It has been a long time since I posted on the blog. I have a lot to report but will keep it short and refer you to pictures.
Our final stop on our trip home last August was just west of Louisville. Ironically, next week we'll be going to the 2012 version of the RROC annual meet -- in Louisville! The last day of driving was 615 difficult miles. Long story short we made it home, but it was not a fun day. We developed a severe water leak and had to stop every 15-30 miles the whole way home. You can do the math, and I assure you I am not exaggerating. Each stop required at least one gallon of water to top off the radiator. Water was spraying out of the engine compartment on the driver side and coating the windscreen and whole front side of the car with oily water. It was a race home because, as mentioned previously, we had no charging system. I made it all the way to Charlottesville before it finally was too dark to drive without headlights anymore. We stopped at Kohr's Brothers ice cream shop, filled all our water jugs one last time, then headed home with the lights on. Shockingly, we made it that last 90 minutes with the headlights all on, and when we pulled in the driveway at home over 7,900 miles after our start, I shut the car down, fired it back up, and it started with no sluggishness due to a low battery at all. After that, I was so stressed out from that last day's drive that I basically put the car away for a few months trying to figure out what to do next.
I retorqued the heads a few times, and indeed they needed the retorquing, so perhaps this was why I was losing water? I finally gave in and purchased new head gaskets and embarked on the job. You can see pictures of that work here:
3DL170 Head Gasket Job
We sure did find a smoking gun. Look at the inner material missing from the head gasket on the driver's side:
I replaced the copper clad head gaskets with new custom gaskets from Olsen's Gaskets (http://www.olsonsgaskets.com/). I have close to 1,000 miles on those now with a retorque and probably another retorque due, and all is well!
I also have most of the pictures from our trip last year posted. You can find them here:
2011 Rolls Across America
If anyone is interested, I can post the final stats (number of miles, number of gallons of gas, etc.). I haven't had the heart to add it all up yet.....:-). Also, if there is interest, I might keep this page active to continue documenting our adventures in 3DL170.
Our final stop on our trip home last August was just west of Louisville. Ironically, next week we'll be going to the 2012 version of the RROC annual meet -- in Louisville! The last day of driving was 615 difficult miles. Long story short we made it home, but it was not a fun day. We developed a severe water leak and had to stop every 15-30 miles the whole way home. You can do the math, and I assure you I am not exaggerating. Each stop required at least one gallon of water to top off the radiator. Water was spraying out of the engine compartment on the driver side and coating the windscreen and whole front side of the car with oily water. It was a race home because, as mentioned previously, we had no charging system. I made it all the way to Charlottesville before it finally was too dark to drive without headlights anymore. We stopped at Kohr's Brothers ice cream shop, filled all our water jugs one last time, then headed home with the lights on. Shockingly, we made it that last 90 minutes with the headlights all on, and when we pulled in the driveway at home over 7,900 miles after our start, I shut the car down, fired it back up, and it started with no sluggishness due to a low battery at all. After that, I was so stressed out from that last day's drive that I basically put the car away for a few months trying to figure out what to do next.
I retorqued the heads a few times, and indeed they needed the retorquing, so perhaps this was why I was losing water? I finally gave in and purchased new head gaskets and embarked on the job. You can see pictures of that work here:
3DL170 Head Gasket Job
We sure did find a smoking gun. Look at the inner material missing from the head gasket on the driver's side:
I replaced the copper clad head gaskets with new custom gaskets from Olsen's Gaskets (http://www.olsonsgaskets.com/). I have close to 1,000 miles on those now with a retorque and probably another retorque due, and all is well!
I also have most of the pictures from our trip last year posted. You can find them here:
2011 Rolls Across America
If anyone is interested, I can post the final stats (number of miles, number of gallons of gas, etc.). I haven't had the heart to add it all up yet.....:-). Also, if there is interest, I might keep this page active to continue documenting our adventures in 3DL170.
Always interesting to see trips in our PMCs documented. Keep up the good work, Matt!
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