Going over our route today. Packing the luggage. I cant believe we are leaving in 3 days. Redstar, we will hook up, if all goes well on our end.
Thanks for the info John. I am extremely envious... I am sure there will be shared pics of the excursion much like the gasser trip last year.
Started out with Mike's new (to him) roadster motor overheating just west of the Indy airport at the Plainfield exit on I-70. Changed a thermostat and headed west. By the time they got to the Illinois state line the motor started throwing oil out the bottom. Stopped and retightened everything and headed west. Got to Effingham and stopped at an Autozone. motor still throwing oil out the bottom. Drove the car up on the sidewalk of the Autozone to get a better look and could see oil coming out of the front of the motor from behind the harmonic balancer. Dustin pulled the shell, radiator etc to get to the balancer. Borrowed the puller tool from Autozone and off came the balancer, complete with the seal out of the timing chain cover. Luckily, Autozone had a new timing cover and seal in stock. Dropped the pan installed the timing cover, installed another set of new valve covers with breathers in them hoping to relieve some back pressure, put the whole thing back together and on the road again. Drive for awhile and discovered the once the car gets up around 210 degrees it starts to cut out. Have Dustin back the timing off a little. Get to the next stop, car seems to be doing better. At least there are no oil leaks. Adjusts the tri-power using the in-dash vacumm gage and they head off again. Get to Lebadan, MO. and stop for the night at the same hotel we stopped at in August on the way to the HAMB Drags. They get up Sunday morning and head out. The thunderstorms had passed thru overnight so they did not have to drive through any of the weather that came thru the midwest this past weekend. No problems on Sunday except for Mike's car would still cut out at speed. All the crosswind and headwinds yesterday made it hard for them to make any time. For whatever reason, anything above say 65mph and the car would cutout really bad. Got a call from Dustin last night while Tom, Naomi, Susie and I were at Applebee's. We were talking about the roadsters' woes of cutting out at high speed. Tom and I pretty much agreed that it had to be fuel related. We called them back and suggested the next time the car started cutting out to reach back in the bed and unscrew the gas cap. (Mike installed a new Moon tank last week and we thought it might have a vent problem.). Dustin called later last night and said they were in Groom, Texas. population 567. They were going to overnight there. said both cars were doing well. the plan was to get up this morning, drive the short distance to see the Cadillac Ranch and head west. Just talked to Dustin at 1:00pm today. They were at Tucumcari New Mexico. Said they could now run about 80 down the interstae with no issues.
Thats good news. They're making headway and should be in Vegas by Wednesday , ya think ? Drive safe guys ! Axle
NO kidding, to be young again.. I was slated to go to. Been a dream for the two of us to take a trip like this in one of the cars. Problem was that this year I get a new boss beginning the second week in Feb who is not car friendly like the old one. So, no time off for a cross-country trip to VLV. I get updates at most of his gas stops so that is good
Three of us are leaving out from DFW Wed. morning and driving route 66 in my buddies chopped 50 Ford. Should be a blast. Hope to see others out there. Cn
We arrived today, Thursday. Checked in, and ready to check things out.The drive from Chicago to Las Vegas went well. BTW, did any one hit the dust storms near Winslow, AZ yesterday? We made it through, but later heard I 40 was shut down for awhile.
So no I am not driving. How stupid is this. I have 7 cars but cant stand driving anywhere over about 3 hours. Flying out at 3 2nite. But I gotta say, despite my ill view of long hours in a car, I wanna try this trip some day...not this one though. it corresponds with my 10 year anniversary....so this is a dual purpose trip.
The Jalopy Journal
