How far can we go with no generator/dynamo?

Yesterday, with no dynamo running to charge the battery, we went about 500 miles before stopping for the night (and the car was still running fine). Today we wanted to get much farther because from Salina, Kansas to home was 1,240 miles that we had to split between Saturday and Sunday. I was feeling fine today and willing to drive well into the night, but with no charging I am pretty sure we couldn't go too far running the headlights.

The day didn't start well. I checked all the fluids and we were off. Twice in the first 100 miles I had to stop to add more than a gallon of water to the cooling system each time. It did not happen again. This seems to be a pattern, that when the car is cold, water level is precise, it will lose a gallon of water in short order and run 10C higher than normal. This is the first time it has happened twice, so I expected it to happen again after that second water stop, but no more water lost the rest of the day.

We hoped to make it to Louisville for dinner, preferably at a truck stop where we could charge the battery we'd been using all day, then we'd go on for a few more hours. Unfortunately, about 50 miles west of Louisville it got too dark to drive without lights on. We'd put 650 miles on that poor battery that had lasted us so well, but as soon as I presented the need for that type of current drain (just parking lights), it immediately lost power and backfired. It was dark, but I turned off all the lights, braked and went to the shoulder and shut it down. I don't know how much farther we could have gone if we didn't need lights, but 650 miles was pretty impressive, I think. The only draw on the battery though was the fuel pumps and ignition system, although we did also start the car 7 or 8 times during the day either after the water stops, forced vapor lock fillups, or rest stops. I also charged my cell phone once through the cigarette lighter (via a power inverter that probably pulled a little current as well).

Google Maps suggests a trip of 584 miles for tomorrow, so we better get to bed....

Pike's Peak and Fascination with Impending Vapor Lock

I doubt you can see the "Pike's Peak Summit" sign behind us, but it's there! We made it up to the summit, despite having no generator running, by leaving the motel early. We were the first people at Pike's Peak to start the ascent to the top. The drive is 19 miles and goes from around 7,000 feet or so to 14,110 feet. The boiling point of water is lower at higher altitudes, so I looked up that table night before and was discouraged to see that water's boiling point at 14,000 feet is 85C, which is just 2-3C higher than I normally run, but driving up the mountain would push up our temperature higher.

I kept it in second gear most of the time, sometimes going to third on the flat or even short downhill sections on the way up. The water temperature was good, but then we started hitting the switchbacks which forced us to drop to about 5-10 mph on the hairpins, so the low RPMs and heavy work caused the temperature to rise. I thought about trying to get all the way to the top without stopping, but the temperature was at 93C so we stopped at 13,000 feet and milepost 16 (Devil's Playground). The water was boiling but hadn't purged any out, so I opened the cap and let the pressure vent off and we waited 30-40 minutes for the water temperature to cool to 84C. From there we made it up to the top with no further issues. Our final accomplishment before coming home.

The fascination with vapor lock will likely fascinate no one but me, but for those interested, read on:

Given: My generator is dead.

Given: Besides ignition, unless my lights are on the only other real draw on current is the fuel pump(s).

Given: The standard dual-SU fuel pumps draw current only when they're clicking. They click to suck fuel when there is not sufficient pressure to the carbeurator (~3psi). You can see this amperage draw by watching the ammeter.

Given: When I turn on my auxiliary pumps, they draw a constant amperage, therefore the ammeter is steady instead of the bouncing of the ammeter seen when running just the SUs.

Given: If I have vapor lock, I turn on the auxiliary pump which overpowers the dual SUs, therefore the ammeter shows no bouncing because the dual-SUs don't have the need to provide any fuel.

If I am running the auxiliary pump and the conditions are such that I still encounter vapor lock, suddenly the SUs realize they need to provide fuel. They aren't going to be able to do much, because if the more powerful auxiliary pump can't do it, they're not going to be able to compensate.

What fascinated me was the following. As I'm driving down the road with the battery continuously discharging and the auxiliary pump on, the ammeter reads a constant 0.5A discharge. When it was hot out today, if I put down too much power (fuel demand), I could watch the ammeter stop reading constant and start bouncing -- indicating impending vapor lock. The dual-SUs were trying. But when it gets *really* bad, those dual-SUs start working like mad, a constant clicking, and when that happened I could see it manifested in the ammeter no longer bouncing, but a constant discharge of about 3A. Now I knew we were just about to start feeling the vapor lock.

The drive today through the heat consisted of me trying to walk that knife edge. How fast can I keep going without experiencing vapor lock? It was so easy to see now. This is the surface curve I was talking about in a previous post. If the ammeter started bouncing, I could drop the MPH by 1-2 and be safe, discharging at a constant 0.5A, safe from vapor lock. It was like a game, and while we sometimes had to drop to about 45mph on the interstate on the longest upgrades, we never had vapor lock hamstring us.

I don't know if that was interesting to anyone else, but watching the gauges (ammeter, temperature, speed) and the traffic is a very different way than just driving our modern cars. It really is entertaining, although I have to say that I really wish my generator were working.

Tonight I pondered continuing on through the night, but surely the lights would have drained both of my batteries quickly. So we're stopped relatively early tonight and will get up and get back on the road before it gets hot tomorrow...

Frustrating Day

The trip at this point, with the issues that keep cropping up, has grown tiresome. We had brand new issues today, but hopefully we'll push through them.

First, the car started out way too hot right from the get-go. I did not check the water level before leaving the motel in Grand Junction, and that was the issue....but why was it a gallon low. Topped it off, and a long incline later we needed another gallon. All told today I've added four gallons of water. Some of it is because on the longest climbs (such as Monarch Pass which topped out over 11,300 feet) the boiling point of water is lower and the car pushed up to 95-96C, hence purging out some water.

But to top it off today, the dynamo (generator) stopped charging. Well, it was intermittent, first i

t usually charged, then it barely ever charged. Cleaning the commutator off might have helped

but did not solve the issue. Today's thanks for telephone troubleshooting belongs to Dick Frawley of The Frawley Company. Now I have a hefty backup battery from CarQuest, as well as a new Schumacher 30A quick charger from WalMart. Interestingly, even with all the discharging of the battery, the battery in the car was at 87% charge (according to the charger). The brand new battery was at 78% charge (who knows how long it had been sitting on the shelf?). Now they're both at 100%.

