got over to the berm the buzzer was buzzing, and oil and temp lites 
flashing wildly and well you get the picture.  It's now 11:45 and hot as hell 
out.  Unpacking all the luggage and parts took a while and happy for the Bus 
Depot HD struts that were able to hold the hatch open with the two bikes on 
there. I finally get inside to have a look at the smoke and steam.  Does not 
look good.  First thoughts were "Well, there goes my 350,000 km original 
engine"    had to come eventually, eh ?  Crawl underneath with a rainsuit on 
to protect my nice new BusFusion 2002 T-shirt and peer up at that dam burst 
short piece of hose.  Now what to do........McGuyver where are you ?  Tried 
to tape up the hole but no luck in getting the tabe around the hose, to much 
crap in the way.  Then I remember the hose clamps in the tool box.  Just need 
some sort of patch that can be held by the hose clamps.  Almost cut up my 
floor mats when I see the old plastic oil can I use for a funnel.  Cut a 
strip of plastic from the oil can, clamp it around the trashed hose and viola 
!  Add water and away we go !  Well, yes away we go after a half hour filling 
the system with water from the Westy water tank.  When I start adding the 
water it steams pretty badly and I hear creaks and crack.  OH NO, too hot for 
cold water maybe.  There's no coolant at all left in the system.  
       Finally get it filled, restarted and off the next exit to a service 
station to have a proper hose fitted.  Upon restarting there's an oil leak 
that is not evident of source.  Since it's only about and hour from the camp 
ground I decide to run for it and deal with it there.  Made it to Buses by 
the Falls at 3 pm.  Three hours out of schedule.  Not too bad.  Saturday I 
decide to drop the crazy pan that covers the push rod tubes and see if I can 
find the oil leak.  Turns out it's the plastic line to my oil pressure gauge. 
 Got toasted and spewing oil all over the place.  The hole being six inches 
from the end was good so I cut it short and luckily I had left enough slack 
when installing the line to make the new connection after spending an hour 
reaming out the old ferrule.  
        Get it started after reconnecting the oil line and find clouds of 
white smoke coming from the exhaust and coolant coming from the rear lower 
exhaust flange bolt I removed to get the stupid push rod cover pan off.  
CRACKED HEAD TIME !  Oh yea, that's good !  Now what.  Call the tow truck !  
No, not yet, I'm not giving up on my 350,00 km engine.  Go to Canadian Tire 
and get some coolant system sealer that claims to plug up small cracks in 
heads !  Oh yea, right.  Well, surprise, surprise as a gang of us stood 
around and watched as the stop leak was poured in the smoke miraculously 
stopped.  Ha !  Couldn't believe it !  Bled the system and filled it with 
fresh coolant and was ready to go.  
       Not so fast, the Saturday nite door prize draw was yet to come.  I 
missed all the rest of the days activities.  So off to the door prize draw.  
Gave a short spiel about the IWCCCs Madeleine Island Rendezvous coming up in 
August 2003 and then was given the Buses By The Falls Hardluck Award.  A nice 
bottle of Canadian Club with two glasses !  Went to sleep with sweet dreams 
that night.  Thanks Jamie.
       So got to meet Listee Joel Court after years of List communication.  
Pretty far out meeting someone after communicating for years. Good to meet 
you Joel.  Hope you made it home safely. 
       Sunday was the June Jitter Bug Show and off we went on a test drive.  
Just far enough away from the campsite to give a test of possibility of 
making it back to Almonte.  Luckily my bud Don Hector with his Eurovan from 
up my way showed up Saturday and he offered to be my rescue and tag along.  
We left the Jitter Bug Show and some 400 VWs around 4pm and made it back home 
by 9 without anymore problems.  Whew !  Now what ?  Don't know ?  Motor is 
still running, seems to have the same power it had before but the temp gauge 
is higher than it was before.  Maybe a toasted sensor as has been suggested 
by many.  I'm seriously thinking it's new engine time soon.  There was a 
Tiico engined Vanagon at the Jitter Bug Show, first one I ever saw and it 
sure looks good.  Maybe that's what's next !

Cheers��

Frank Condelli
Almonte, Ontario, Canada
<A HREF="http://members.aol.com/BusFusion/bfhome.htm">BusFusion</A> a VW Camper camping event, Almonte, ON, May 30, 31, June 1, 2, 2002
'87 Westy & Lionel Trains
Member: <A HREF="http://www.vanagon.com/">Vanagon List</A>, <A HREF="http://www.bcn.net/~limbo/">LiMBO</A>, <A HREF="http://www.westfalia.qc.ca/CIW_English.asp">IWCCC</A> & Capital City VW Club 
Vanagon/Vanagon Westfalia Service in the Ottawa Valley
<A HREF="http://members.aol.com/Fkc43/stebro.htm">STEBRO/Vanagon Stainless Steel Mufflers</A> �
<A HREF="http://members.aol.com/Fkc43/busindex.html">Frank Condelli & Associates</A> or http://frankcondelli.com