Inner Struggle: Engine Troubles

The dirt road stretched out of the forest and into the rolling prairie lands, the afternoon sun high and proud despite a cloudy sky, which was starting to darken.

Arund shifted into a high range overdrive gear, the steady rumbling turbo charged diesel engine felt strangely soothing to him...

The workhorse of a truck he drove was an Otan M5AW 5-ton tri axle army truck. Powered by the well loved Standyne Turbo inter-cooled diesel engine; model T6i/m.  

The exterior of the truck was simple and boxy, with a canvas covered flatbed that bore wooden crates of various shapes and sizes.

"No questions for this shipment, buddy, just make sure it gets to the base in one piece. But that doesn't mean you can take your sweet time and scratch your ears and stick yer head out the window, ok?"

Arun recalled the stinging little speech his dispatcher had given him at the depot. He didn't care much for that guy, he didn't seem to share the same kind of bravado he had with other drivers, who were mostly human anyway.

"Grr... I hate that guy, what's he got against me anyway?" Arund grumbled in his deep voice as he down shifted to follow an 's' shaped bend in the road.

Then he noticed something as he checked his tachometer, the gage beside it was in the red.

"I told the bloody fool the radiator was going on this thing!" he yelled angrily, letting off the accelerator and down shifting again, letting the truck coast to a stop on the roadside.

With an irritated sigh and a roll of his eyes, Arund shut off the engine, and stomped the parking brake on. He then grabbed the hood release, to let built up steam escape out from under it.

Arund pulled down his beloved old pair of goggles over his deep blue eys and then slipped on a well used pair of rough leather welding gloves, and stepped out of the cab; weary of the the dangers overheated engines presented.

Looking away and standing at arms length, he threw the hood open with a grunt hopped back, avoiding the angry hiss of superheated steam.

"Oooh! It's a lovely sauna in there!" he commented sarcastically, "Mister dispatcher is gonna love me even more now... damned pen pusher."

Pulling up his goggles, he pondered what to do next, taking a moment to calm down; reminding himself that angry comments don't make a lick of difference.

After pacing around for a few moments, Arund returned to his ailing truck to see if his assumption about the radiator was correct.

He stepped up onto the bumper and then onto the winch to get a better look at the water hoses, now that the steam had abated into little mor than an angry wisp.

"Hmmm, hope it isn't the head gasket..." he mused, not seeing any faults with the water hoses.

Flipping off a glove, he reached out and gingerly touched the rad for a second, it didn't seem that hot now...

"Gah! Dammit!"

Clunk!

Arund's had slipped off the winch. Striking his head on the corner of the bumper as he went down.

And with that foolish act of curiosity, The Wolven had knocked himself out stone cold.