Tonight once the car cooled off, I fiddled the best I could with the dynamo. In case anyone hasn't figured out, I'm not a mechanic, and I cannot explain to you how a dynamo/generator works. Frawley suggested I get at the brushes and see if things were dirty or if the springs were holding them down properly. I got in there and really didn't know what I was looking at. I pulled the springs back, and then pulled back on the brushes and sprayed some contact cleaner between them and the commutator. The commutator is clean (because I cleaned it), and it is nice and smooth. After fiddling with the brushes, now the car is charging (based on a little parking lot testing and a three block drive to get gasoline). I am not confident that it is "fixed," but clearly we're on the right track. If the brushes will just last until we get home that would be awesome, but if not then at least we know where to remedy the problem.

Despite the issues, tomorrow's agenda starts with an ascent of Pike's Peak. I have 9 gallons of distilled water in the back of the car, and we'll grab a couple bags of ice before embarking. We'll have tons of water for the passengers as well, as the lady at the front desk of the motel said that is the best way to prevent altitude sickness.

Then it is time to bring her home.....

Quick Update -- Finally in Colorado

Lots to report, but bedtime now. We were packed and ready to leave Moab this morning but had to wait for UPS to deliver the 3/8" BSF screws I needed -- thanks Tim Jayne of Dennison-Jayne Motorcars for getting them out to me through overnight UPS. They finally arrived at 11:05am, and I put them in with blue locktite. The other two screws that hadn't fallen out were loose, so I took those out too and put blue locktite on those threads. I also repacked the waterpump. We were ready to leave at 12:35pm, but now it was already 100F outside. We got more distilled water and ice, filled up with fuel and headed to Arches National Park. We vapor locked there, so before heading out towards Colorado we went back to Moab for a late lunch/early dinner around 4:30pm. We took our time, hoping that 6:00pm would be late enough to get going and avoid vapor lock.

No such luck. We had to stop twice for vapor lock issues -- the second time we stopped for a long time in the canyon in the shade (we took route 128, which folks called River Road). This did the trick, as we didn't leave until 8pm and the sun was down. We were fine for the rest of the ride.

I couldn't decide how long to drive. I considered driving all the way to Manitou Springs (about 6 more hours), but we would have arrived at 2am and missed seeing the whole drive over the Rockies. We could drive until just before the mountains, but even that would be late. Instead, we stopped in Grand Junction where we're going to sleep now by 10:30pm, and we'll be on the road by 7am to head straight to Manitou Springs so we can relax the rest of the day, get up early Friday morning, and head up Pike's Peak.

Tomorrow I'll try to write more about our experience with Moab Adventure Center and our excellent guide Bryon who took us on a Sunset Hummer Adventure on the rocks -- in short, awesome!

FTP

Those who are familiar with Rolls-Royce and Bentley Motorcars realize that they never break down! Really, it is true! That said, they do occasionally "Fail To Proceed," or FTP for short. That's where I'm at right now in Moab, Utah.

On our drive through and back from Canyonlands National Park yesterday, I really didn't like the road because although it looked smooth, it must have had ridges or washboarding built in because there was a bad vibration when driving on that road that started about when the pavement changed. When I got back on "good" pavement and the vibration did not stop, I realized I was wrongly accusing the park service for the vibration sensation. I experimented to try to figure out when/how the vibration was occurring, and if I laid down power at all the vibration would go away. If I let off the gas, whether I had any gear engaged or not, whether the overdrive was on or not, the vibration was present.

When we stopped for the night I got under the car to check fasteners all along the driveshaft/differential/gearbox/overdrive. Tightened everything I found and as I moved up to the overdrive I found the problem. The overdrive mates to a flex coupling between itself and the gearbox. Where the overdrive mates to the coupling there are four large screws. Well, there are supposed to be. There were two left, and those were loose. While I was able to tighten down on those, I can't drive it like this. Since they are a British threaded set screw (3/8" BSF, 1" in length), I'm not going to find any in Moab. So as silly as it sounds, I'm having two screws overnighted to me. I'm having a few extra things sent as well (two spare ignition units 'just in case' and some waterpump grease to hopefully remedy a waterpump leak I have).

Thanks again to all the support I've been getting, this time Tim Jayne is sending me all this stuff overnight so I can get back on the road. We'll now be delayed by another day, but Pike's Peak is still in the plans, even if I have to cancel other park visits to get there!

Oh, and when I fasten these new screws in, I'll be using locktite.....

Escalante/Capitol Reef NP to Moab

Monday's agenda was to see Capitol Reef National Park and get to Moab. Sunday evening we decided to stop in Escalante, Utah, since many had advised us that the scenery along the road between Escalante and Torrey was something we'd want to see in the daylight. I'm sure glad we did that -- the drive was spectacular. Here is just one shot of what we drove through (and over, and in-between).

Capitol Reef NP, while beautiful, was disappointing. They have a scenic road that takes you through the reef, but it was closed. We spent a little time in the visitor center and watched a video and a ranger program on geology, then set off towards Moab in the heat of the day. We stopped in Hanksville, UT for a top off on the fuel and a few bags of ice for the expected impending vapor lock.

And the vapor lock did come. Most of the driving was at 97F outside, and we made it up to I-70 and went east a bit but decided to stop at what would be the last bit of civilization before Moab (Green River, UT). We put some ice in the vee and took a break, then got back on the interstate and made it most of the way to the exit for Moab but had to stop again for vapor lock. More ice/resting, then we were on our way.

When we got off the exit ramp to Moab we still had more than 30 miles to Moab, but there were rain clusters all over the place that we were hoping to hit in order to cool things off, but we never got any. Before Moab we took a right to head to Canyonlands NP, and on one of the climbs we finally vapor locked again, bucking our way the last couple hundred feet to a viewpoint. As we iced, rested, and waited, the weather continued to cool down just a tad until we finally were able to go again and did not have any further vapor lock issues.

