Fredericksburg to Carter Caves

Today's drive was mostly uneventful. No big mechanical problems, although we did have some vapor lock issues. We did drive all day on the interstate, and once we had the sun in our face beating down on the hood,  on the uphills (read: mountains) we'd feel the car feeling like it was running out of fuel. I switched on the auxiliary fuel pump and that solved the problem 100%.

When I replaced the head gaskets recently and had everything apart, I removed all the thermal wrapping that I had around the fuel pipes in the vee of the motor. I probably should have put new wrapping on and I likely would have had no issues at all today.

We stopped much earlier than we normally do on these trips -- about 6:15pm. We are staying at a state park in Kentucky -- Carter Caves State Park. They had rooms at the lodge that aren't too expensive, they had all-you-can-eat catfish for $10 at the restaurant, there was a campfire program in the campground, and tomorrow morning we'll be doing a flashlight cave tour. A nice diversion on the way to Louisville for this year's annual meet.

Once we get to Louisville, I do have a small list of maintenance items I'd like to address if we have time. First, we have a funky situation in the master switchbox which is causing one of the ignitions to stop working. I have kludged a fix by jumpering the two ignitions together in the fusebox, but this needs to be fixed properly. When I did the head gasket job, apparently I failed to install three conical washers where the passenger side exhaust manifold mates up with the downpipe, therefore there is a small exhaust leak at that junction. If I can source the three washers at the meet that will be an easy fix. I think that's about it....at least for now!

Looking forward to seeing everyone and all the cars tomorrow, but we're also really looking forward to the flashlight cave tour tomorrow....

On the way to Louisville.

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Revisiting and restarting

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.

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!