jeremiahm
Full Access Member
Funny story due to a missed interval, affects of age I hope! Pulled up to the ranger hut at Lassen National Park's north gate Friday night about 6:15, full of camping gear, kids and food\cooking gear for dinner with friends already at the camp spot. Stopped per the sign. Yukon sputtered out and was a crank no-start. No dash lights, temps all good, lift the hood and get a faint hot coolant smell. Young ranger was helpful, helped push us out of the entry lane, and drove us up to the visitor center where there was WiFi. Got the wife driving up in her Accord and a tow-truck on the way. Hauled the cooking gear up to the site for my buddy, now 8:30. Come back to gate to meet the tow-truck, now 10:00, Yukon fires right up. Had it towed back home because I didn't trust it. On the way to work yesterday got on it a bit to "clean out the valves" 
and smelled a strong bit of burning fireworks. After a bit too much time researching yesterday determined my Cat's were angry and likely due to running a bit rich. It was a long drive up to Lassen and gains ~6000' elevation, most of my driving is flat to-and-from work 14 minutes each way. As this issue didn't seem like something broke all of the sudden and the Yukon seemed to be running normally again I dug into what causes a rich condition, lack of airflow got me thinking about the last time I changed the air filter, which I remember was in my garage at some point in the last 4 years...
Needless to say, very little light could make it through the filter, put in a new Wix and took it for a spin, yeah, I was missing some horsepower and I realized the Yukon had been struggling a bit. Classic tale of boiling the frog. Hope I don't need Cat's soon.
Please remember to change your Air Filter when it needs it, don't want you stuck like I was. Did make it back to camp early Saturday morning and made breakfast burritos. All ended well for the weekend!
-Jeremiah
and smelled a strong bit of burning fireworks. After a bit too much time researching yesterday determined my Cat's were angry and likely due to running a bit rich. It was a long drive up to Lassen and gains ~6000' elevation, most of my driving is flat to-and-from work 14 minutes each way. As this issue didn't seem like something broke all of the sudden and the Yukon seemed to be running normally again I dug into what causes a rich condition, lack of airflow got me thinking about the last time I changed the air filter, which I remember was in my garage at some point in the last 4 years...Needless to say, very little light could make it through the filter, put in a new Wix and took it for a spin, yeah, I was missing some horsepower and I realized the Yukon had been struggling a bit. Classic tale of boiling the frog. Hope I don't need Cat's soon.
Please remember to change your Air Filter when it needs it, don't want you stuck like I was. Did make it back to camp early Saturday morning and made breakfast burritos. All ended well for the weekend!
-Jeremiah