We made it to Canyonlands NP visitor center just 15 minutes after they closed, so Kyle did not get his passport stamped but was a good sport about it.

Due to some different mechanical difficulties that I will describe in a separate post, we are now stranded one extra day in Moab, so we'll figure something out to do today before launching back out again Wednesday morning.

Reactions

A random post here to respond to a request made earlier -- what are people's reactions to the car.

I have yet to meet anyone unfriendly -- this is different than when we drive the Ferrari and some folks make snide comments. Instead, with this big thing people don't know what it is and ask questions. Most are shocked that we're doing a cross country drive and want to know if we've had any mechanical issues (and those who have been following this blog know we have!). The most common question is "How much is it worth?" I don't like that question because I don't know the answer, I don't care, and that's not why we're driving it. It is a rolling piece of history and just a blast to take across the country. We are very fortunate to be able to do this, although I don't think it will be a common thing for me to drive this cross country -- this takes a lot of time, energy, emotion, and of course $$.

Some of my favorite reactions/questions so far:

In McComb, Mississippi, a fellow with his pants falling down (a different one than previously posted in Zion) asked how much it was worth.

Me: "I'm not sure. The economy is bad right now, so most people don't want something like this."

Him: "Would you take $30k for it?"

Me: "No. Besides, it's not for sale."

Him: "If I gave you $100k for it you wouldn't take it?"

Me: "No, it's not for sale."

Him: "You mean if I offered you $1M, you wouldn't take it?"

Me: "If you give me $1M for it, you can have it and I'll go home and buy a few more!"

In Brockway, California (along Lake Tahoe), a surfer type dude was looking it all over, and after doing a full 360 around the car commenting about how cool it was, he asked "Is it a Model T?"

Just east of Grand Canyon National Park, we had to stop at a Navajo trading post for an hour to let the car cool down due to vapor lock. One of the Native American ladies working at a stand commented, "Is that your black truck? It's cute!"

Today at the Bryce Canyon NP visitor center, a lady asked "Is that a Phantom-III? My father has one."

Right now I'm sitting outside the motel room at the Circle D Motel in Escalante, Utah listening to crickets. It should be a dark sky but there are some clouds overhead, and way off in the distance I can see some lightning bolts going horizontally along the horizon -- way too far away to even hear the thunder, but this is pretty cool....

Zion and Bryce

Last night we stayed in the Bumbleberry Inn just outside of Zion National Park. We got there late, and if we ever come back to Zion this will be near the top of the list of places to stay. It wasn't until we woke up and looked out the sliding glass door to see the car up the little hill in the parking lot with a big red cliff wall off in the distance behind it. We had Bumbleberry Pancakes, then went off to Zion.

Zion itself was crowded, but wasn't too bad (not that our standard for bad is the crowds of Yosemite, that is). In the summer you can't drive through the park for most of the roads, so we parked at the visitor center and took a shuttle to the end of the scenic road. There we took a hike to The Narrows where the canyon narrows so much that in order to continue you have to hike through the river. Not today, but definitely for a future visit when we have time. Please note that even at Zion, some people look like a fool.

Bryce Canyon is spectacular. It is so unique...the pictures you see, well that is what it is. I do want to come back and hike through those hoodoos... We met several folks at Bryce Point (where the picture here of the boys was taken), and some we met at multiple viewpoints. Always nice to meet more people and share the car. Today as we drove into the parking lot of the Visitor Center at Bryce Canyon National Park we hit 5,000 miles from the start of our trip!

The final picture is between Bryce and Escalante, Utah. Took a quick stop to get a picture of the sunset. What a beautiful place to live -- not much here besides the beautiful sunsets (and sunrises). It would be a neat place to retire, or at least have a cabin (if you could get to it easily on your own private plane!). :-)

Tonight we're bedding down at the Circle D Motel and tomorrow morning we'll chart out towards Capitol Reef National Park, then on to Moab, Utah where we can go to Arches and Canyonland National Parks.

Bryce Canyon

Nevada Route 50, Great Basin National Park and the drive to Zion National Park

Leaving Squaw Valley, we decided to take Route 50 across Nevada (dubbed "The Lonliest Road in America"). We went through Fernley, Fallon, Austin, Eureka, Ely, and finished in Baker. We did have some minor vapor lock issues but none left us stranded. We decided to take a 90 minute break in Austin and visit the Austin Museum and some rock shops while the car cooled off. The only issues we had from there on out were easily solved with the auxiliary pump. Here are two pics from Route 50.

Baker, Nevada is home to Great Basin National Park, and we stayed in the Whispering Elm RV Park/Campground/Motel in motel unit #3. Got up early enough to take a 90 minute tour of Lehman Cave (really awesome and highly recommended for the short walk but dense sets of formations. Afterwards we drove up Wheeler Peak to hike the Bristlecones -- the oldest living things on earth. Really neat. The drive up to the top is fairly aggressive and I scared myself by overheating in the very first part of the ascent. If we can't make that, then how will we make Pike's Peak? As it turns out, it was because we were low on water -- but I'm not sure why. Just 5 miles earlier I had topped off the water. My only guess is that perhaps I overfilled. I had topped it off with water then dumped in a bottle of Water Wetter and it was a bit higher than I usually fill it. After we let the car cool down at Upper Lehman Campground (around 7500'), and after topping back up with water, we drove with no problem to the 10000' summit, and in fact for the rest of the day which included many climbs.

The drive down from the top was interesting -- the speed limit was 35mph and I left it in 3rd for engine braking and because of all the hairpins. About a mile before we hit the bottom the gearshift lever popped out of gear (not as a result of a bump), and I could not select another gear at all. I was panicked thinking about what could have happened, so we glided the rest of the way down, coasted to the side and I was able to select all gears and have had no further issue with that. Weird. I hope that's the end of that story/topic.

The drive from Baker, Nevada to Zion National Park was a lot of wide open spaces, cows on skateboards (see sign), and a wonderful sunset from Milford, Utah. We stopped 10 miles short of our destination at the Bumbleberry Inn just outside of Zion to get a glimpse of dark skies that none of us have ever experienced.

