Petejoe
10-06-2003, 10:51 AM
What a Great show! With a new coupe giveaway on Sunday, temps in the 70's and wall to wall sunshine. 3000 cars were there with lots of old nostalgia stuff, and plenty of chopped channeled new-old stuff to feast your eyes on. Got to meet 40fordguy here on the hamb selling flathead stuff at the swap area too!
We Ran from Northwestern Ohio to Cincinati with seven other rods on a four hour trip one way. We actually ran 75-80 mph the whole way. I told the guys my 65 year old flathead with past issues may not like it but it probably was the best thing for it. The 37 coupe ran great, the flatty ran 160-180 degrees the whole way to and back at about 15 mpg and used about 1-1/2 quarts of oil every 100 miles.The left head gasket must have a leak as I noticed oil seaping out near the back at the firewall area. A new head gasket on that side will probably cure some of that oil consumption. It still had lots of torque!
I ran the shit out of it. On the way home last night we stopped on the last leg of the journey to get gas at about 10:00. Filled up 7 gallons in the 10 gallon tank. Went to hit the ignition. Deader that a doornail... A New battery before leaving and a checked alternator had us wondering....
Threw a meter on the alternator and the internal exiter would start but then went right off with no charge. After making it this far carrying spares of.. a water pump, fuel pump and head gasket and no damn alternator..We weren't going to give up and call the flatbed. One of the guys had one of those portable battery jump boxes, so I hook up a jumper, ran it from the battery through the window to the portable inside the coupe and made it on the 45 minute trip the rest of the way home on just battery juice!
It just goes to show. It's not the old technology that failed.... It was the new GM new fangle technogy that caused the problem. Hell, if I would of been running an old 12 volt generator, a new set of brushes would have got me on the road in no time. Now who wants to argue about flatheads not being reliable? http://www.jalopyjournal.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif You know the best part of making these trips is the challenge of actually getting there. What a ball! I was planning to show some pics today but didn't get home till 12:30 and had to make it back to work at 7:00. Will add some tommorrow. Flatheads forever!!
We Ran from Northwestern Ohio to Cincinati with seven other rods on a four hour trip one way. We actually ran 75-80 mph the whole way. I told the guys my 65 year old flathead with past issues may not like it but it probably was the best thing for it. The 37 coupe ran great, the flatty ran 160-180 degrees the whole way to and back at about 15 mpg and used about 1-1/2 quarts of oil every 100 miles.The left head gasket must have a leak as I noticed oil seaping out near the back at the firewall area. A new head gasket on that side will probably cure some of that oil consumption. It still had lots of torque!
I ran the shit out of it. On the way home last night we stopped on the last leg of the journey to get gas at about 10:00. Filled up 7 gallons in the 10 gallon tank. Went to hit the ignition. Deader that a doornail... A New battery before leaving and a checked alternator had us wondering....
Threw a meter on the alternator and the internal exiter would start but then went right off with no charge. After making it this far carrying spares of.. a water pump, fuel pump and head gasket and no damn alternator..We weren't going to give up and call the flatbed. One of the guys had one of those portable battery jump boxes, so I hook up a jumper, ran it from the battery through the window to the portable inside the coupe and made it on the 45 minute trip the rest of the way home on just battery juice!
It just goes to show. It's not the old technology that failed.... It was the new GM new fangle technogy that caused the problem. Hell, if I would of been running an old 12 volt generator, a new set of brushes would have got me on the road in no time. Now who wants to argue about flatheads not being reliable? http://www.jalopyjournal.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif You know the best part of making these trips is the challenge of actually getting there. What a ball! I was planning to show some pics today but didn't get home till 12:30 and had to make it back to work at 7:00. Will add some tommorrow. Flatheads forever!!