NWRFCA Whistler Trip 2016

The NW region of the FCA planned a trip to Whistler, BC the first weekend of June.  It turned out that the previous Sunday was when my condo's complex had their annual meeting scheduled, so it worked well for me to drive the 330 up for the meeting, stay the week and then meet the others for the club events.

The last time I drove the 330 to Whistler, I had a vapor lock issue and I had recently worked on that so hopefully there would not be a reoccurrence.  I also replaced the fuel filter in the rear at the same time.  Of course, you have to have the fuel in the tank down to 1/4 full or so when you take off the filter canister.  I wasn't too happy with the new O-ring, but it seemed to seal and there were no leaks.  On the way to Whistler, I stopped by Costco near the border and filled the tank.  A few miles later, I stopped at a rest stop and when I got back to the car, I could smell a slight gas odor.  I attributed it to having just filled the tank.

The rest of the trip was uneventful and once I got to Whistler, I unloaded the car and put it in the garage.  A few hours later, I walked by the garage door and could smell gas.  An inspection under the car showed a puddle about a foot in diameter and a drip every 5 seconds of so.  The drip was from the fuel filter canister, hitting on the new heat shield, splattering and then dripping from several places.  The extra pressure of the full tank was forcing fuel past the flaky O-ring.  By now, it was evening, so I just put a large plastic boot tray under the car to contain the drips.  I also left the garage door open a couple of feet so the gas vapors could escape and not build up.

The next morning, I called a friend to see if he could bring over some jack stands so I could safely work under the car.  It turned out that he had already left home, but would stop by anyway.  We ended up backing the car onto a couple of 4x4 posts.  That was enough to enable me to crawl under the car and tighten the bolt holding the canister on.  Ferrari tool kit with its 17 mm Beta 55 wrench to the rescue.  That seemed to stop the dripping, so I wiped everything off and let the car sit for a couple of hours.  The next morning, a check showed a drip every few minutes, but it was something that I could live with until I got the car back home and in the shop.

At the end of the week, the club drove up and stopped at my place for wine and cheese.

       

On Saturday, we drove to Lillooet for lunch and then back to Whistler.  On the way, we stopped at Nairn Falls Provincial Park.

It's about a 1 mile walk from the parking lot to the falls, though pretty level until the end where the trail climbs to the top of the 200 foot falls.  The total round trip was about an hour and everybody seemed to enjoy the break.

       

Then it was onto Lillooet for lunch at Fort Berens Estate Winery.  That section of the drive is over the Duffy Lake road, a winding and spectacular drive.  However, as usual in the summer, there are enough RVs that one couldn't enjoy the curves at speed.  After some wine tasting, the lunch was well received.

On the way back to Whistler, I would sometimes hear the FISPA fuel pump start clicking very rapidly.  From previous experience, I knew that the car was close to vapor locking.  By now, the temperature was into the 90s and the fuel tank was down to 1/4 full.  I managed to nurse the car until a couple of steep climbs near Whistler.  There I had to pull over and let the car cool for 15 minutes to so.  Then I managed to drive it the rest of the way back to the condo.  So I haven't solved the vapor lock issue yet.  I think that I should have filled the tank in Lillooet.  That way the extra pressure of the full tank would have helped prevent the gas from vaporizing.  Plus that fuel would have been cool, coming from an underground tank.  Next I am going to add some insulation to the fuel lines near the tank and further, keep the tank pretty full when it it really hot out.

Saturday night, we all went to the Trat (Umberto's Trattoria) for a very nice Italian dinner.  Most of the members drove home on Sunday while I left early Monday morning and made it home without any more vapor lock issues.

Somewhere along the way, the car went over 100,000 miles.  Since the odometer is metric, I didn't catch the event at 160,934 km, but here it is at 162,000 km.  And the car turns 50 on July 1!