Here we go again....

As a reminder, as we travel you can track our progress here:

http://www.instamapper.com/ext?key=10783424458998487164

It has been a fun time at the RROC annual meet topped off with a fun concours including some really interesting cars.

Last night I spent some time replacing another ignition module which failed, so I probably should have another spare (or two) sent to me somewhere along my route "just in case." I can't figure out why this ignition module failed, though...

As the awards banquet ended this evening, we were invited to participate in the drivethrough for the awards ceremony. We did not receive an official award, but were formally recognized by the chief judge for the accomplishment of our trip out here -- 3,898 miles in a pre-war Rolls-Royce. I have a couple hundred more miles under our belt during the meet. Thanks to Mermie for her part in getting this recognition. My only hope is that as people hear about our trip either through this blog, through the recognition at the meet, or otherwise, that they'll be inspired to do their own cross country trip. Of course I'd love to hear about someone doing a cross country trip in a vintage car, even if it is in a modern "normal" car (as compared to my abnormal car....) I would love to hear about it. This country is expansive with a lot to see -- go see it!

Tomorrow our tentative plan is to leave in the morning for Nevada and take "The Lonliest Highway in America" (route 50 across Nevada). I've been told you can get a passport and get it stamped at the few localities along the way on Route 50 in Nevada, so of course we'll give that a shot!

Good and Bad

We've had a good time at the meet so far, meeting several new folks and some old friends. We've done three breakfast runs in a row, and on each one the limo was full with six people, so hopefully some who haven't taken a ride in a P-III will now remember their first ride (like I have in Mermie's car), and maybe someone will catch a bug....who knows?

Today, I smiled as I looked around the parking lot and saw everyone polishing all parts of their cars (exterior, interior, wheels, engine compartment, etc.). While they did all that today preparing for tomorrow's judging, I walked to my car and then took the family on a drive around Lake Tahoe. I'll have the dirty car on the judging field tomorrow, although I'm not being judged anyway.

My normal daily ritual when driving the car is to check that both fuel pumps are operating properly, and that both ignitions are operating properly. One of the ignitions (A) failed the test today and was dead. I used my last spare electronic ignition module and replaced it this evening (about a 25-30 minute job). Now the car is fixed and running perfectly, but I have no spare except the old points setup that I could re-install in a pinch. Tim Jayne is flying home tomorrow morning and can ship me extra ignition modules if I know where to tell him where to send them, but I don't have a route charted out yet. I'll have to figure that out, because I don't like being without a spare!

The boys are both apprentice judges tomorrow -- Kyle with the Spurs (et al), and Carter with the Wraith/Dawn class. Both want to be "real" judges, but they will be apprentices and helping in that fashion. I hope they both enjoy and appreciate the experience.

We'll be pushing off towards home on Friday morning. We had too much in the car on the way out, and we've acquired even more, so I hope to get to a UPS store and ship a bunch of stuff home to free up as much space as possible in the car. Our tentative plan is to go across Nevada on Route 50 (The Lonliest Highway in America), and I've heard they have a "passport" that you can get stamped at each of the towns along the way. We'll have to look up info on that....

Kings Canyon/Sequoia/Yosemite/RROC Annual Meet

Sorry for the delay in blog posts but we've been having too much fun.

I'll keep this brief but post a few pics and a link to a nice drive out of Kings Canyon (the highlight of the driving for the trip so far).

We relaxed three days in Kings Canyon/Sequoia National Parks, then went to Yosemite for one night -- very crowded but worth the visit, see the pic of the Vantom with Bridalveil Falls in the background.

The drive out of Yosemite was very nice. We climbed out of the valley and over Tioga Pass (over 9900') with no problems at all, on the climbs the highest the water temperature rose was to 92C, and of course at the air temperatures this part of the country my vapor lock issues aren't present. The only sketchy time was as we were about to leave Yosemite right at the top of the pass. More people were entering the park than leaving, so they were generally using both lanes for entry into the park and just holding up all the exiting traffic. They even had folks staged there to survey those exiting the park: "What is your zip code? What is your final destination? Do you stop at small towns for more than fuel? ETC." As I watched the water temperature climb from 90 to 91 to 94 to 96 I asked how long the delay would be, because soon I'd have to shut down the car. They said just five more minutes, and when we left the water temperature was 99C, and two miles later as we were gliding down the mountain it was down to 78C.

We took a detour south to visit Devils Postpile National Monument. This reminded us of a miniature Devils Tower, but on this you could (and were allowed) to hike onto the top of the columns and see how they fit together. In the picture here, all the rocks are actually broken off columns. Pretty neat!

We finally set off on our final leg of the journey to Lake Tahoe, finally arriving around 10pm or so. The next afternoon we registered for the meet. A fellow member had driven his Phantom-II from Alberta, Canada well over 1,000 miles (our final mileage was 3,898). We both debated whether we should just leave the bugs who had made their final resting place on our fenders and radiators, but in the end I was the one who broke and chose to wash the car off from all the dust and bugs from the previous almost 4,000 miles. Before doing that though, we took some pics of the cars pre-wash:

Bakersfield to Kings Canyon/Sequoia National Parks

No blogging yesterday because of sketchy WiFi in Kings Canyon National Park.

We finally got to sleep in a bit Monday morning -- the payoff for driving past midnight through the Mojave Desert. Most of the drive to Grant Grove where we're staying was uneventful -- orange groves all over the place, mostly flat but a general gradual climb from about 200' above sea level to 600'. Then we headed to the mountains and saw a sign "Windy narrow road, next 30 miles." And it was! The temperature outside was already 90 degrees.

