Hudo to Undergo Overhaul in Charlotte, NC

Heidi had been enjoying her trip down the East Coast of the US.  As one might expect from an octagenarian on an around-the-world-voyage, Hudo has had some issues.  In Wilmington NC, Hudo experienced technical difficulties.   Though the preliminary diagnosis was a thrown rod, upon disassembly it appeared that Hudo re-ingested a piston ring.  Looking at the pictures,  the engineering team at Mongolope.com found the damage to be unusual because how did the piston ring get above the cylinder wall to cause so much damage?

Hudo was reassembled and according to the Instagram posts, failed his shakedown drive.  Further inspection showed damage to the connecting rod journals.  Loose journal bearings could allow the piston to transit out of the cyclinder at TDC and catch a ring on the edge on the way down.  Based on the new findings, Mongolope.com’s engineering division is glad that Heidi is investing in an overhaul of Hudo’s crankshaft and journal bearings before they continue their journey.

However, Hudo only had 15,000 miles since the overhaul in Germany.  Heidi feels  the short life on the engine calls into question the quality of the “overhaul” Hudo received in Germany.  Regardless, Hudo and Heidi cannot continue without the bottom end of the engine being reworked.  So Hudo has been loaded into a trailer for transport to Charlotte NC.  Heidi is now very grateful to be piloting a loaner MG around Charlotte while she awaits the completion of Hudo’s rebuild.   Since Charlotte is home to the Charlotte Motor Speedway, we hope Hudo will be able to find the very best of care in the “Queen City”.  We wish Heidi and Hudo a speedy recovery from this delay, and all the best on the rest of their journey.

(Note: Some inaccuracies in the above summary may be due to my poor skills at translating German.  However, the the team at Mongolope.com is also available to mistranslate several other languages at exorbitant rates in addition to mistranslating  German )

See Heidi’s site for up to the minute information.

http://heidi-around-the-world.com/about/