5 years with a Gaz66

[Gareth]

Well its 5 years since I bought my Gaz66 from Finland, wow time travels. I have done approximately 15000km yes 15000km in it so far!
its been pretty good really. its always had a cutting out problem when hot and pulling hard up hills. It's finally sorted now after a crappy ignition module that failed, a fuel pump that failed, tried changing coils, leads, new civilian distributor and the problem?............the fuel tap for the 2 tanks if the tap moved up a fraction, a millimetre then it would suck air and die. Changing to a different tank soetimes cured it because the tap was pushed down and 'sealed'. I have now put a Facet pump on each tank and an easily reachable switch on the dash.I have reverted back to points and condenser and all seems ok now. The heads were removed and skimmed 1mm and new guides fitted as the old ones were seriously worn. roll on the next 15000km! We are currently travelling around Spain and beginning of the year Morocco for 3 months, after that Portugal, Galicia, Asturias, Pyrenees and possibly a boat from Marseille to Tunisia for a time. We have no fixed plan as everything depends on the wind, oh and whatever else occurs in this strange world.
The truck is equipped with solar panels, wood burner,oven and hob, shower/loo, hot water quite the glampervan. It certainly gets noticed! The original camoflage has gone and is green to match the cab interior.
it looked a little scruffy before.
I would post pictures but god knows how! tried before and gave up but I may give it a go again.
Enough rambling for now

[portamurda1]

Sounds great…enjoy

[Grommet1]

Great to hear the update Gareth. Was the ignition module from the UK. I can't remember if it was you who got one custom fitted from the UK.
Happy travels

[Gareth]

Yes it was the ignition moduie fitted in the UK It ran lovely but then started intermittent misfires and then a 7 cylinder misfire! gone back to points and a condenser It was on for a number of years but not many kms Just been messing with the timing yesterday I set it at 12btdc and it seemed ok but was holding back on the steep climbs under full load Yesterday we had a 10km climb so I swang the dizzy back and forth. I eventually advanced it by a lot! I could add massive amounts of advanve and no piinking? guess its low compression and forgiving.Still slow but gives more of a roar at WOT

[andre-norway]

Did you skim the head to get higher compression?
Im sorry I’ve had little time to follow you and your miss, posts on fb lately, so much work to do home. I’m several weeks behind 🫣🫣 luckily im back on work on the ship, so I have much more time(!) to read your wonderfull posts!

[Gareth]

I skimmed 1mm off both cylinder heads. The maximum allowable is 1.8mm to 2mm. I still am able to skim again if I have a serious overheat and warp the heads. The idea of the skim was to benefit the use of modern fuel. I haven´t gained any noticeable power! At the same time as the skim the valve guides were replaced as one plug was getting coated with oil, this is now cured.