The road was back and forth and up up up and it was a blast. At first I wondered if I could make it through all of this in high gear (but not in overdrive). Then I looked at the water temperature gauge. I think I'd seen 90C+ only once so far this trip as we climbed Afton Mountain in Virginia, but now I saw it at 96C! I took it easier and watched it rise to 98C and level off there. We had a little flat section where it dropped back down to 89C, but then the steady slow climbing ensued. The car performed wonderfully, tremendous torque, wonderful steering around the hairpins, no vapor lock. But then the temperature began going back and forth between 98C and 100C. This was my limit, especially as we continued to climb in altitude. I began looking for a shady pulloff to cool off, and finally we got to Badger Mountain House. Please go to the website and see a pic they took of the Vantom in front! :-) It was a very welcome oasis for us (we were hungry for lunch) and for the car to cool off. We took our time and met several folks including a nice French family who waited around to hear it start and see us off (and we waited at least an hour until the water temperature dropped below 80C again).

Since we arrived at Kings Canyon NP, we've let the Vantom take a couple days rest and have been using the rental to get around. Monday evening we attended a ranger led campfire talk, and afterwards we drove over to the actual Grant Grove and walked through the trail under the moonlight without any headlamps or flashlights on. It was spooky but very memorable!

Today we drove into Sequoia NP. Our first hike a short steep one (300 feet in about .3 miles) up Moro Rock. We had some really nice panoramic views of the sub-Alpine region from the top of the rock.

Our second hike was to the Sherman Tree, boasted as the largest living organism in the world. From there we walked through a Giant Sequoia Grove on the Congress Trail, a fairly easy 2 mile hike.

We closed out the day with an all-you-can eat BBQ dinner at Wolverton, and Kyle had ribs for the first time and enoyed three sets of ribs, four pieces of chicken, three half-ears of corn, cornbread, and....well I think that's it. :-)

The Mojave Desert is spectacular...

...at night!

It is after 1am and we're in Bakersfield at the cheaper of the two Econolodges (of course), so I need to get to sleep and can't give tonight's drive justice.

We left Fenner, California after we'd spent a full 5.5 hours at the gas station/oasis waiting until it was cool enough to drive away. We finally left at 8pm with a 4 hour plus drive ahead of us, and even then it was a stretch (one hour into the drive in Ludlow it was still 97 degrees at 9pm). But without the sun beating down, the car never had a problem and in fact I never had to turn on my auxiliary fuel pump.

As much as I loved the landscape of the desert in the daylight (no, I'm not kidding), it was spectacular at night. After we got off I-40 and onto CA 58, it got even better, culminating in some windy long upgrades followed by windy long 6% downgrades. Yeah, they were just suggesting 55mph, 70 felt much better. :-) The dark skies here are much better than home, and the culmination was the shooting star that I saw fizzle out and poof away -- absolutely awesome.

Tomorrow we'll drive the last 111 miles to Sequoia National Park whenever we wake up, and we finally can rest there with the three nights we have reserved. I don't know if there is any cell coverage in the park, and then the next night we'll be staying in the valley of Yosemite National Park where I don't know if there's coverage.....so it might be a while before the blog is updated.

The Mojave Desert is not kind

This morning, due to what we knew would be hot temperatures, we left from Williams, Arizona (55 miles south of the Grand Canyon) at 6am sharp and started barreling across I-40 at a quick pace. It was 52 degrees when we started, and I can go all day long at a fast pace at that temperature, but I knew it wouldn't last. The goal was to get in good miles before it got hot.

We got onto Historic Route 66 in Ash Fork, Arizona and this was a wonderful section of road. Wide open spaces and a 65 mph speed limit. That's as fast as I'm driving these days, and with the I-40 speed limit at 75 mph I wasn't going any faster out there, so I might as well stay off the interstate.

The second stint of Route 66 started with a sign "Backcountry Byways." I didn't do the research, so I had no idea what to expect. It was awesome! I wish I weren't worrying about vapor lock or else it would have been even better, but I never had a problem. We wound back and forth through a long 20mph zone with innumerable 10mph hairpins. When we finally crested Sitgreaves Pass (see picture above), I had to stop and get a picture (and the picture doesn't do it justice). We were still on the normal SU pumps at this point even though it was in the mid-90s already, and as soon as I stopped I heard the SU pumps clicking like mad indicating the coming vapor lock so I turned on the auxiliary pump.

The whole drive through this pass was pretty desolate but very interesting landscape. The only town was Oatman, Arizona which had a bunch of bikers (as in motorcyclists) walking around alongside the mules wandering the streets (Carter saw one mule walk into a store!).

Below, see a random picture west of Oatman driving through the desert.

We had no problems on our drive from 6am to 10:30am when we got into California and the town of Needles, but at 10:30am it was already 100 degrees so I knew the vapor lock was coming soon so we took a break. I knew it would be a long break because after you stop everything heats up even more (heat soak), so we drove around Needles looking for anything to do (we drove around in the rental!). There is nothing to do in Needles, but we spent a few hours there.

Before leaving, we bought a little styrofoam cooler and a big bag of ice to bring along. We dumped some ice in the vee of the motor to keep the fuel lines as cool as we could and we launched off with the intent of going just 38 miles to the next gas station. I figured we could go that far and then cool off again before launching again to the next gas station 50+ miles after that.

From Needles, there is a decent climb, and it was 110 degrees outside (at least that's what it said on the "Outside Temp" indicator on my Dad's rental Focus). We kept climbing and climbing, and about 2/3 up that hill we started bucking with vapor lock. We got in the slow truck land and dropped from 60mph to 50mph and kept on going. Then we dropped to 40mph and even the slow trucks had to go back out of the slow land to pass me. As I dropped from 40 down towards 30 I started driving on the shoulder. The crest was coming closer and closer, and I knew that if I could just crest that hill we could get back up to speed for at least a little while and hopefully be able to dive off onto an exit and at least get under an overpass. No such luck....after several miles of climbing, the car finally "ran out of gas" a few hundred yards before the crest. We had a lot of room off on the shoulder and all sat in the air conditioned rental while the Vantom cooled off.

Typically when we have these vapor lock issues, I take a temperature reading on the fuel lines in the vee of the motor and they're about 157F. I took a reading this time and it was 186F! My rule of thumb has been to wait until those lines are back down to 145F before going on, so I figured we were in for a long wait, especially being out in the beating desert sun. But because we had a cooler full of ice, we dumped a ton of it in the vee and took a reading 20 minutes later and we were down to about 125F. We got back going on the road immediately, and after cresting that hill had a nice long downhill. And then another really long climb. We had only a few more miles to that exit I had been planning on, so I really took it easy up this climb, dropping from 60mph to 50mph. Because of that I was in that slow truck lane again, and just before cresting the top of that long grade I came up fast on a really slow truck so I got in the normal driving lane to pass, and right at that moment the vapor lock started again. I barely passed that guy (who was probably wondering why I went to go around him and then slowed down), and after the crest of that hill had a nice 4 mile downhill to the exit we'd been waiting for.

Now we've been at this "High Desert Oasis" gas station sitting in the A/C at some tables watching TV for several hours. The next gas station, as I said above, it over 50 miles away. It was well over 100F when I stopped, and now it is still high 90s and if we launch we'll eventually have to stop for vapor lock before that next gas station in Ludlow, California. Patience......

Guess where we are

Multivariate Vapor Lock Equation

As I've posted through this blog, we have had a few technical setbacks, and they held us up two extra days in Albuquerque. To be fair, because of the problems I got to Albuquerque one day early so I could work on the car with Gary Phipps, we intended to stay one night anyhow, so the three nights we spent there ended up meaning that we left one day late. We solved all the problems those days with the exception of the vapor lock. The vapor lock is something we have to live with. It has humbled me and the car to the point that I now admit there are limits to the capabilities of the car given the quality of today's fuel mixtures. I am fully confident I would not be having these problems if I could use leaded fuel from the 1950s. That said, here is the discussion of the multivariate vapor lock equation...

There are several things that induce vapor lock in the car. These variables include temperature, altitude, how hard I'm running the car, and duration of running the car. I'm trying to visualize some surface graphic with green (good), yellow (getting close), and red (sure vapor lock) and drive below the limits of the red. I've learned that if the temperature is in the 80s I probably won't have vapor lock issues, but if it is in the 90s I probably will. The question is "When?" How much do I have to back off in order to extend our trip a few extra miles. An example of the calculus I was pondering today when it was 95 degrees out was, "I'd rather eat lunch right here, but if I do my next leg will be too long and I'll have to stop for a vapor lock cooldown. But if I keep going, can I make it to the park? If I make it to the park then I know the next leg will be short enough that we'll be safe, and when we get to the park we can take at least an hour break for lunch and some sightseeing in the visitor center and the overlooks." As it turned out, we almost made it to the park, which was very discouraging at the time. We missed it by 10 miles. Instead, we had to hang out at a Navajo trading post for 45 minutes before driving the last 10 miles and taking that long hour break.

Tomorrow the calculus has me thinking the best thing to do would be to leave at 6am so we can get a solid 5 hours of driving in before we start worrying about vapor lock. So now I'm looking at the map and saying, "Where will I be after 5 hours of driving tomorrow?" In an ideal world, we'd find someplace really neat at 11:00 or 11:30am, then take a 4-5 hour break there, then get back in the car for a couple more hours of driving. But I can't find anything interesting -- we'll be approaching the Mojave Desert. If there's next to nothing there, maybe we'll just drive until lunch, then alternate 20-30 minute driving stints and hour breaks through the heat of the day. We'll be on Historic Route 66 for much/all of that, so there should be things to see.

Winslow, Arizona to Grand Canyon

We met some nice folks in Winslow, Arizona on "The Corner" that helped take some pictures and tell us a little about Winslow and the history of the corner everyone visits. We were fortunate enough to meet the only person with the keys to "The Flatbed Ford" and he opened up the truck so the kids could get in for pictures. It was disappointing to not be able to spend time in Winslow, but as we've found out we cannot drive extended periods in the heat of the day in the Vantom right now due to vapor lock issues.

We continued west on I-40 and went north up to Sunset Crater National Monument. We did a really neat hike up to Lenox Crater, a very old cinder cone. At the start we saw a tiny horned lizard. The hike climbed about 300 feet over .5 miles so was pretty steep, but the view of the old depression from the old volcano was neat. Driving through the park you could see the lava flows and it was like nothing any of us had seen before. Kyle, of course, earned another Junior Ranger badge.

Next up was the Grand Canyon, but we were running later in the day than I'd planned, so it wasn't a shock to see that we hit some vapor lock issues just 10 miles short of the park, so we had to stop for about 45 minutes at a Navajo trading post. Not too bad of a place to have to rest, we got to see a lot of their handicrafts. We broke away and made it up to the east entrance of the Grand Canyon (Desert Watchtower). We enjoyed our first views of the Canyons, then proceeded to the main Visitor Center at Grand Canyon Village. The highlight of the visit was spending a little time on the Rim Hike.

After we left the Grand Canyon out of the south entrance, we drove straight to Williams, Arizona and had dinner at Gloria's Route 66 Cafe. We found what was likely the last motel room in Williams the Mountainside Inn, and now it is about bedtime! Tomorrow we'll be launching very early to get some cool weather driving in, take a mid-day break, and then drive a few more hours in the cooler evening. Then one more day of driving before a long stop at Sequoia National Park!

Leaving the Wigwam Motel

Albuquerque to Holbrook (Wigwam Motel)

With trepidation, we launched out this morning from Albuquerque. With the N6 valve in the carbeurator cleaned up and working properly, it appears as if we're no longer running rich. We also opened up the fuel regulator a bit so that with the auxiliary pump running there is ~5.5psi flowing through.

Going from Albuquerque there is a fair amount of climbing, nearly 2000 feet (although more than that if you count all the downhills along the way to the Continental Divide). I was very pleased with performance for a very long time, but when vapor lock occurred on a fairly flat section I was a bit deflated. I turned on the auxiliary pump and all was well. As we climbed higher and higher, I became more and more worried, wishing for rain to cool things off (ambient temperature was about 90F). We finally did hit a rainstorm and the outside temperature dropped to the 60s and all was well! It didn't last long though, and we finished the climb in the heat.

After we passed the Continental Divide I thought we were in the clear. Smooth sailing all the way back down towards Holbrook. In fact I called Gary Pollard, Tim Jayne, and Dick Frawley to tell them all the good news that we'd successfully accomplished the day. Unfortunately what was happening at that moment was that i) I picked up the pace subconsciously while talking on the phone, and ii) The temperature rose back up to 94F. Just as I was about to get off the phone with Frawley, vapor lock set in. We dove off the next exit and sat under an overpass in the shade in the middle of nowhere waiting for the car to cool off. I took a thermal reading on one of the fuel lines in the vee and it said 157F. After a few minutes it rose to 164F, but we sat for about 40 minutes until it dropped to 145F.

From there we had about 40 miles to Petrified Forest National Park. We counted down the miles as they passed by and I was very excited to be getting close to the park. With about 5 miles left vapor lock popped up again. We slowed from 60 to 50 and kept cruising, but the closer we got to the park, the steeper the upgrade, and the worse it got. We limped our way off the interstate to the Park and spent some good time there.

The highlight of the visit to the park was probably the Blue Mesa Hike in the pouring rain. We saw Badlands, petrified logs, and even a double rainbow!!! Kyle successfully completed the requirements for Junior Ranger, and now we're staying the night at the Wigwam Motel!

Plan for tomorrow is the south rim of the Grand Canyon....if the Vantom behaves. We just need to avoid driving when it's really hot.

Wigwam Motel

Petrified forest national park

Next Launch

Quick update -- we have done quite a bit of work and troubleshooting, and without being 100% sure we're good, we'll launch once again from Albuquerque tomorrow morning. I posted earlier some pictures of the carbeurator apart. We've got it all back together, it isn't running rich anymore (I don't think), but I'm not confident that we've solved the vapor lock problem.

For those following that don't know what vapor lock is, it simply is caused by the fuel vaporizing. The engine wants to burn liquid fuel, but if it vaporizes (essentially boiling), the motor can't burn it and acts like it is running out of gas. This isn't as much a problem on modern cars because they are fuel injected and have higher fuel pressure than on an old carbeurated car.

Tonight we got to have dinner at the 66 Diner. Good food! The picture in the earlier post was the "Pile Up" which has potatoes, bacon, cheese, eggs (over easy for me), and red/green chilis. Yum.

Bedtime for now, back at it again tomorrow!

66 Diner in Albuquerque

Working on the carbeurator

Reassembly begins soon

Albuquerque Update

Albuquerque is a very nice place. The air is clean, the sky is blue, the humidity is low, etc etc. We arrived last night at about 10:30pm at Gary & Pat Phipps' house, dropped 3DL170 off, then went to the closest motel.

Carter, Kyle, and Grandaddy spent most of the day hanging out at the motel, which thankfully has an indoor pool!

Meanwhile, Gary and I did some troubleshooting and I proceeded to cause a fairly major setback. While we're trying to discover the genesis of the car's problems, one of the things we did was see if leaving the fuel pumps on without the motor running would cause overflow out of the carbeurator. To turn on those pumps you flip on both the master switch and the ignition switch. If you leave the ignition switch on for an extended period of time without the car running, you risk frying the Pertronix electronic ignition modules in the car. Which is what I did. Long story short, I should have new modules here in Albuquerque on Friday morning. Thankfully I already had one spare, so we can still work on the car and troubleshoot.

Once we get the ignition fixed, I still have the vapor lock and the "running rich" issues to diagnose and solve. We have a notion that the running rich may be a float level issue, or perhaps a valve under the accelerator pump in the carbeurator that is leaky. Not fun pulling the top of the carb off, but we need to in order to get where we need to be. If we can possibly troubleshoot and solve the issue tomorrow, then Friday we can get the new ignition module in and be on our way.

We'll see. It is not yet any less frustrating.

Thank you very much to Gary and Pat for both the technical support and the meals! I appreciate it very much.

In Albuquerque

Quick update. Launched north in the desert from Roswell and made it 26 miles before vapor lock got us. Rested for an hour before launching back south towards Roswell and made it 10 miles before succumbing again. Just finished a long tow to Albuquerque. Bedtime.

A picture of the tow driver taking a picture of my car on the tow truck

Another chapter

Aliens in Roswell

Carlsbad Caverns

Two topics to convey, technical and fun. I'll focus on the fun and touch on the technical, although the technical is really weighing on me right now.

The car isn't running perfectly, but nonetheless we headed up from Carlsbad, NM to Carlsbad Caverns National Park (about a 30 mile drive each way). We got to walk down the "Natural Entrance" of the cave, over a one mile descent that goes down over 750 feet of switchbacks. Once down, we did another mile self-guided hike of the "Big Room." This was filled with interesting formations, but most impressively a big room! After lunch back upstairs, I went out to the parking lot to work on the car for about 45 minutes while the kids and Grandaddy spent some time at a park movie and checking out the visitor center. I came back inside in time for the ranger led "King's Palace" tour with a highlight of the complete darkness -- the volunteer light dimmer was Carter.

Kyle finished up a junior ranger book and got his badge, and then we headed to the Bat Flight. I learned today that the less precipitation there's been, generally the smaller the number of bats that come out of the cave. It has been drought-like for quite some time here, so there were barely any bats. No big mass at all. Oh well.

The caves are a neat place to see something completely different, and of course it's great to be in 56 degree air when it is 100 outside!

Technically, in a nutshell, the vapor lock is no longer the issue I'm chasing. I may be chasing that issue later, but now the car is fouling plugs. The little job I did in the parking lot of Carlsbad Caverns was to wirebrush the 12 exhaust plugs. By the time I was back at the motel the plugs were fouled again, so the car is running rich, even on just the dual-SU pumps (not using the auxiliary pump).

I had a pretty serious fuel leak I was uncomfortable proceeding with, but tonight I think I've remedied that with some teflon tape on the threads of a fuel filter "cap." If we can proceed without this leak, I'll continue to trudge on carefully but with an eye to finally solving the issue. This rich running is not sustainable for the remainder of the trip -- I need to fix this!

Carlsbad Caverns

A longer day

Yesterday was 14 hours of traveling (including a long dinner), and today was supposed to be 6 hours of driving (plus stops), so a much shorter day. So why is it after midnight and I'm finally finishing up?

Oh, I forgot to mention yesterday's biggest mishap -- when the sunvisor fell off and into my arms on the steering wheel, just as I was trying to merge from one interstate to the other in traffic. Kinda surprised me a bit, but I wish that were the biggest problem I had today!

I've mentioned previously about some vapor lock issues that I've had, but that they've been easily solved by using my auxiliary fuel pump. Well, what happens when I'm running that pump as well and I still experience vapor lock? For quite some time today, we could limp (as in 45mph in a 75mph zone) about 30-35 miles at a time before allowing the car to cool off and start again. We met a lot of folks in west Texas and eastern New Mexico, and we managed to get the car to Carlsbad, NM. I actually had reservations 11 more miles past Carlsbad, but I was ready to stop, plus I'd heard there is absolutely nothing in Whites City where I was supposed to stay, so if I want to enlist the support of a store, mechanic, restaurant, etc. I better stay in Carlsbad.

What is the cause? I don't know. I will say, however, that although the car could run and get me to the next stop (when not experiencing vapor lock), even when not experiencing vapor lock it seemed to be down on power. I've been thinking that if I've got some other restriction, then perhaps the vapor lock just exacerbates the problem....I'm not getting enough fuel as it is, and then it vaporizes.

I did check the fuel filter in the vee of the motor and found it clean. When I stopped tonight, I took the rear couch out and checked the rear fuel filter (by the tank), and while the filter is clean the little bowl the filter sits in had a lot of nasty junk in it -- perhaps enough to be partially blocking the fuel filter and therefore fuel flow. I spent some time cleaning it out and went out for a short test run hopeful that it would no longer be running low on power. No such luck.

After I got back I thought that perhaps I should do a run without the auxiliary fuel pump on. It might be my imagination, but the car felt much better that way. With the aux pump on, while it has generally been fixing my problems, I do smell a fuel odor when running it. I checked both filters and while the rear one wasn't leaking, the front one has a small leak where it tightens. I did disturb that filter by checking it, but the odor was occurring well before I disturbed it. Nonetheless, I removed the filter again and put a brand new aluminum washer in. Still leaks using the aux pump, but I don't think it is leaking when using just the traditional dual-SU pumps.

I should also mention that several days ago, I did my normal daily test of both ignition systems and both ends of the dual-SU pumps at some random part of the drive. The A-side of the SU pumps was not working properly! Tonight, after my little test runs, I decided to see if the A-side would run the car at all. I let the car idle for several minutes running only on the A-side and it continued to run, so the A-side is working. However, it might have been my imagination but it sounded like the car was hunting a bit when running only on the A-side. I bumped up the idle to 1/3 throttle and within 5 seconds the car died. So while A is running it is marginal. Maybe B is marginal as well, but running better than A?

So my theory is that perhaps my dual-SUs are ailing (it should run fine on just one side, but maybe both sides are weak?). The other part of my theory is that perhaps my aux pump is pushing too much fuel through, maybe making the car run a little rough under load. As mentioned in other forums, I had an issue with a previous fuel regulator (Mr. Gasket brand), and now I have a Holley fuel regulator that I installed. My mechanic (Dick Frawley) set that fuel regulator to run at 5.5psi, which shouldn't be too much.

Tonight, I spent about 90 minutes (yes, I checked the watch) and installed my brand new spare dual-SU fuel pump. Started the car up and both sides run fine, but I didn't do a test drive. Since it's after midnight, I did nothing else, but I guess if I'm running rich due to too much fuel from the aux pumps, I might see some evidence on the plugs. I'll have to keep an eye on fuel leaks in the vee of the motor from the fuel filter.

Tomorrow I'll check a few plugs, and then we'll go for a run with just the normal dual-SUs. I'll also talk with Frawley about how to deal with the aux pump and his thoughts on if perhaps I need to throttle the regulator back and if that extra pressure is perhaps causing a slight fuel leak in that fuel filter housing.

West Texas

Lodging in style

The longest day

Today was 582 miles in the heat. We started around 10am in McComb and stopped at midnight in Ranger, Texas. We enjoyed the first leg of the trip which was off the interstate across Mississippi and Louisiana on Routes 98, 84, and then 1 to Shreveport. Ambient temperature in the cabin was just below 100 degrees, and the car ran perfectly at 84-88C and no vapor lock using the McComb no-ethanol gas from Pump And Savor. In Shreveport we filled up at a Citgo with non-ethanol gas and launched across Texas on I-20 at a slightly quicker pace (65 vs 60mph), and it was much hotter (104F-106F in the car). The car ran perfectly for the first couple hours until we got down to about a quarter tank, and from then on and even into the night we had vapor lock issues (which were always solved using the auxiliary fuel pump, but disconcerting nonetheless). Now that we're stopped for the night, we'll start again anew tomorrow with everything fully cooled off and hope for no further vapor lock issues. We planned to fill up with ethanol free gas at a station that was touted on pure-gas.com as having non-ethanol gas, but it didn't...so we went to another just west of Weatherford, Texas. It was expensive, and Abilene (another 60 or so miles west from where we are now) had ethanol free fuel, so we put "only" $75.00 worth of gas in so we can fill all the way up in Abilene.

On a whim, we called up family in Fort Worth, Texas about 2.5 hours before we hit the town and said, "Hey, where's a good place to eat, and do you want to join us?" You can see the picture below of the Brewers (Robin, Lou, and Sarah) after dinner at Hoffbrau's Steakhouse. We had a great visit and hope we can meet more friends and family along the way -- thanks for coming out to meet us!

We really didn't mean to drive this late but once we left Weatherford there just wasn't anywhere to stay so we took the first spot we could find -- The America's Best Value Inn in Ranger, TX. The room was hot so we just fired up the A/C, the fridge was broken so we switched rooms, but alas there is a nice little swimming pool with milky green water, and next door is the Liquor Store!

More tomorrow, as we finally can start taking it easier. Looks to be about 350 miles to Whites City, New Mexico, and after that we won't have any more days (on the way out to Lake Tahoe) at that pace.

Sleeping Kyle